Dear Khalilah,
I hope your post has received a blizzard of replies, but in case not I am
replying personally. I was very moved by your plea; I had Graves Disease and
remember what it was like, although I have been in remission for years.
Your note seems to say you were already diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, yet
were apparently not treated for it, which is hard for me to understand. It
puzzles me that a doctor would diagnose you but not treat you. How did this
happen? Nearly all of the symptoms you list, anxiety, palpitations, feeling hot,
swollen thyroid, etc., can be caused by Graves Disease, an autoimmune
hyperthyroid condition which can endanger your life if severe and untreated.
It is very treatable, and not by sending the patient "to the psych ward"!
You have a choice of treatment options, and since you say "... I am going to
ask my doctor to put me on an anti thyroid medication", you may already know
it. The most common treatment in the U.S. tends to be partial or total
destruction of the thyroid gland, often by swallowing radioactive iodine, which
stops the hyperthyroidism but usually makes it necessary to take thyroid
hormones for the rest of your life. Another method is the "anti thyroid
medication" you mention. That is the therapy I chose, and in my case IT
WORKED, and I now take no thyroid-related medication. The intent of this
therapy is to suppress the thyroid gland to relieve the hyperthyroidism while (it
is hoped) whatever is causing the autoimmune problem runs its course and
eventually resolves itself. Early in my treatment I was also given a beta-
blocker to control the rapid heartbeat. I don't know how long most people
must take the anti-thyroid meds, but I took propylthiouracil for about 3 years,
and a friend of mine with Graves took the same medicine a few months longer
than I did. While taking it, there were unpleasant side effects. Suppressing
the thyroid often induces hypothyroidism, and I gained weight very rapidly. I
was unable to lose the weight until I discontinued the propylthiouracil, and
then I got back to normal weight.
There is no guarantee anti-thyroid meds will work for you, but if not, you still
have the option of taking the more drastic step of destroying your thyroid.
But PLEASE DO NOT SETTLE for just treating the symptoms, especially the
panic attacks and anxiety, without first eliminating hyperthyroidism as the
cause. You are not mentally ill! If your endocrinologist is not sure what is
wrong with you, I know there are diagnostic tests that will show if you have
Graves. I am betting if you have Graves Disease that nearly all of the
symptoms you described will go away once you are properly treated.
KM
_______________________________________________________________
Snip, Please
If you "Reply" to a message, and *you* fail to erase or delete
the previous message, *your* message cannot be distributed.
Why not ask a question? If we're not currently talking about
what *you* want to hear about, ask about another topic! Or
make a statement. To be prepared, you might want to search
the Thyroid Archives http://www.Emissary.Net/thyroid/index.html
to see what has been said before about any thyroid-related topic.
_______________________________________________________________
|