Grave's disease?

[Bernadine]

Anyone have experience? My sister was just diagnosed. The dr. is recommending radioactive iodine treatment, but my mom is wondering if it's better to go ahead and remove the thyroid.  They left a message with the diagnosis (wtf?), so my sister is waiting for someone to call her back.

[mekia]

My mom had her thyroid removed along with the iodine treatment. I can't remember if it was because of Grave's disease though.

MIL has the disease and she just needs to take medication to keep it under control. Without medication, she gets fatigued.

So I'm going to guess it'll vary for each person. Thinking of your sister.

[MeMyselfandI]

My cousin has Graves and Hoshimotos. She currently medicates to control it.

[Deleted]

First off your sister needs a new Endocrinologist who doesn't leave voice mails like that.
As someone who has had part of their thyroid removed and is now dealing with issues, I would exhaust all other options before removing any of the thyroid or doing radioactive iodine treatment. It's a really important organ!!!
Anti-thyroid medications should be the FIRST step. Since Grave's is an autoimmune disorder, it's possible to go into remission and by removing/destroying the thyroid you could then switch to hypo which is also bad. I would direct your sister to the American Thyroid Association so she can be fully informed.

[weetabix]

Sept 15, 2016 12:35:49 GMT -5 @lemonlover said:

First off your sister needs a new Endocrinologist who doesn't leave voice mails like that.
As someone who has had part of their thyroid removed and is now dealing with issues, I would exhaust all other options before removing any of the thyroid or doing radioactive iodine treatment. It's a really important organ!!!
Anti-thyroid medications should be the FIRST step. Since Grave's is an autoimmune disorder, it's possible to go into remission and by removing/destroying the thyroid you could then switch to hypo which is also bad. I would direct your sister to the American Thyroid Association so she can be fully informed.

Absolutely this. I don't go here, but I was diagnosed with Graves over 10 years ago and have been in remission for the last 8 (with the caveat that my levels do still swing a bit into the sub-clinical hypo and hyper ranges from time to time). Anecdotally, I achieved remission with only anti-thyroid meds, and did not need to go through with radioactive iodine or surgery.

[niki]

My husband has Graves and did iodine. We wish we would've researched more before doing it. He will be on meds forever. Doing fine but still, he will be zombie bait in the apocalypse.

[dragon's breath]

I have Grave's. We started with the anti-thyroid pill, but I was allergic to it (broke out in hives and a severe rash for days). Because of that, we did the radioactive iodine. Something had to be done, my pulse rate (at rest) was 120, my hands would shake constantly, and my legs felt like jello after going up ten steps (when before I would run up 9 flights of stairs easily).

I now have to take a thyroid supplement daily, and get my blood tested every year to see if my dose needs adjusted. It's a pain, but doable.

[cookiemdough]

I have Graves' disease and I tried to control it with medication before moving to radioactive iodine. Meds alone didn't work and I had the radioactive iodine around 15 years ago. I have been taking synthroid with no problems since then. Slight adjustments during pregnancy etc but otherwise fine. I would try meds first though.