[Anonymous]

#1041283

Hi workmom,
I will try and give you the info I have on TSI. It is a test that doctors sometimes run on certain patients. The ones who seem to get this test are ones who have eye problems that are similar to TED and yet their blood tests are normal. They also use this test on pregnant women.

Hope this helps and maybe someone else can add to this.

Best Wishes,
Jan
Online Facilitator

[Anonymous]

#1131762

I don’t want to post a long post here so I’ll try to sum it up.. Here’s the question first…

Can having Immunoglobulin trigger an autoimmune disease if you are likely to have an autoimmune disease?

I ask because when I was 18(1992)I was bit by a kitten with rabies. (worked for an animal hospital at the time), I had immunoglobulin where the bite was and had my 1st of 6 injections of rabies vaccines. I had a reaction to the vaccine so we thought but had no choice and had to have them because the kitten was definitely positive for rabies. I lost a lot of weight and was very ill for a very long time. I looked a bluish color and had to have 6 inches taken in off of my wedding dress, I was getting married at the time.

In between I still had “thin” issues and had a baby and had a lot of girlie problems that my mom associated with thyroid problems but never did my TSH level show anything wrong or any other thyroid tests.

Well fast forward to November 2000 ,I was married to someone else and I got the flu for what I thought was the 1st time in my life because I had never felt that way before. my husband had always known me to complain of fatigue and the fact that I always thought I was “lazy” even though I was trying to always do stuff. I always felt tired and not sure of what to do. During 1998-2000 I didn’t have insurance so I wasn’t tested after 1998 when the thyroid tests last showed I was fine. So husband said in 2001 to get to a dr. because I DID have ins now being his wife. At the time my pulse was very high at rest so I went and that is when I found out I have Graves disease, although I was told it was mild.

Well mom said at the time she felt that the rabies shots and that immunoglobulin shot triggered me to have an autoimmune disease. That is when I started researching about Graves disease. I thought at the time that the flu was the “trigger” and since then when I do have a virus I do come out of “remission” so I just figured the flu was it.

Well mom and I were speaking the other day and she brought up the Rabies shots again and being that it was very tramatic for me I said I didn’t want to talk about it. The throwing up and pains and not being able to go to the bathroom by myself were just some of the memories I didn’t want to remember but she insisted that Graves was from this. I told her that with the autoimmune diseases on both sides of the family I had a predisposition for getting one and just because she didn’t have one doesnt mean I wouldnt have gotten it.

I would like to know if anyone knows anything about immunoglobin triggering someone that might be predisposed to having an autoimmune disease, if that question makes any sense. I’m not even sure if I am asking this right. Or if there was some place I can look.

Thank you all. I know the rabies doesn’t have to do with Graves disease but rabies was the reason I had the immunoglobulin and therefore mom thinks that Graves was caused by this. I never had a blood test that showed until 2001 but mom said I was always “hyper” and well i’m just curious if you can have symptoms but not show it on blood work?

[Anonymous]

#1131763

I have never heard of an immunoglobulin injection causing an autoimmune disease. They are given to fight disease. And they only provide temporary protection at that. Basically, as I understand it, what you were given was an immunoglobulin to RABIES, to provide you with temporary rabies antibodies to fight–immediately– the rabies virus/bacteria/whateveritis. The vaccines you were then given in a series were designed to help your body create your own antibodies to rabies which would provide long-term, broader protection.

It sounds like a horrible ordeal you went through, and in those of us with predispositions to autoimmune disease, horrible ordeals can trigger the onset of an autoimmune problem. Or so it is thought. Even the stress of good “ordeals” like weddings, having babies, etc. can result in someone falling ill — although not usually with autoimmune diseases, but it is possible.

I think we all would like a nail to hang this disease on, but it’s a pretty pointless exercise: it doesn’t help us to get over the disease, and it doesn’t prevent anyone else from developing it…… If ever medical research points out a trigger that IS preventable, then that would be worth finding.

You probably won’t be able to convince you mom of any of this, however. It sounds like she has come up with her own solution to the mystery, and it is one that appeals to her for some reason.

Bobbi — NGDF Online Facilitator

[Anonymous]

#1131764

Bobbi, thank you for the explanation. Yes mom wont think anything else, she’s being a mom and wont argue with her that is for sure!! If I know what’s goof for me. Just wanted to make sure that the curiosity she peeked in me was settled. I tend to lean towards the Flu since it was 3 months after that I had a TSH of level 0.03 then 0.01 . THank you again for the input.

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