adenure
Hi Kes!
I’m a homeschooling mom as well! I have 4 boys (almost 9 y.o., 7 y.o., 5 y.o. & an 8 month old baby 
I was diagnosed with Graves after my 4th was born. My endo. did antibody testing and also did an uptake scan to confirm Graves instead of postpartum thyroiditis. I was on methimazole as well (5 mg daily); my hormone levels evened out after 7 weeks, but the drug raised my liver enzymes 8 times the normal amount, so I had to stop methimazole. Six weeks later I had a total thyroidectomy. That was 8 weeks ago. Now I’m on Synthroid and working towards getting that dose right. I had a nodule, but it turned out to be benign.
I did not have exhaustion or any issues with how I felt on methimazole except the liver issues. But, I remember how miserable I was when I was hyperthyroid and could not function either. I attempted to finish our school year the best I could with a lot of help from my in laws until my hormone levels balanced out, but it was very scary and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I had terrible anxiety, panic, insomnia, shaky feeling, tremors, heart palpitations- you just can’t care for your family when you don’t feel well!!! You know that though! It is frustrating when the doctors think your symptoms have nothing to do with your hormones. My doctors believed my hyper symptoms were bc of Graves once I was diagnosed, but at first they thought I had a panic disorder or postpartum depression. I kept saying, no I didn’t. But, no one really believes us until they see for themselves that our numbers are off.
Right now, I feel much better than I did before surgery, but it still isn’t easy as I’m still not quite right with the Synthroid dose. Like with methimazole, I have to wait 6 weeks after a dose change to check my numbers, so yeah- lots of patience… fortunately, I don’t feel too badly- mostly tired more easily and get headaches, but it’s okay. We started school last Monday, so we’re on our 2nd week. I do pretty well, but I’m not 100% yet.
Do you have ranges for your lab numbers? If your T4 & T3 are lower (lower end of the range) your symptoms would make sense- feeling tired, weight gain, brain fog. I would really ask for antibody testing to check for Graves and Hashimotos/ Hashitoxicosis (which can have one swinging between hyper and hypo symptoms). It is good to know for sure on this and antibody testing is helpful. Some say a scan isn’t as necessary. If your endo. doesn’t want to test for antibodies, I would find someone who will- it will help get a grip on what is going on.
Alexis