I was diagnosed with Graves on 7/31/95.  Like many of the people whose stories I've read (thanks, everyone), I had symptoms for a long time before I was diagnosed.  Unlike many people, instead of dragging around to doctor after doctor looking for what was wrong with me, I was in denial and did a pretty good job of convincing myself that it was all in my head.  Bear with me here...what's inside the brackets [ ] is my inner voice. I'm burning up all the time [I've always been hot natured]...I'm losing weight like mad [I have changed my eating habits and started swimming 3 times a week]...I have shaking spells [I'm just nervous]...My blood pressure is up [if they took it again, it would be normal]...I can't sleep [I've always had insomnia - it's just getting worse]... My right eye has been twitching for months [it's nothing - I can't go to the doctor just because my eye is twitching!]...I have spells of anger [?]...My resting heart rate is over 100 [??]..My heart seems to "flutter" sometimes [???]....

While the inner voice was partially right, I was a little concerned.  It's true that I've always been hot natured and I can't remember when I didn't have insomnia.  It's also true that I had made significant changes in what I ate, and for the first time in my life I was sticking to an exercise program, swimming at the Y three times a week.  The other symptoms, however, were troubling.  I've never been a nervous person.  The first time I noticed the shaking was the first time I held my nephew, who was one day old.  Once it happened as I stood talking to friends.  A friend of mine noticed it one day as I stood at her desk, and I laughed it off as fatigue.  There seemed to be no pattern to it.  It happened even when I had no earthly reason to be nervous.

The "angry" spells were also very strange for me.  When I'm in a bad mood, I normally just get very quiet.  No one really knows that I'm angry or upset, I just seem removed.  However, there were about 4 times over several months when I felt like I could have strangled someone and I was unable to hide it.  People would take one look at me and say "what on earth happened?"  I've never suffered from PMS, but it must be what PMS feels like.  I knew my anger was irrational...I knew there was no reason for it...it didn't matter.  I couldn't reason myself out of it.

The worst symptom (and the stupidest to ignore) occurred one night while I was swimming.  Since I had never exercised regularly, when I started I could barely swim 5 laps.  Over the months, I had gradually built myself up to 25 (very slow) laps.  One night, I could barely finish 8 laps - I was exhausted.  I felt like wet spaghetti as I dressed and left the Y.  An hour after I got home, my resting heart rate was still 110.

On the day I was diagnosed, I actually went to my family practitioner (FP) for allergy medicine refills.  He noticed my blood pressure, pulse rate, and weight loss and immediately suspected Graves.  He did an EKG, a bunch of blood tests, and put me on Inderal on the spot.  I left the office wearing a Holter Monitor, totally freaked out.  I went back in a week - It was Graves.  The Holter Monitor, sort of like a 24-hour EKG where you wear these electrodes and a little recorder that keeps track of your heart, showed 5,000 PVC's (Premature Ventricular Contractions) in 24 hours.  I was put on PTU, scheduled for a Thyroid Scan and Uptake and sent to an endocrinologist.

In retrospect, I can say that the endo must be sold on RAI, because he seemed to heavily favor that as the solution.  I wasn't told that I could continue PTU and Inderal long-term and hope for remission.  Surgery was mentioned only if I was one of the approximately 10% of patients who don't respond to RAI.  I don't know even now if my choice would have been different, but it would have been nice to have more information up front - especially about Graves Opthalmopathy and RAI.  I was given the option of taking a small dose and aiming for euthyroid (with the possibility of following with a second dose if it didn't do enough), or one large dose and get it over with.  I chose the smaller dose.

I took my first dose of I-131, 5.9 mCi, on 8/28/95.  It didn't do the trick, so the second dose, 14.4 mCi, was taken on 3/26/96.  I went back to the endo in May.  He took me off of the PTU (he had taken me off of Inderal before the second dose).  As usual, they drew blood and said they would call if I needed to change anything.  They didn't call, but apparently I had been hypo since May because when I saw him again in August and he looked at my chart, he said "Uh oh...it seems we missed something."  (I guess that explains why I froze all summer, even in South Carolina!)  He put me on Levothroid 100 mcg.  Over the next 3 visits, he raised it every time, until I was taking 200 mcg.  On my visit on 7/2/97, I was finally in the normal range.  He said "see you in a year." 

My symptoms over the past year have been strange.  I was hypo for over a year, and now my levels are normal.  However, during the entire time, my energy levels have been very erratic.  I go for weeks or months feeling fine and then, with no warning, I'll "crash".  I never know how long it's going to last - sometimes it's lasted several weeks.  I went through a slump after Christmas that I didn't think was ever going to end.  My friends and co-workers have been very understanding, which is a blessing but sometimes even that depresses me because I feel guilty when others have to take up the slack. 

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