Questions about Overactive Thyroid

Hi everyone,

I had a couple of questions. I myself do not suffer from an overactive thyroid but my dad used to. I myself have always had a biggish neck mainly around my thyroid area, my friends and everyone have never noticed it and I never did untill doctors began to point it out and would always test my thyroid but it was always normal. My neck has been this way since I remember being 10 years old (I am now 23). Now because my dad used to suffer from an overactive thyroid I thought its a good idea for me to get test every so often as it can be hereditary. So I asked my dad a couple of weeks ago what kind of thyroid problem he suffered from and and he told me, I then said was that from Grave's disease. And he sounded a little confused and said no thats not related. I didn't know what he was saying but just assumed it was. So when I went to the doctors I asked them to test me for Graves and test my thryoids as my regular check up was due.

So I have been assumming that I am someone who is prone to getting Graves disease as my dad has it and I am female (as females are more likely) and because my neck has always been kinda big in that area. But then the other day when with my family my older brother asked how my dad was and if he thyroid levels have been normal etc (because my dad doesn't live with us we don't see him too often, thats why my brother asked him this question). My dad said yeah its fine, I haven't had problems in 10 years. And I said, thats good your Graves disease hasn't affected you that much. He looked confused again and said my graves doesn't affect my thyroid. And said it does and he said the doctors never told me that. And then he said \"Ohh I just remembered I don't have Graves disease, I have gilberts syndrome (something that is generally harmless and has been passed down to my 2 brothers and not connected to the thyroid gland), I always get confused because once when I saw the doctor in the hospital he used me as an example to his medical students and said \"here we have someone with an overactive thyroid disorder and we THINK he may have graves disease as he eyes buldge very little\". My dad said as soon as he heard him say graves disease he thought 'Oh my god I never knew I had that and I thought my eyes were normal'. So my dad automatically had it in his head he had graves disease. So when he went to the doctors sometime in the future when they went to do blood tests on him he used to say \"oh just to warn you I have graves disease so that may show up\" and they used to say \"No you don't, you have Gilberts syndrome and an overactive thyroid, not graves disease\". So my dad said he has always got the two confused.

Now basically I don't know if what my dad is saying is right or whether he's confused himself and he does actually have graves disease. Isn't graves disease the cause of an overactive thyroid problem, or can you just have an overactive thyroid. And also if my dad did have graves disease would he for sure know about it. Would doctors also test him for this if he had a over active thyroid problem? And would it be something he remembers? Also would he had suffered from more health problems because of it? Because he told me when he was first diganoised with an overactive thyroid he took some medication for about 8 months it was not Radioiodine it was something else, his levels then went back to normal and he hasn't had any problems since (which has been 10 years). Also his eyes never buldged as that doctor in the hospital thought it had, he's always had big eyes, infact they look quite nice, and my sister has those eyes.

So I am just wondering if you guys think its possible he just has an overactive thyroid disorder and not graves disease? If he did have graves disease would that be something he would definetly know about?

And one more question, do you think if I have always had a big neck around where my thyroid gland does that mean I am going to have thyroid problems?

Sorry for such a long a story, I am just kind of confused :-S

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