beach45
Kararoot,
It is not easy making a decision as I was there not long ago. I was on Methimazole 20 months and up and down like a rollercoaster with no endocrinologist getting me balanced so I was given the choice of RAI or surgery this past April 2012. I decided on RAI. I am 11 weeks post RAI yet I feel better than I did on that ATD Methimazole and have had some issues of weight gain from that drug and never lost it even when I went hyperthyroid again, yet the RAI part was very easy. I had 15 millicuries and was told to stay away from adults 2 whole days, my cats for 5 and I know for children it may be longer too. So right now I’m pretty okay with my decision and hoping that I go eurothyroid or hypothyroid soon, yet it is not so bad and if I had listened to all the horror stories on the Internet, I would not have gotten through. My thyroid eye doctor was okay with me having RAI even with moderate TED and so far I’m good and actually my eyes feel better. Eye doctor will be monitoring this for at least a year. My endocrinologist will follow me for a year also and then I move on to my regular doctor. I know some who had thyroid surgery who had families and did very well. I know people who took RAI and acted like why am I so afraid as they did it and are doing very well now years later. I am very selective of what I listen to and believe on the Internet. This is an autoimmune disease and one endocrinologist that I consulted with recently told me whether you have RAI or thyroid surgery, you can get TED as it runs it’s own course. Yes having Graves predisoposes us to other autoimmune diseases. Why I found out it is even more important to take extra special care of myself. My Functional/Integrative doctor said he could not “cure” my Graves and I would probably end up doing RAI or TT if the ATDs did not put me into remission, which they did not, yet he said he could help me more after RAI than prior. I was warned not to play around with natural remedies to so call cure this disease.
My current endo who is a thyroid specialist too said that yes we are trading one problem for another yet hypothyroid conditions are easier to manage and he said with hyperthyroid conditions it effects the heart and the bones. We have a better chance of getting back to normalcy with being hypothyroid and yes some people have more of a struggle than others yet I hear many success stories. I also believe I have had a hard time because I had untreated hyperthyroidism for years that doctors were not catching and being told I was “slightly hyperthyroid” yet never getting further testing; at that time back in my 30s I had no clue what thyroid did and nor cared and wish I had known as much as I do now.
I researched medical journals and reliable medical articles and books written by MDs and got a lot of good information from the facilitators here and information that is posted. I learned not to go by hearsay. It can be scary yet the fears I had back 2 years ago when this started for me are no longer there and I believe in time I will be back to feeling even better than before.
After doing research, then I could make an educated decision of what to do.
To answer your questions direct, I chose RAI due to what I found out from research and talking to different doctors, my husband’s cousin who is an anesthesiologist who had RAI 20 years ago and is doing great for years said she cannot understsand why so many choose TT as she puts so many under who have TT for Graves and she said RAI is so much easier (yet she wasn’t the deciding factor for me to choose RAI) and I had surgery myself in 2009 and it was a nightmare recovering for months; it was so easy as the isolation thing was the worst part being away from family yet it went quick, and right now I am happy with it as I am seeing that I’m feeling better 11 weeks later; heavy still yet happy and I’m not worried because once I get to balance, I think a lot of things will fall into place with my efforts too.
Good luck with this; I know it is not easy….beach