# Should I be tested?



## elsie (May 13, 2011)

Hi, I have been treated for hypothyroidism for over 20 years and found out I have Hashimoto's just over a year ago. I was having hyper symptoms off and on for a while before I found that out. At the end of October I had a very severe hyper swing, with heart pounding, beating fast for me at about 85, temperature of 99.5 to 99.9 for two weeks, sweating, shaking, weakness, peeing a lot, diarrhea, 14 pound weight loss, and severe anxiety. My cortisol levels went very high also. This was brought on by three major stressors all at once in my life. I had to stop my thyroid medications and wait it out. Everything has settled down and I am raising my NDT back up slowly. I also have very prominent eyes that are dry and red. This has been an issue for a number of years and seems to be better sometimes than others. I never knew until recently that this could be caused by Hashimoto's in some cases and certainly never suspected Graves'. When I went through the hyper flare, some people on a facebook group said I should have my TSI tested. What do you all think? Could I have Graves', even though everything seems to have settled down now?


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## HotGrandma (Sep 21, 2012)

Hi Elsie:

I also was treated for hypo for several years and like you had a major stressor and Bingo the racing heart rate and diagnosed with raging graves and graves eye disease. Please please get tested. TSI, Free T3 and Free T4. These are the test I am being treated off of. But others with more experience and knowledge will add to these tests.

I am sorry you are have symptomatic but get answers before it leads to other problems.


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## elsie (May 13, 2011)

To your knowledge, can it make an appearance and then calm down for a while? I do think I'll ask to have the test run. I have an appointment with my NP this Friday and plan on getting as much run as possible. It's my last appointment with her because it's a hospital run practice and they are closing it down and my NP is only going to be at the practice that is a lot further away and does not take insurance. I'm hoping I can find someone as good as she is.


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## StormFinch (Nov 16, 2012)

Welcome to the forum elsie. 

Did you have labs run when the hyper symptoms started? I'd be curious to see them if you have the results.

Yes you can definitely have Graves as well as Hashi's, see my sig line. I went through defined periods of both illnesses, usually around 4 - 6 months in duration until recently. My last cycle was Graves and lasted 7 months, at which time I had my thyroid removed and short circuited the whole roller coaster.

There's also something called Hashitoxicosis. Here's a personal story by one of our Admins, along with a lot of good info: http://www.thyroidboards.com/hashitoxicosis/.

As far as TSI, it might be worth is to have one run now, but then again since the cycle is over it might not show you much. Truthfully I'm just not sure and someone else will probably know more. A TRab may be be a good idea though, because I've read that it comes up positive in Graves sufferers even when you're euthyroid.


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## StormFinch (Nov 16, 2012)

Another passing thought... since you were on replacement meds at the time, it might be possible that your thyroid sputtered back into life for awhile and started producing hormone, then quit again. I can imagine that the combination of a working thyroid and replacement hormone would play havoc on your system.

Oh, and I've noticed that what was originally termed Graves Eye Disease is now being called Thyroid Eye Disease, so I'm guessing that it's crossing over like the other symptoms of either.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

elsie said:


> Hi, I have been treated for hypothyroidism for over 20 years and found out I have Hashimoto's just over a year ago. I was having hyper symptoms off and on for a while before I found that out. At the end of October I had a very severe hyper swing, with heart pounding, beating fast for me at about 85, temperature of 99.5 to 99.9 for two weeks, sweating, shaking, weakness, peeing a lot, diarrhea, 14 pound weight loss, and severe anxiety. My cortisol levels went very high also. This was brought on by three major stressors all at once in my life. I had to stop my thyroid medications and wait it out. Everything has settled down and I am raising my NDT back up slowly. I also have very prominent eyes that are dry and red. This has been an issue for a number of years and seems to be better sometimes than others. I never knew until recently that this could be caused by Hashimoto's in some cases and certainly never suspected Graves'. When I went through the hyper flare, some people on a facebook group said I should have my TSI tested. What do you all think? Could I have Graves', even though everything seems to have settled down now?


Sounds to me like maybe you should be checked for diabetes as well. That aside;yep..........................the strangest things happen w/thyroid.

It may be very wise to get TSI and Trab; perhaps for no other good than to have a "baseline" so improvement or worsening can be detected?

TSI
Normally, there is no TSI in the blood. If TSI is found in the blood, this indicates that the thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin is the cause of the of a person's hyperthyroidism. 
http://www.medicineonline.com/topics/t/2/Thyroid-Stimulating-Immunoglobulin/TSI.html

Trab
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17684583

You may also find this interesting...........
Hashi's and Graves' closely related
http://www.thyroidmanager.org/chapter/hashimotos-thyroiditis/


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## elsie (May 13, 2011)

Thanks for all the input. I had tests run a little over a week into it when I ended up in urgent care with a panic attack, but the blood draw was at a brand new facility near where we had just moved to and they ran just TSH, Free T4, and Total T3. I asked to have TPO and TgAb run, but who knows what happened to those. It took forever to get the results through my NP, so by the time I got them it was too late to try to have them done again. TSH was 0.578 (range 0.358 - 3.740), Free T4 was 0.47 (range 0.76 - 1.46), and Total T3 was 150 (range 72 - 170). This was on no thyroid medications at all for 4 days. My blood glucose that day, not fasting, was 106. I'm going to read up on all this. With having to find a new doctor, I don't know whether to get tested for this now, or wait and see if it happens again. At the time this happened, we had gone through a bankruptcy and foreclosure and a move, and my mother passed away, so I know stress had a lot to do with it and I don't think I will be under that kind of stress again, but you never know. My last appointment with my NP is this Friday, so I will have lab work done then.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

elsie said:


> Thanks for all the input. I had tests run a little over a week into it when I ended up in urgent care with a panic attack, but the blood draw was at a brand new facility near where we had just moved to and they ran just TSH, Free T4, and Total T3. I asked to have TPO and TgAb run, but who knows what happened to those. It took forever to get the results through my NP, so by the time I got them it was too late to try to have them done again. TSH was 0.578 (range 0.358 - 3.740), Free T4 was 0.47 (range 0.76 - 1.46), and Total T3 was 150 (range 72 - 170). This was on no thyroid medications at all for 4 days. My blood glucose that day, not fasting, was 106. I'm going to read up on all this. With having to find a new doctor, I don't know whether to get tested for this now, or wait and see if it happens again. At the time this happened, we had gone through a bankruptcy and foreclosure and a move, and my mother passed away, so I know stress had a lot to do with it and I don't think I will be under that kind of stress again, but you never know. My last appointment with my NP is this Friday, so I will have lab work done then.


Oh, dear..................I am so sorry for all the bumps in the road. Life comes at you fast and is very unfair. I sure hope the pendulum swings the other way for you and your family and soon!


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