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...
In short, those who haven't read my posts. A month ago on August 23, I was admitted for a thyroid storm. Survived and spent 4 days in icu. Upon discharge was out on a very high dose of ptu and beta blocker. Now, one month later, my labs are as follows... T3, Free 390 range (230-420)
T4, Free 1.0 range (0.8-1.8)
TSH >0 point 01
At the time of the storm, my levels were tripled or quadrapuled past the higher end of range. And tsh was >0 point 03. Today, when I saw endo, he said my numbers have come down so fast that he is now worried that I may have hashioxytocis. I googled and found nothing! Is this a nicer way of him telling me it may hashimotos without worrying me? He said we will redo my labs in 3 weeks. He did lower my ptu from 450 mg daily to 300 mg daily divided over 3 doses. And said after few days, to lower to 150 mg daily. He said he's worried I am going hypo really fast. He said he believes my thyroid is crashing and dieing. Also, he said we would do an uptake in November. Will that throw me into a storm again? I am totally confused now. I am positive for antibodies but reading on graves and hashi's, the antibodies would be present. What's your opinion?
T4, Free 1.0 range (0.8-1.8)
TSH >0 point 01
At the time of the storm, my levels were tripled or quadrapuled past the higher end of range. And tsh was >0 point 03. Today, when I saw endo, he said my numbers have come down so fast that he is now worried that I may have hashioxytocis. I googled and found nothing! Is this a nicer way of him telling me it may hashimotos without worrying me? He said we will redo my labs in 3 weeks. He did lower my ptu from 450 mg daily to 300 mg daily divided over 3 doses. And said after few days, to lower to 150 mg daily. He said he's worried I am going hypo really fast. He said he believes my thyroid is crashing and dieing. Also, he said we would do an uptake in November. Will that throw me into a storm again? I am totally confused now. I am positive for antibodies but reading on graves and hashi's, the antibodies would be present. What's your opinion?
If your Free T4 goes below ranges, the best thing your doctor should do is to stop your PTU doses for several days to allow the FT4 to come back up and restart much lower doses.
Have you ever had the TSI (Thyroid Stimulating Immunglobulins) to determine that you have Graves' Disease? If so, what was your numbers for it? Get this test and other antibodies tests to see how you are doing now. I can't remember if you've had the antibodies tests done or not.
{{{hugs}}} :-)
I have learned so much about this disease from other women on other boards, not from doctors, because the patients have learned from researching and asking questions of the people who have been at this a long time.This is how I learned and now try to help others, We all start out naiive about this but if you want to you can help yourself by educating yourself. Doctors can't be bothered telling you all this, they don't have time or they don't really care, that's why they push for RAI, it's fast and cheap and then you're hypo and safe and they don't have to worry about the careful dosing of the anti thyroid meds, which we learn how to do ourselves, then we're fine. Just keep asking questions and doing your research, believe me when I tell you...you will do MUCH better if you do! The people who don't do well don't bother to research anything about their own disease.
{{{hugs}}} :-)