overactive thyriod and treatment

i'm in week 18 and was diagnosed with hyperactive thyroid yesterday.  the GI said he hated to take me off treatment and made me an appt with an endo doctor for next week.  my question is has anybody continued treatment and remained hyper thyriod?  He said hyper is harder to treat than hypo.

[ksk3926]

During treatment my throid went hyper- and then hypo- and a year and a half after treatment my thyroid still hasn't come back. Have you been eating more lately? For the few weeks that mine was hyper I ate like a maniac, and then poof my appetitie and thyroid went away. I take synthroid now and my numbers are normal again. I have not ever heard of anyone stopping treatment due to a thyroid condition. Kathy

[annekynch]

thanks for the post.  that is very good to hear.  nygirl also went from hyper to hypo.  i eat like there's no tomorrow.  

[nygirl7]

We don't usually go off of treatment - in fact I can't remember anybody who has because of it. I was as hyper as you could be at 0.0 and I would have belted the doctor who tried to take me off!!!!!!!   ;)

It is really most common to go from hyper to hypo.  Unfortunately with that - you can't eat anything you want anymore and I LOVED LOVED LOVED that!   :)

I've been off treatment for a yaer and mine didn't come back either.

You can just put a giant DITTO mark for me and Kathy's answers here Anne.

But the good news is - you won't have to go off treatment.

[cruelworld]

whether you discontinue or not is based on your decision to accept the loss of your
thyroid as a part of treatment if you happen to lose it. since its probably hard to figure your odds on  losing it, my guess it that you have a 25% to 50% chance depending on exposure. from what nygirl says the percentage of lost thyroids may be much higher than my guess.
im quitting early because i dont want to lose it. im not bothering going to the endo yet
because im quitting soon and i dont beleive they can help me to save it anyway (so long as i keep treating)  im hoping it will return to normal after treatment, my hep doc has already given me synthroid. im in such bad shape from treatment i cant tell if its helping or not.

[annekynch]

sorry to hear that you are in bad shape.  i was hanging on before this thyroid business.  now it's unbearable.  i feel as though i can't go on  with the treatment another 30 weeks.  my sx have become much worse.  i hope that the synthroid begins to make you feel better  I'm bettig it will.

[JRenquist]

I've had the same experience as ksk and nygirl - my drs (not the current one) said it was very unusual. Good to know I'm not alone.  I treated a LONG time ago- maybe 6 yrs -and my thyroid numbers went all over the place, then stayed hypo.  I've been taking synthroid since then.  Thought the only good part of being on therapy would be getting thinner, but I still can't lose the weight I gained.  It's worth it though; even though the treatment failed, I feel better now and my liver is in better shape than before I treated.  Good luck to you - I'm glad that you (anne) are taking the time to think this through.  S.

[cruelworld]

dont quit treatment yet based on feeling bad.  your extra side effects may not be 100%
attributable to thyroid problems. you will experience huge side effect fluctuations just from the inf/riba combo alone. hopefully your thyroid will settle into hypo soon and be easier to manage.

[annekynch]

hey cruelworld  

thanks for the well wishes.  my doc paniced when he saw the numbers. then i did.   I don't think he realized that a fluctuation was possible.  This community has way more expeience than he has but i don't have the energy to switch doctors.  I feel better now and it's because I've learned the ins and outs of thyroid and interferon.  My frriends on this  forum are  worth their weight in gold.

anne