[kathy_g20]

#1059088

I have been diagnosed with graves disease 5 months ago. I am 49 year old female, never had a weight issue, prior to diagnoses 130 lbs 5’5″. I now weigh 163 lbs. I eat better, I am active, because of a reaction to statin medications I had to go to both aquatic and land physical theraphy and still gaining weight. I was started on methimazole 30mg at night, 3 months later reduced to 20 mg and as of last week 15mg 1x a day. Will i ever be able to go off this and has anyone been diagnosed with graves disease that really didnt have it. My reasons for asking this is 1 year ago I contracted a horrible virus after visiting my grandmother in the hospital. I remained not feeling good for months and had pre-syncope symptoms, i was then diagnosed with Subclavian Steel Syndrome and had a corotiad to subclavian bypass surgery. The surgery was sucessful and I could not have felt better. 2 months after surgery the doctor put me on lovastatin for cholesteral and I had to stop taking I had a severe reaction to it. Then a couple months after that i was then diagnosed with graves disease. I have one doctor that seems to think that I may not have it at all that my body just went thru so much and like a domino affect everything just started going wrong. I have been on the Methimazole for 5 months and my tsh and t3 t4 are all in the normal range. Has anyone been told they have it and then found out they dont?

[Bobbi]

#1172060

Hi, and welcome to our board. Whether or not anyone out in cyberland was ever misdiagnosed is irrelevant. If you had blood tests done, and your blood work showed that you were hyperthyroid, you need to be on meds to control the thyroid hormone levels. It doesn’t matter what is causing it — although sometimes what is causing it can dictate one treatment option as preferable to another. Taking methimazole is standard.

There are a limited number of things that can cause our thyroids to go wonky. Graves is the #1 cause, by far. Graves involves the entire thyroid. If you had an uptake and scan test done, and the word “diffuse” was used to describe the uptake, then you have Graves typically. Sometimes, people have sections of their thyroids that go wonky, while the rest of the thyroid remains normal. Sometimes people get a viral infection that causes the thyroid to run amok. There would be signs of infection (fever, soreness in the throat area,e tc.) Some people, immediately after having a baby, get post-partum thyroiditis that makes them hyperthyroid for a brief period of time. But, again, it does not matter. Having too much thyroid hormone is HORRIBLE for your body, and it needs to be treated.

Do not be misled by the fact that your T3 and T4 levels are normal while you are on the methimazole. That is what is supposed to happen. This medication acts as a chemical block to the production of thyroid hormone. We need to take enough of it to keep us in normal levels of hormone. If you didn’t need it, it would be making you hypothyroid.

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