[mzizgayle]

#1058701

I am Gayle and was diagnosed with Graves in October 2010. At the time my numbers were not totally out of wack but the TSH was low which got my primary doctor’s attention. She had decided to do a thyroid test since I had not had one and I am diabetic.

My Ft4 and TT3 were on the very high side of normal and I showed antibodies for the Graves. I am 64 years old and of course my endo made the remark about a woman of my age just getting this was not common…is it possible I have had it but it wasn’t caught because of no symptoms? I found out this can cause osteoporsis, which I have. My sister has Graves but they gave her radiation treatment to kill off her thyroid.

I did fine for a couple of months, but then started to display symptoms, hand shakes, hyper, forgetting things, tho hubby says that was because I am a ditz lol…did lose some weight, and of course the bathroom trips are so much fun. I went back to the endocrinologist and of course she wanted to put me on beta blockers, meds for the nerves etc and told her no, she was not going to treat the symptoms but the disease, which of course made her not so happy, but I take control of my medical issues and the thyroid was messing with my diabetes so I was a total mess for while.

I am taking 2.5 mg of methimazole and was doing O.K., but still would get some anxiousness, etc every so often..come to find out the medications I was on for diabetes, cholesterol, etc were all fighting with each other, and even caused the brain fog which of course was not helping at work. So I now take the methimazole in the morning on an empty stomach while getting ready for work and my other medications in the evening and now I can remember which street is mine when I go home.

I was looking for a good support group of course, have a good one for my diabetes, now need one for the Graves. I was lurking for a while and I read that this can also cause muscle weakness, weight gain???

Could that explain the 4 pounds that snuck in and settled on my body and why I get tired when I do my exercises but can’t use the same amount of weights I use to? I am like the energizer bunny during the day but will crash at night and be asleep in my chair in a heartbeat, just enough for me to miss the end of a show!

I also have "mild TED", my right eye is affected, in the mornings I swear my right eyelid is touching my lashes, definately droopy, but I don’t smoke so not too bad, tho seeing normal out of one eye and cady whompus out of the right is wierd especially at work trying to use the computer lol.

[Kimberly]

#1169457

Hello – Yes, if you do a search on this site for “weight”, you can see that many patients to struggle with weight issues after treatment. As for the muscle weakness, that can definitely happen as a result of hyperthyroidism…some patients find it difficult to do simple tasks such as walking up stairs or holding up a hairdryer.

Here is a link with the support groups that are currently offered around the country. All of our groups are volunteer-led; we are hoping to expand our network of groups around the country.

Note: you will need to use your browser’s “back” button to return to the boards, or you can cut & paste this link into a new window. Otherwise, closing out of the link will log you off the bulletin board.

http://www.ngdf.org/pages/11

We also have our annual patient & family conference coming up in Boston Nov. 4-6. If you are interested in attending, registration details should be posted in the next couple of days.

Hope this helps!

[Bobbi]

#1169458

While we are hyperthyroid, we lose muscle mass. This "looks" like weight loss because muscle weighs more than other body tissues, but it is really bad weight loss because muscle burns more calories — even at rest — than other tissues do, so losing muscle lowers our metabolism and means we have to eat less to maintain whatever weight we are at. When our thyroid levels get normalized again, some (at least) of the muscle tissue comes back, little by little. It looks like weight gain. It isn’t, however, particularly strong muscle until we exercise it. And, no, you probably cannot use the same weights for exercise that you could use before, because the amount of muscle may be less, or it is just weaker than it had been, and you need to downsize the weights to keep from straining things.

When folks talk about lingering weight issues, it may be because we lose some muscle permanently. I don’t know about that part of things. My own weight issues normalized after proper treatment of the thyroid malfunction, and after I had spent time rebuilding my muscle strength.

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