Hi Shan, fellow SF Bay Area person. My reaction to RAI was very mininal for quite awhile. I had it done in July with no side effects until around November when I started to experience some fatigue and my hair started to thin. This scared me, I have long blonde hair which looked like a lot in my shower drain. I wish I had been more insistant that my doctor pay more attention to my symptoms, but I was a willing participant in the “what you don’t talk about is not really there” game. I remember laughing when he told me it may take a few years to get my thyroid levels “normal”. That just couldn’t be true, but it was. In the mean time, I gained weight which has been a bear to get off. I don’t think this weight gain has to happen. I wish I had been more deligent about exercising and watching my diet. I was also naturally thin and could eat whatever I wanted. What a surprise when the pounds just mounted up. In the Graves Disease support group that meets in the East Bay, I noticed that the people that seem to do the best were those on macrobiotic or vegetarian diets. I ignored this too because I was in some sort of denial fog. But recently I have started to make the switch to a healthier diet and already I can feel the changes. So, learn from my mistakes and stay deligent about how you care for yourself, it can make a difference with some of these symptoms I think.
Also, the East Bay GD Support Group leader is Susan Elizabeth Calico and her phone number is 510-540-8640. She is great to talk to, very knowlegeable.
My E-mail is LizzieAAA.AOL, if you’re on AOL, it’s just LizzieAAA. Let me know how it goes and good luck.
Liz
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