[snowboo]

in reply to: Graves’ treatment prior to pregnancy… #1169868

Thanks for that. I’m glad your kids ended up healthy and I’m sorry you feel you missed out on your first’s first year. That is really sad.

I’m lucky because my endo follows up with me quite often, and the only reason I found out about this flare up at all was because of the routine blood tests he made me keep doing even though I’d been in remission for so long. I wasn’t feeling the effects of it yet (now I am though).

It’s all food for thought for when I go in in January, so I do appreciate any information either way in the meantime. ” title=”Smile” />

[snowboo]

in reply to: Graves’ treatment prior to pregnancy… #1169866

Yeah, there are a ton of things to consider, especially around pregnancy, which is why I’m bouncing ideas around. If eating a tomato can have negative effects on the body, there’s no way RAI is harmless and for some reason, it seems more difficult to find unbiased information about RAI and that adds to my skepticism. To me, there has to be a reason beyond just cultural differences why surgery is favored everywhere else but not here in North America and I don’t want to find out what that reason is by swallowing the pill, you know? I want access to all of the information- good and bad- before deciding and it seems that information is far more readily available for surgery than it is for RAI. JMO.

[snowboo]

in reply to: Graves’ treatment prior to pregnancy… #1169862

But we face the same risk with the dosing of RAI, no? I mean, they try to get it so that you’re not completely hypo, that just enough tissue is killed to keep you stable, but they’re rarely successful in that respect.

Thanks for the well wishes, Emmtee. ” title=”Smile” />

[snowboo]

in reply to: Will I Ever Be Normal? #1169776

Yeah, I think not being on anti-thyroid meds is worse than being on them. Even if you’re only slightly hyper, there are still effects on the entire body. Propranolol won’t affect your moods much, but it will calm you down a little. Seems to me they’d want to get you stabilized with methimazole as soon as possible before deciding what treatment to pursue after that. Some people even go into remission on the methimazole too (I did, for about four or so years).

[snowboo]

in reply to: Graves’ treatment prior to pregnancy… #1169859

I realize there is a greater risk of recurrence, but my goal is to get through pregnancy without medications, without damaging my ovum with radiation, etc. You know what I mean? If I have to undergo treatment twice, once before and once after babies, I’m ok with that, especially if the goal is my babies’ health in the long term.

If pregnancy suppresses the immune system reducing the risk of a graves’ flare up over the gestational period, then why wouldn’t the goal be solely to limit the intensity of the post-delivery flare up? After the baby is weaned, wouldn’t that be the time to consider more invasive treatments?

I know I’m a little cynical, but we as women are sold so many medications and treatments all while the risks are downplayed and it just doesn’t seem right, especially when our bodies are responsible for the creation and development of another person. *shrugs*

[snowboo]

in reply to: Husband Trying to Cope… #1169643

Subnet, I read your first post here to my guy and he just nodded and said, "That’s my life exactly!" I don’t know what other issues might be underlying in your marriage, but I do know that for me, being on these pills (tapazole) feels like I’m taking downers all the time and without the energy I’d grown accustomed to while being hyperthyroid, I feel utterly useless. I am sensitive to how my guy perceives me because I can’t do the things it takes to uphold my side of the relationship while I’m on these meds. Asking him for help with things seems to draw even more attention to it too, so it’s a sort of lose/lose situation.

I am grateful for my guy’s relentless understanding and he’s adapted so amazingly to the stresses and mood swings associated with all this. I hope you find a way to love your wife through this.

[snowboo]

in reply to: post RAI one year/pregnancy update #1169816

Thanks for sharing your experience with RAI & pregnancy. ” title=”Smile” />

[snowboo]

in reply to: Will I Ever Be Normal? #1169772

Are you on the anti-thyroid meds now?

To be honest, I’m no graves’ pro, but I don’t handle them well at all. I get weepy (from the pills) and irritable (from the graves’) and I’m hot and it’s unbearable (graves’) and cold and it’s unbearable (pills). I’m tired all the time on the pills too. My muscles cramp and I’m weak to the point of tremors some days (that, in my experience happens on the meds and off the meds). I remember last time I had a flare up and was taking 10mg of tapazole and 80mg of beta blockers a day for two years (it took forever to stabilize) and I told my doctor the pills made me want to die. As soon as I got off them after I stabilized, I felt better.

Like I said, I’m not a pro and this is just my experience, but yeah, it is so, so hard to know where your ability to control your emotions ends and the disease begins. ” title=”Sad” /> I think that’s one of the roughest parts of this.

*hugs* I hope your hubby finds a way of understanding and being supportive.

[snowboo]

in reply to: Graves’ treatment prior to pregnancy… #1169857

Oh, no, I get tested for antibodies and all my thyroid levels every 6 weeks. My next appointment is in January and the plan is to go off the meds after those results come in, depending.

I’ve since cut back on my work hours in an effort to calm myself down before then too, so hopefully I’ll have lowered my antibodies by then. They were still lower than the last time (I don’t know which antibodies I had, but last time I had a bad flare up in 2005ish, they were at 12 and this time, they’re just under 4), and I was slightly hyper, hence the low dose of tapazole for now (2.5mg a day).

The more I consider it, the more I think a partial thyroidectomy would be a better solution in the short term. It would allow me to partially regulate my own hormones during pregnancy and depending on how much they take out, reduce the potential for a flare up after birth too. In the long term, RAI may still be necessary but that is apparently true for 20% of RAI patients anyway, right?

[snowboo]

in reply to: Graves’ treatment prior to pregnancy… #1169854

Thanks for the wealth of information! I had searched, but I guess I didn’t go far back enough…

I’m on the antithyroid meds right now, but in January, I’m supposed to go off them to see if I end up hyper again and that’s when RAI is on the table (so I’m trying to get it off the table…).

I’ll go forage for more info. ” title=”Wink” />

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