I was treated with RIA less than a week ago. I was reading your comments and I identified with your fears about having my thyroid nuked. Having had my symptoms reappear following medication, I went with a low of RIA. Since your comments a couple of years ago, I am wondering what course you pursued, how you are today and if you are satisfied with the outcome. Thank you.
do you happen to know if the thyroid replacements you mention are also commonly used in Europe? Here I only ever have heard of Thyrax...was not that happy with it when I had to use that, they never managed to get my levels stable for more then a couple of days...
The thyroid hormone replacement medication after RAI or surgery,
levothyroxine Synthroid , Unithroid, Levoxyl and Levothroid thyroid hormone are not a chemical meant to trick our system in any way. It is not toxic like other medications since it is made the same as our naturally occurring thyroid hormone. ATDs are another matter.
Thanks for your advice. Here (Europe) they do usually try and gauge how much of your thyroid should be annihilated with RAI (learning all the acronyms!) instead of destroying your whole thyroid. The idea of being on synthetic hormones though after that scares me and makes me worried that I will never feel "normal" again (although I certainly don't feel normal now!!)...I do a lot of sports and my metabolism obviously is important to my recovery and overall health. Anyhow, it helps hearing some good things about RAI, it does seem there is not much else apart from surgery that can help get this under control....
There are only 3 standard treatments for hyperactivity that I have ever heard about - treatment with drugs (tapazole is one), RAI as your doctor suggested or total thyroidectomy.
They drug treatment is usually only tried for a year or so to see if the thyroid settles down and begins normal thyroid hormone production. The drugs have some side effects which need to be watched for. RAI "kills" the thyroid by absorbing the radioactive iodine. Chances are after RAI, just like after TT, you will be on lifelong replacement therapy with synthetic thyroid hormones. I know others have sought out natural, non-medical remedies, but I have not read of any that were successful or widely used.
I was hyperactive with Graves Disease, treated with drugs for a little over a year, then had a thyroidectomy. The TT was the best choice for me, and one of the best things I ever did for my health. Understanding that what is best for me might not be best for others, I wish you good luck with your decision.
There are only three treatment options.
ATDs which control thyroid hormone production -- they offer no cure of the disease and can take up to two years to get levels back to normal with a failure rate of 70%. ATDs "foreign" to the body, and the by-products of these drugs metabolization in the liver are toxic. As the liver slows down, or becomes less efficient those toxic
by-products can build up, leading to problems. One of these problems involves damage to the liver itself.
RAI - radioactive iodine treatment usually is a non-event, meaning that one feels nothing unusual. One may get a slight sore throat several days later. One may feel extremely HYPER within a week of having RAI due to the mass dumping of excess thyroid hormones.
RAI has a faster success rate of effectiveness from 2 weeks up to 6 to 12 months, with most cases the destruction of thyroid cells is completed by then. Some doctors try to adjust the dose of radioactive iodine to destroy only enough of the thyroid gland to bring its hormone production back to normal, without reducing thyroid function too much; others use a larger dose to completely destroy the thyroid. Most of the time, people who undergo this treatment must take thyroid hormone replacement therapy for the rest of their lives.
Concern that radioactive iodine may cause cancer has never been confirmed. Several studies have examined the long term follow-up of patients treated with radioactive iodine for hyperthyroidism shows the long term safety is excellent, with no excess cancer mortality after decades of follow-up.
Surgery - Normally the last option and more evasive than the other two options. Has same rate of effectiveness as RAI. There will be some thyroid tissue left behind due to how it is situated to other organs such as voice box and parathyroid's, to which there might be a little thyroid activity left, but still will eventually need to be placed on thyroid hormone medication as with RAI. There is a chance for the thyroid to grow back.
Hope this helps - so much to this there is no time right now to go father into this.
Good Luck with your decision.