Jo’s Cafe

Unstable Thyroid Can Cause Major Problems

BALTIMORE — People who have an overactive or underactive thyroid can have significant problems.

Yup — been there, done that … for how many years I don’t know actually.

Classic symptoms of Graves’ disease include unexplained weight loss, fatigue, a racing heart or heart palpitations, feeling short of breath, skin changes, hair loss, eye changes and depression.

1 - Unexplained Weight Loss - No
2 - Fatigue - Yes
3 - Racing Heart - Yes, spent the night in the ER one time thinking I was having a heart attack. My thyroid wasn’t checked, but they said my heart was okay. Go figure - it was a military hospital.
4. Heart Palpitations - See #3.
5. Feeling short of breath - Yes.
6. Skin changes - No.
7. Hair loss - No.
8. Eye changes - Yes
9. Depression - Yes, mainly due to #2, #3 and #4. I couldn’t sleep, therefore I was fatigued, and then came depression due to lack of sleep.

The lady in the linked story is having Radioactive Iodine Treatments to get rid of her thyroid. That’s what I did. The doctors told me that my condition was so bad that I was looking at a massive heart attack within 6 months.

Two weeks after treatment I noticed a “marked” difference in how I felt. I was sleeping, therefore, I wasn’t as fatigued and the depression was lifting.

The only think I would warn the lady in the story about would be having an idiot doctor that will fail to treat her properly afterward. But that’s for another post.

If you think you have a thyroid problem, go here @ About.com.