Graves disease- newly diagnosed

[landamum]

As a bit of background, had a baby 9 months ago and started feeling dizzy/ hot and weak legs like I was going to collapse. Since Christmas I have had loads of anxiety and quite a lot of panic attacks, absolutely horrible :(. I was also having loose stools. When my thyroid levels were found to be slightly high I was so happy there was a reason. The Endo originally thought it was post partum thyroiditis but now thinks it's Graves. Ihave been on carbimazole for three weeks and have much improved on it, my tummy is much better and hardly any anxiety but over the last three days I've had a panic attack while driving and had to abandon a shopping trip as my legs were starting to feel very weak and I was scared I'd collapse.

Is it normal for symptoms to come and go like this after three weeks on the meds? I'm getting a bit worried I have the right diagnosis. I never have the classic racing heart or palpitations. My highest results have been T4 18.6, T3 6.6. My TSH was under 0.03 and had risen to 0.06 which is very low but the Endo only seems concerns with the T results. My T3 and T4 are now in the normal range so I'm wondering why I'm still having symptoms. Had about 2.5 hrs sleep last night :(.

Bump

Did they test your thyroid antibodies? I've got hashimotos, which is where your body produces antibodies to attack the thyroid, and so your thyroid levels fluctuate between hyper and hypo. Your comment about symptoms coming and going made me think of this.

Hi there

I was diagnosed with Graves in 1999 so I don't remember too much about about it to be honest - alcohol + 2 children will do that..! But I do remember the doctors struggling to get my Carbimazole dosage right for a long time as my levels were all over the place each time I had a blood test. In the end I had 2 lots of radioactive iodine which knocked out my thyroid gland altogether so I'm now on thyroxine which easier to control (haha) and it's better to be under active than over active for your body.

So, hopefully they'll find the right dosage for you and it'll just take a bit of time for things to settle. Good luck!

therein as far as I know I haven't had antibodies tested. Tbh I'm not too impressed with the consultant. I'm just concerned that I don't have the top two symptoms- fast heart rate and palpitations although I have most of the other symptoms. Just done a quick search of hashimotos and I don't think I really have many of the symptoms. It is odd though that I feel great for a couple of weeks then get lots of symptoms back. I do find that when I feel good, I run around getting lots done to make up for the times when I feel rubbish (this involves a general feeling of nervousness and fighting to cope with everyday things).

dotty thanks, as of wednesday my blood results were all improved and I felt good. Again, I just don't understand!! Doing the Radioactive iodine treatment would be hard re childcare but I would do anything to get rid of this. I should think positive really as overall things are better but the setbacks are annoying/upsetting.

Has anyone else had symptoms come and go on carbimazole? Feeling slightly weak legged and nervous this morning! I guess I need to go back to the GP but I only had my blood tested about 10 days ago so not sure if they'll let me again.

I was diagnosed with graves disease in 2009, i was on carbimazole for about 18 months, my first dose was 20mg, then after three months i went to 10mg and lastly 5mg. I came of carbimazole last year july, so i am in remission, and so far my bloods have been normal and it hasn't come back. When i was on carbimazole i used to get very panicky with palpitations, and generally just felt awful. I think it must be the side effects. What dose are you on?

Hi Landamum. I was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid at the beginning of 2011. Mine seems to have been caused mostly by a solitary toxic adenoma or 'hot nodule' which is a clump of cells that starts to overproduce thyroid hormone sending you hyper.

I finally had a hemithyroidectomy in March of this year to remove the nodule. My Endo did test for antibodies and said at one point that my score was high and there may be an autoimmune cause. However at my last blood test he said that my antibodies were now within a normal range? I still don't understand the whole autoimmune cause thing. Whatever the cause though the treatment routes are always going to be the same. If you do have an autoimmune cause you just need to be aware that maybe at some point you might develop other autoimmune conditions.

With regard to your question about feeling symptomatic on carbimazole. I have to say that even though the carbimazole helped to ease symptoms they never fully went away even though my blood results were normal - although TSH was right at the bottom of the range (0.06). I would still wake in the night feeling panic and experienced low level anxiety for pretty much the whole time. It wasn't unmanageable but it made me a nervous and over-sensitive person also very irritable and snappy.

About two weeks after surgery I suddenly became aware of this total feeling of peace and calm that I hadn't felt for so long. My patience returned. My husband and son remark on how much 'nicer' I am these days . I am now on thyroxine for life but on balance feel much better.