Guest guest Posted November 28, 2006 Report Share Posted November 28, 2006 I have Graves and had RAI Dec. of 05 and lost about 15 lbs. after. I still can eat what I want and not gain weight.Most of the people I've talked to on Methimazole gain weight on it. I made sure they checked my labs every 4-6 weeks to catch me before I became too hyPO and start me on Synthroid. I became hyPO in about 2 months. They had to increase my Synthroid about 3 times and now all my labs are about normal. My TSH is on the hyPER end tho, but still within range. I seem to do good with my TSH at around 1. I tried taking Methimazole and I had a terrible reaction to it.It's also not good to take it long term and there is no cure for Graves. Right now I'm on 150 of Synthroid, I take it once a day. It's no big deal taking one extra pill for the rest of my life because I also take vitamins every day and Lipitor for my cholesterol. I have no regrets having RAI. I was so bad off before I had RAI I could barely walk and I'm fortunate I didn't have a heart attack from my pulse racing. I know people that had RAI 15+ years ago and are doing fine. Synthroid is like a natural hormone your body produces anyways, Methimazole isn't. Graves and hyperthyroid is nothing to mess around with. If anything, get a second opinion from another doctor and see if another endo tells you the same thing. The endo docs went thru years of college to learn what they know, and I'm in no position to tell them they are wrong about something I didn't study and get graded on for years. So many people get mis-information on the computer. I went to web site after web site. Read what people had to say that were against RAI and read what people had to say that was for RAI. Then I went to medical information and read up on RAI there too. I have personal friends that are nurses and doctors and I asked them too. After all that research, I decided RAI was the best for me. Take care, Aimee Bruce Rubin <barubin_medical@...> wrote: Late July 2006 I was diagnosed with Grave’s disease. Two previous winters I noticed that I needed to increase my ski boot size and I couldn’t wear a parka if I did anything strenuous (I freaked out my neighbors when I was shoveling the snow in the driveway in a T-shirt). Then the summer of 2005 I was always uncomfortably warm and sweaty. The spring of 2006 I started to feel like I had no energy, I had night sweats, I was losing weight, I couldn’t sleep, at least not for more than a couple of hours at a time, and my vision was getting weird. My doctor tried to have each symptom treated by a different specialist, but one day I noticed that the chemistry form she gave me she had written “hyperthyroidism” and was checking my TSH, T3, & T4. When my results were non-existent, way too much, way too much, she told me that I had Grave’s disease. We did the iodine uptake without any thing special showing up and I “lucked out” and got to see an endocrinologist the beginning of August 2006 (I called his office one morning and asked when I could be seen. I was told 1 PM. I asked when the next appointment was and the answer was early 2007, so I took the afternoon appointment). The 2nd thing my endocrinologist said, after “hello, I'm Dr. F...n” was “I like to use RAI and treat you for a hypo condition indefinitely (translation: I want to destroy your thyroid and make you dependent on drugs for the rest of your life). I told him that was the last, not the first thing I’d do. So he tripled my dosage of methimazole to 30 mg/day. Eventually my primary care doubled my atenolol to 50 mg/day. Last week my latest labs came back and my TSH is still non existent, my T4 is in the normal range (1.8), and my T3 is still high at 228, but much lower. I understand that my TSH should be undetectable as there is no need for my thyroid to produce hormones as I still have a large reserve of T3 in my system. And I understand that my T4 & T3 levels should decrease since the methimazole has attenuated my thyroid’s hormone production, so it isn't replacing what I’ve been consuming in my system. What I don’t understand is if I still have much too much T3, then how have I managed to put 22 pounds on in 3 months? I have NOT increased the type or quantity of food I've been eating. Anybody have any answers or similar circumstances? TIA. --------------------------------- Want to start your own business? Learn how on Small Business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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