[Anonymous]

#1039507

The symptoms you’re having sound like classic hyper symptoms, and your medication can easily take a few weeks (sometimes up to 6 weeks) to show it’s effects on your system. I have heard a number of times that any excess thyroid hormone in your bloodstream can take up to six weeks to flush itself out, so even though your medication is keeping your thyroid from making more, the excess that was in your bloodstream at the beginning needs to have time to get out. The sweats and hot feelings are definitely hyper symptoms, and the tiredness can also be due to being hyper, since your body is completely wrung out by running at “hyperspeed” all the time. Your muscles can also ache from the effects of excess thyroid hormone. If you are not on a beta blocker, ask your doctor if you can get one. That can help with SOME of the symptoms, at least until the Tapazole takes full effect.

GOOD LUCK TO YOU! We’ve all been there, we know it’s no fun, and we’re here to listen when you feel like you can’t take it any more.

-Ski

[Anonymous]

#1127854

The thyroid not only makes thyroid hormone, Kristine, it also STORES it. So at first, when we start the antithyroid drugs, there is a lag time between starting the drug and starting to see any improvement in how we feel. The chemical in your antithyroid drug will interfere with the thyroid’s ability to take up and use iodine to make thyroid hormone, but your body will use up all of its stores of thyroid hormone FIRST. The antibodies that caused the problem in the first place are still there, causing your thyroid to work overtime. So, right now, your thyroid is using up its stores of hormone. Once those are gone, the drug needs to be adjusted so that your thyroid can make enough hormone for your body to run properly, but not too much, or too little. Also, having too much thyroid hormone damages our bodies, sometimes in subtle ways. One example: it causes our muscles to waste away, which is why we feel weak. But it takes time to HEAL once we have appropriate thyroid hormone levels back. So, we do not just pop a pill and have everything fixed overnight. It is a process.

Since you are new to the disease, please take the time to get a factual book on thyroid disease, and read up on the problem of hyperthyroidism. It will help you to work better with your doctor, if you understand what is going on. It will help you to understand what is “normal” during this process, and what things should raise red flags for you — things you should talk with your doctor about. There is a list of such books on the main web site of the National Graves’ Disease Foundation. I started with THE THYROID SOURCEBOOK by Sara Rosenthal, and it really helped me when I was first diagnosed.

I hope you are feeling better soon.
Bobbi — NGDF Asst. Online Facilitator
Bobbi@ngdf.org

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