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Hi Debbie,
Great to hear from you, thanks. I tried searching for your posts but it keeps coming up error.I did find a few and will try again another day. Gee you don’t do things by halves do you. I’m sorry to hear you have had such a long hard graves journey so far!! I too have found this forum an absolute saviour. It sounds like you have made some progress if you are at the stage where you are ‘on the list’. I have my fingers, toes and everything else crossed for you for good news in 4 weeks time! With TED, do you have a choice of surgery or radiation? or are you just deciding whether to have radiation at all?
I just saw my Endo this week. My results in December were T3 and T4 in range, TSH <0.01(0.5 -5.0) Which was all an absolutely surprisingly huge improvement, great news! I felt so lucky. The results from the tests a week ago are TSH 0.01 so yay! thats gone up slightly, but problem is the Free T4 is now 9 (11.0 - 21.0) and FreeT3 is 3.0 (3.1 - 6.0). So the way I see it is that now I am going low? He reduced my Carbimazol, from 3 doses a day total 45mg to two doses, total 25mg. Two days on and I am headachey(note - headachey is a word, right!) and twice now today have felt like I'm going to pass out and had to sit on the floor. Ho Hum, am hoping that stops sometime soon. My pulse has gone up too, (beta blockers why arent you working for me now, do your thing!!lol.)
I think I am only just beginning to realise this might take longer than I thought. I walked into the endo appointment start of this week and told him I’m over it, do RAI . He said he wants me to be more balanced before making any decisions about treatment, hmmm did he mean emotionally or levels, I now wonder… He gave me info on both RAI and Surgery. I only asked for the RAI cos I was sick of the waiting game already and knew surgery wasnt an option at that time..I think I might need to work on my patience levels a tad..Have regained my sense and am now continuing with making a choice based on logic now rather than emotion lol. If all else fails, I have my sense of humour and WILL be ok. Thanks for the offer of advice Debbie, I dont like being cold, so wouldnt like the bone chillingly cold you had to endure either!wouldnt somewhere inbetween be nice…
Hi Shasta, thanks! and great to hear from you. If you still have a marriage, even one stretched as thin as it gets, there is still hope. Have you given your husband any reading material? Yes it is so hard to explain Graves! If you have already explained in detail, being a man (apologies to men!)I wonder how much he really took in or understood? I think it’s harder for men to understand than women just because they grow up in a society where men are supposed to be tough and not all emotional etc, stupid huh! I read somewhere to make a plan of action together for when the “graves rage’ takes hold, I thought it made sense, did you read that too? I know there is more to it than the rage though.
The eye thing really bothers me, I only have mild signs so far but I am trying to prepare for the change and I think it will hit my self esteem pretty hard. It sounds like yours are a bit more than mild, as if you dont have enough to deal with already huh.
Well done for finally telling your Family and Friends, it’s not that easy huh. Glad some had a positive reaction.
From your post, it sounds like you are a usually positive person and are trying to keep the positives. Thank you for reminding me! It’s all to easy to get into the poor me thing and go the other way..I try very hard not to do that so it’s nice to hear someone else trying as well.
Hope that made sense, brain is a bit slow this morningI absolutely get the train analogy! And yes, I just hit the brakes too. The only info I received from my doc is a diagnosis of Graves along with a two page basics of hyperthyroidism(nothing on graves!), I then made the earlier mistake of trying to get graves info off the net, I got all sorts of very confusing and sometimes scary pages, it scared me silly!
I feel so much better after deciding to make my own decision, in my own time. I am taking into account a wide range of factors including my individual circumstances, medical statistics, risk factors, the impact of timeframes for treatment/remission, current documented medical knowledge, recommendations, testimonies etc etc. It’s like a weight has been lifted and while I still have a decision to make, most of the pressure and stress has greatly reduced.
I think with any major decision that has a lifelong effect, it’s really important to get all the facts to make an informed decision. Also that before proceeding we are completely comfortable with the decision/choice made, and again, that it is our own decision. I imagine being confident with the decision will make the actual proceedure and recovery time easier to deal with. I also think it’s so important to have control of the things we can, especially with Graves when everything else feels so out of control!
All that aside..I had a good experience today…I went shopping and when I came back out to the carpark, I actually remembered where I parked my car! I went straight to it. It got me thinking and I realised an obvious solution to a continuous problem for me(walking up and down carparks trying to find car) is to simply park near the same area each time, well worth waiting for a park. Its the little things like that that keep me going and make me smile. There is hope yet….
