p lease advisere RAI

Hello Corena,

Welcome, most of us are on graves part 4 thread. Sorry to hear youre not great at present. It's completely your call wether you have RAI but if there's a chance that you could safely be controlled without I know I wouldn't. I had it in APril this year and can state that the concept is much scarier than the reality. However it is not an exact science and going very underactive afterwards is no walk in the park. You should be told there is a big risk that might happen. My thyroid has zero output now and I take synthetic thyroxine daily but don't seem panicky these days.

Good luck with it.

Jane x

Sorry,

It's graves part 3 but no doubt will be 4 in due course.

Re the test, I think they can tell from blood tests but I had die injected into my arm and a scan on my neck ad well.

Jane

Hi Corena. Welcome to the forum from me too. If you come over onto Graves part 4 we can all join in.

As Jane says at the end of the day you have to decide yourself whether to go for RAI. If you go into remission you could be lucky and the Graves might not flare up again, but if this is a recurrence then there's a good chance it will recur again. I had treatment with Carbimazole 40 years ago, and I was fine until last year when I had a lot of stress and it flared up again. I was really ill and decided that RAI was the way to go. Having the treatment is no big deal, I just had to swallow a capsule. I can remember wondering what all the fuss was about. My endo put me on block and replace which means he gave me enough Carbimazole to stop my thyroid working and Thyroxine at the same which meant he could keep my thyroxine levels steady.

After the RAI I had to go back on it as my levels went up again, but it meant I didn't go underactive. I have thyroid eye disease and going underactive would have made it worse.

If you do have RAI it will take time before you feel ok. It's a year since I had it, and I'm feeling fine., but it's taken nearly all that time for my blood levels to become normal. I do tire easily. If I just plod along from day to day I feel fine, but yesterday we had a busy day and last night I was so tired I felt sick.

I'm on 50 mcgs of thyroxine daily which is a low dose, so I must still be producing some thyroxine.I hope this has helped and not made you more confused. :D

Take care,

Marigold.

Hi Corena and welcome,i had RAi in march this year i too was worried but it was okay ,no need to worry ,all the gravers on here helped each other through with it,so you wont be alone ,when the others come online Marigold Jane and KAT that have already had rai will also help so dont worry .. take care love sue xx

Thank you all for your help and I know I will have support. I must have to think long and hard about having RAI. Can anyone please tell me how long people can be on Carbimazola? Just 5 and 7.5 on alternate days now.

Thank you all again

Hello Corena, I have been on Carbimazole for almost 18 months now and my GP is weaning me off it and then see what happens. I think generally 1 year to 18 months is the maximum time most people are on it, I suppose at a much higher dose, you would take it for perhaps up to a year. Others may have more info about this. I have had no problems with taking it except a bit of weight gain (at least I'm blaming it on the medication!). Hope you ok today.

Love to all, will post again soon, in a rush as usual !

Bess xx