Thanks for your response, Bobbi. It is a comfort to think someone resistant to treatment might seek help as a result of reading my post. I confess to being one of those people who thought the pain my husband complained of was exaggerated. Aside from looking a little thin, he appeared fine. But my feelings also had something to do with the doctor’s handling of the disease and his "oh you’ll be fine" attitude. Had the doctor made us (me) feel like the illness was more serious or mentioned to avoid some of the things I’ve been reading about now online (excessive stress, smoking, etc) we would have managed his illness differently. I know it’s too late for the coulda/shouldas but we were never told stress exascerbated the condition, or to avoid certain activities (my husband liked the occassional cigar and smoked a few the night of his party). I suppose my frustration lies with the dialogue surrounding Graves. Everyone who heard he had GD said they had a sister or cousin or niece who had had it for years and that everything will be fine. This seemed to be the doctor’s attitude as well, so I’m wondering if there was a way for us to know just how severe his condition was at the time he was diagnosed, or if it fluctuates day to day and arbitrarily. Even though my husband felt like he was dying he believed, like I did, that everything was going to be ok.
