# No more methimazole, RAI treatment in March



## John (Mar 30, 2012)

Greetings everyone! I haven't been on the forums for a while so I wanted to get back in with an update and stay connected.

After being on 10mg of methimazole for three months my labs showed normal thyroid readings but bad liver toxicity. My endo told me to stop the methimazole immediately. It was unfortunate about the liver problems because I was feeling so much better on the methimazole.  Nevertheless I am trying to look on the positive side and I'm glad the liver problems weren't missed.  I had another set of non-medicated labs three weeks later and as expected my GD was back in full swing as well as the usual indicators: anxiety, shakiness, mood swings, sweating, racing heart, spike in blood pressure, etc. My endo is now recommending RAI treatment which I will have done the second week of March.

I'm a little worried about the procedure and how I'll feel afterwards but those worries are nowhere near as great as the risks of leaving it untreated. Time to check out the RAI forum.


----------



## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

John said:


> Greetings everyone! I haven't been on the forums for a while so I wanted to get back in with an update and stay connected.
> 
> After being on 10mg of methimazole for three months my labs showed normal thyroid readings but bad liver toxicity. My endo told me to stop the methimazole immediately. It was unfortunate about the liver problems because I was feeling so much better on the methimazole.  Nevertheless I am trying to look on the positive side and I'm glad the liver problems weren't missed.  I had another set of non-medicated labs three weeks later and as expected my GD was back in full swing as well as the usual indicators: anxiety, shakiness, mood swings, sweating, racing heart, spike in blood pressure, etc. My endo is now recommending RAI treatment which I will have done the second week of March.
> 
> I'm a little worried about the procedure and how I'll feel afterwards but those worries are nowhere near as great as the risks of leaving it untreated. Time to check out the RAI forum.


Hi John,

Have you ever received copies of your lab's? Did they offer you PTU? How about Propranolol?

How far out is your RAI? Making you go hyper while you wait seems a bit insane to me.

I opted for surgery - never felt comfortable about the idea of RAI. The possibility of multiple doses and the fact I had 2 small children at the time leaned me toward the surgery. Did they give you an option?


----------



## JPGreco (Mar 2, 2012)

Generally it seems that if methimazole isn't tolerated, PTU isn't suggested. I was told its due to how similar the medications are (in my case being allergic to methimazole increased the odds of me being allergic to PTU).

The only downside I've experienced from RAI (both 123 and 131) is it makes me a bit sick. It gives me a head cold, strange, I know. I'm going in for my second dose because I don't have insurance and its 150 bucks compared to several thousand, so RAI round 2, here I come. It took about 2 months for me to start noticing symptom reduction. I actually felt AWESOME, even though my labs said I was still super hyper. To me, I don't care what my labs say as long as i'm not symptomatic.

Goodluck John and feel free to shoot any questions my way.


----------



## I DClaire (Jul 31, 2011)

Lovlkn said:


> Hi John,
> 
> Have you ever received copies of your lab's? Did they offer you PTU? How about Propranolol?
> 
> ...


I was just the opposite. I asked for RAI but was told I wasn't a candidate. I don't remember why but, as things have turned out, I think surgery was definitely the easier route for me.


----------

