Hi all,
I'm scheduled to have a blood test for hyperthyroid after feeling pretty certain for a couple years that I have it. I am however, a little nervous that if I do have it, that treatment will be a nightmare. Are there side effects? Or did it make you feel any better? Any opinions welcome
Thank you!
It all depends on what treatment you get but from my experience a run away thyroid is very much worse than the treatment. Eventually mine had to come out and while that does limit future activities slightly, its a no brainer if you have a real issue. I had lots of pills and carried on much as before although eventually the doc said no more or they might cause problems, so I had to have the thing removed. The worst part were the regular blood tests - used to feel like a pin cushion :-(
Unless yours is really bad, it is likely to be a few pills each day - don't worry unduly - its doable :-)
Your doctor will usually do tests that not only diagnose hyperthyroidism but determine the cause, i.e. is it due to a viral thyroid inflammation or due to an autoimmune disease like Graves or Hashimoto’s? Depending on how elevated your thyroid labs are, usually you are given thyroid hormone blocking drugs as a first step but most docs will really push for you to have radiation or surgery and then replace thyroid hormone with Synthroid. The thyroid blocking drugs are usually tolerated well in lower dosages but if your labs require you to take a higher dosage, you may find them more difficult to tolerate. What I found for me was that taking supplements as well as the prescribed medical treatment, allowed me to lower my dosage of drugs more rapidly and helped me to feel better quicker. Also if you need to start on a high drug dosage, this well help to lower the dosage you need to take as well as replace lost vitamins, minerals and amino acids due to the hyperthyroidism. Your doc won’t know about the supplements but there is plenty of information on them online and even on this site. Keep us posted on your progress.
With the meds I started feeling better but I still have symptoms that are very unpleasant. At lease when the tests confirmed I had hyperthyroidism I had an answer instead if knowing something was wrong but not knowing what. Wish you the best!