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  • Anonymous
    Participant
    Post count: 93172

    Hi Everyone

    I feel like I need to add my $$ to the conversations. Perhaps this post should be titled, “What the NGDF did for me”, but I’ll stick with what I wrote.

    My diagnosis with Graves came when I ended up in the hospital with atrial fibrillation. At that point, blood tests confirmed there was a thyroid problem, and the uptake test 2 days later confirmed the problem was Graves. In fact, that is what the dr. who did the uptake test said, “Looks like you have Graves Disease.” That’s it–except for a referral to a thyroid specialist. . No further information. At that point, all I knew was that George & Barbara Bush both had Graves. I found the bulletin board about a couple of days later, and was totally depressed reading about what I had to “look forward to.” At the same time I also found the NGDF home page and printed out the entire web site!!!! What a God send that was!!!!

    My visit to the thyroid specialist wasn’t much more helpful. After (his words) “the 5 minute thyroid talk” I was asked to choose between RAI and ATDs. I picked the ATDs, stopped at the pharmacy on my way home and then sat and stared at the pill bottle for about an hour wondering if I had made the right decision. After finally getting up the courage to swallow that first pill, I went out and bought 2 of the books from the recommended reading list on the NGDF web page.

    Two months later I finally broke down and bought a new computer system for home that would give me Internet access. Good-bye Apple IIc, hello Pentium! By this time I had already joined the NGDF. Even though I had Internet access at work, I wanted access to the Graves’ chat, this bulletin board at home. I had already figured out that if I was going to learn anything about this disease, I needed to do it on my own.

    To make this story a little shorter, I would simply add that probably 95% of what I have learned about Graves has been the DIRECT result of NGDF information, the NGDF conference last summer, and this bulletin board! I will be eternally grateful to everyone involved with maintaining this board for the SUPPORT that it has provided me. So THANK YOU!
    Based on the mission statement of the NGDF, I would say that it has definitely succeeded in my case!

    Cindy

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