Hi welcome to our world!
I am biased, but I suggest you stick to this board. I think you are being treated very appropriately, and the ADT’s and beta blockers are doing their job, and you feel better. Your pcp is doing a great job, and has some understand of Graves’! At this stage, you do have a lot of labs, for the goal is to get you to feel better, be less hyper, yet you don’t want to get so much ATD’s that you become hypo. Later, your labs will be (and should be less frequent.) Yes, your T3 is low, also your TSH, which means you have too much thyroid hormone circulating around, and you do have Graves’. You are in a place with Graves’ where labs and you will be changing pretty frequently. Yep, the TSH and T3 indicates you have hyperthyroidism, but that is not puzzle to anyone. I think the person who told you that is a bit of an alarmist in the context that you got that info.
As you may have learned by now, the first thing to do is take care of YOU and your symptoms of feeling like a crazy person, feeling hot, etc. etc and all the other symptoms. The beta blocker is to control your heart rate and protect your heart.
On this board, the facilitators don’t interpret your labs. Of course, most of us learn a lot about our labs, and the range of labs for our particular labs. The ranges vary slightly, depending on the internal controls of individual labs. My lab for t3 is 78-178m so the range is very wide. However, when I was hyper, my T3 was similar to yours.
I suggest you keep in contact with your PCP and have labs and keep track of how you feel. May 18 is five weeks from now, and this is too long to not be in contact with anyone. so keep in good touch with your pcp who is looking at you and your labs.
Not sure what you have been reading, but achieving remission is a big subject. Some of the people on this board, and some of the facilitators, are taking ATD’s to manage their Graves’. The definition of remission is if the ATD’s are discontinued, and a person remains euthyroid (neither hyper or hypo) for more than a year. And it is always possible that Graves’ will recur. There is a nice and simple discussion of this on the Johns Hopkins website if you would like to read it.
So, as you will learn from people on this board, and from your own research, the three choices of treatment AFTER you become euthyroid from your orginal onset of Graves’, are:
ATD’S
RAI (radioactive iodine
Thyroidectomy
The goal of the last two is to eliminate your production of thyroid hormone,and then manage it with thyroid hormone, which we take for the rest of our lives. All people with Graves’ choose one of these three options for their own personal reasons, plus their geographic access to docs who have a lot of experience with RAI and/or surgery.
We will always have Graves’. Others on the board can address ATD’s. I think mamabear is either on ATD’s for quite a while, or perhaps she is in remission now. Put her name in the search engine, and read some of her posts.
So even though you have had graves’ only a few weeks, it sounds like you got diagnosed accurately and promptly, you are being treated appropriately, and you have already decided your want to have a go at ATD’s. There is a lot of good reason to feel very good about your experience. Do write again. YOur PCP ROCKS! I look forward to hearing from you after your endo appointment or before.
Again, yes, your T3 is low. No big deal. You have newly diagnosed graves. It’s ok.
Shirley
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I was put on the lowest dose of methimazole the end February and atenolol. Well I had labs done yesterday and here are the results 
” title=”Sad” /> I am in the process of switching to a new endo too. I won’t see him till May 18! So for now its my pcp that is treating me. Any info. would be greatly appreciated
I have done alot of reasearch and I know it can take up to 18 to 24 months to achieve remission! So it might take a while for the ft3 to become normal. I will continue taking atd as long as I can! Otherwise my only choice is to have surgery!
