Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Hi everyone, new to group. I am a 44 year old female who was just diagnosed with Grave's and the related hyperthyroidism. I was given a perscription for methimazole (sorry if spelling's wrong!) and a beta blocker atenolol for my elevated heart rate. I immediately experienced terrible nausea and stomach pain, general malaise and a real bad case of acne on my back, chest and neck. I spoke to my doctor who then changed my medication after one week to 2 50mg tablets of PTU three times a day. As he was writing the perscription he said " if you continue to complain of side effects we will give you RAI " . It is my feeling that this doctor is not willing to work with me throught the side effects and is looking for a quick fix. Am I mistaken or should RAI be something to be tried when all else fails? From reading many messages in this group, I get the impression that RAI can cause more problems down the road and should be saved, like surgery as a last resort. Thanks for any shared experiences - I am very despondent about appearing to have so few good alternatives. I feel like I am being bullied by this doctor and not being allowed to actively participate in my own healing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Hi. Welcome to the group. I hope this information will be helpful to you. I'm relatively new to the group myself. I would like to share my experience with taking PTU as my first and only anti-thyroid drug. As my initial dose, my family practice doctor prescribed 300 mg of PTU. He wanted me to up the medication every few days to eventually get up to 300 mg . When I reached 150 mg I started having severe nausea and stomach cramps. He agreed that this reaction was due to the PTU. He was ready to give up on PTU at that time. I suggested that I start all over again with PTU. This time, I very, very slowly and gradually upped my dosage of PTU. I never had to take more than 150 mg. I am now on 100 mg a day (25 mg - 1/2 a pill with breakfast, 25 mg - 1/2 a pill with lunch and 50 mg - 1 pill with dinner). I feel that spreading out the dosages and taking the PTU with food is helpful. I also believe that the gradual increase or decrease in the medication is helpful as well. My family practice doctor did not think that 150 mg would be enough to help and change my lab work. It did work! In a few months my TSH was in low normal range and my FT4 and Total T3 were within normal ranges. I found it scary that the endocrinologists I saw after I had the reaction to PTU told me that they felt that the nausea and stomach cramps were not side effects of PTU. They were wrong. All the best, Miriam On Wed, 23 Jan 2002 00:21:02 -0000 " flominton " writes: > Hi everyone, new to group. I am a 44 year old female who was just > diagnosed with Grave's and the related hyperthyroidism. I was given > a > perscription for methimazole (sorry if spelling's wrong!) and a beta > > blocker atenolol for my elevated heart rate. I immediately > experienced terrible nausea and stomach pain, general malaise and a > > real bad case of acne on my back, chest and neck. I spoke to my > doctor who then changed my medication after one week to 2 50mg > tablets of PTU three times a day. As he was writing the perscription > > he said " if you continue to complain of side effects we will give > you RAI " . > It is my feeling that this doctor is not willing to work with me > throught the side effects and is looking for a quick fix. Am I > mistaken or should RAI be something to be tried when all else fails? > > From reading many messages in this group, I get the impression that > > RAI can cause more problems down the road and should be saved, like > > surgery as a last resort. > Thanks for any shared experiences - I am very despondent about > appearing to have so few good alternatives. I feel like I am being > bullied by this doctor and not being allowed to actively participate > > in my own healing > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Hi. Welcome to the group. I hope this information will be helpful to you. I'm relatively new to the group myself. I would like to share my experience with taking PTU as my first and only anti-thyroid drug. As my initial dose, my family practice doctor prescribed 300 mg of PTU. He wanted me to up the medication every few days to eventually get up to 300 mg . When I reached 150 mg I started having severe nausea and stomach cramps. He agreed that this reaction was due to the PTU. He was ready to give up on PTU at that time. I suggested that I start all over again with PTU. This time, I very, very slowly and gradually upped my dosage of PTU. I never had to take more than 150 mg. I am now on 100 mg a day (25 mg - 1/2 a pill with breakfast, 25 mg - 1/2 a pill with lunch and 50 mg - 1 pill with dinner). I feel that spreading out the dosages and taking the PTU with food is helpful. I also believe that the gradual increase or decrease in the medication is helpful as well. My family practice doctor did not think that 150 mg would be enough to help and change my lab work. It did work! In a few months my TSH was in low normal range and my FT4 and Total T3 were within normal ranges. I found it scary that the endocrinologists I saw after I had the reaction to PTU told me that they felt that the nausea and stomach cramps were not side effects of PTU. They were wrong. All the best, Miriam On Wed, 23 Jan 2002 00:21:02 -0000 " flominton " writes: > Hi everyone, new to group. I am a 44 year old female who was just > diagnosed with Grave's and the related hyperthyroidism. I was given > a > perscription for methimazole (sorry if spelling's wrong!) and a beta > > blocker atenolol for my elevated heart rate. I immediately > experienced terrible nausea and stomach pain, general malaise and a > > real bad case of acne on my back, chest and neck. I spoke to my > doctor who then changed my medication after one week to 2 50mg > tablets of PTU three times a day. As he was writing the perscription > > he said " if you continue to complain of side effects we will give > you RAI " . > It is my feeling that this doctor is not willing to work with me > throught the side effects and is looking for a quick fix. Am I > mistaken or should RAI be something to be tried when all else fails? > > From reading many messages in this group, I get the impression that > > RAI can cause more problems down the road and should be saved, like > > surgery as a last resort. > Thanks for any shared experiences - I am very despondent about > appearing to have so few good alternatives. I feel like I am being > bullied by this doctor and not being allowed to actively participate > > in my own healing > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Jody, is this a Freudian slip? Make that " solution " ! Terry > > Reply-To: graves_support > Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 21:23:57 -0500 > To: graves_support > Subject: Re: overwhelmed > > The Thyroid Storm my Dr. Ridha Arem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Jody, is this a Freudian slip? Make that " solution " ! Terry > > Reply-To: graves_support > Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 21:23:57 -0500 > To: graves_support > Subject: Re: overwhelmed > > The Thyroid Storm my Dr. Ridha Arem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 OMG!!! Thank you Terry for correcting that! My e-mail is not behaving tonight, or maybe it is my computer, long overdue for maintenence so am not reading through the e-mails before sending. Yes it is The Thyroid Solution by Dr. Ridha Arem... Not Freudian, I think brain fog maybe? Jody _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 OMG!!! Thank you Terry for correcting that! My e-mail is not behaving tonight, or maybe it is my computer, long overdue for maintenence so am not reading through the e-mails before sending. Yes it is The Thyroid Solution by Dr. Ridha Arem... Not Freudian, I think brain fog maybe? Jody _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Hi Flominton I can't really add more to what Terry & Jody have said but to add my heart felt welcome to you. We all remember what it is like at first (and through the ups and downs) the support, information and help you will receive here has been so valuable to me and I hope you find it equally as valuable. The most important thing for you to do now is look after yourself. Take time off work if you need. I didn't think I needed to, I was wrong. I crashed something terrible before I took a couple of weeks off to help my initial treatment. Also don't be rushed into anything. The meds need time to see if they will for you. So de-stress your life - as much as possible : ) research and keep in touch. Take care Caroline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 22, 2002 Report Share Posted January 22, 2002 Hi Flominton I can't really add more to what Terry & Jody have said but to add my heart felt welcome to you. We all remember what it is like at first (and through the ups and downs) the support, information and help you will receive here has been so valuable to me and I hope you find it equally as valuable. The most important thing for you to do now is look after yourself. Take time off work if you need. I didn't think I needed to, I was wrong. I crashed something terrible before I took a couple of weeks off to help my initial treatment. Also don't be rushed into anything. The meds need time to see if they will for you. So de-stress your life - as much as possible : ) research and keep in touch. Take care Caroline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 23, 2002 Report Share Posted January 23, 2002 Hi flominton, When I first started taking methimazole, it made me hypoglycemic--I was so nauseous if I didn't eat like every 2 hours. But it wore off after about a week. I think my body just had to get used to it. Also, I was given atenolol as well. I took one and it made me feel so awful I didn't take any more. Fortunately, the ATDs kicked in and I didn't need it. So, it might be the atenolol that's not agreeing with you. Welcome to the group! This is a good place to come when you're feeling discouraged. We've all been through it! Holly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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