Guest guest Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 My half brother (We all only found each other 4 years ago that's why I had no head's up when I stormed) was hyper... He was treated with meds to reduce thyroid activity. They slowed him down a bit too much and he's now on a low dose of a synthetic T4 (he lives in Germany where we were born) and is normal now. To look at him you'd never know that he was hyper 20 years ago or mildly hypo now.... My half sister had surgery and half of her gland was removed.. she's also on a low dose of thyroid. I'm not sure when her surgery was.. She's on the heavy side and has bouts of depression.. We don't all know each other that well yet or have each other's histories down pat... She was raised in Florida. You would not want to have a resting rate higher than that.. I'd lay in bed and night and I was so conscious of the pounding of my heart is was really scarry.... Just getting out of bed to go to the bathroom made it shoot up. I could feel it speed up just watching tv if I was getting into the show.. It's just so out of whack, so odd feeling for your body that you can't not focus on the beating. Topper ()http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Thyroid_Support_Group/http://toppertwo.tripod.com On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 18:40:27 -0500 "Sandy" writes: , I guess the reason I made that comment was it was a fleeting thought. I know that in these almost 2 yrs having Graves/hyperT was not a picnic. While that might not have been the appropriate way for me to attempt to pose my thoughts, "that I'd hate to think" it certainly does make one wonder on several levels. To be seen in a hurry, and not have to wait for 2 - 3 months, which is the way it works here in Houston, you'd have to go to an emergency room. Not all emergency personnel are that up to date on thyroid trouble. Or that's what I found here when I ended up in the ER. I ended up having a gallbladder removed instead, then about a year after that happened, started having the same symptoms I originally started out with. Only it couldn't be the gallbladder this time, cuz there wasn't one. I guess I tend to hope that people are honest and forthcoming with info, especially when we're dealing with dr's, but sometimes they truly make me wonder. If it takes me 2 - 3 months to get in, with bad symptoms, then another 7 - 10 days for the second appt after uptake test to find out what's causing the thyroid irregularities, before they'll even talk to us about meds, then I have to ask myself some things. First is if it's so important to our health, why don't they discuss ALL the aspects of what's going on and what we can expect. I have to agree with Topper. It's one thing to only offer a person one choice to cure hyperthyroidism. It's another to just assume that they have NO chance of remission and to tell them it's a have to situation. My Endo finally shared the info with me that since I refused RAI, that my thryoid would burn itself out. I myself was just willing to take a chance and pray that remission was possible. I'd rather have my thyroid wear itself out than to have to do something to make it go away. Radioactive iodine doesn't even sound good to me. And I guess as long as they make us wait, (well, most of us) it does make you wonder if it's really something that can't be controlled by drugs. I think as far as I know, my resting pulse was 125 at it's highest. I can't imagine it being any higher than that. :-( Sandy~houston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 With your heart rate sustaining those heights, I'm glad you made the choice you did. Yes, that is a very short period of time to decide, but I've seen people go on for months like this and end up having a heart attack or having permanent A fib. A fib is sometimes very hard to undo after it's sustained it's rhythm for a long while. My mom opted not to have the cardio conversion done (mainly because of her age) because she was told that it might not work, being as she had sustained it probably for a couple of years. The amount of time that went by caused the left ventricle to stenose to the point that she then went into congestive heart failure. Now that doesn't mean that it isn't treatable on another level. She takes an ACE inhibitor, digitalis, and a dieuretic to pull fluid off the lungs and leads a very active life----long walks, still drives, shops, etc.....but it would have been nice if they had caught it way back there, so that they could attempt to correct it. Re: Normal ranges? , RAI saved my life.. but I would have preferred the option of choices.. everything for me happened too fast.. in the hospital within an hour of seeing the doc that diagnosed me.... lab results called to the hospital to confirm the diagnosing docs suspicions, five minutes to decide yes or no to the RAI, sign papers and do it.... My resting heart rate then was 160.... just standing up shot it sky high..... Scarry stuff. Topper ()http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Thyroid_Support_Group/http://toppertwo.tripod.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 21, 2003 Report Share Posted August 21, 2003 The sad part, the part that makes me so angry was that this all happened 10 months after I'd first gone in. That first doc ignored all of my symptoms. Increased appetite, unexplained weight loss. No periods. Not being able to handle heat. Excessive perspiration. Irritability. Loud sounds hurt. Severe headaches if I missed a meal. Major muscles twitching (my boyfriend noticed that a few months before, I made the waterbed move in my sleep from the muscles twitching). But all that jacka** did was give me a test for diabetes, give me pain meds for the headache and told me to go home, I needed to lose weight... I went in that 10 months later when my shoulders were giving me trouble and I couldn't do my job. I was seeing an orthopedist... I'm sitting on the table. She comes in an asks me to take off my shirt and then to mimic the motions she is showing my while she looks at my shoulders. I'm to tell her when it hurts... I made like two movements when she asks when I had my last period.... 5 or 6 years ago.... Been losing weight? yes.... Eating a lot more? yes At that point she's reading my chart checking my last visit. You should have heard this woman. She storms out of the exam room cussing like a sailor and into the exam room that the last doctor I'd seen was in.. "Who the hell do you think you are?" I had all the classic text book symptoms of hyper when I had been in to see him and he never even tested, his excuse? "She was too fat to be hyper" I was a body builder when this hit. I was all muscle. By the time I'd seen him I'd dropped 40 pounds. With all the constant eating I'd been doing I'd dropped another 20 by the time I saw the Ortho. She spotted me as hyper in a couple of minutes of seeing me with my shirt off. I had bones sticking out. Muscles twitching, heat pouring off me. I was developing tendonitis in my shoulders from the constant muscle twitching in my arms, shoulders and back. She took my pulse and announced I was severely hyper.. and said that she'd be getting me an appointment at the hospital. She was doing the labs to confirm but she had no doubt. If that first doc would have not had a prejudice against big women. If he had even examined me. If he had run that simple test. I would have had a choice of treatments. I would not have gone through the next 10 months thinking I was going insane. Eating anything that didn't move and was soft enough to chew. I honestly hate that man. He literally sent me away to die. He saw the symptoms. Noted some in my chart adding the note that I was too fat to be sick. My collar bones were sticking out. My hands looked like skeleton hands with skin stretched over them. Calming down.. calming down.. before I go find that jerk! Topper ()http://groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Thyroid_Support_Group/http://toppertwo.tripod.com On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 00:30:44 -0500 " " writes: With your heart rate sustaining those heights, I'm glad you made the choice you did. Yes, that is a very short period of time to decide, but I've seen people go on for months like this and end up having a heart attack or having permanent A fib. A fib is sometimes very hard to undo after it's sustained it's rhythm for a long while. My mom opted not to have the cardio conversion done (mainly because of her age) because she was told that it might not work, being as she had sustained it probably for a couple of years. The amount of time that went by caused the left ventricle to stenose to the point that she then went into congestive heart failure. Now that doesn't mean that it isn't treatable on another level. She takes an ACE inhibitor, digitalis, and a dieuretic to pull fluid off the lungs and leads a very active life----long walks, still drives, shops, etc.....but it would have been nice if they had caught it way back there, so that they could attempt to correct it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 22, 2003 Report Share Posted August 22, 2003 Because of our experiences and horrible times with all these things, we are able to inform others who are innocently being led down the primrose path. Yes, I believe there are good doctors out there, I've read about them. There is hope because of our experiences and talents. Have you ever noticed that those who experience these things also seem to have the talent and wisdom to "broadcast" it. It's literally built in. I will say that way back there many doctors died because of experiments they did on their own selves, which is what brought us our modern anesthesia and pain killers. That was when the oath "First, do no harm" meant something, at the cost of everything else, including money, reputation, and general scorn from the public. I strongly believe that there were several generations of people who were raised in a vacuum, unable to feel for humanity. Who knows why they became doctors, maybe for the way that mankind thinks of doctors, maybe for the money. The greatest doctors who ever made any impression on this society were those who looked at the talent in their hands and humbly said "This didn't come from me, I am to use it appropriately". Others go blindly on their way thru this world, taking whatever they can get and giving not one little piece of their heart. Aren't you glad that's not you and me?! So, therefore, I don't hate, because ultimately, they'll get theirs. But I won't just sit idly by and do nothing. It's not a matter of getting even, it's changing things and saying "You can't do that anymore, we won't stand for it". Re: Normal ranges? The sad part, the part that makes me so angry was that this all happened 10 months after I'd first gone in. That first doc ignored all of my symptoms. Increased appetite, unexplained weight loss. No periods. Not being able to handle heat. Excessive perspiration. Irritability. Loud sounds hurt. Severe headaches if I missed a meal. Major muscles twitching (my boyfriend noticed that a few months before, I made the waterbed move in my sleep from the muscles twitching). But all that jacka** did was give me a test for diabetes, give me pain meds for the headache and told me to go home, I needed to lose weight... I went in that 10 months later when my shoulders were giving me trouble and I couldn't do my job. I was seeing an orthopedist... I'm sitting on the table. She comes in an asks me to take off my shirt and then to mimic the motions she is showing my while she looks at my shoulders. I'm to tell her when it hurts... I made like two movements when she asks when I had my last period.... 5 or 6 years ago.... Been losing weight? yes.... Eating a lot more? yes At that point she's reading my chart checking my last visit. You should have heard this woman. She storms out of the exam room cussing like a sailor and into the exam room that the last doctor I'd seen was in.. "Who the hell do you think you are?" I had all the classic text book symptoms of hyper when I had been in to see him and he never even tested, his excuse? "She was too fat to be hyper" I was a body builder when this hit. I was all muscle. By the time I'd seen him I'd dropped 40 pounds. With all the constant eating I'd been doing I'd dropped another 20 by the time I saw the Ortho. She spotted me as hyper in a couple of minutes of seeing me with my shirt off. I had bones sticking out. Muscles twitching, heat pouring off me. I was developing tendonitis in my shoulders from the constant muscle twitching in my arms, shoulders and back. She took my pulse and announced I was severely hyper.. and said that she'd be getting me an appointment at the hospital. She was doing the labs to confirm but she had no doubt. If that first doc would have not had a prejudice against big women. If he had even examined me. If he had run that simple test. I would have had a choice of treatments. I would not have gone through the next 10 months thinking I was going insane. Eating anything that didn't move and was soft enough to chew. I honestly hate that man. He literally sent me away to die. He saw the symptoms. Noted some in my chart adding the note that I was too fat to be sick. My collar bones were sticking out. My hands looked like skeleton hands with skin stretched over them. Calming down.. calming down.. before I go find that jerk! Topper () Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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