[Andros]

#1069569

carla wrote:And you know what the worst thing is, we will never know. We can only surmise and wonder how our beautiful perfect daughters literally woke up one day and their lives were completely different, why why why at such young ages. This is not a disease for teenagers, so why our families. It is so unfair. Everyday my 13 year old looks at her bulging eyes in the mirror, her puffy face from all the steroids, her daily headaches and inability to dance and play sport anymore and says, my life just sucks, I hate my life, why did this have to happen to me, what have I every done to anyone. And you know what, you have to look at her and wonder all that yourself. I wish I had a reason why she has got this, more than anything, I wish I knew why.

I can’t help but comment on how fast this came on. Usually, Graves’ is insidious and very difficult to diagnose in the beginning stages. That "sure" makes me wonder about a tie-in from the vaccine.

By the way, not necessary to answer my question in the previous post as from reading further, there is no question but what your daughter has Graves’! Holy cats!

As so many have already said, we are here for you and your daughter.

Lu Anne

[carla]

#1069570

On the news on tv last night there was a story about Gardisal vaccine. It came from the states and said that there were 5 deaths from the vaccine in 08, 700 autoimmune diseases diagnosed and 12000 cases of dizziness and fainting and headaches after the vaccine. In West Australia however, they have said not to be concerned. Yeah right. I am sitting right here with a child with an auto immune disease.

[James]

#1069571

Hi all,

There is no doubt that as people with autoimmune disorders we need to become educated and aware of any risks associated with inoculations/vaccinations. That extends to our offspring who may in fact also be at risk for acquiring similar autoimmune disorders. My Dr. recently asked me if my Tetanus inoculation was up to date. When I questioned him about the risks, he admitted that I could potentially be at higher risk than the average person given my history of autoimmune disorder. In the end I declined the vaccination knowing that if I was subjected to Tetanus, that I could still receive the vaccine within a short period of time after the fact if I needed to. Vaccines can be a godsend, but in my opinion, we have to carefully weigh the pros and cons and not subject ourselves to vaccines, “just because”.

I think it is important that any autoimmune reaction to a vaccine isn’t dismissed as mere coincidence, but reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as mentioned by Kristin in an earlier posting in this thread.

Best to all of you,

James

[katet]

#1069572

Thanks for this information – I had no idea. I’m 24 and was just diagnosed about a month ago. I received the vaccine about 2 years ago and when I think back that is about when my symptoms started. At the time I rapidly dropped about 50 lbs and started having what I thought were panic attacks. Since, it’s gotten so bad that I am hungry ALL of the time and have gained almost all of that weight back.

I’m getting RAI on Friday and hope to stabilize afterwards…

[kahuna351]

#1069573

My daughter was diagnosed with Graves Disease in January 2012 but started having symptoms in October 2011. She received her last injection of Gardasil in August 2011 and suffered from headaches and nausea post injection. I recently heard that there may be a link to the gardasil injection and Graves disease and would like to say that I have no doubt this is the case. Up until the gardasil injection, my daughter was a beautiful 13 yo girl, active and in a healthy weight range. Post injection, she went from 60kgs and 170cm tall to 46kgs, bulging eyes, goitre and heart rate of 156 bpm with a shocking tremble. My daughter was diagnosed with Graves disease with extremely high levels of toxicity. There is no known link of graves disease in our family. To say that this disease has caused so many problems is an understatement and to watch her suffer on a daily basis is difficult for any parent to watch. There were days when she could not move nor get out of bed and was taking 18 tablets of neaomertcazole a day and heart tablets as well. We finally managed to get her levels under control (but still taking 4 neomertcazole a day) after 9 months but unfortunately her eyes have continued to get worse and she has now put on a lot of weight, weighing as much as 80kgs. Her face is swollen and she suffers from severe joint pain. After many opinions, it was decided that she should have a total thyroidectomy to stop the continuing problems to the eyes. There was a significant risk that she could go blind if the pressure behind the eyes was not controlled. The operation was performed and went very well. We are now 2 weeks post op and she is back at school and the scarring is minimal. Her heart rate returned to normal post op (we have never been able to get her rate down without tablets) with a resting bpm of 70. However, the last couple of days have seen my daughter take a dive again and her heart rate has gone back up to 110bpm. Back to the Dr tomorrow to see the surgeon post op so will ask then. There has been to date no change to the eyes but they will be measured by the opthamolgist in 2 weeks to see if there is any improvement yet.

I am not allowing my other daughter to have the gardasil injection and will be discussing this with my daughters dr’s at her next appt…..

Definately think there is a link to Graves and Gardasil and will be pursuing it as I have another daughter who will NOT be having the immunisation.

[Kimberly]

#1069574

@kahuna351 – I’m so sorry that your daughter has had to deal with all of this! I have seen a few personal blogs and attorney web sites that mention a link between Gardasil and Graves’ disease, but I have not seen any specific research on this. For any other parents out there, certainly the risks and benefits of *any* vaccine should be discussed with your doctor.

I’m guessing you are overseas, since your daughter was prescribed neomercazole (a similar drug called methimazole/Tapazole is used in the U.S.). If your country has any type of reporting system for “adverse events” due to drugs or vaccines, it would be really helpful for you to file a report. If it does turn out that a lot of other young women are having the same issue, this is important information for people to know. (The “adverse event” reporting system in the U.S., is the reason that PTU is no longer recommended as an anti-thyroid drug for children, as there was a higher correlation with severe liver problems than with methimazole/Tapazole).

Wishing your daughter a quick recovery from the surgery so that she can get back to enjoying her life!

[Author]

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