diagnosed with graves disease

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-28-2004
diagnosed with graves disease
6
Mon, 11-01-2004 - 1:58pm
Hi,

It's my first time on this board and I have a few questions that I hope you can help with. I am 23 and I was recently diagnosed with Grave's Disease. I was referred to a specialist and he gave me a couple of options for treatment. Firstly he said I could get an operation to take my thyroid out or instead I could get the radioactive iodine pill, which he thought would be the better option.

I was just wondering if anyone had been through these treatments and which one you think may be the best. I have talked to a few friends who know people who have gone the radioacive way and all of them have had problems and ended up having to have the operation anyway.

I was also wondering what it will be like taking thyroxine for the rest of my life, has anyone had any problems or is it quite straight forward, because aparantly the treatments will leave me with no thyroid at all so i'll need replacement hormones.

If anyone can shed some light on these things, then that would be great. It's just a lot to take in and I'm a bit confused.

Thanks louise x x

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-09-2001
Mon, 11-01-2004 - 9:16pm
Hi Louise and welcome - I can better answer your post tomorrow when I have more time and we have many members who have been where you're at now so hopefully they will post their experiences for you. I'm hypothyroid so I haven't dealt with this firsthand but usually your first option wouldn't be the surgery. Has your doctor talked to you about taking medication, even before the radioacive iodine? Because sometimes medication will take care of it, but it usually takes about 6 months to a year to see if it can bring your thyroid back to normal. If that doesn't work, radioactive iodine is the next step, then surgery. Do you have a goiter or nodules that need to be removed?

If all else fails and your thyroid is removed, taking thyroxine is not a problem. It's the standard medication for hypothyroidism and the only tricky part is getting the dose regulated. I have to run now but I'll check back tomorrow!! Cathy :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-19-2004
Tue, 11-02-2004 - 7:34am

Hello!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-04-1999
Tue, 11-02-2004 - 11:18am

I was diagnosed with Graves disease in my mid-twenties, I'm now 38.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-09-2001
Tue, 11-02-2004 - 8:26pm
Hi again - here's a great site with lots of info for you: http://www.healthscout.com/ency/68/489/main.html

You can also check out the ivillage links at the top of our board. I'm glad some of our members were able to post here for you. Don't be afraid to talk with your doctor about all of your options. I think that's your best bet at this point. If you don't have a doctor you feel comfortable with, you might consider switching before you go any further. You need a doctor you can trust and feel confortable with. Let us nkow what you decide to do.

If it were me, and with the advice of my doctor, I would probably try treatment with medication first. Why jump to surgery if it isn't absolutely necessary? Cathy :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-28-2004
Fri, 11-05-2004 - 6:20am
Hi everyone, thanks for all the advice you've given me. I've talked to my specialist and I've decided to go for the radioactive treatment for definate and see how that goes. We also talked about the medication option but he said my thyroid was far too overactive for that and the chances of it coming back after the course had finished would be quite high.

So I'm quite happy with that for the moment but the tyroxine still scares me a little. How long does it usually take to stabalise the dose and what problems will i have in the mean time?

thanx again louise x x

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-19-2004
Fri, 11-05-2004 - 6:29am

You are going for RAi, if I understood right!