[snelsen]

#1062762

Hi Megan, I am sorry you have to give one extra minute to Graves’ when you are sixteen years old! Holy Moly!
Having said that, it sound like you have an excellent doctor, who is being very wise, and has your optimal health as his primary goal for you. I know there are other teenagers on this bulletin board, so try to use the search engine, and see if you can find them. It is SO HELPFUL to talk to someone in your own age range who has had similar experiences.

Do you mean that your BP is high now? Or that it was high when you were hyperthyroid, and subsequently had a thyroid storm before your RAI? If it high now, your doc probably will want to work with you to have a nice normal blood pressure, for it is a stress on our heart and our body to have an uncontrolled high blood pressure.

This is what you can expect in the following weeks. As you say, because of the high blood pressure and thyroid storm, your whole system had a kick in the butt, and he wants to be very sure that your heart is fine. When you are thinking about it, I suggest that you presume everything is ok. First of all, an echocardiogram is easy, the technician puts some jel on a thing they hold, and they slide it round your skin, and the pictures of your heart show up on a TV screen. Nothing hurts. It takes about a half hour or so. Be sure to make an appointment now if you have not already done that, so you can discuss what it all means. It is good to go to the appointment with someone else so they can help you remember things. It is also very wise to get a copy of the dictated report of the echo for your records.

The good news about all of this is that you have almost all of the acute stuff behind you, and you can move along and feel normal like you felt before you had Graves’. I imagine everything was hard for you when you were undiagnosed,
for you had some tough times, did not feel good. Take it a step at a time get the echo done as soon as possible, so you don’t have to worry about it, get the appt. The unknowns are more scary than stuff you know.

From my own experience, I had an echo when I was 17, the doc said my heart had one small weakness, and it was not that uncommon. I am REALLY old now, and it has been a non-issue for my whole life. I swam competively, downhill skied for most of my life, and hiked many mountains.
BE SURE to write again!!!

[MeganD]

#1018114

Ok, so my thyroid died about a year and a half ago and have been on the appropriate dose of armour for about 2 months. When I had my appointment with my endocrine about 2 weeks ago he told me that he was very concerned about my blood pressure. He told me that since I was hyper for a quite a while and went through a thyroid storm that there might indeed me something wrong with my heart. So he decided he wants me to do an echo on my heart, which I am very nervous about I am only 16!! What I want to know is what kind of effects can long standing graves do to your heart? And are they reversible?

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