"Am I doing enough?"
I’ve worked in a medical laboratory since 1991. I have a degree in Medical Technology and was a Clinical Chemistry Supervisor for years. I changed jobs due to stress and later started getting the tell-tale signs of Graves. (all but the eyes). Over a year and a half later when my 15 year marriage crumbled and I went from a social drinker to an alcoholic, I ended up with the Graves Eye Disease. I couldn’t focus or see one image. (one over the other). I work on immunoassay analyzers that all of the thyroid testing is done on. Because of my eyes, my MD ordered the thyroid tests and WHOA, life has changed. I quit using him as a doc when I dealt with the problems for so long before he diagnosed me. The kicker was that he admitted his own wife has Graves!!! That was in 2006. To this day, no one has any clue what long-term Hyperthyroidism does to an individual. Just a couple weeks ago I asked my endo for Armour because just synthroid helped just a little. (I personally check my ft4 and tsh regularly) 150ug kept me in range (slightly hyper). My endo says that if you go hyper, you need to stay a little hyper. Just last week my eyes started to exhibit the old strain that made them continually have twitches and hard to focus. I assume my TSI is rising again. Relapse??? The endo won’t do Armour because it’s hard to get a stable concentration. He lowered my Synthroid and added a little Cytomel. I see a slight improvement!! I’m still not comfortable with the lack of
information about Graves out there. Where can I find an endo that really knows all about Graves???? Sometimes I feel like I know more than they do!!!!!!
