Graves' Disease Support Group
Graves-Basedow disease is a medical disorder that may manifest several different conditions including hyperthyroidism (over activity of thyroid hormone production), infiltrative exophthalmos (protruberance of one or both eyes and associated problems) and infiltrative dermopathy (a skin condition usually of the lower extremities). This disorder is the most common cause of...
Hi all,
I read pm's message about her doc saying she has the beginning of Graves when her T 3 free and T 4 free were actually on the low side indicating a hypo condition rather than a hyper condition. There were many responses and different suggestions about different tests to get.
I have also posted my results and hope some of you would not mind checking them out also. So far one response says she feels better when her T 3 and T 4 are in the mid range. Mine are also in the low range like pm.
The problem I have is that I have a left protruding eye, severe dry eye (making no tears at all and will soon have plugs in upper ducts to match the ones in lower ducts). I sometimes have double vision and my left eye is out of alignment with my right eye. Now it might sound like a "simple"case of Graves eye disease...BUT...I also have symptoms that match both hypo and hyper.
I saw an excellent doctor a couple of years ago and she said that I had a rare condition where I was hypo and hyper at the same time. She explained it all perfectly but you know how that goes...I just happened to forget my handy pocket voice recorder that morning and my notes are not legible due to the severe hand tremor I had that day (thats really true though yall...see? Hand tremors...)
Anyway, enough rambling, digressing, vascillating and other wise taking up your valuable time. If anyone knows anything about this hypo/hyper thing please let me know. I am calling the endo tomorrow for an appt and I would like to maybe mention the name of whatever it is I may or may not have...does any of this make any sense?? Hope so..lol
I read pm's message about her doc saying she has the beginning of Graves when her T 3 free and T 4 free were actually on the low side indicating a hypo condition rather than a hyper condition. There were many responses and different suggestions about different tests to get.
I have also posted my results and hope some of you would not mind checking them out also. So far one response says she feels better when her T 3 and T 4 are in the mid range. Mine are also in the low range like pm.
The problem I have is that I have a left protruding eye, severe dry eye (making no tears at all and will soon have plugs in upper ducts to match the ones in lower ducts). I sometimes have double vision and my left eye is out of alignment with my right eye. Now it might sound like a "simple"case of Graves eye disease...BUT...I also have symptoms that match both hypo and hyper.
I saw an excellent doctor a couple of years ago and she said that I had a rare condition where I was hypo and hyper at the same time. She explained it all perfectly but you know how that goes...I just happened to forget my handy pocket voice recorder that morning and my notes are not legible due to the severe hand tremor I had that day (thats really true though yall...see? Hand tremors...)
Anyway, enough rambling, digressing, vascillating and other wise taking up your valuable time. If anyone knows anything about this hypo/hyper thing please let me know. I am calling the endo tomorrow for an appt and I would like to maybe mention the name of whatever it is I may or may not have...does any of this make any sense?? Hope so..lol
I surely do appreciate your reply. I had read about the hashitoxicosis and it did sound like what I have been going through. But its so hard to believe that all my doctors over the last couple of years...especially my internist who has tested my thyroid at least 3 times that I can think of...have never snapped to this so that I could be given meds and possibly enjoyed a happier life?
Nan! How in the world could a doctor be so irresponsible? To think I used to love this doctor! When I was first suffering from fibromyalgia and had no idea what it could be he took such an interest in me. He tested me for RA and I actually had high enough numbers for him to let me know I will end up with RA someday. He had me coming in every 4 months for testing and then I began to trust him and let him know about all my other symptoms and signs that were very obvious to the naked eye..
At this point I began to sense that his caring for me was changing.
After all I had been one of his first patients when he came to town and he would call me himself and spend a longer time with me during my appts.
Now he is almost cold towards me. I presented him with a binder full of printed out symptoms of MS, which I literally almost have every symptom of, and had added typed notes and really made it look nice with page protectors and dividers. He did not even look at it. He did not look at my signs I tried to show him, he just said lets get you an MRI then if thats what your wanting. My MRI came back with 4-5 lesions in a row that were average size and several bright white small ones. The report read "few small foci of T 2 should be old small vessel ischemic damage"He said he was shocked to see it because it was the sort of thing he would normally see in a 70-80 year old patient. He then said I needed to quit smoking and exercise and he would see me in 2 months. When he had first come in he had said, in a very cheery voice, "well Tamye you don't have MS!" I know I looked crestfallen because he said, "whats the matter? Did you WANT to have MS?" ...of course not you nincompop! All I want is a dx so I can take meds and maybe not have to ride around in a wheel chair at the annual MS walk as I get older!...but of course my mama raised me to respect my doctors so I just smiled like he had made a funny and said of course not. I knew he was taking a dig at me though.
The thing is he did not do cholesterol or triglycerides blood work. He did want to refer me out for that supposed ischemic damage. I find that offensive. All he cared about was me quiting smoking. I even told him my dad had died young of a massive heart attack due to atherosclerosis he was almost 100% blocked. But then my step mom is a true southern woman feeding my dad nothing but fried food, lots of homemade sweets, pot after pot of strong black coffee and of course daddy did smoke his Reds every day...sometimes 2 packs a day.
When I had a 6 week acute episode of severe high blood pressure 2 years ago they did every test possible and found nothing wrong with me. Essential hypertension. At the time this happened I had been cigarette free for almost 9 months. Cigarettes do not cause my high blood pressure, stress and pain cause it. So I went back to smoking. You know what causes small vessel ischemic damage? High blogs pressure. Yet he tells me large amounts of hemoglobin in ones blood causes it.
Ok.....I have caught myself at it again!! Please forgive me Nan. I get in these "jump on a stump"editorial manic spells where I literally am almost hypnotized and so "in the zone" with my writing that I have a hard time pulling back. My husband says I should write a book and I tel him "not on this silly phone I won't, get me an ipad and I'll give it some thought" !!
Thanx again, got me some ammo to work with now!!
Friends,
Tamye