Maybe Graves, but...

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-07-2006
Maybe Graves, but...
4
Sat, 04-14-2007 - 5:28pm

My doctor told me Thursday that she thinks I have early Grave's disease, but it could still be pregnancy-induced thyroiditis instead. I see an endo in two weeks. Even though my mom was diagnosed with Graves around my age, she was never treated, and she suspects it wasn't truly Graves, since her symptoms never progressed and her thyroid levels are normal. I do not have Graves symptoms, by and large. I am not losing weight...in fact, I am trying to lose weight and can't. I am still 15 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight and 30 pounds away from my goal weight. My eyes are not bulging. I do get hot and sweaty, but I also get very cold. My hair has fallen out a little--I can't see any effects of it by looking at my scalp, but I do get a lot of loose hair in my hands when I take a shower, but that could be because of having the baby. I do not have diarrhea (sorry, TMI) but instead I have the opposite problem. Laxatives don't even help--just make my stomach hurt like heck. I feel dizzy almost constantly--it is getting worse and is making it hard to function, and I am getting so embarrassed because I am forgetting things, including the names of people I work with! Still, I am getting up every day and taking care of the baby and going to work and coming home and making dinner, but honestly, I don't know how much longer I can function like this. I have noticed feeling my heart beat at night and lying wide awake. My heart rate at the doc Thursday was 93 after I had been sitting in the waiting room for 30 minutes. I felt sleepy and had a headache but not nervous at all, so I was surprised the rate was a bit up.

She prescribed proponol because she said my heart rate is increasing at every visit, and meglazine (sp?) for dizziness but I am afraid to take them, as my blood pressure is normal and she warned me that it could make me pass out for the first couple of weeks until my body adjusts. I tried the meglazine but it made me a total zombie, so I haven't taken any more.

I feel like crying. I feel terrible, but all I want to do is enjoy my family. My husband is very supportive but I'm afraid he will grow tired of hearing me complain all the time. I found myself trying to smile and act like I felt okay today but I feel so tired, it is a big effort just to move. I really need to clean the house, but I don't have the energy. I feel tired just sitting here typing. My job is very busy, and I honestly don't know how I'm going to be able to go in Monday and do what I need to do.

I guess I just needed to vent. I just want to be my old self again.

My TSH was .02, my T4 was 1.4, and my T3 was 179.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-01-2006
Sat, 04-14-2007 - 6:52pm
The meds that you are on are any of them for the graves/to control your thyroid? I too was graves but now am hypo. Mine came on while pregnant and spiked after pregnancy. The med I took when I was hyper was methimazole(sp?) (which was generic for tapazole). it helped me a lot and actually put my thyroid into remission, I was off medicine for over a year, until just this week when now I am hypo as my endo thinks that my thyroid is burning out. It's good that you are seeing an endo as they specialize in this stuff. The symptoms you are having are what I went through also, plus I had huge anxiety and worried about my daughter constantly (that was also being a new, first time mommy too) Be sure to tell your endo the meds you are on so that they know.
Good Luck!
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-07-2006
Sun, 04-15-2007 - 4:19pm

Thanks. How will they treat you now that you're hypo? Will you take hormone replacement? Do you feel any different? Is it worse than when you were hyper?

I don't think any of the meds are to help my thyroid, just to help with symptoms. I checked my pulse last night with a blood pressure cuff I got when I was pregnant, and it showed 81, then 101 a little while later, then 71. This was all while I was sitting in bed watching tv with the baby lying next to me playing. I don't want to take the meds to slow my heart rate because I think that would feel miserable.

It's interesting your condition came on during pregnancy. I think mine did, too. I had episodes of my heart racing and losing my breath to the point that I thought I was having a panic attack or heart attack. I had extreme swelling which made my doc think I had preeclamspia except I never had the tell-tale protein in my urine. This happened during both pregnancies. Interestingly, about a year after my first baby (during which I worried excessively, so much that I had a hard time enjoying motherhood), I suddenly lost all excess weight and became thin for the first time since college. My doctor thought I had IBS, and i had to have a colonscopy, but it turned out I did not have IBS. They didn't check my thyroid. Gradually, the weight started to creep back on, despite the fact that I had taken up running and was exercising more and eating better than when I lost weight. Within 4 months I gained 35 pounds. I was cold all the time, felt sleepy, etc., and I was not pregnant despite not using birth control for about a year. My TSH was 12, but my OB/GYN said my T4 and T3 were normal so she thought there may have been an error. She did surgery the next month for bowel/bladder adhesions, and she told me at my follow up visit that it was unlikely I would get pregnant. Surprise, surprise, I got pregnant right after that--my husband and I were so shocked! I started losing weight, felt hot all the time, etc. My general practitioner thinks it was my thyroid. My baby is now almost 8 months old, and my symptoms just keep getting worse, but seem to swing back and forth between symptoms of hypo and hyper (in my opinion, anyway).

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-01-2006
Mon, 04-16-2007 - 9:29pm
I am now taking thyroid hormone replacement (levothyroxine 50 mcg) to help with my hypo symptoms. Honestly when you asked if this is any worse, I'd have to say they are both bad! When I was hyper the anxiety, worry, fatigue and sleeplessness was bad. Now that I am hypo, the tiredness, brain fog and muscle/joint pain is bad. The achiness (sp?) in my joints in my legs are the worst! I have only been on the meds for almost a week and am feeling a little better.
It does sound like you are having symptoms of both hyper and hypo. I have never bounced back and forth like you so close together. I was first hyper and it gradually got bad enough to be put on meds. Then was fine and on no meds for over a year until last week when I was found to be hypo. I honestly was surprised to hear that I was hypo as I thought for sure I was going to be hyper again.
Is this the first time you will be seeing an endo? I think that is your best move seeing a specialist. I am on a PPO so I have had no trouble going to an endo, but I know that when I was on an HMO my primary doctor wanted to treat me, and she didn't want to medicate me at first, I switched to an endo and he put me on thyroid meds when I was hyper. Not that I am saying that your primary doctor isn't doing the right thing, from my point of view, I always feel good going to a doctor that specializes in this kind of thing. Make sure that you tell the endo about all the symptoms and how you have had both symptoms of hyper and hypo.
Wishing you all the best! Keep me posted on how things are going for you!
iVillage Member
Registered: 01-07-2006
Fri, 04-20-2007 - 9:43pm
Thank you! I will. I hope you feel better on your new medication. Let me know!