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#1019312

by WorriedMum on Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:13 am

Hi,

My daughter has actually been diagnosed as having Hashimoto 3/4 weeks ago but at the moment she is hyperthyroid (I’m not sure if there is a similar foundation for Hashimoto?) She is 13 and is finding the whole experience extremely difficult. She has been taking Tyrodyl for 3 weeks now but most of her symptoms don’t seem to be abating, although I understand that it can take a while for the medication to take effect? Anyway she has hyperventilation/panic attacks, her eyes roll in her head, she feels very cold, she sometimes "fits", she becomes unresponsive, they can last for anything up to an hour and a half. We having been working on breathing techniques and we recognise the signs of an oncoming attack now, I think we are now better at dealing with them (for the first two weeks her teachers at school would call an ambulance each time an attack occurred, I spent more time in casualty than out of it. Now I sit outside school each day and when she has an attack, I can go straight in and sort her out without the need for an ambulance).
This week, her attacks have changed, she was having an attack every other day, more or less. She had an attack last Wednesday and then she was fine until Monday when she had a small attack. Yesterday she had two attacks and today she has had three. We seem to be able to get the hyperventilation under control quicker and there is less kind of fitting. She still loses consciousness and her eyes still roll. But these attacks are different in that we can get her around within 20 minutes but then she is very sleepy and tends to slip back into them again, and then you have to start all over again. After the attacks she is very weak and can’t walk etc. and she has a headache, sore throat etc which you would expect. Her previous attacks were more dramatic but once she was out of it, the attack was definitely over. These attacks are gentler but she slips in and out of them.
When she has an attack we give her 4mgs of diazepam. My question is, could the diazepam be responsible for the change in nature of her attacks? And is this a good thing? She hasn’t been to school this week because of the frequency of her attacks, so to me it seems worse although the attacks are less violent.

I’m not sure how much we will be able to help you with this, but I wanted to pull your message to the top so that it’ll be clearer for all of us. Hashimoto’s typically does not carry a hyperthyroid component, but there are patients who have Hashimoto’s AND Graves’, so then it becomes a "battle of the antibodies," which direction her thyroid hormone levels travel. From what I understand, the MOST typical response is to destroy the thyroid and then replace the thyroid hormone with a daily dose. The fluctuations of thyroid hormone can be just as damaging as chronic imbalances on either side, so the destruction at least leaves you with a condition you can predict and manage.

This would seem to be a situation where you need to do some research, and take ALL of your questions to your daughter’s doctor for a VERY in-depth discussion. Until you understand fully what’s going on with her, it’s going to be very difficult to advocate for her or help her get well.

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