Hello!!!
My name is Christa and I am a 27 year old, mother of three young children ages 6, 4 and 17 months and 9 weeks pregnant with my fourth and I have Grave’s Disease. It has been difficult living with Grave’s mostly because I do not have the energy I wish I had to be able to play with my children more. I find myself telling my kids to “wait a minute, Mommy’s tired” more often than I would like. I can’t run around the yard with them for more than a few minutes without feeling totally drained and ready for a nap. It has been a long battle to find the right treatment, the proper treatment for me. This is my story.
I was 20 years old when I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in August 2002. In September 2003 I became pregnant with my second baby. About two months into the pregnancy I was reading a short article in a Parents magazine about symptoms of thyroid disorders. I came to think “I have almost all of these symptoms.” Shortly after reading the article I had a prenatal appointment with a substitute for my family doctor. I expressed my concern about the possibility of having a problem with my thyroid to her, but even though I had lost about 11 pounds since the beginning of my pregnancy, she tried convincing me that the symptoms I was having were just from being pregnant. I am normally a small woman, averaging about 95 pounds and at this appointment I was down to 84 pounds. Since I had already been pregnant once I knew that being tired, feeling sick, having heat intolerance, not being able to sleep well, low sex drive, clumsiness, mood swings, increased appetite, dry skin, brittle hair and absentmindedness were all part of the territory, but the weight loss really worried me. I demanded that I be tested for thyroid problems.
A few days later my regular family doctor called me to let me know she was scheduling me an appointment with an endocrinologist because my thyroid levels were off and that I was hyperthyroid. I had no idea what any of it meant and was a little scared. I worried about the welfare of my unborn baby. The endocrinologist prescribed me the lowest possible dose of PTU, since it was the safest anti-thyroid drug to use during pregnancy, yet was still classified as “Class D” medication during pregnancy. I had to weigh my consequences of whether or not to take the medicine while pregnant, since it was possible to affect my baby, but if I didn’t take it I could be putting myself and my baby at risk. I was very nervous about taking it, but decided it would be best to since I was already a mother of a young child and couldn’t risk getting any worse.
My family doctor could no longer see me as a patient since my pregnancy was considered ’high risk’ now that I had a diagnosed thyroid problem. I had to find an ob-gyn that understood hyperthyroidism during pregnancy. Luckily a local doctor who had been in practice in the area had experience with the problem and accepted me as a patient. He requested that I have high profile ultrasounds done every four weeks to ensure the growth of my unborn baby was normal and that he/she was not growing a goiter, due to the medication I was taking. I had to drive a total of 175 miles every four weeks to have the ultrasounds done at a hospital more equipped and experienced. I also saw my endocrinologist, the same distance away from home, once every three months during my pregnancy. The last 2 months of my pregnancy I also had non-stress tests done once a week to check on the baby, which I by now found out was a girl. After the stress tests, the technician did ultrasounds to check fluid levels and my placenta. I lost count at 15 ultrasounds during my second pregnancy. I gave birth to a healthy baby girl only three days before she was due in May 2004. All newborn tests and screenings came back normal, and her thyroid was functioning normally.
My endocrinologist was hoping that my hyperthyroidism was induced by pregnancy and that it would go away on it’s own and recommended that I continue on anti-thyroid meds for a year. For the next year I stayed on the medications and then had a thyroid scan done in July 2005. The scan proved that I indeed had Grave’s Disease. The name of it scared the crap out of me. I scoured the internet and library for information and wasn’t very comforted with what I read. I was so scared of what it meant to have a disease. I went to see my endocrinologist shortly after the diagnosis. He recommended that I have the Radio Active Iodine treatment, but explained that some studies showed that it can affect a woman’s eggs and that it wasn’t the best idea if I planned on having more children. I was only 23 years old and couldn’t be definite that I would never have any more kids, so I continued on the anti-thyroid medications.
Shortly after being diagnosed with Grave’s Disease I went through a rough break-up with my daughters’ father. I was put under a lot of stress to move to a new home and become a single parent, working full-time and going to college full-time pretty much over night. My weight dropped to a dangerous 80 pounds and I was feeling worse than ever. I wanted to get another opinion from a different endocrinologist, which I did. He denied the claim the previous doctor had about the RAI affecting the eggs, and suggested that I have it done since I wasn’t doing well and the medications weren’t doing their job.
In May 2006 I had the RAI done. It made no changes to my thyroid until October, when I dropped to being severely hypothyroid almost instantly. I had a huge crash mentally, physically and emotionally. I was put on Levothyroxine, a thyroid supplement, but told it will take up to 6 weeks to show any affect. I started to feel a little better, though at that point, getting out of bed without crying or feeling so weak I could barely walk was ’getting better.’
In February 2007 I found out I was pregnant with my third baby. My doctor told me that the thyroid supplement I was on was proven safe during pregnancy and not to worry. My thyroid levels were to be tested once per trimester and everything should be just peachy. Throughout my pregnancy my levels were in a normal range for the first time since being diagnosed with hyperthyroidism. I was happy that for once, my body was working as it should, mind the growing baby.
I had a healthy ten-pound baby boy in October 2007 and by February 2008 was not feeling well. I was experiencing all the same symptoms I had been having for years and knew something wasn’t right. My blood tests showed that I was hyperthyroid again, despite the RAI I had almost two years prior. My endocrinologist raised my dose of Levothyroxine. Now February 2009, and pregnant with my fourth child, my dose has been changed about every two months and I am still waiting for some sort of relief.
Life has been hard lately, dragging myself out of bed or off the couch to tend to my children has been difficult. I am very irritable and get exhausted after climbing a flight of stairs. Sex is pretty much non-existent between my boyfriend and I when it used to be something I really enjoyed. My oldest two children ask me frequently why I am so tired and don’t want to play. My everyday life is affected as a result of my disease and I could wish for nothing more than some relief. I am young, yet I feel so old and out of commission. My doctor just asked me yesterday "how long has it been since you have felt normal?" My response was "what is normal?" It has been SO long, that I don’t know what it is to feel good.
Any advice from someone in a similar situation, please respond. I have read the book "Grave’s Disease In Our Own Words," but it didn’t help me as much as I thought it would.
” title=”Very Happy” /> I think you’d be surprised to find out how much your older children can contribute, and they’d probably feel good about doing it.
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