Hi Altoclef, Looking back I know I had it for years before I was diagonosed. Now I didn't have all the symptoms that came later, it seemed to start out slow, but I can see when it started to go off track. I had pnemonia, and I didn't realize it, I was in my last semester of college and very stressed. Once day I couldn't walk up the stairs without sitting down to catch my breath, that's when I finally went to the Dr. Not long after I got Shingles. After that, I think my immune system was so overwhelmed that my Graves was finally able to rear it's ugly head in all it's glory,

Is there a connection between graves' and shingles? I've just gotten over what was most likely shingles inside my mouth. Now there's a fresh new hell for you!

I pretty sure I had it for years prior to my diagnosis. I had suffered from hot flashes, sleepless nights and hair falling out for about 2 years before my symptoms got really bad. I was going through menopause and my first divorce ( same man as the second divorce ) so I wrote off a lot of my symptoms to that. I believe that I had minor symptoms for at least 5 years prior to that. It wasnt until my eye's bugged out and I had a thyroid storm that it was discovered. Sometimes when I think about it I get a bit upset because had I gotten the right tests done it may have stopped my TED from becoming full blown.

Hi again, I don't think there is really a connection to Shingles and Graves, but for Shingles manifest, your immune system is supressed. That is when autoimmune diseases usually attack if your predisposed to getting one. Like you, Graves and thyroid conditions run in my family.

I just discovered that I have the disease today, after not getting pregnant over 7 months. Not so long, but at 32, my obstetrician told me to come in and she did a full blood work up. Preiously, I had all these symptoms -- racing heart, fatigue, ADD,-- but my previous doctor's thoought it was because I was slighly anemic. One of them looked at me suspiciously and said, "Are you just stressed? " They would look at me as if it was all emotional. I am so relieved that I found out due to a good dose of competent care. My thyroid is apparently, twice the size it should be, and, my hormones were just in the range where things can become scary. Yet, with all those symptoms, truth be told, I am going to miss that rapid weight loss!

I have an undiagnosed hypOthyroid problem since my teenaged years. This was many years in work that I've coped with. It certainly was not a recent problem for sure.

{{{hugs}}} :-)

I was always a kind of high strung person, nervous, on the go all the time (the Graves persona)but really had no physical signs of Graves till after menopause. I have to ask my doc at my physical in June if he has any tsh's or the like on me prior to this. I keep forgetting to ask!

Absolutely 100% hit me like a ton of bricks!!!

I never really ever heard of Grave's Disease,or have personally ever known anyone who had it, so needless to say, I was stunned.

I went for my annual OBGYN check up, I had a bone density scan done 2 years earlier, I never heard anything, so assumed all was ok, I actually forgot all about it. No news was good news. Then the first ton of bricks hit me, my doctor told me I had Osteoporosis in my spine and that the office misfiled my test results and never notified me 2 years earlier. She told me to go to my PCP and she would give me medicine. So I went to my new primary care physician who asked if I had, this, that and the other and the next thing I knew I had blood work done and was at the hospital having a radioactive iodine uptake scan. They diagnosed me with Grave's Disease and that totally threw me for a loop. I assumed the palpitations were because of menopause, the stomach problems because I no longer have a gallbladder and the 15 second attention span because I developed adult ADD....Who knew???

I went to the Endo my doctor referred me to and cried, no...sobbed throughout the entire appointment. I think he thought I was a knucklehead!

I came on this board and completely freaked out reading everyone's posts about hypohell and how so many people had been medicated according to the books not what people needed, and how some people gain weight, lose their hair and are so tired they can barely get up and get going, so I went an entire month until after the holidays too scared to even start taking the medication.

I started on 10mg of MMI and within 6 weeks I "landed" very nicely at mid range with my Free T4. My journey, knock wood had been fairly uneventful, again knock wood.

So, yep....I was un-prepared, un-educated and way too trusting with health care people. Now I'm in charge and I'm much happier and maybe even a little healthier!

Judi

It kinda hit me like a ton of bricks but I did have problems with swelling in my legs like about six months before all hell broke loose. My sister had just been diagnosed about a year before I was but she had different symptoms then me and suffered for seven years. I mentioned right off the bat that my sister had Graves which helped them to diagnose me sooner thank God. Now my little brother is having hypo symptoms on top of having Prader-Willi syndrome..I geuss the only good news is I can help him through it. ~Susan~

Hey everybody I am knew to this group and new to Graves. I am only 25 so there hasn't been years and years of time that I could have had symptoms without knowing. I have always been very anxious, had troubles with sweating a lot, etc but never really thought to figure out why. Being in the mental health field I got on SSRI's for my anxiety and went about it that way. It wasn't until the last 3 weeks that I found out what the problem really was. It started when I couldn't go up and down the stairs anymore at my new townhouse (4 flights of stairs from the laundry to my bedroom!) I was tired ALL the time and my anxiety was tenfold. I just figured having a new house (my first place away from home), ending a relationship with my boyfriend,going to grad school and working graveyard shift at a children's psych facility was making me tired and stressing me out. WELL I guess it was because by the time i went to urgent care on a Saturday morning my heart rate was at 135, I ached from head to toe and felt awful! I moved to the ER was given fluids, Ativan, heart medication and pain killers and nothing worked. I had EKG's and sooo many tests but was sent home! The next day I was back again due to fainting down the stairs! through more and more tests (and being what the doctors said only an inch from going into thyroid storm) they found I had hyperthyroidism.

Now I'm on meds but still feel awful, i was diagnosed with full blown Graves by my Endro. I was told I could feel this bad for weeks or months. I had to take a leave of absence from work...had full blow panic attacks all day due to not being able to focus with school and not knowing what to do. Life sucks right now but I have to be hopeful. I hope that joining this group will help me out!

Dang wrote too much sorry!

I remember having panic attacks in my teens and early twenties but they went away. My doctors always told me my thryoid was enlarged when they examined me but I guess my levels always came back OK. After the birth of each of my 4 kids I felt a lump in my throat when I swallowed and I remember at least twice I went to the doctors for it and they ran thyroid tests and it came back OK.
Right before my diagnoisis I had a bad experience after a day in the amusement park. It was about 90 degrees and I started feeling uncomfortably hot and sick. When we left and drove home I had the worse panic attack in the car. I made my husband pull over on the highway and I just walked around feeling like I was going to die. I believe knowing what I know now I was close to having a thryoid storm and my heart rate must of been really high.
I freaked out my poor kids and husband really bad. I had trouble traveling on the highway after that I would get panic attacks as soon as we got on. I'm so glad that has stopped.
This has been a rough ride for me. But I'm glad I'm off all meds for now and hopefully going in the right direction to healing.

I had a really similar experience to Stephanie. For about 3 months before I was diagnosed, I just felt all-around crappy. I used to be really into working out, but wasn't able to make it through a half mile of running (I ran 10 miles last year at this time) or even up a flight of stairs without getting really out of breath and feeling like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I also got really paranoid and anxious for a while, and was getting really bad headaches daily (I think these may have been tension or stress-induced looking back.) I've always had a good appetite but a seemingly high metabolism, but over the past few months, I'd started eating everything in sight and not really gaining weight from it (not losing it either, I think the amount I was eating balanced it out.) A lot of people, including my family and my boyfriend who I live with, tried to tell me that my not feeling well was in my head and the inability to work out was just being out of shape from winter, and the headches/appetite were stress-related. I'd started a new job around when my symptoms began, so I chalked it up to this for a while.

I finally went to the doctor for the headaches & also asked for blood work (I'd convinced myself there was something really wrong with me) & low and behold, low TSH. A 2nd blood test and RAI uptake test later and I was diagnosed with Graves'. I got pretty down after finding this out for about a week, but have accepted it now and really am just happy to have a reason for feeling so crappy, and a treatable one at that.

Forgot to add this: my mom has toxic multi-nodular goiter, but is only subclinical hyperthyroid. I def think there is a genetic factor to thyroid disease.

Ton of bricks for me! I have always been a healthy work out freak. Never had any symptoms until approximately 2-3 months before diagnoses and never at the same time. Never heard of the disease. No one in my entire family including shirt-tale relatives never had this disease. After diagnoses and before medication, I stopped having symptoms immediately (I'm still confused about that). Without going thru my horrible Endo story, I pretty much changed my diet with organic and no artificial/processed foods, excersise and enjoy life more (I'm a recovering workaholic), taking ATD, etc. I never had a Graves symptom since. Had major Hypo for Endo overdosing me( I'm fine now) but I still felt great even though I looked horrible. Still learning about this disease everyday but I think the best knowledge I have received is from this support group. :-)

I think I've had hyperthyroid since my teens. At 14 I awoke in the middle of night hot flash, panic attack, all the graves stuff. Then remained extremeley anxious. Diagnosed Panic disorder. Placed on AD but it was weird always had a high heart rate. Thought it was a side effect from antidepressant. On those 4 years then feeling better went off. Was good for a while...I didn't even feel bad when my father passed away...got married then two kids..I felt great pregnant and even a couple of years after. Then I started noticing it creeping back..my anxiety. ....I'm 42 now so I think I've teeter tottered with graves since my teens. My endo after hearing my history thinks I've had since my teens also.