[amybou]

in reply to: Need some encourgement please! #1066698

I can definatley relate with what you are going through. Heck other than feeling a bit psychotic and multiple other symptoms with the hyperthyroid issue before RAI was kinda nice as I was losing weight over night. I’ve never in my life been as thin as that time, but clearly I was very sick and had to get this fixed. I too gained tremendous weight post RAI. It’s taken me more years than I care to mention to tackle this problem effectivley for long-term now. I don’t know about you but with Graves and intermittent symptoms I’ve experienced fluctuations with depression. That only makes the weight gain worse and you really have to watch out for this and stay on top of it. It can become a vicious cycle. So some form of daily exercise is great. You just have to have low expectations for awhile. My muscles ached for months, I was short of breath and week it seemed for 4 months or so until I rebounded from a heavy hit with the RAI. ALLOW yourself a tremendous amout of time to recover. This isn’t I’ll be back to normal in a few weeks. I found it’s learning a new way to live. Realize what does work for you and what doesn’t. Maybe swimming might be a better way to exercise for awhile until you build back your stamina. And then save some of your energy to you and your family. sometimes to me it feels like I literally have a "gas tank". As I empty that tank I don’t have anymore to give. So I have to balance out how and where I expend that energy so when its a dry tank I have to stop and fill that tank again. That might mean some down time.
As young women many times we are very focused on what the image in the mirror tells us. There’s a lot more to it than that. YOu are recovering from an illness that will take awhile, its a marathon and not a sprint. Take care of yourself first with good medical management, nutrition and expercise, and spirtitual support. It will come together, BUT it does take time. That’s what I have learned.

[amybou]

in reply to: how do you get over the anger? #1068107

I’ve lived with Graves now for about 17 years. I was diagnosed at age 22 and had RAI. I had hoped to have the treatment to bring my thryoid down to a more functional level however it was basically anihalted, hardly any scar tissue remains. So what I have learned SO FAR is this. I didn’t feel "normal" for years. It did take me a LONG time to get regulated proberly and part of that was my fault as I wasn’t 100% in taking my replacement hormone as I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have when I was younger. Ultimately what has helped me are a couple things; 1st was when I learned what a new "normal" was for me. When I truly forget how I used to feel before my symptoms started followed by treatment. Once I quit comparing how I should feel, to how I do feel I learned to accept that to be my new normal. My struggle lessened some at that points as I realized I wasn’t going to be able to "go back" to how I generally felt before treatment.
2nd Realizing I have an illness that is manageable. I personally look at similiar to diabetes. It has to be managed or damage can be done. But it can be managed. It makes you stay focused on your health as if you don’t there’s a price to pay. But, its one that I can pretty mucy do everything I did before and with a little effort on my part not prevent me from taking on any adventure I choose to. There have been complications along the way because of this illness some heartbreaking, BUT I learned from every event and try to understand my body better. I FINALLY gave into allowing myself to rest in the afternoons after work for 30 minutes or so as my body is screaming at me to do so. But mentally I had a hard time doing this as I knew all the other things I felt I should be doing. Fact of the matter is I can’t do those things well if I don’t do what I need to do for my body at that time. This works for me, my spouse didn’t get it for awhile; now he just knows its my routine and that’s that. Then there’s sometimes, out of the blue, my levels really fluctuate and I can become very hypothyroid rapidly even though I’d been faithful my replacement hormone. I haven’t been able to identify specific reasons for this but I have learned those symptoms and then check in with my doctor then. Anger is normal, especially early on, maybe even a year, just don’t get stuck there. It will only make the illness bigger than it needs to be. It is what it is and will be OK if accept it and learn what yo need to do to lessen its impact on your daily life. H Good Luck to you.

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