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in reply to: Thyroid Hormone at Night? #1069956
I am trying to remember, but It should not matter if you take it at night or not. It takes synthroid 21 days to get to full strength in our bodies so I cannot imagine why it would be be harmful to take it at night verses morning.
I take mine in the morning. I have a little ritual to take my pills so I always know if I took them or not. If my morning routine gets changed I have to look to see if I took my pills. More often than not, I missed taking them.
So plan on a time, take them then and keep to that schedule.
in reply to: What questions do I ask endocrinologist? #1069996Ablation is Taking RAI 131, radioactive iodine to kill off the thyroid. It is one of three accepted treatment options for Graves’ disease. The other two are anti-thyroid drugs and thyroidectomy.
Some questions to ask are:
How many Graves’ patients do you see. Example, in Melbourne Fl. There are about 65 thousand people. That would equate to about 650 people with Graves’. So you can base your town’s size to get an idea of how many there would be in your area.
Is the doctor a diabetic, or thyroid specialist? An endocrinologist that is a thyroid specialist would be preferred over one that specializes in diabetes for example. They are both endocrinologists but one is better suited to treating your thyroid. Both are better than an internal med specialist for example.
Ask why the doctor wants to go to radiation so soon. Are anti-thyroid drugs an option for you? There may be compelling reasons why ATDs may not be acceptable.
Ask about the possibility of a thyroidectomy.
Ask where you are in the development of the disease. These questions will give you some information to think about to make a well informed decision.
in reply to: Just diagnosed with TED and have some questions #1070000TED, Being Thyroid Eye Disease is a seperate disease from Graves’ disease. But they are really close cousins. It is entirely possible to have the eye disease and not have Graves’ disease. So to answer your question you may never come down with Graves’ disease, just TED.
In most cases once a cold phase has ended, eye lubriccation is usually better. But, the antibodies that attack the eyes seem to have some effect of the tear production as well. You may still produce tears, but they may not be as effective as they were pre-TED.
I hope that helped a bit to answer your question.
in reply to: double vision #1070086Being unstable is a state of mind. Okey just kidding.
Ground in prisms are by far the best way to go for helping with double vision. In my hot phase my prisms changed a few times a year. I went to an eyeglass chain that offered free replacement lenses if your prescription changed within a year. I kept my old lenses. Because sometimes I needed to go back to a previous prisim. Then I could swap out the lense myself and be able to see.
It was kind of funny, I had four different lenses with different prisms in my brief case. When things got out of whack I would swap them out until the double vision went away. Of course I did this with my eye doctor’s knowledge.
But in the long run while in my hot phase getting replacment lenses were free and I had the ability to make minor changes myself.
Give it time and keep your eye doctor informed. We are only a click away.
in reply to: treatment info needed #1070140Tina,
Please use or search function. These topics have been discussed in detail and there are many fine threads on the topics with all the options and side effects discussed. Instead of putting them here again, please use the search function you will find exactly what you are looking for and have hours of reading to find answers to your specific questions.
We are only a click away. On a side note, make sure you son sees a Ped endo that specializes in thyroid disease if you have one in your area.
in reply to: Bioidentical Hormones #1070143Actually if you think about it any replacement hormone we are given for thyroid replacement are bioidentical hormones. They are biologically equivalent to what our body produces. They are replacement hormones for what we no longer produce.
We had a specialty pharmacist come to one of our conferences. She and her husband run a compound pharmacy here in Melbourne Florida. They make levothyroixin (the generic thyroid replacement) in a number of different ways. They have put it into a cream, pills and even in suckers for children who would not take the pills.
It costs more to have them made, but the hormone is the same that we can get in pill form. So unless you cannot take the pill form, a different way of getting it into your system may be cost prohibitive.in reply to: Very stressed out, but there’s hope… #1070232Alice,
Listening is one of the things we do best. And best of all we understand too. Things will get better. Cobra insurance is expensive, true, but to drop it al together and then not get covered by a new insurance because you would then have a pre-existing condition is a bugger.
So keep it if at all possible. Things will get better as you progress and remember we are only a click away.
in reply to: i need some help #1070324The majority of people with Graves’ lose weight in the hyper phase. A smaller percentage gain weight. The reason for weight gain is the body goes into survival mode when we are hyper. The body gets tricked into thinking it is on a starvation diet for some folks so the body packs on as much fat as it can from what you eat to help carry the body through what it thinks is lean times.
That being said, once your levels get back to normal, you follow a regular diet, the body realizes it does not need to horde fat and weight loss will slowly begin to happen. It does not happen overnight. Weight loss after gaining in this case is slow but it will happen.
I do not know why some bodies hord while others do not. But give it time.
Brenda,
I would suggest looking into our NGDF archives. That topic has been discussed a ton over the years and it has been talked about at our patient conferences by many doctors over the years as well.
Also check out the Thyroid links in our links section. The Endocrine Society as well at the American Thyroid Association both have studies that can be found by using their search buttons.
Let us know if you need further help.
in reply to: Long-term affects: living with Graves’ Disease? #1070338You should still be followed by an endocrinologist. Once we have Graves’ we have it forever. As for what to expect long term? Watch you levels and you should have a long and happy life.
We have many people who come to our conferences who have had Graves’ for over 40 years and no problems. If you keep your levels in a good range and you are followed by an endocrinologist you should be fine.
We look forward to hearing from you for many years to come.
in reply to: WHAT NOW….RAI DIDNT WORK #1070349If you had RAI a few months ago, it is way to early to say it did not work. It takes time and patiences. My thyroid took almost a year and a half to finally get stable. It died off slowly and I had to go through a number of dose changes.
Life will get better. Can you ask for help from any family and friends to give you a break every once in awhile?
That helps a great deal. We are only a click away.
in reply to: GRAVES EYES – PRESCRIPTION ASSISTANCE #1070454Hi Susan,
When I was in my hot phase of the eye disease my prescription would change often. I went to one of the chain eye glass companies. Many offer a free change if your prescription changes within a year. One year I went through six different prescriptions while my eyes adjusted after each hot phase.
It didn’t cost me a dime to have the prescription lenses changed and that saved me a bundle.
Check out the eye glass stores near you and see who offers this service. It could be a large cost savings.in reply to: Post-Graves’ Excessive Hunger? #1070451What you are discribing is not a Grave’s issue I believe. If you have had this problem for 20 years you really need to talk to your doctor about it. I know many of us are also hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) and we feel we need to eat to keep our blood sugar up. Low blood sugar can cause nausia.
Just a thought. Talk to your endocrinologist about this and let us know what was said.
in reply to: What doc to see? #1070569You need her to see a pediatric endocrinologist that specializes in thyroid disease. They are a rare bunch but they are the best trained to diagnose, treat and follow up on your daughter. Depending on how large a city you live in there may be zero to a few to choose from.
in reply to: TED- and eye pain #1070556Without a trip to the eye doctor to make sure, chances are you are having a dry eye problem. The drops make it feel better. The problem is when the eye feels good we do not use the drops. Then the next day the eyes are dry and hurt. The key is what you do today will determine how your eyes will feel tomorrow. So use the drops everyday.
Get to an eye doctor for a good base-line exam if you have not had one and to make sure the dry eyes are not hurting your corneas.
It is always best to have an annual eye exam to see if there are any changes and that way you have an eye doctor already who knows you if problems arise.
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