My biggest concern is stopping or reducing the meds before they should be. I trust the process you all have been through and what worked for you. I would love to have another TSI test but Dr won't order it at this time. I will try to get him to order it in Dec and make decisions from there. As always your input is extremely valuable and its because of you I've been able to be proactive.
Have a blessed day.
Cindee

Wow, this looks great Cindee !

The thing to notice here is how your FT4 and FT3 have stayed nice and steady, while the (affected by our antibodies) TSH has very gradually risen..plus it's not too high ( screaming hypo baby) .

Yes, TSI and TRAbs are the way to go to confirm. But as we know that hospital greatly prefers RAI, so it's no surprise they will not order the correct tests. Cynical me says they will be more than happy to prove remission isn't possible. But oh well..what ya gonna do with folks like that.

Now if you were to slide a bit hyper and need to start the MMI again, your fail proof argument is that they refused adequate testing, so give me the darn drugs. Humph...

The good news is these labs and the diet / lifestyle modifications I know you stress, say to me, more than likely this is the big remission. We'll need to cross our collective fingers you don't have blocking antibodies wanting to much things up and put you in a spot of needing a little replacement hormone for awhile. That battle is really frustrating, though it can be done.

Back in the olden days, this is how we had to judge remission. When I stopped my PTU, almost 11 years ago, the TSI test was still new, and not as reliable. there was no TBII ( TRABs) for patients, that was still research facilities only. BTW, when I was first diagnosed the TSI was still research only.

Many group members tried to shame me, saying I HAD to spend the $550 for the TSI before stopping meds. I knew with no TSH receptor antibodies, it was still a guess. To me, it was spending on what. ??? will give me the most confidence. Stress and worry is the most likely thing to send me back to the land of active Graves' hyper.

It was winter in Oregon. I decided to spend $250 on really good all weather tires for my van. Oh my gosh..what a pleasure that was..and it DID lower my stress. More than I expected surprisingly.

I had had no TSH for three years. mine was only tested every six months, so I don't have the sweet picture you do, but when it did get tested, I was at .45 and still working toward going from tiny shards to no PTU. Folks had been doing it this way for years, so I figured for me.. this was a safe bet.

Personally I was in no danger of being forced into RAI, but many are. They don't have the education and experience to demand proper treatment.

If you want the tests, and that's IF.. you can self order here in Oregon. It's all self pay though. Last I looked TSI was running $89, but that was a couple years ago. No idea what the TRAbs are now. I have the links if your interested.

Well done !
Look like your raising the bar for the new members. Plus you have the chance to teach those guys up on the hill a thing or two.

Sweet labs !
:)

Pam thank you so much for the encouragement. You the saying if it's too good to be true then maybe it is....:)) I know so many others have taken longer to get to this spot while I've only been at it about 18 mos but I will attribute it first to God and secondly to what I have learned here - diet, exercise, supplements and identifying the triggers and reducing/eliminating them. Am I perfect at it? No, but i do work at it.
Kathy's listing of the supplements she took was so helpful, your informative posts with great understanding, Laura's wisdom, Brans insight and help - you are all gifts to this community. I know without a doubt RAI will not be done - I would move on to another dr first and or try a naturopath along with natural treatment before I would go to anything drastic.
I too am keeping my fingers crossed and I do appreciate the fact that Dr is letting me control how much and when I come off which is kind of scary since he's suppose to be the expert....but I want to allow the TSH to get where it wants to be and hang out there. If anything I feel more hypo then I ever have in my life but I attribute that to being older and never having felt "normal" - life has always been at mach1.....:)) I do miss the "extra" energy but this is such a much better, calmer place - I am at peace for the first time in my life. Yes, totally aware the Graves will be there forever, and not arrogant enough to think it can't come back but knowledge can truly be power.
Pam, thanks for noticing the steady rise and stability of the labs - it all started when I said "no" we are going to do this....:)) I stuck with it and I'm glad I can listen to my body and hear what it is telling me.
I pretty much do whatever exercise I want and at the intensity I choose and hopefully that won't stress the body in a way that it will retrigger the Graves. However, if anything will/would this past month has been horrific - my brother in law remarried after the loss of his wife (my husbands sister) unexpectedly 18 mos ago and she and i were very close - it was like losing her all over again yet happy for him; within 2 days of that my husband got very sick from a virus that spread like wildfire at the wedding - no not food related and only some got it - I fortunately did not - but major vomiting, diahrea, cramping,etc...pretty ugly and very nasty virus. Then within in the week of that my husband was in the hospital and spent 5 days there with ulcerative colitus which they think may have come from the illness the week before. But the rest of the story is that in 2007 - we lost 2 family members to cancer, my husband lived with an undiagnosed ruptured appendix that had abcessed and it was 5 yrs ago almost to the day that that was diagnosed when this episode happened, also in 2007 I was working 2 jobs, his mother had a heart attack,...... do you think maybe there was a little stress at play here? Plus I was in the process of purposely losing 100 lbs - and it was within a year that I became sympotmatic of the graves without the lab support until another 18 mos and then it was undiagnosed.....So all that being said, I am totally aware of how stress will and does affect me - lots of prayer, lots of support from friends, family, a good therapist, and being able to use exercise as my release - sometimes a good run clears the cobwebs.....

I didn't mean to rattle on but I hope others can hear my story and yours and others hear and know that the best advice given is be patient, slow and steady wins this race yet being proactive and know your own body will save you months of heartache. For the record - I too went hypo for about 6 mos but because of all of you, I was able to recognize it and know what I needed to be doing - that was very scary to step out there on faith but it was the best thing I did for me.....

I will keep you posted, I feel I have a few more labs to go before I will feel comfortable with remission. At this point, I opted to go every other day and see how my body responds. I think it's too close to the stress I just went through to be any more drastic then that. I personally travel to OHSU Dec 7 and then we'll make some more decisions - like perhaps every 2 days then every 3 and then be done maybe in the Spring if all goes well. I just don't want to stop too soon and my instincts are telling me to follow the protocol I have learned from all of you - slow and steady....
Many hugs and blessings to all of you.
Cindee

PS I probably will try for the TSI at least in Dec I did not ever have the other TRAbs done - local lab didn't know what they were...:))