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Thyroid Disorders Community
This patient support community is for discussions relating to thyroid issues, goiter, Graves disease, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Human Growth Hormone (HGH), hyperthyroid, hypothyroid, metabolism, pituitary gland, cancers, thyroiditis, and thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH).
Graves Disease?
by Sledbet, Jan 28, 2008 06:48PM
Hi there!
Kind of a long story but I have always had tachycardia. My TSH has run .2-.4 for the past 10yrs. I recently developed tremors. During my last pregnancy I went Hyperthyroid tot he point of being put on PTU. When my son was born my numbers went back closer to normal and I was removed from the PTU.
Recently my thyroid has enlarged and not gone down so I was referred back to the endocrinologist who ordered an u/s that showed 9 nodules. My TSH at this time was .3. I had a RAI Uptake that showed a cold nodule (2.5cm) and the uptake measured at 65% (normal being 24%) suggestive of graves disease. Following that was a FNA of the large goiter, which today came back normal.
My latest blood tests showed a TSH (my highest ever) of .5. My free t3/t4 were perfect.
My dr is telling me that my tremors and tachycardia, exhaustion, foggy brain, are not related to my thyroid, but that I AM in an inactive stage of Graves Disease and that it will eventually become active. He said that I need to be aware if I am ill of thyroid storm symptoms. I still have the multinodular enlarged thyroid.
How valid is an Uptake scan at determining Graves? He felt a TSI was not real necessary since the thyroid hormones were all within normal ranges at this time, but we would retest in 3months and he wants me to go see a cardiologist.
Any thoughts on this? I know TSH levels are pretty good indicators, but i've run borderline Hyper (being tested every 6mo) for the past 10yrs.
Thanks in advance!
p.s. a couple of side notes that may or may not be related- when I drink a couple of glasses of alcohol, my HR jumps to 160+ about 3 hrs later. I had one episode of Sinus Tachycardia 8.5yrs ago. The tremors are always there, sometimes much worse than others, and I have a lot of muscle weakness.
Kind of a long story but I have always had tachycardia. My TSH has run .2-.4 for the past 10yrs. I recently developed tremors. During my last pregnancy I went Hyperthyroid tot he point of being put on PTU. When my son was born my numbers went back closer to normal and I was removed from the PTU.
Recently my thyroid has enlarged and not gone down so I was referred back to the endocrinologist who ordered an u/s that showed 9 nodules. My TSH at this time was .3. I had a RAI Uptake that showed a cold nodule (2.5cm) and the uptake measured at 65% (normal being 24%) suggestive of graves disease. Following that was a FNA of the large goiter, which today came back normal.
My latest blood tests showed a TSH (my highest ever) of .5. My free t3/t4 were perfect.
My dr is telling me that my tremors and tachycardia, exhaustion, foggy brain, are not related to my thyroid, but that I AM in an inactive stage of Graves Disease and that it will eventually become active. He said that I need to be aware if I am ill of thyroid storm symptoms. I still have the multinodular enlarged thyroid.
How valid is an Uptake scan at determining Graves? He felt a TSI was not real necessary since the thyroid hormones were all within normal ranges at this time, but we would retest in 3months and he wants me to go see a cardiologist.
Any thoughts on this? I know TSH levels are pretty good indicators, but i've run borderline Hyper (being tested every 6mo) for the past 10yrs.
Thanks in advance!
p.s. a couple of side notes that may or may not be related- when I drink a couple of glasses of alcohol, my HR jumps to 160+ about 3 hrs later. I had one episode of Sinus Tachycardia 8.5yrs ago. The tremors are always there, sometimes much worse than others, and I have a lot of muscle weakness.
Post Comment
An Uptake is done in conjunction with thyroid levels.
A high uptake may indicate that hyperthyroidism is caused by Graves' disease, Toxic multinodular goiter (Plummer disease), Toxic adenoma, or early stages of Hashi. Therefore, thyroid levels are the prevailing diagnose and Graves' diagnosed treatment level is TSH 0.1 or less. Your doctor is correct in retesting in three months.
GL,
January is Thyroid Awareness Month, a month when various organizations put together informational efforts to help us all learn more about thyroid disease here in the U.S.
January is National Graves Disease Awareness Month
National Graves' Disease Awareness Week 1/7 thr 1/13