[irvan]

#1018007

Hi, my name is Irvan, im a 24 male and I was diagnosed with GD about 5 years ago. I also have exophthalmos, bulging of the eye, in both eyes. I am taking 200mg of propylthiouracil(PTU), 5mg prednisone, and 30mg celexa(antidepressant)/day. I used to be angry, sad, severely depressed all the time for no reason, very emotionally unbalanced, but luckily my moods are under better control now. I dont have much of the symptoms anymore as my thyroid levels have started to go within the normal range, but my eyes are still bulging. I am a cigarette smoker and a recovering meth addict (which i believe spurred GD in me, since i have no family history of thyroid problems). Anyway, a lot of the symptoms went unnoticed at first because those same symptoms, the mood swings, anger, depression, etc…, was all part of meth use as well. I was only diagnosed when my family started noticing my eyes start to protrude more and more. So, since I was diagnosed about 5 years ago, I have been on ATDs(propythiouracil) the whole time. And with my levels finally going within the normal ranges, should i look into other forms of treatment now? Also, my endo told me my eyes have a 50/50 chance of going back to "normal", what are your opinions on that? Ive come to terms with the possibility that i will look like this for the rest of my life, but i would just like to hear input from other GD patients. Sorry for the long post, I thought I’d give an introduction of myself along with my questions. Thank you so much for your time.

[Bobbi]

#1062193

Hi, and welcome to the Board.

There have been some recent research results that suggest that PTU may be harder on the liver than previously known. As a result, your doctor may suggest to you that you try some other form of treatment long term. Either the other antithyroid drug, or removal of the thyroid (via RAI or surgery). It might be a good idea, while you are in reasonably good shape, to start researching those options. There is a reading list of good sources suggested by the NGDF from the main home page that can be helpful. Researching online can be iffy: there’s probably more bad information online than good. So try to use medically sound information sites if you are working online.

As for whether or not your eyes will go back to normal — it depends upon how much permanent damage to the eye muscles occurs while we have TED. You may understand the process, but in layman’s terms our eye muscles react to the antibody attack by getting thicker and stiffer. When the antibody attack subsides — and it does, we call it the "cold phase" of the disease — the symptoms alleviate somewhat. How much varies from one person to the next. I had slightly bulgy eyes, and flickering double vision. It was pretty awful, even though I didn’t have the worst form of the disease. But I couldn’t wear the prisms some folks use to get rid of the double vision, so the disease was somewhat crippling for a couple of years. I couldn’t drive safely, for instance, and in my community, if you cannot drive you are really limited as to what you can do. Well, when I got to the cold phase of the disease, the majority of the bulging went away over time, and the double vision only plagues me if I am very tired, or hypothyroid. So you, too, will likely see an alleviation of symptoms, but how much is up for grabs.

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