First of all I would like to agree with the poster that suggested
        that too much thyroid hormones (or whatever) is no fun at all.
        I am a recovering {*filter*} smoker with three and a half years clean
        and recently been diagnosed with Graves disease.  At the worst of
        the effects it feels like coming down from {*filter*} high but even
        worse.  Anxiety, nervouseness, insomnia, sweatty hands and feet,
        micro tremor of the fingertips and a general feeling of malaise
        are just the general most common of symptoms.  In my case I had
        PAT (tachycardia of +/- 300/min ) and felt like a total basket
        case constantly.

        {*filter*}tests, ultrasound, Thyroid uptake nuclear scan and EKG's later
        I am now on 20 mg of Inderal every 3 hours and 100mg of
        Propylthiouracil (thyroid suppressant) every 8 hours.  I have been
        on them for 3 days now and I am barely starting to peel myself off
        the walls but I can hardly discribe the relief.

        In two weeks of this treatment I must decide wether to have my throid
        gland ablated radioactively (take a radioactive iodine solution
        orally to burn it out) and then be on thyrocil for the rest of my
        life or stay on a variation of the present regimen.  

        My questions are: Have there been any authoritive studies that show
        (prove) that the radiation taken doesn't affect other organs?
        Are there side-effects I need to be aware of for either method?
        Are there any online resources? (I don't have access to medline)
        The suppressants taste awful what does thyrosil taste like?

        I would also like any information on the cause of Graves.  I heard
        Bush his wife and the dog were all diagnosed at the same time. Is
        stress a factor for genetically predisposed?

        Thank you for taking the time to respond to these ramblings. I
        am no longer so desperate but still aprehesive about my future
        health condition and would like some outside input.

        Thanks again;  Juan Gascon.

Hi Juan,

I opted for the radio-iodine treatment.  At the time I was having
to take a huge dose of PTU and the stuff tastes absolutely vile.
Since I was only given a 10-15% chance of remission from Graves I
decided to quite the PTU and just get it over with.

After the radio iodine treatment I was taken off of PTU until my
thyroid dissolved and I became hypo-thyroid.  So again I had to
suffer with some hyperness while my thyroid was dying and then
I had to suffer with the opposite for a little while.  (Tell the
truth, I kind of liked being hypo-thyroid.  It was a nice switch
from being hyper...).

We had to futz around for a while to get the correct synthroid
dose, but I'm as good as new now!  Maybe even better.

My endocrinologist told me the radio-iodine was very short-lived
and would be equivalent to, I think he said, three chest-xrays.
After I took the stuff, I looked up some friends that had a
giger counter and we measured my radio-activity.  It was rather
fun!  We also looked the radio-iodine up (I131) on a table to
find it's half-life.  I think it was maybe 2-3 days.
--

I forgot to answer a few of your questions:

I don't know, but my endocrinologist assured me that while it was
a good deal of radiation in a short time period, I wouldn't be
in danger from it.  Said it was safer than surgery.

Nope.  The only side-effect I had was a long wait for the radiologist
to prepare the pill.  They just take this heavy pill out of a lead
container and watch you swallow it.  You aren't supposed to sleep with
anyone for a couple of nights and you're supposed to be careful around
small children.  I wouldn't let my cat sit on my lap while I was the
most radioactive.

I take syntroid and it's sweet tasting.  Nothing like that AWFUL
PTU!

My endo said they didn't really know but he mentioned stress might
be a factor.

Can you imagine that the President of the US was suffering from the
effects of hyperthyroidism?  Wow!  It's a wonder he didn't get us
into a war... oh wait, he did!
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