Graves Symptoms after Total Thyroidectomy.

[Nevfirechick]

Hi All,

I stumbled across this site, thanks for being here.  I was diagnosed with Graves Disease in 2003 and opted for total thyroidectomy once they found cold nodules in my uptake scans. Biopsy revealed that I had papillary cancer in addition to Graves. RAI treatment went well and I was declared cancer free in 2008.  I now have questions after 7 years regarding the Graves.  Once the cancer was found all my doc talked about was the cancer, Graves was pushed to the side and we treated and talked about only the cancer.  I foolishly believed that once my thyroid was gone I would not have to worry about the Graves and never asked much more about it.  After some other issues with that doc, I ended up leaving him and going to another doc...who also focused on the cancer.  Graves was never brought up in detail again and I honestly have not been back to my Endo in 2 years and have allowed my GP to monitor my thyroid levels.

Within the past 2 months I have begun having some of the same issues I had pre-Graves diagnosis.  I have the racing heart rate, sensitivities to some foods that will trigger not feeling well, and anxiety like you wouldnt believe.  Our family has been under and incredible amount of stress, a death in the family, my husband losing his extremely good paying job which in turn cause kids to act up, stress at work, etc.  I went to my GP and she diagnosed anxiety  after running blood tests and put me on xanax and propranolol.  While that helped, I continued to have breakthroughs with the racing heart, began throwing PVC's and overall not feeling well.  I went back to the GP who insisted it was all anxiety related, nothing cardiac or thyroid related.   A few weeks ago I began showing signs of cardiac issues and was transported to the hospital.  They monitored me for 4 hours and released me.  I didnt see the ER doc until I was being discharged.  He said it was something I was doing to myself, said I was bradycardic and didnt see any signs of my normal tachycardia (of course, I was laying still and on propranolol.)  I am not sure if he even looked at my ECG.  I received copies of some of my ECGs when I was discharged and was directed to follow up with my GP.  I let a paramedic friend of mine as well as my GP look at them and they see a delta wave on my QRS complex and they both think I have Wolff-Parkinson-Whites syndrome (the delta wave is a primary indicator of WPW).  I see the cardiologist this weeks and I hope to get the final diagnosis.

Anyway, long story long, what are the chances that some of this could be Graves related?  The sudden issues with food is my primary question.  (After researching WPW I understand a lot of the other symptoms I am having are also strong indicators for WPW.)  When I eat the same certain items that would cause issues when I still had my thyroid are again causing issues, particularly foods that have high sodium, which I have tried to avoid since my initial Graves diagnosis and have continued to do so but would give in every now and again.  I do plan on asking at my appt. this week but am also anxious about it and am just trying to get some info earlier (it may trigger some other questions to ask).  

Sorry for the long post, but I figured I would try to answer questions before they were asked.  Thanks for any information you all could give.

[Smilerdeb]

Its a BIG possibility as even though Hyperthyroidism was treated ...the Graves antibodys can flare up under illness and stress and can make the levels unstable.
Usually once the stress/illness subsides, the antibodys usually lay dormant again.

But in the meantime...the levels can go either hypo or hyper and a thyroid panel needs to be done ..FT3, FT4 and TSH .

I have gone hypo a few times this year due to extreme stress (death in the family too).
My FT3 plummetted causing chronic uticaria (Hives)resulting in anaphalaxix .
This is all under control now but wasnt nice to deal with.

Also may a med increase/decrease is in order and a thyroid panel would tell you this.