# Do I have Graves?



## greenwillow60 (Oct 20, 2014)

I had a partial thyroidectomy 20 years ago. Nodules. Non-cancerous. I went on thyroid replacement hormone which first was an improvement and then was up and down. Somewhere along the line, I realized that if I forgot to take my hormone for a couple of days, I started to feel better, so every once in a while I would take a vacation from my pills.

About five years ago more nodules were found and biopsied. No cancer. And we took a wait and see approach. About that same time I started to have a lot of problems with unexplained anxiety, gained 20 pounds, lost a heck of a lot of physical strength and had to stop my life-long early morning walks because I had no energy and would lose my breath. I also had horrible night and day sweats. Eventually, I had constant join pain that left me pretty much sitting in a chair most of the day and limping when I did walk. These symptoms were all blown off by doctors as menopause and arthritis.

Last July (2016), I completely stopped taking my thyroid meds. I started to feel a whole lot better, and have felt much more like myself, regaining some of my energy and stopped having the sweating episodes. I also put myself on a paleo diet, lost that 20 pounds and most of the joint pain.

After about 12 weeks without thyroid replacement meds, I went in and had my thyroid levels checked. * As always, they were solidly within the normal range. They are always in the normal range. I have never once in 25 years had a thyroid level test out of range.*

In the past week or ten days, the sweats have returned. I'm moody and frankly, if I am going to slip back into the despair of those four years, I'm going to start thinking about offing myself again. I've seen at least ten doctors and all they do is run the same tests over and over, and send me on my way. (Apologies for the whining.)


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## creepingdeath (Apr 6, 2014)

What kind of hormone?

Any antibody involvement?

Have you tried both synthetic & desiccated thyroid?

Man' you sound just like I did on synthetic.

When I changed to desiccated is when I started feeling much better, not perfect like I was before thyroid issues but in a way better place than I was on synthetic's.

I find myself just recently realizing I have been happy again.

You might have to fight to get there if you haven't tried it but it's worth it when you can say you're happy again.


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## greenwillow60 (Oct 20, 2014)

I've tried just about everything. Synthroid worked in the beginning. Then I went on Armour with a slight improvement, so stayed on it until they changed the formula, since then I've tried several others with no improvement.

To be clear - I haven't taken any replacement in the past 13 months and the last time I was tested (last October), my numbers were all in the normal range.


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## creepingdeath (Apr 6, 2014)

13 months without hormone and I would be dead.

Maybe you should look into something else causing your symptoms.

Wish I didn't have to take this pill every day.


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## greenwillow60 (Oct 20, 2014)

I was put on thyroid hormone because I only have half a thyroid. Have to admit that I was surprised my doctor didn't blink when I said I'd stopped taking them.

Additionally, my mother had a partial thyroidectomy in 1958/59 and she was never put on replacement. She lived to 78 without it.


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## Lovlkn (Dec 20, 2009)

Greenwillow60,

Do you have any lab results with ranges you could share during your on and off medication dosing?

When someone has 1/2 a thyroid it con be difficult to stabilize on thyroid hormone replacement due to the gland remaining


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

Sometimes the remaining bit of thyroid gland can kick back on and you don't need as much (or any) medication. If they never tested your thyroid antibodies before, I would push for it now. Have you had an ultrasound lately? Also, if you aren't in certain states like NY or CA, you can pay to have your own labs run and get the results yourself. A lot of us here do that, for various reasons (for me, it's cheaper to pay for my own labs rather than have them go through my insurance, sadly).


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## blackngold (Oct 28, 2011)

if wishes were fishes


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