[Anonymous June 1, 2000 at 4:23 pm Post count: 93172]

#1125861

If you were crazy – you wouldn’t think you were – crazy people think they’re sane! It will take a little while for you to feel yourself again – the “craziness” will get better – best of luck and we’ve all been there!

[Anonymous June 1, 2000 at 7:39 pm Post count: 93172]

#1038631

Hi! I was diagnosed with hyperthyroid due to graves disease in Feb.00. I went to see my gyn thinking I was going through early menopause (I’m only 30). The violent mood swings were unreal!!! She gave me an antidepressant. Fortunately I had a new patient visit with a new g.p. that same day and the dr. found the goiter. Hindsight I’ve been hyper for at least a year or maybe as much as three years (after the birth of my last child). Two days after the blood work confirmed that my thryoid was hyperactive I had a throid storm. It was one of the scariest times of my life. The g.p. had arranged for an appt. with an endo. but he wasn’t available for another four weeks. I was placed on PTU’s and beta blockers. When I arrived at the endo. appt. I was told that I would need the RAI uptake scan to determine how “hyper” I was but because I had been put on PTU’s I would have to wait another four weeks to get the medicne out of my system. I experienced anxiety and fatigue and weight GAIN (10 lbs.) like never before. My scan showed the left lobe to be extremely large and the right lobe slightly enlarged. The endo. gave me my treatment options and I chose to have the I-131. I was given the RAI treatment four weeks ago. My endo. wanted to see me one week after the treatment where he gave me a prescription for Tapazole; 5mg twice a day in addition to decreasing my beta blockers to 20mg twice a day. He told me I would feel 100% better within 7 days; back to myself. You can imagine the elation I felt at the prospect of being “normal” for the first time in at least a year! Needless to say that was three wks ago and I don’t feel a bit different. I had an appointment with a new g.p. (won’t get into the story as to why I had to switch g.p.’s again!!) and she told me that I won’t feel “normal” for several months!! Here’s what I’ve been leading up to….. questions:
1. Why am I gaining weight where as every single person
I’ve talked to has lost weight. This weight gain has
severely depressed me. I know it’s only temporary but
that doesn’t help me with these feelings right now!
2. Should I be on Tapazole at all? I havn’t had any
blood work done since my treatment and in order to
determine them don’t I need to be off thryoid medicne?
How long before this stuff is out of my system? I
have an appt. with the endo. on July 11 and I want to
beable to go in there completely ready for a blood draw
if that’s what he wants. I don’t want to go in and
have him say “come back in three weeks when the
Tapazole has worn off and we’ll check your levels”.
3. My symptons now are still anxiety and irritablity. I
have the hardest time being around the kids (ages 8
and 3). When my son comes home from school I feel
like I’m going to rip his head off (I say that
figuratively!) Our entire family balance is so out of
wack! I feel like I’m a time bomb and everyone’s
walking around waiting for me to explode. The thing
that’s helped me the most is to remove myself from my
environment (ie. lay down in my room, go into the back
yard, put on headphones), but I can rarely do that
since I’m a housewife! I need to know that I’m not
going “crazy”, and how do other’s cope with these
feelings.
4. I’m now loosing some of my hair. Not noticeably, but
is that a sign of hypo? I’ve read that both hypo and
hyper can loose hair. It’s just a new symptom for me.
5. I experience extreme fatigue. It is almost painful!
I try to nap when my three year old naps; but on a
really bad day one hour isn’t enough. Does anyone
know of something to help me through bad days?
6. I was told by the radiology dr. that because of the
way that my thyroid is not uniformly enlarged there is
a “good” chance that the RAI treatment might have to
done again. Has anyone had to have the treatment more
than once because of this type of situation?
I think that’s it for now. I’ve had all this pent up inside me for three months and it’s good to know that I have people to talk to. Even though thyroid conditions are very common no one around me seems to have gone through this to my degree. Any help would be appreciative!!

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