Sarah Downing - I am the face of thyroid disease

[SarahJDowning]

Thanks for understanding. Hypothyroidism fucked up my 20s. Whilst other women went round in bikinis, I felt the need to cover myself up. I was torturing myself about my weight (and so was my boyfriend at the time), but when I found out I was hypo a huge weight of guilt was lifted from me. I had previously felt that I was to blame because no matter what I did I put on weight. When you put on weight despite walking an hour every day and eating healthy, you know that you need to get checked out.

[NKOTB4Eternity]

Go, Sarah! It is so true that people don't have control over their weight with health issues like thyroid disease. We all need to be a little more sensitive and understanding. Thanks for helping to spread awareness and advocate for our fellow thybrethren. :)

[SarahJDowning]

That makes a lot of sense about thyroid storm and is pretty much what I suspected in terms of not everyone reacting well to iodine. For this reason, my sister-in-law's new doc is not doing an ultrasound on her at present as her mother was sensitive to iodine. I have also heard reports that iodine can cause Hashimoto's antibodies to flare. The iodine question is always so controversial though as every doc has a different opinion and it depends very much on the individual.

[viewer652]

In the past, when iodization of the salt have started, the younger patients who had diffuse non-nodular goiters demonstrated shrinking of the thyroids while older patients 35 and over who had nodules developed hyperthyroidism after using the iodized salt

[viewer652]

The upper limit of the normal thyroid volume is established to be 18 cubic cm for females; the average number for the USA is 8 cubic cm (this parameter is measured by the ultrasound)

[viewer652]

The technetium is given (intravenously) while radioactive iodine dose is swallowed a s pill.

The radioactive iodine scan requires longer time, 24 hours in most cases, while technetium scan is performed 30 to 60 minutes after injection and it leaves the body approximately after 6 hours.

If the patient has longstanding multinodular goiter iodine scan can cause hyperthyroidism or thyroid storm in some cases.

[SarahJDowning]

@viewer652: I'd be interested to know why technetium is supposed to be safer than radioactive iodine because I remember the technician telling me that it is radioactive too. Could it be because some thyroid patients have adverse reactions to iodine, with some even being allergic to it? I'd love more details of what is is exactly, assuming you know more.

[viewer652]

Thank you for reply. I actually thought in Germany they are using Technetium as safer alternative to iodine isotope

[SarahJDowning]

@viewer652 I am not super familiar with the scintigram as I haven't studied it in depth and have had it done just twice, but yes you are right - it is called Technetium (I was not familiar with the English term as I have to deal with all my healthcare in German). I always thought that "radioactive iodine" and Technetium were the same thing. Guess I was wrong. As you can imagine, sometimes it can be hard to find the right term in another language for something medical. Are you based in Germany?

[SarahJDowning]

My thyroid doc does one once a year. On diagnosis, one was done to check for nodules, tumours, etc. I also had a radioactive iodine uptake test (scintigram) to rule out thyroid cancer (pretty standard test here in Germany). My doctor does extensive blood tests (including my thyroid levels - antibodies, TSH, free T3/free T4) at least every three months. The original inflammation has decreased considerably and my thyroid almost looks normal now.

[viewer652]

How often do you need to have thyroid ultrasound?