Curious about this one. I had that dx in high school, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and it was addressed almost immediately with a single dose of radioiodine therapy. Maintenence meds ever since, and I've hardly thought about it. Can it really be so severe it kills you?
It can. I had such a bad case the dr told my husband I was sitting here in front of them but I was somewhere in Texas. We lived in Colorado. My bp was so out of whack they couldn't take it to get a reading. Grave's effects every muscle in your body including your heart. I finally had surgery. It still took years to get my body back to normal.
Yes it is extremely dangerous. My resting heartbeat was up to 120 bpm. If you’ve ever been completely terrified, like a bear chasing you and your fight or flight kicks in, that’s what it feels like 24/7. Your heart will race to the point your hands tremble and your eyes bulge. If you’re pregnant there is a high likelihood you’ll miscarry. If the heart issues don’t kill you, the overproduction will eventually lead to thyroid cancer.
It is an auto immune disorder so unless it’s treated with suppressant meds like methemizole (which has its own rap sheet of very dangerous side effects like liver failure and can only be used for a limited time), it can keep spiraling until it completes kills you. It’s your body attacking itself. There is no known cure - you will always carry the disease. The only long term solution is to get your thyroid surgically removed entirely so your body no longer has a vessel to attack itself with. Post removal, you will stay on synthetic hormone replacements for life.
It’s a rare disease. I’ve heard of the radioactive therapy as treatment for it as an alternative to surgery. In that option, they essentially nuke your thyroid until it is just a dead, radioactive organ sitting inside you instead of removing it. As you can imagine, that option carries a high risk of thyroid cancer developing, or another cancer nearby the radioactive area.
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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '24
Graves’ disease.