[Anonymous September 4, 1996 at 11:46 am Post count: 93172]

#1168889

Pam,
I was not treated for Graves in Germany. I came down with
it after I moved to Florida. And yes I found Germany very beautiful.
I would love to go back to live for a few years again. We lived in
Waldorf, Hessen outside Frankfurt. Now about Graves. It is up to the
Doctors and your thyroid levels how long they go between treatments.
Some people do get better after they have been on the pills for a year
or so but it is not 50% here. PTU has the side effects of lowering your
white blood cell count and can damage your internal organs if taken to
long. The Atomic cocktail is radioactive iodine and it kills the thyroid
or a portion of it. If done right enough is left to make for a normal
life and you do not need to take any additional medicine. If you take to
much or to little they have to give you replacment thyroid or do the cocktail
again. There are other durgs used here to slow down the thyroid other than
PTU but they are not in popular use and I don’t know what they are. Keep in
touch and mayby when we get the CHAT room up and running you can get on-line
with us if the time difference is right for you.
Regards,
Jake George

[Anonymous September 4, 1996 at 2:59 pm Post count: 93172]

#1058599

Jake, yes thank you I will send an envelope.
It really sounds as if they are giving me and
my throid more time to come back up to normal.
The first round in 1993 I was on pills for
1.5 years and no one even thought about atomic
cocktails or operation. And TSH did come back to
normal. Too bad that the whole thing started
over again 1.5 years after that (6month ago). I
still hope to make do without the cocktail and
get of the medicine. You mentioned in one of
your messages that this PCU or whatever it is
called is not good for your body. Carbimazol also
has some side effects, but I seem to be rather
healthy. Is there an alternative drug to the PCU.
There are at least two drugs in use to block the
thyroid in Germany. But it is still no cure, it
only levels you out. Why the thyroid does come
back to normal (sometimes with some people) eventuellythey
don’t know. But they say there is a 50% for it to
go away and not come again – any statistics like
this in America?
What happens once your thyroid does react to the
Atomic Cocktail, do you have to take thyroid hormones
afterwards ?
How did you like Germany – were you treated for Graves here
in Germany?
I was born in Bonn,but I moved done to the South (Heidelberg) to go
to school and eventually ended up in Freiburg,very close to the
Swiss and French boarder and to the Black Wood Forest.
It’s beautifull.
Pam Detrois

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