Apparently, methimazole is only designed to be used very short term.  Results will show at about 18 months.  If they don’t show up by 18 months, chances are you aren’t going to see promising results.  The success rate is less than 50%, with some sources citing only a 20% or 30% success rate.  I was on it for 22 months.  My thyroid hormone finally got to normal.  I got off the drug, and my thyroid has started to increase its hormones.  My Grave’s Disease is back.

Long term use of methimazole leads to side effects like low white blood cell counts (that can’t be good).  Leaving Grave’s unchecked can mean nasty things to your body, like potential heart failure because of the fast heart beat.  People used to die from Grave’s Disease, an autoimmune disorder, but not today.  Now I have been rereading my choices.  Surgery (not necessary for my condition), radioactive iodine ablation, or medicine (now ruled out since it’s been tried and did not work).  So, now I am choosing to pursue the ablation, or as my husband and I like to call it, “Nuking my thyroid.”  Granted, the levels of radiation are miniscule compared to that given to cancer patients – but I still don’t like this choice.

This choice hardly seems sustainable.  Why would someone willingly use radiation to fix themselves?  Isn’t there a homeopathic cure?  Well, my insurance doesn’t cover alternative medicine.  So, we couldn’t afford the option even if there was.

I know the choices, I’ve read them, searched them.  They haven’t changed for 40 years.  Which, I suppose, brings us to another question, “Why haven’t the choices changed in 40 years?”  Are we stuck in the dark ages still that we kill things to fix things by surgery or radiation?  Isn’t there another way?

So, now I chose to make a reservation on the coast for two nights.  Thankfully, it’s in November, so the rates are lower.  I may have to reschedule, Nuke Med still hasn’t called back.

• OHSU Thyroid Replacement Therapy
• Radioactive Iodine Treatment