[npatterson]

#1074009

Dear RAL,
I am sorry to hear about your son. Send me an e-mail and I will send you the paper about Students and Graves’. (nancyngdf@bellsouth.net) It will give you lots of information and hope about kids and Graves’ in general.
If he is already showing signs of eye problems, there is a lot of research that shows that RAI can aggrevate it. It will not CAUSE eye disease, but can make pre-existing eye disease worse. It is a sort of tricky thing that your doctor must explain and help you plan for. The prednisone might help. There was a time that they did not even know to try prednisone, either before the treatment, or immediately afterwards. The thought at that time was that thyroid levels were the thing that caused the eye problems. Thank goodness they know more about it now.
Your son is old enough to be involved in the treatment plan, but he has to have good information (as do you) to participate in the decision-making. Children and young adults are treated with ATD’s, RAI, and surgery. It is not a flip of a coin, but a seriously considered treatment selection based on the navigation of the tests, preference (yours and your son’s), and clinical judgement. The latest quote I heard from our Medical Director is that "…defining the parameters of the treatment is the culmination of the professional’s aggregate experience." Translation: get an experienced, compassionate doctor that you can trust, and listen closely!
We are here to support you!!

[ral]

#1019779

Our 15 year old was diagnosed with GD 3 months ago. I suspect he has had it for over a year because of all the symptoms he has had over this time period (now that I learned more about hyperthyroidism). He started to show bulging eyes 4 months ago and that was when I was alarmed and took him to see the Dr.
We are trying to make the decision in whether we should have our 15 year old treated with RAI. Dr. strongly urges us to do so in the last 3 months and the RAI is scheduled in a month. Weighting pros and cons of RAI, we came across some documents stating that RAI may actually make eye conditions worse. When we questioned the potential effects on his eyes, the Dr. thinks Prednisone could help to prevent his eyes getting worse. However, I need to prepare for the scenario that if this medicine doesn’t work on him, he’ll need to deal with other more complicated procedures.
On a separate note, we finally convinced another Dr. to prescribe ATD for our son. This is the 2nd week he is on Methimazole and he is doing well. He was able to finish his final exams and got decent grades on all his courses. I’d like to extend the medicine route longer to see how he responds to it but at the same time I still worry about all the side effects the Dr. warned us about.
I’d appreciate you can share your experiences and thoughts with me. This is a tough decision to make.
Thanks.

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