[SueAndHerZoo]

#1059968

I’m on 10 mg. of Methimazole right now (I’m sure we will raise it again next week as I started at 5, then up to 7.5, then up to 10, etc.) and I take all 10 mg. in the morning.

Should I be taking 5 in the a.m. and 5 mg. in the p.m.? I read somewhere (don’t know how true it is) that methimazole only works for 8 hours at a time?

Sue

[brondack]

#1179203

I think that this , like all questions regarding taking any medication, should be answered only by your doctor and not anyone on this forum.

[Boomer]

#1179204

brondack wrote:

I think that this , like all questions regarding taking any medication, should be answered only by your doctor and not anyone on this forum.

I’m gonna have to go ahead and cosign brondack above.

We’ll send you a bill

Love to all,

Boomer

[SueAndHerZoo]

#1179205

Boomer wrote:

brondack wrote:

I think that this , like all questions regarding taking any medication, should be answered only by your doctor and not anyone on this forum.

I’m gonna have to go ahead and cosign brondack above.

We’ll send you a bill

Love to all,

Boomer

You can go ahead and bill me my co-pay and then I’ll have my people contact your people about the remaining balance due.

OK, perhaps I should rephrase the question: do most of you take your thyroid meds all at once or in 2 or 3 doses throughout the day?

(Better?)
Sue

[Raspberry]

#1179206

I see nothing wrong with sharing knowledge, together we all have a huge collective amount of Graves experience, why not share? Now if I were to say something crazy like Sue you should take all your methimazole only once a week in one big 70mg dose and it will cure you! Yeah….that’d be kinda crazy and she wouldn’t listen to me anyway….

Okay, so sharing my personal experience and not telling anyone what to do. I found that taking methimazole divided into three doses a day gave me the best experience of stability of mood and energy. Now that I am only on 1.25mg I take it twice a day at .625 because it is no longer physically possible for me to divide it into thirds. I experimented in the beginning when on 5mg with twice daily and thrice daily dosing and could really feel a difference. My endo was okay with this as long as I took the prescribed amount by the end of the day. I also order a specific brand of methimazole from my pharmacy that divides cleanly without crumbling. There was a small surge of hyper symptoms for about two days going from 2x to 3x because the amount per dose was smaller but then it evened out. I do think my endo thinks I may be a bit wacky or OCD doing all this, but she also says my response to the methimazole has been unusually positive and fast.

[LaurelM]

#1179207

I took Methimazole for my first episode over 6 years ago. I remember my endo said an advantage of Methimazole over PTU is that you only have to take it once per day. I started out on 30 mg which is a fairly high dose and it was nice to only have to take it once. The PTU doses on the other hand are spaced out evenly. I was taking it 3 times a day and now am down to twice.

Another resource to ask is your pharmacist. They are supposed to be drug experts and should be able to advise you about typical dosing of a medication.

Laurel

[snelsen]

#1179208

yes to all!
Shirley

[Naisly]

#1179209

MMI has a half life of 5-6 hours. It should also be taken at the same time each day. This goes for getting labs done.

Quote:

Quoted from the manufacture:

Quote:

TAPAZOLE is administered orally. The total daily dosage is usually given in 3 divided doses at approximately 8 – hour intervals.

Quote:

http://www.pfizer.com/products/rx/rx_product_tapazole.jsp

You can also check out the FDA if you don’t believe the Manufacture of the drug.

Since it does have a short life, one is bound to swing hyper/hypo throughout the day. No wonder you feel so crapy.

On a personal note I have to say I am sort of shocked with some of the replies. First, doctors in North America are not trained in pharmaceuticals, they leave this training up to your pharmacists. If anything, doctors use outdated source books for their info. So it is either they are are not informed or want you to fail at remission so you will do RAI. Either way, you must learn to advocate for yourself.

[Harpy]

#1179210

As already stated, because of the half life of the drug it is better to take it in two and even better 3 evenly split doses.

The only reason doctors say to take it once a day is because of concerns about compliance, i.e. patients are incompetant and will forget to take it if it is split as a multiple dose per day.

Incidentally in all the reviews I have read this same compliance issue is always used as a point of reasoning against ATD’s in the treatment of thyroid disease, that patients are basically incompetant, personally I think more patients need to stand up, show their competance and hold their doctors to account for not being up to speed on current medical research in the treatment of their condition.

It’s not good enough for them to simply base their treatment on what they were taught 20, 30 or even 40 years ago.

[Boomer]

#1179211

Well okay then!

I take my MMI every 8 hours as prescribed (and harped upon by my Endo).

Peace to all,

Boomer

[brondack]

#1179212

I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that some people are saying that personal experience of patients is better than trained medical advice – whether from the doctor or the pharmacist to determine the dosage and frequency of taking ANY medicine. And to say that doctors, especially those specializing in a specific area (thyroid and diabetes) rely only on training that they received a long time ago is insulting to the majority of doctors who constantly are updating their knowledge in their specialty.

[Harpy]

#1179213

It is unfortunate, but there are still many doctors and specialists who are not up to date with current information, in some cases it may be a lack of inclination, but IMO most of the time it is likely because of the structure of the medical system and the fact that they are time poor.

This is clearly evident just in the speed of consultations, in our own experience the Endo is always behind in appointments, we usually have to wait over an hour then it’s a quick 10 min how are you, numbers look fine, see you in 6 months and more often than not the Endo looks worse than the patient.

I should have been more specific and stated that the system needs to be fixed so that the doctors are better supported and that they are fully empowered to take proper care of their patients.

Believe it or not there are still Endo’s out there trying to treat GD and adjust dosage on the basis of TSH levels only and that is clearly nowhere near up to date with current practice.

Some people here have very good Endo’s and by sharing that information about their dosing and other details may well help others to ask the right questions of their own Endo’s so that they also get appropriately treated, it may be something they missed in their appointments or a simple oversight by the Endo, but the sharing of information and knowledge is a good thing and may help others to get better treatment.

[brondack]

#1179214

Sharing of information – of any type – is always appreciated – but, IMHO, not when it comes to recommendations about individual decisions about dosage, frequency and actual choice of medications.

Even if an individual decides on his / her own to make that type of decision for themselves, it could have extremely negative on another individual.

But, everyone is certainly free to choose whether to follow a doctor’s directions or another patient’s direction – and accept the risks and implications of that decision.

[SueAndHerZoo]

#1179215

Well, by Golly, it looks like I got myself yet another “million dollar question”?

Thanks for all the responses. Trust me, I would not change ANYTHING about my health routine based on something I read in a forum, but I suppose it could be dangerous to post this kind of information because there may be some people who DO take the things read on forums as Gospel. I simply read all the data, try to form some sort of educated opinion from the varying thoughts, and then talk to my doctor about it, armed with arguments from both sides.

I go for bloodwork tomorrow and endo visit Thursday so for the time being I will stay consistent at taking the entire dose in the morning, but one of the first things i will ask Thursday is about the dosing. If we were to go only by the instructions on the prescription label, I would interpret mine as “once a day”. Very curious to hear his thoughts on this and will share, IF you think that would be helpful.
Sue

[Naisly]

#1179216

You know, it is funny how people think doctors know more than manufactures or pharmacists.

I’ve had 3 doctors tell me they do NOT study pharmaceuticals (only basics) in school. Fact is, they already have too much to learn in a short period of time. And even you must see common sense that it takes 7years to become a pharmacist and 7years to become a doctor. Along with the myriad of new diseases out there. It is not humanly possible for ANY doctor to memorize every single disease, every single prescription. The human brain can only retain a certain amount of information, unless they are a ‘special’ type of individual. As I said before, only a doctor who is PERSONALLY effected by a disease will understand it fully. Doctors are human, just like you and me, they are not superman.

On a personal note. My GP knows absolutely nothing about Graves Disease. He has admitted this to me and I can tell when I see him he is scared to treat me. I have to remind him to check my Vitamin D and iron, I have to show him what to write on the reqs, I have to show him what to write on the prescription, I have to reassure him every time I go into his office. It’s all very exhausting. But I have to do what I have to do. What I wouldn’t give to walk into a doctors office and fall into his arms and and say, “Take care of me.”

I asked him why he didn’t know, he said because there are over 20 thousand diseases that are specific to what specialists learn. So this takes us to endocrinologists – Yes, they learn the entire endocrine system and basically concentrate on diabetes for good reason. Since the American population is in an almost epidemic with diabetes 2 caused by lifestyle, eating habits etc. So who’s to blame for that? The manufactures for pushing this junk food on us and our kids? The advertisers? The FDA because they are letting this happen? The endo because he isn’t superman? Or maybe it is you and me for buying into this crap?

It’s also funny how some put doctors high on a pedestal even though it is a FACT millions of people are misdiagnosed each year and people die everyday because of incompetent doctors. And a FACT that many doctors still dose with ATD’s according to TSH lab values causing many patients to suffer longer than they should – basically causing the patient to choose a more permanent solution, because HEY ATD’s are not working – giving you hives, making you hypo/hyper, and forget about remission since the doctor is so incompetent he won’t check for antibodies before taking you off ATD’s. Well gee isn’t that a surprise!

Look around you, notice the amount of lawyers advertising they will fight your medical case. Why do you think that is?

Organizations such as GDATF wouldn’t exist if it were that simple as to find a doctor and get treated, end of story. But sadly that is not the case with this disease. This is why they use the slogan Educate * Encourage * Empower.

One last thing, YOU are hiring them to do a job, YOU pay their salary, if YOU do not like the job they are doing, say so. This is YOUR right or get that referral from the person 6 feet under.

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