Hi All,  I subscribed to this group because my younger sister has
thyroid problems for the past year and a half or so, and the docs have
been unable to get a handle on it -- and in fact, appear to be making it
much worse.  I hope to help her get reliable info to educate herself on
her condition, and help her talk to her doctors more intelligently.  I
have some questions that require a brief explantation of her condition
first:  She was originally diagnosed HYPOthyroid.  The g.p. put her on
Synthroid.  She had noticed that the area above her eyeballs was bulging
slightly, told her doc, but he told her it was just her imagination.
She then noticed her eyeballs starting to bulge slightly.  Again, her
doc told her she was imagining it.  He assured her she was HYPOthyroid.
The g.p. sent her to a specialist (I'm assuming endo, but do not know.)
The specialist told her she had a nodule on her thyroid that might need
surgery.  He sent her to another specialist who said she did not need
surgery.  Meanwhile she notes her eyes bulging a little more, and her
throat starting to swell up on one side.  The docs don't pay attention
to her complaints.  They again assure her she is HYPOthyroid. One of the
specialists tells her to double her Synthroid medication.  Next (and
almost immediately after doubling the synthroid) the dry eye problem she
has had for over 10 years kicks back in and goes into overdrive.  Her
eyes feel like sandpaper when she blinks.  Her eyes begin to bulge a
little more, and finally, after numerous complaints to the specialist,
he measures her eyes.  He says one eye is definately larger than the
other.  In quick succession to all of this (over say, a three month
period) her neck swells to the size of a small balloon on one side.
Finally, within the last few weeks, she gets bounced over to another
specialist by her previous specialist.  This one tells her to get off
her Thyroid medication (synthroid) altogether.  He tells her the thyroid
medication is accumulating in her throat tissue. The original doctor had
told her she would die if she didn't take the medication, so now she's
really freaked out, but she stops the Synthroid.  When she brings up all
of these conflicting instructions/diagnoses to the various doctors she
is being passed back and forth between, they act like she's crazy, or
just stare at her like "What's your problem."  Since being taken off the
Synthroid (several weeks to a month ago) she is now being tested for
Grave's disease, which I thought was HYPERthyroid, rather than HYPO. All
of her doctors have insisted to her that she was HYPO all of this time.
She kept asking them, if I'm HYPOthyroid, why are my eyes bulging and my
throat swelling.  They would just imply she's imagining things, and she
needs to calm down.  Last night, researching some of the web sites I've
discovered through this newsgroup (thank you all for posting such great
info!), I found one that said taking too much thyroid medication can
turn HYPOthyroid into HYPERthyroid.  Does anyone out there have any
experience with such a thing?  My sister is practically hysterical at
this point, breaking down crying two, three times a day, scared,
untrusting of her doctors, and getting worse.  Also, dry skin, brittle
and slightly thinning hair, and small skin growths appearing on various
parts of her body.  But no weight gain or weight loss problems.  She
says she's extremely irritable to borderline hysterical at the drop of a
hat, headaches, feels like her ears turn red and burn several times a
day when she gets upset, panic attacks, constant anxiety, carpal tunnel
syndrome (diagnosed two years ago as mild but she now has no feeling in
her hands much of the time).  The most recent specialist (who is
supposedly testing her for Grave's) told her that if she has Grave's
disease she will be disfigured, facially, for life, and will probably go
blind.  He said they could treat any disfigurement surgically, after it
was complete.  She's 33, has two kids which she's been raising by
herself for years, drives a school bus for a living and has no other
skills -- so naturally, saying "she's scared" is the understatement of
the year.  I think her doctor's are all arrogant, unfeeling assholes,
personally, but she's on medi-cal due to low income, and is basically
stuck with what she's got as far as medical options.  Yesterday, she had
a CAT scan, ostenisbly to check for Grave's. Questions:  Could
hypothyroid turn to hyperthyroid, and could the doubling of her
Synthroid by one of her docs have triggered it?  When she asked this to
the specialist she was passed off to yesterday, he said he didn't want
to get into that area of conversation.   In researching the web sites
I've learned about since subscribing to this newsgroup, I note that she
has clear and obvious symptoms of almost every thyroid condition
metioned:  hypo, hyper, Wilson's, Grave's, Hashimoto's etc.  I'm having
her start the thermometer testing for Wilson's, beginning tomorrow, just
because it's an easy place to start.  I've ordered the books "Screaming
to Be Heard," "Wilson's Syndrome" and "Solved: The Riddle of Illness"
for her, but they won't be in for a week or so.  Can anyone give any
further thoughts as to what direction I might look next,
education-wise?  More importantly, has anyone else had one thyroid
condition change into another?  And finally, has anyone else had such a
variety of symptoms of more than one thyroid condition all at the same
time?  I apologize in advance for the length of this posting.  It's just
that she's growing worse rapidly, and is near hysteria at this point.
(Who wouldn't be?)  I deeply appreciate all help!

Thanks for your patience in reading this,

Steve Barwick
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