beach45
First, I only go by my own experience and not to persuade anyone into the choice I made;
Second, the thought of RAI was scary for me prior after being on Methimazole almost 2 years; no remission or chance of after time.
I did have two endocrinologists tell me I could have either RAI or surgery.
I did a lot of research and spoke with people who had RAI; I tried not to obsess over it yet it was very difficult and not to get myself too wrapped up in the horror stories of post RAI on the Internet.
I know of so many people who had RAI and that when I said how long I was on Methimazole, they looked at me like why. They looked fine, not overweight, no eye problems and living healthy and productive lives.
My husband’s cousin is an anethesiologist and she had RAI 20 years ago is 60 years of age and looks and feels great. She did not understand why I was on Methimazole and it was not looking good for remission for me or even maintaining levels on a very low dosage as some people can do for years. She said she had it on a Friday, back to work on a Monday and never looked back. She told me once that she puts so many young women under for TT and doesn’t understand from her own RAI experiences why they do not opt for that choice.
I have some other people in my life who had RAI 15, 20 and 30 years ago, look terrific, don’t even think about it, no eye problems. Only one woman who had it 7 years ago and had been in a storm prior, says her energy levels are never the same yet that too is because her doctor is not following her thyroid levels that much as she even recently had TSH over 3 and was feeling lousy. Always good to have a good doctor follow you either post RAI or TT as we know.
It is not a happy thought and I would never persuade anyone either way, RAI or TT because with each there can be a healing time afterwards. One excellent endocrinologist, highly recommended, recently told me that people with having both RAI or TT can months or years later on develop TED. Having TT he said does not make a person exempt. Yes though people told me chances of eye disease worsening after RAI is greater.
I have moderate thyroid eye disease and I still had RAI. My thyroid eye doctor who specializes in the TED, in my case..told me no steroids and go for the RAI. He is monitoring me for the next year; he and his PA told me that they rarely see anyone with major eye problems post RAI.
And maybe you will be fortunate and go into remission on MMI and/or decide on an alternative.
Third, I am the last person who is into health and natural means to have every even thought of taking RAI. For some reason I did not want TT and I had two excellent surgeons here who could have done it for me. I had some eye irritation pre-RAI and have some in my right eye more post RAI yet drops help and sunglasses and I can deal with it. I don’t know though what is out there only being 3 months post RAI in the future so it is too early to tell. I just know of those people who had it years ago who did really well and even the lady who had it 7 years ago looks terrific; it is more her energy levels are not that good yet she is not overweight either and takes her Synthroid every day.
Lastly, Best of luck with this and I consulted with four endocrinologists; one who left my area unfortunately and researched, talked with people and made a decision. Yet I was careful not to listen to too much negativity as yes I know some people had problems yet there are so many who never did. It is a mixed bag unfortunately because we have Graves disease and that condition alone has to be treated and for me, I was at the point I had to make some choice….beach (p.s. sorry if there are typos as I type very fast and learning to be a bit more accurate!)