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Hi Stacie. Did your Hashimoto's swing to Graves, or do you have both? I know there are people on a yahoogroups graves list I was on (graves_support@yahoogroups.com) who had both; I think the conventional wisdom is to treat the one with the dominant symptoms. It's great you're doing well on the PTU. Did your dr. reduce your dose? After the first few weeks, especially with such a positive reaction, most patients can have their doses reduced by as much as half., especially if you were started at a high dose, like 300. It is very common to have TSH suppression, even for as long as months into treatment, so TSH is the least important number in properly dosing Graves. Unfortunately too many endos seem not to know this and will keep patients on high doses for far too long just to bring the TSH down.
And did you have the TSI antibody test done? It's good to have a baseline early in treatment.
Take care,, Fayge (in remission for over 6 years after 14 months on methimazole)

Hi,

I am 45 and developed the rare form, hypoparathyroidism, at the age of 13. My father was at that time the specialist endocrinologist at his hospital and although he thought he recognised the symptoms and knew what they were he and mum both hoped it wasn't. I ended up collapsing in fits and had to be taken to hospital (not fun for a 13 year old to be in hospital over Christmas) for three weeks. I'll never forget waking up in that ambulance because I felt so sick, but my mother was there and comforted me. They started off by telling my parents I had kidney failure because they mixed up my notes with those of an elderly lady of the same name who had the condition! However they did realise in the end that they had the wrong set of medical notes and in the end after three weeks of blood tests my medication stabilised my condition and I was allowed home.

I've been on one-alpha and Sandocal ever since and have no physical problems at all in relation to the hypoparathyroidism. I guess from reading the stories above that I'm lucky.

Hi Gillian,

Thanks for adding your story.
I've corresponded with a number of thyroid patients who also experience problems with their parathyroid glands, the four pea sized glands that sit on the back-surface of the thyroid glands(name literally means along-side-of).
Symptoms of parathyroid disorders are very similar to that of thyroid disorders but can be differentiated through blood tests. Parathyroid problems cause calcium levels to fall outside of normal values, while thyroid problems affect TSH levels and thyroid hormone levels.
Some thyroid patients who get partial or total thyroidectomies (thyroid removal), will experience damage to one or more of their parathyroid glands and will need calcium supplementation, along with thyroid hormone therapy.
My mother in law had elevated calcium at one point from hyperparathyroidism and it caused build up of calcium around her thyroid gland which had to be surgically corrected. They went in and scraped out the calcium. It was the first I had ever heard of that problem but now she does have to be treated for hypothyroidism as well.
This will be inspiration for me to compose an article on the thyroid-parathyroid connection!

Hi Fayge, Yes I was a Hashi girl who decided to leap over to Graves! My endo. reduced my PTU yesterday to two pills instead of 4. My T4 went from 2.5 to 1.4 in a matter of weeks! Thank you for your input on TSH supression, very interesting stuff.
Take care!
Stacie

Hi Stacie. I assume your pills are 50 mg? And do you try to take it 3x a day at fairly even intervals, e.g. 25, 25, and 50? Last question: have you checked out graves_support@yahoogroups.com? take care, Fayge

F,

Yes 50 mg pills. At first, I took two in the A.M and two at night. My endo just told me to only take two, but he didn't give me any directions on when, how, etc. I figured one in the morning and the other at night...I am clueless? What do you think?

Fayge,

P.S. Have not been to the website you asked about

Stacie

PTU needs to be taken 3x a day; methimazole (brand name in the US: tapazole) is best taken 3x a day too, but is effective longer and many people have seen success taking it 2x a day.

I highly recommend you check out the graves support yahoogroup. Not sure how to get there and what it's like now. I've been off it a bit over a year, but it was an amazing source of info - from the homepage to the fairly active message board.

Most of an endo's bread and butter - I've heard as high as 90% - comes from treating diabetes type issues. We thyroid people are in the minority, and hypers are a minority within that minority. So support groups are really helpful.

Hi Jim, After reading your story, I realize that my sleeping problem(which I've posted about previously) is caused by the adreneline surges. Do you know what causes adrenaline surges, exactly? Does that have anything to do with your thyroid or is that more adrenal in nature?

I feel as if I am about to lose my mind all this?

THanks for listening.

Peggy

Hi Jim, What a great discussion. I have been treated in the past for depression and was starting to suspect that is what is going on currently for me, but reading through this discussion have reminded to make sure to eliminate thyroid issues before going on the anti-depression issues. I'm browsing through more posts and your main site for questions to ask the doctor next week. Thanks!