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in reply to: burning calories??? #1065917
Cells throughout the body are functioning, even when we are asleep. Proteins and other compounds from the foods we eat, are converted into usable form, to provide energy for the cells to continue to work away. Think of gas in a car’s engine. While they work, heat is generated. even if the car is only idling. And, as Ski mentioned, muscle cells apparently need more energy to maintain themselves, to do their basic functions, than other cells do. A calorie is a very specific, scientific term at heart. If you look it up in the dictionary, you will see that it means the amount of heat needed to raise a specific amount of water one degree celcius at a specific atmospheric pressure. At some point in time, someone, somewhere decided to use the concept of a calorie to describe the amount of heat generated by the cells in the body as they work. But also — which makes things confusing, too — people use the term to describe the amount of energy cells need to use, or "burn," to continue to function. The "basal metabolism" in the body is the amount of energy needed to maintain life, to keep the cells functioning, and we typically now use the term "calorie" to describe the amount of energy needed for this.
in reply to: burning calories??? #1065910A quick correction: while ATDs do inhibit the production of thyroid hormone, they do not "mimic" hypothyroidism. They can CAUSE it, if we are taking too big a dose, but if they have us solidly in the normal zone, we are not hypothyroid. The problem some folks have with weight gain when normalized on the ATDs is the same phenomenon that occurs when we get normalized on thyroid hormone replacements like synthroid. We’ve lost muscle and our metabolisms are commensurately lower than they used to be. Also, no matter how we’ve regained normal levels of thyroid, the muscle mass starts to return — and this looks like weight gain, too.
Also — thyroid hormone is related to metabolism because it acts as the catalyst for cells in the body to function. With no thyroid hormone we would die. None of our treatments leave us without thyroid hormone. If we choose ATDs, we need to find the "Goldilocks" dose — the dose that is not too much (hypothyroid), not too little (hyperthyroid), but just right (normal levels of thyroid hormone). When we have our thyroids removed either via RAI or surgery, we take replacement hormone which is chemically identical to thyroxine (the pro-hormone that converts to T3 for cell metabolism purposes).
But, there is more to our metabolism that just thyroid — saying thyroid "is" our metabolism is over-simplifying things. Our activity level contributes to how many calories we burn. The amount of muscle mass we have contributes to how many calories we burn, too. I have a friend who trains, all the time, for marathons. She’s an exercise junkie, who is about a size 1. She eats about three times more than I do without gaining weight. And this was true even before I got Graves. She is solid muscle, and she exercises a couple of hours (or more) a day, when she isn’t competing. She burns lots and lots of calories.
in reply to: How often to have TSH checked after normal. #1065923Typically, once we get stabilized in the normal zone long enough, TSH gets checked only once a year. My endo has a standing rule, though: if I suspect something is "off" I can go in to have my blood tested, without having a prescription. This is done in her office, of course — If I were having it tested anywhere else, I’d need a written prescription. She does request, though, that blood tests be spaced a minimum of six weeks, even with dose changes involved, to avoid a hormonal roller coaster from starting. I don’t know how other endos handle this type of thing. My mom, who also had Graves, was only tested once a year after she got stabilized, though, so I suspect that it is fairly common practice, once we’ve gotten to normal levels, and stay there.
in reply to: Question about Grave’s Eye Disease #1065965I have also heard that when we are looking at a computer screen, we don’t blink as frequently as we do when we are looking at the world around us. Blinking redistributes the tear coat on the eye, so our dry eyes become even dryer when we’re looking at the monitor for long periods of time. It can help to focus your attention on blinking, and also to keep a dispenser of the artificial tears handy.
in reply to: Am I Not Doing Enought For My Graves? #1065940You asked, Dave, about where to get your lab reports. Call your endocrinologist’s office and talk with the receptionist. Tell her that you want to keep copies of your lab reports and ask her to make you copies. Many of us try to track our progress by keeping a file of our lab reports. Our doctor’s typically will have their staff make copies for us upon request. If your endo’s policy is not to allow that, talk to your GP and authorize a transfer of the lab records to the GP (who should allow you copies of the reports).
in reply to: Surgery Complete! #1066275That’s great news, Kristi.!
in reply to: Am I Not Doing Enought For My Graves? #1065937I, too, went undiagnosed for quite a while, untreated for a while. Then, I became very ill, and it seemed like it all happened overnight. It might help you to look at your lab results for thyroid hormone. Do the reports state that the results are normal (albeit at the high end) or do they indicate that the results are "out-of-range." If they are out-of-range, even by a little bit, consider getting a second opinion from another endocrinologist.
in reply to: Fibromyalgia and Graves #1065953Are you spending time stretching prior to your exercise sessions? And, are you spending time stretching at the end? If not, you might try adding that. Whatever muscle group you are working needs to be stretched out before AND after exercise. I know it might seem silly to "warm up" and "cool down" muscles when your mind tells you that the exercise you are doing is "very light," but remember that to your muscles, "very light" right now may be a real "workout." I learned the importance of the warm up stretches about twenty years ago, pre-Graves. I took aerobic classes from a really good fellow who worked us into the ground. But I was never, ever sore afterwards, nor did I ever pull any muscles in his classes, because he spent 15-20 minutes on warm up, and another 15 minutes on cool down stretches.
in reply to: Great news…I’m pregnant..nervous though #1065981Hi, Hyperm, and congradulations!
You must expect fluctuations in the TSH during your pregnancy. It is completely normal. That is precisely why the doctors will monitor your blood levels more often. Pregnancy puts different demands on the body (and the thyroid) at different times. In a normal body, any fluctuations in thyroid hormone need are handled automatically. But in folks with Graves, that automatic mechanism is broken, so our doctors need to readjust our meds as needed. The TSH is "behaving" precisely as it should: the body just doesn’t listen anymore. But our doctors DO listen, and that makes a huge difference.
Wishing you and your new little one good luck,
The best person to consult with respect to drugs, their activity and their interactions is the local pharmacist. They may not have all the answers, but their field of study enables them to interpret information for us that might otherwise be murky because of our "amateur" status.
Sometimes people use words to mean one thing, and we understand something completely different. So, I would suggest you make a list of questions, as you think of them, to ask your endocrinologist. None of us here can even begin to suggest what might have been meant by the labs were fine but the thyroid was non-functional. Only the person issuing that statement can clarify it for you, unfortunately. It’s sometimes hard with busy doctors, but I do try to home in on information that I find confusing — right at the time. A simple statement like, "I don’t quite understand what you mean," should elicit an explanation.
Switching labs can indeed create some confusion. Different labs can use completely different testing techniques. So comparing one lab’s result against another’s can be a bit like comparing apples and oranges. What matters, in part, is whether or not our values are elevated/lowered outside of the expected normal range. When it comes to antibodies, their levels can rise and fall — over time — for no well-understood reason. So the fact that you were a bit off normal high for one lab report at one point in time, and back in the normal zone on a second lab’s report recently, does not really mean much. Those values could change again. And it would have absolutely no impact, as far as I know, on your course of treatment.
Some of what you were describing rang true for me. While many, many people seem to be able to take the antithyroid drugs just fine, I felt significantly worse on PTU, even when it had me at normal levels of thyroid hormone. Once I had my thyroid removed, I began feeling better, until I regained my health. So I hope that path is the same for you.
I removed my thyroid via RAI, though, so I cannot tell you about the surgery — other than the reports from people back to this board over the years. You can run a search on the website for their comments. I have several friends who had their thyroids surgically removed — due to thyroid cancer –and they are healthy people now, too. The key, we’ve been told, is to find a surgeon who does lots of thyroidectomies with a low incidence of side effects. The thyroid cancer support group (ThyCa) has information on surgeons on their website.
Wishing you good luck, and better days soon.
in reply to: Newly Hypo..help with fatigue #1065994I did not go nearly as hypo as you are, so I don’t know if my suggestion will help at all, but you could give it a test. While I was hypo, I discovered that if I did a wee bit of exercise (and I do mean "wee") that I felt more energized. So, I would drag myself off to the out-of-doors to do a leisurely walk on nice days — no more than half an hour, and a bit less if I was feeling truly punk. But getting myself out and moving made me feel better, so it became easier to do that over time.
I do hope you are feeling much, much better, soon.
I don’t know if this helps, but I basically went through "menopause" twice — or at least it seemed so. I was 52 when I was diagnosed with Graves, and I had been convinced that I was going through menopause then because of the night sweats, lighter periods, etc. Once I had RAI and got adjusted on replacement hormone, things went back to normal. Then, four years or so later, the real menopause lifted it’s ugly head. It was, more or less, the same. The hot flashes felt the same….they STILL feel the same, although they don’t occur quite as frequently as they used to. The only thing you can do is take your replacement as directed, being careful to take it in such a way that the optimal dose gets into your body. Then, go back six weeks to three months later and have your blood levels tested. It’s the pits while it is going on and you don’t know what is causing what, but it is the safest way to get regulated on thyroid hormone quickly.
in reply to: Very new one… #1066023Approximately one week after RAI you will be more hyper than normal. Our doctors sometimes forget to warn us about this period of time. When thyroid cells are dying off (as a result of the RAI) they release their stored supplies of thyroid hormone into the body all at once. (We call this episode "dumping" on this board because any hormone stored in the dying thyroid cells is dumped all at once into the body.) Unlike storm, these cells are no longer making NEW hormone so the amount of hormone being released is limited. Any stored T3, which has a half life of three-quarters of one day, is over pretty quickly. But, T3 is the super-potent form of thyroid hormone, so it is unpleasant to experience any extreme excess of it. T4 lingers for almost a week, in half-life terms, but is a "pro-hormone" inasmuch as it has to be converted to T3 in peripheral parts of the body before it can be used, so it is a bit "gentler". But, yes, you can expect to be more hyper than usual for a few days. The "good news" about all this is that it shows that the RAI is "working." And you are not hypochondriachal — the symptoms are definitely not psychcosomatic!
My endo told me to double up on MY dose (whatever that was long ago) of propanolol during this period of time. You might want to check with your doctor about what amount of increase, if any, would be appropriate for you.
As for the sore thyroid: Thyroid cells are being destroyed, chemically, and a soreness in that area of the throat is very normal. There can be inflammation associated with it, etc. I think because the RAI procedure is non-invasive, we tend to think that there will be no soreness associated with it. But there is "some." Some people here have reported to the board about needing some pain killers during this period of time. The soreness did not last very long for me.
I do hope you are feeling much better soon.
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