[Anonymous July 30, 1997 at 9:05 pm Post count: 93172]

#1054490

You know, someone once again mentioned the 10 % number…that being an
idea about how many GD patients have a harder time, more serious complications, don’t respond as well to treatment etc.
Not everyone on this BB fits into the 10 %…some of us are doing fine. I seem to be, thus far, responding well to anti-thyroid drugs.
Most of my symptoms are either gone or abated. As regards the survey, it covers more than the folks that regularly cruise this
board. There were people that stopped by once way back when, and I e- mailed them.
There are people who heard about it other places…thank you my helpers.
So as far as a skew…and all…well it may not be so skewed as suggested. Lots of the people
who answered feel better and that is what I typed in. There are anti-thyroid drug remissions, too, on the survey. In addition, let’s say for the sake of argument, that it is mostly
a “sicker than regular GD population” in the survey, then you should still look at the
comparison bewteen the “sickers” who took one treatment and the “sickers” who took the other.

Now, I agree that one should be very careful drawing inferences based on this or any one work.
However, if for no other reason than a little respect for the hours I have put in, please don’t be so quick to label
the survey , that would not be a scientific approach in and of itself. I noticed that one of the folks
ready to agree to the skew mentioned that her eye symptoms abated and then returned after RAI.
One shouldn’t ignore that or draw conclusions from it. It is clear that you can have eye problems
no matter what. Remember the woman who came on the BB after 27 years of post RAI feeling great who had never
even learned of eye disease and now has it? This is mysterious stuff.
But if there are patterns that we can learn some cautions from, this is my hope.
We can learn to ask deeper and more persistent questions. Also, we can ask for more research to be done.

To those of you who have thanked me for doing this compilation of the data offered by 218 GD patients, you are quite welcome.
I realize that it is flawed..I wished I had asked more and different questions etc. I would like to talk to each of your doctors, see your files and etc.
I have been reticient to post all the info, concerned that too ready an acceptance or too defensive a rejection
would just further muddy the waters of our dialogue, but…it is your info and eventually you will have it all.
By the way…the eye symptoms are not lumped together. You have only
seen part of the charts. Just testing the waters with you guys.I never do back flips into the pool for my first entrance.
Jeannette

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