[dntknwhw2b]

#1019408

So here goes. I just found out this past winter that my son (28 yrs) has Graves. He is on all the meds. And has many of the symptoms. He has just as much gray hair as I do and I’m 51. His mother has the disease and now that I told my doctor about it I am being tested for it. From what I have read about this disease there is no cure just management with some harsh drugs or surgery.
I have read a very long list of the symptoms, of which I can say that about a forth of them I have. No goiter or bulging eyes. But a number of the other ones do fit.
I have been disabled since 1997 from a bad 18 wheeler wreck. A TBI and several spinal injuries. I will be the rest of my life on morphine. I wonder what morphine will do with Graves?
My son is having a hard time with this stuff. His doctor gave him too much of some kind of medicine and it destroyed a large part of his thyroid gland. His employment does not have medical insurance so he has to pay straight out of pocket for all of it. I’m going to write the company that makes the drugs that he has to take and see if they will give him a break on the prices he has to pay.

My last question is about the board itself. I noticed that there are bots here goggle, ask and another one I can’t remember. What are they? And why are they?

Thanks for listening.

[Ski]

#1071473

First, I wouldn’t say it’s a given that you have Graves’ because you are experiencing many of the symptoms ~ really, the only definitive way to know is through blood tests for your thyroid hormone levels. One of the reasons we have a hard time being diagnosed is that our symptoms mimic many other conditions. So it’s possible that you are not dealing with Graves’ yourself right now.

If your son was given the medication that was supposed to destroy his thyroid, he wasn’t given "too much," it was meant to destroy his thyroid so that he could control his levels with thyroid hormone replacement pills. Many of us take these. They are not medication in the classic sense that you may be thinking ~ they are chemically identical to the T4 thyroid hormone our thyroid released when it was functioning ~ so they do not create a risk of toxicity (except when our dose is too high, which will re-create the hyperthyroidism we’re correcting. If that happens, a lower dose is prescribed to address the imbalance). We recently discussed the prices of replacement hormone and found that buying them in bulk (100 pills at a time) and not even asking for insurance coverage ends up being very cheap. I think right now those 100 pills will cost less than $40, no matter what brand he is taking. There are many ~ if he has achieved some kind of stable, normal levels on one, he should stick with that brand. It makes it easier to stay balanced, over time. He should only need one pill per day, so that’s more than 3 months’ worth of replacement hormone for a very reasonable price.

It’s possible that’s not the medication he is taking, but if it is (the generic name is levothyroxine), I hope that info helps.

The "bots" visit our site so they know where to send people who search for Graves’ Disease at their sites (yahoo, google, ask.com, etc. etc.). It just helps people find us.

[mamabear]

#1071474

I just wanted to say hello and welcome!!!
How is your wife doing with this disease?
Hugs to you for your pain..
Once your son is stabilized on the thyroid suppliments he hopefully will be feeling better.

[Author]

Posts