Diane94
Thank you for all of the information that you gave. It does feel a little overwhelming at times I must say. My children are 10 and 13 so unless they are sick they don’t need me in the night but I am the only set of ears at night because my husband works 3rd shift. We’re all starting to learn about Graves because as I said before it’s very new but it will be a change for all of us. My husband and kids are great about helping but there are times I feel like I’m alone in this and I get a little down and frustrated at not feeling good.
You talked about stress being bad for you and I REALLY wish that I could have a life that had less stress in it. We have made some changes with things in the last year trying to eliminate some of that stress but some things can’t be avoided. I have a 16 year old step-daughter that started giving us A LOT of trouble in the last 1 1/2 years (stealing, drugs, bad boyfriend, pregnant, miscarriage, etc.)and basically didn’t want to follow our rules so she quit coming over. We were not willing to let her do as she wanted not only for her sake but also because we have two younger boys that she would be setting an example for so she quit coming. At first this was really hard for us, VERY HARD but then we reached the point where we can’t make her be someone that she doesn’t want to be. It was easier for her to be at her mom’s and do as she wanted than come to our house and follow rules. She told us that we were being too hard on her that we should try and be her friend. She has friends, it’s our job to be the parents. There was a lot of stress, a lot of tears, and a lot of sleepless nights but we had to decide what was in the best interest of our family. We still love her but all we can do at this point is hope that someday she realizes her mistakes and does it before she hurts someone or herself. That was kind of the start of our bad year. We then had a grandparent die, an Aunt die, and a cousin die all within 6 months of each other. My brother-in-law was diagnosed with a disease that’s rare that we take on a day to day basis with him because eventually it will kill him. The doctors have said he is lucky to know because most don’t know until and autopsy. Then my mom is going in for a second CAT scan on December 18th because they have found some spots on her lungs and are checking to see if it’s lung cancer. We just had to put one of our dogs down last week that we had for 13 years and now throw in Graves. That’s my life in a nut shell and for those that know us it’s kind of a joke that our lives should be a soap opera because of everything going on, unfortunately it’s not a made up show. So stress for me is going to be a hard one to avoid. I’m just trying to cope with everything and try and accept the things that are out of my control and make the best of the time I have and make sure that my boys are growing up healthy, happy and turning into loving, respectable grown men. Someday their wives will thank me 
I think for most people, my family included, it’s hard to understand because on the outside for the most part I look normal and like I always have. That and the fact that I’ve worked with the public my whole life so I’ve learned how to be "on" no matter how I was feeling. I don’t know what I can do to make my family understand how some days I really feel like crap and don’t feel like doing anything but sitting and usually sleeping. They, like me, are not use to me not going and doing.
One thing that I struggle with as well is the fact that I’m putting on weight, people think I weigh less than I do because I’m tall, but I’m heavier than I have ever been, too tired to work out and I’m afraid that when they put me on meds that I’ll gain even more. This really makes me feel stress out and I can see where I will get depressed if I get heavy. Any suggestions on this one.
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer all of my questions, I’m sure there will be more as things progress for me. The tips are helpful, especially about the cold/flu thing because those already kick my butt because I have asthma and anytime I get something like that it kicks it in and it takes me longer to get over those.
Thanks again for all your help