[vanillasky]

#1059561

I woke up this morning with tremors in both my hands. It is difficult to even type this in. Question: what do we do with the tremors? any way to stop them? it is getting very annoying. I feel very unsteady with my hands.

thanks,
k.

[Naisly]

#1175753

vanillasky
When was the last time you had labs/Dr’s visit? Sounds to me with all your symptoms your still hyper – anxiety, drepression, tremors, hot flashes.

Call your dr’s for an earlier appt. and see if you can get another set of labs done right away. You might need a dose adjustment.

~Naisly

[snelsen]

#1175754

This is part of being hyper, and a diagnostic sign of having Graves’ in the very hyper stage. Not sure if you are on/not on beta blockers and ATD, but if you are or arent, as Naisly said, you need to contact the office, get labs today, get the results today. Actually, I remember now that you are on meds, but don’t recall which ones, so I suggest a phone call, your doc/endo will most likely increase a med, and ask you to get labs. HOpe you have called by now~! (:
Shirley

[vanillasky]

#1175755

thanks for your concern.

My TSH is 0.66 and they consider that “normal.” I am on Tapazole 10 mg and atenolol 25 mg but it doesn’t seem to be working for me.

Put in call today and no response. Tell me something I dont know. Been sweating alot today. My hair gets wet. Shaky, warm, sweaty, not a good day.

Anxiety is high too but for good reason. I guess we may lose our health benefits in June 2013. My husband has been on the phone all day and the premiums they want are too much for us to pay. So that got me very,very upset.

He is on disability. They are converting him to Medicare but I have to get my own. I don’t work because of Graves’ and the premium for me is $839.00 a month. He said we could lose our house. Times like this I wish I wasn’t here. sorry for the rant.

[AzGravesGuy]

#1175756

Why apologize for your rant? We are your support group. If you can’t vent here then what is the point?

Don’t despair about losing your coverage.

I have had Graves’ for 7 years and have been uninsured for the last 4 of them. Even with the endo visits, opthamologist visits, meds, er visits, RAI, scans, and bloodwork, I am still coming out ahead for the year, versus paying the $800 a month with a $5000 deductible plan that was offered to me (that excluded my pre-existing Graves’ anyway).

Even with the disease, I paid less without insurance than if I had it all along. If I wasn’t sick and was paying all that money I would be really upset. I have learned to see health insurance as a form of gambling. (I got sick and still left the casino with money in my pocket so to speak. Lol!)

Most doctors and facilities have discount pricing for the uninsured. Some even offer billing on that discounted price. All you have to do is ask.

My tremor stopped once I was put on 50mg of Atenolol twice a day. I had an endo that asked me on every visit to hold my hands out in front of me, fingers up. If I shook, he upped the dose.

I wish being on treatment erased the daily symptoms and challenges quickly. Some people are lucky and have few complications. The rest of us fight every day until we hit the sweet spot.

I know you feel horrible. I know you can’t see the light through the fog right now. Please trust that you will manage this. It will improve. If you are at the point of wishing you weren’t here, then you can only go up from here.

Every day, in every way, you are getting better and better. It just takes time.

Unfortunately patience is hard to find with imbalanced hormones. ( I know this all too well. Luckily I work with people that aren’t offended by me swearing like a sailor on “stupid days”)

One of the exercises I used to relieve stress, besides meditation which I HIGHLY recommend, was to go into the bathroom and let the cursing fly. On days where I had so much anger and frustration coursing through my veins I could not shut off enough to meditate, this is what worked for me. If you really try to get every possible swear you can think of out and into the mirror, one of 3 things will happen.

1: you release stress and get a dopamine lift
2: you will start laughing at yourself swearing in the mirror ( my usual reaction)
3: your neighbors will call the police (only happened once)

Whatever happens, you will feel different afterward. I made it more interesting by vowing not to repeat words, just keep going until I said every one I knew and a few I would invent on the spot.

You sound overwhelmed and that is par for the course of Graves’. All we can do is handle one thing at a time. Don’t give up. Don’t let Graves’ win.

[vanillasky]

#1175757

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!

I smiled reading parts of your posting to me.

I’m a worry-wart, I admit it.

And swearing? LOL~ I do that on a good day!:o:o

I find that exercise, (as much as I can handle) does help relieve it. I don’t like taking the Klonopin.

I don’t remember when I felt like myself. I think it’s been years. Stupid endo here mis-diagnosed me so I never understand why I felt so bad almost all the time. Now at least I know why. The question is: how do you deal with it? and what are they going to do to make me feel better? I don’t expect miracles. But I do hope there is a small light at the end of the tunnel. That would be nice.

Thanks,
Karen

[AzGravesGuy]

#1175758

I didn’t feel like myself until after the RAI this year. I missed being me and was tired of being sick. I took a big step and had faith it would work. So far so good, but it has not been an easy ride.

I cope daily by forcing myself to agree that the situation in front of me is temporary (which it is, even though some days it seems like it will never change). I have even put myself on a “time out” like a 5 year old from time to time. Whatever works, right? Lol!

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, do not lose sight of it with the stresses of today or tomorrow. It is all temporary and a matter of perspective.

Changing my perspective has helped immensely. I read the posts on this site and see that yes, this is going to happen before this happens. I will feel this way before I feel this way. The collective experience of everyone here has removed the fear, the panic about the disease. I feel good today but understand it is still a waiting game until I level out.

Am I happy with that? No. I want to be healthy and back to normal now. But these are the cards I have been dealt, so what is the answer?

Day by day, positive attitude, laugh every day, be thankful for the good days, recognize the bad days and take the preventative steps to make bad days as good as possible. It is work every day.

I know someone who is currently undergoing chemo for her “lady cancer” as she calls it. My worst days look like trips to the carnival to her. Keeping that perspective in mind has stopped me from feeling sorry for myself and dwelling in the negative. Comparing symptoms with her makes me sad that I could be so selfish, and remorseful for not seeing how good I actually have it, relatively speaking. She is a close and dear friend. When I visit her, my problems disappear. When our visits end I am always left shaken up. She always says “come and see me next week, I will be here”.

She hasn’t thrown in the towel and neither will I. None of us should.

[Naisly]

#1175759

vanillasky wrote:

thanks for your concern.

My TSH is 0.66 and they consider that “normal.” I am on Tapazole 10 mg and atenolol 25 mg but it doesn’t seem to be working for me.

Morning, are you feeling any better today? How are your FT4’s? I hope they are not dosing you just on your TSH. Do you have those numbers to share?

Ask your doctor about splitting the Tapazole in half to take twice a day. The manufacturer suggests 3 times daily. Depending who you ask Tapazole has a life of about 6-8hrs so your probably feeling pretty bad when that wears off.

What I don’t get is why the doctors don’t follow the manufacturer’s recommendations and only tell us to take it once daily.

If you can’t talk to your doctor, at least get an earlier appointment with him, then talk to your pharmacist (that’s what they train for).

Hope you have a better day!

~Naisly

[snelsen]

#1175760

Hi K, when you do talk with/see your doc about the tremors and how crappy you feel, add to your list the question that Naisly mentioned, and has been mentioned on this post several times. As if you can divide your ATD dose when you take it. That gives you the flexibility to play around with it to see if it makes a difference for YOU.

Azguy has written some great notes to you. He is “giving back” so much now, that he sees a bit of light in his own life. Which is exactly what this wonderful forum is all about.

Yes, your anxiety and concern about home and health insurance is reality based, that is for sure. His comments about insurance are very enlightening and interesting for you to remember. I know you are not there right now, but he has some good points for this situation.

AND, June 13 is 1/2 year away. Lots can happen, including the new health care world that will slowly be enacted. There is a lot unknown about that right now, but it can’t be anything but good for you. Also, in six months, I am hoping you feel better re Graves. Which will help with decision making.
I am sure you and your husband never thought you would be in this position with your financial and health life. I suggest hanging on to Azguy’s thoughts about insurance and no insurance. He has slugged through this whole deal uninsured.

Immediate need for you? I sure hope you can get some response from your endo. As someone said in some post, when you first begin ATD’s and have hyper situation, labs every 2 weeks, plus CLOSE AND FREQUENT communication with the endo about your symptoms, are the right way for things to happen. What is your heart rate?
Shirley

[smtucker]

#1175761

Well this may be the first good thing to come from my Grave’s DX; I can be angry and swear and blame it on the Grave’s!

But seriously, how common are tremors and what you call Rage?

Just baffled by all of this.

[Kimberly]

#1175762

@AZGravesGuy – Thanks so much for sharing your insights!

@smtucker – I have not seen a scientific study on frequency of specific symptoms, but towards the bottom of this article, you will find an informal survey that the GDATF did many years ago, which seems to indicate that the tremors and the anger are fairly common.

(Note on links: if you click directly on the following link, you will need to use your browser’s “back” button to return to the boards after viewing, or you will have to log back in to the forum. As an alternative, you can right-click the link and open it in a new tab or new window).

http://gdatf.org/about/about-graves-disease/patient-education/whats-wrong-with-me/

[vanillasky]

#1175763

thanks everyone for well wishes, input, I appreciate it.

Everyday is a different thing. Heard from doctor – increased beta blocker to 50 mg instead of 25.

My FT4 is 1.0

FT3 is pending! I hate that

Got email from doctor and he said how I feel right now he thinks is menopause related. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. not sure.

[catstuart7]

#1175764

Vanillasky I’m sorry things are going bad with you, and I hope you hear back from your doctor’s office soon! A TSH of .6 can mean a lot of things, you really need your FT4 and FT3 to complete the picture. For me, an important part of the picture is the direction the hormones are going – if they are going up even if the TSH isn’t fully suppressed yet I’ll have hyper symptoms – that happened to me recently. Sometimes though they are going up and producing transient hyper symptoms but actually need to be going up because you were hypo. So there’s tons of context to this stuff. But tremors does usually mean honest to goodness hyper is going on.

One thing that helps me keep a tight focus on what is happening is that I take my pulse and blood pressure at the same time every day and write it down. The trend is very useful to have. I also weigh once a week first thing in the morning to keep a watch on that too.

AZGravesguy, your post made me smile too – I think I may try some therapeutic swearing later! You’ve got such a positive energy toward all this – makes me want to do better.

[vanillasky]

#1175765

To be honest, I don’t understand any of this stuff. Too complicated for me.

Essentially what I told him was:

1. most people function better with a lower TSH, but before I got sick, mine was always at least 2.50. It could be 5.00 and I still wouldn’t feel this poorly.

2. When my TSH goes below 2.0, I begin to get hyper symptoms almost as severe as when it was 0.01 or undetectable.

3. They don’t understand this. This has been my argument for YEARS. They think that they should go by the numbers on the paper and not by HOW I am feeling. This doctor says it’s more important as to how I am feeling, yet he contradicts himself and says “0.66 is normal range,” which it is, but not normal for me.

My point is: I don’t feel well with a low TSH. One ex endo I had told me healthy people are usually between 1.0 – 2.0. And for me, anything less than 1.0 is deadly!

Transient symptoms he DOES believe in. So many endos I have been to, think it’s “all in your head.”

Right now, my TSH is too low, My FT4 is too low and my FT3 is pending so I don’t know what the hell is going on.

When he saw my FSH was 107.7, he concluded that my symptoms are coming from menopause. How does menopause give you tremors? Or is it coming from my anxiety due to menopause and Graves’? Good question!

The racing heart he thinks comes from the hot flashes from Hell I am getting. Had 8 today and soaking wet! My heart races worse than ever when I get these and also I have been on my migraine meds today because I have a headache to beat the band.

But transient symptoms? that’s dead on! I do believe that because even though they can argue with me all they want, I feel hyper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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