[Sneagle02]

#1060544

Hello everyone. I am really happy yo have found this forum. I was diagnosed with graves 2 years ago and have been on methimazole. When I looked for forums in the past, I only found ones that seemed very reactive and anti doctors so it’s nice to see a balance of views here.
I was fairly hyperthyroid when diagnosed but when I had my uptake study initially, thinking about doing RAI, the uptake was pretty low, actually normal. So, I did not do RAI and stayed on the methimazole and it seemed like maybe it he graves would go into remission or I would be stable on low dose 5 mg a day) of methimazole.
Now, 2 years later i am hyperthyroid again and feeling awful. I am up to 20 mg a day of methimazole and ny heart is pounding and I can’t focus and feel like I am falling behind at work and at home and I don’t know what to do about it. I haven’t really told people at work about the graves as a reason that I am not getting as much done. I don’t want to complain or make excuses but it is just getting hard. And I am mad at myself because I think I should be able to push through it and still be as productive as before.
I’m going to recheck my labs tomorrow and then talk about doing RAI. JUst have to figure out when I can do it. And how,to,tolerate the hyper symptoms when I have to stop the methimazole for a new uptake study
Thanks for listening.

[Kimberly]

#1183227

Hello and welcome! If you feel like you’ve reached the end of the line with meds, both RAI and surgery are options. You can read more about the risks and benefits of each in the “Treatment Options” thread in the announcements section of the forum.

As far as wanting to push through your symptoms, we’ve all been there, done that – but it *is* really important right now to listen to your body and take some down time if you need it. I know that approaching the subject at work is tricky, but anything that you can do to “defer, delegate, or dump” is helpful right now both at work and at home.

As for the uptake test, not all docs require this prior to RAI. There is another option for calculating the dose that involves estimating the size of the thyroid gland. However, since your previous test indicated normal uptake (which is usually high in Graves’), your doc might want to repeat it just to make sure that RAI would be a viable option for you.

Wishing you all the best as you make this decision!

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