I’ve been hyper thyroid for about 10 years. Suddenly, the meds aren’t working and doctor says I have to have my thyroid killed.
I’m kinda freaking out over this.
I understand that I will go from eating 4000 calories a day just to keep the wieght on to hypo which will mean that I’ll gain 5 lbs by eating a piece of celery.
How long will it take to get my new meds working?
From what I’ve read, I won’t want to get out of bed in the morning when I’m hypo. How will I motivate myself?
Am I just freaking out over nothing? I’d take nice pats on the head…calm down, Flatty…you will just be able to read without the lights on for a couple of days.
I had it done a few years ago. It doesn’t hurt. It takes maybe a few months to get the dose just right, but I didn’t notice feeling any different. And yes, your magical ability to keep the weight off will disappear, but you won’t swell up like a dog tick if you eat sensibly and get some excercise.
My SIL had to have it done a year or so ago. She takes meds that are supposed to replace thyroid function, and she looks healthy and eats food. (She also had a baby recently, though, so YMMV).
Two sisters, my nephew and I have all had our thyroids surgically removed. One sister and the nephew also had radiation to kill theirs. We are all on thyroid replacement hormone, one simple pill taken in the morning. They have to fiddle around with the dosage a bit until they get it where it’s supposed to be, and then you’ll be checked annually, or if you don’t feel right. It’s no big deal.
Get a second opinion from a different doc, and a neurologist if needed. A family member was about to get hers removed because she was having debilitating symptoms - doc said it was Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis - sounds mean and icky. She took the meds for a year with mixed results. She then went to the same doc and he was gone, so she saw his vacation replacement…this doc pulled her meds immediately, and set her up with an appointment with another doc.
In the end, she changed her diet and exercise routine and the original doc was fined for a misdiagnosis to support his research in guess what? Hashimoto’s.
So, just get a second opinion, Thyroid issues can be mistaken for very curable ailments.
Get a second opinion. Lost my thyroid and parathyroids to papillary carcinoma a couple years ago. Thyroid hormone replacement pills taken once per day are not an adequate substitute for your body’s own self-adjusting, ever-changing thermostat. I don’t want to share a personal horror story here, but if I had the same diagnosis again, I would give my body a chance to fight the tumor rather than lose a vital, dynamic organ.
Unless your life is in danger due to some malignancy, please find another doc who doesn’t mind helping you keep up with your body’s changing needs for thyroid hormone.
Agree with the advice to get a second opinion before having your thyroid killed. FYI, I had half my thyroid removed because I had a nodule on the left hand. The surgeon was going to remove the entire thing just as a standard course of action, but I asked questions and argued to keep the unaffected half, if possible. He agreed and ive been functioning fine with the remaining half. I’m not on any medications as my tests have all shown that my levels are within normal range. But had I not argued for it, he’d have just taken the whole thing Nd I’d have had to take synthroid the rest of my life.
Thanks everyone for the replies. I would agree that getting a second opinion would be a good thing, but I’ve already had them. When a 23 year old woman presents complianing of sudden weight loss and problems sleeping, it must be because she is using meth, right? And when she passes the drug tests, it must be an eating disorder. Once I got started on the correct meds, I could feel that it was right.
My doctor, who is not the one who first diagnosed me, has passed me off to a specialist. I’m in a very rural area, so major things like this go to the big city.
Troppus thank you for not sharing horror stories. I was dumb enough to start looking online about them. I slept under the bed last night!
If you’re Isaac Asimov, you can have the surgery done, pay for it, and then write an article about it which will earn you more than you paid for the surgery. Asimov noted that when one is about to get one’s throat cut open, it is NOT a good idea to recite a silly little poem that sends the doctor into a fit of giggles, no matter HOW good the drugs are.
That said, you should be feeling MUCH better after the procedure – you’ll be taking thyroid replacement which can be tricky but you should not be suffering full-fledged symptoms of hypothyroidism.
Your appetite should adjust itself to the metabolism change, so you will likely gain weight at first but you should level off at your natural weight. It is not a given that you will have a tendency to become overweight.
Lynn’s post above mentions surgery, but these days it is much more common to destroy the thyroid using a radioactive iodine pill.
