# Frustrated.. Dealing with Graves ~1 year



## hyperllama (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi Everyone ~

New poster here...

I have snooped around the board for a bit and just wanted to throw myself out there and say hi.. share my story.. whatever..

Exactly one year ago I started experiencing symptoms of Graves though of course had no idea.. I was already diagnosed hypo and was taking levothyroxine for that. A few days before Thanksgiving last year I started having the extremity pain, rapid heartrate, chest pain, etc. Went through all the scary tests including the echo, EKGs, chest ct, etc etc. Oh, btw, I was 29 at the time so totally losing my mind.. February I finally get to see an Endo who looks through the labs and says "oh, you have Graves" oook... Turns out that endo was also a bit of a jerk but the highly recommended guy in our region couldn't see me til May.

I had been exercising pretty heavily and had dropped about 40lbs between the workouts and Graves. I was happy with the weight loss because I was definitely overweight. Workouts just resumed about 2 months ago after being out for 10 months. I've gained about 30lbs back (yes, i've now moved on to the counting calories and all that junk.. used to just be able to run and the lbs would shed.. ugh).

Over the holidays last year I was getting the bulk of the testing done for the heart issues.. thankfully everything came back fine. whew. was having trouble maintaining the energy to walk around - had just bought a house and got married about 2 months before symptoms started. My hormones were all out of whack and I was insanely emotional. I was crying several times a day for no reason. I am not an emotional person. I don't get stressed. I'm extremely low key.

When I started the workouts again I noticed some discomfort in my leg/shin... I had myself all worked up that it could be something bad and called doc.. who asked if I had any eye trouble or discoloration around the area in my leg.. no and no. Follow-up appointment is in 2 weeks.. Sure enough this weekend the skin rash started... looking up the myxedema, it seems to be spot-on. Ugh - one more thing.

So.. I guess I am trying to figure out what I can do. I know there is no real cure. I have not had the radioactive treatment or surgery. I tend to be reasonably homeopathic - not to medicine man status or anything, I just don't like to take an advil, let alone anything else. I want to be able to run, mountain bike, etc. My heart is alright. I'm insanely out of shape. I'll find out more about the leg at my follow up but if it is basically a chronic rash, whatever. It is annoying, but manageable. I'm married to a fitness nut. I'm frustrated beyond belief with this whole process. I am thankful to find this board - thankful my symptoms are not worse - hopeful they won't be ever - curious about coping strategies for others and partially just looking for a place to whine where people get it.arty0009:

Thanks for reading.


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## GD Women (Mar 5, 2007)

Hi and welcome to the Thyroid Boards

Don't know what to tell you to make you feel better. Graves' just has to run its course in all its aspects. RAI or surgery helps it to run its course quicker to get to the end results faster, which is Hypothyroid/Graves' and then it may take years to get there. Then we'll have hypothyroidism *and* Graves' to deal with. Arn't we lucky!

I have several types of unidentified rashes but definitely due from immune system. My TED just finally burnt out of its hot phase after 10/11 years.

I share these issues (although there are more) with you just to let you know you are not alone in this crazy thyroid, called Graves' disease.

Be positive and keep hanging in there - there is always hope!


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## hyperllama (Nov 22, 2010)

Thanks, GD...

I think i am just at the overwhlemed/frustrated/"waaahhh i want my life back" point right now. Wish it would magically go away the way it all magically appeared. Grr.


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