Hyperthroid?

Gosh I haven't been on this board in such a long time!

Anyone else devloped hyperthyroid post bypass?

I am seven months out and have just been diagnosed with hyperthroid which is making me drop weight like crazy and making it hard to stay on my eating plan. Getting enough calories and protien in is rough because my metobolic rate is just super high and I am losing three to four pounds a day and I HATE it. 

I had gotten to a point two months ago were I had hit a nice routien in my post WLS life...that sweet spot where I knew what I could and could not tolerate, was eating the right things, weight was coming off steady had past my stalls and was down 100 pounds and in a 12 from a 28. Now I am dropping dangerous muscle mass and the doc wont let me work out (something I WAS doing 5x a week) and I am having to up my fat intake and everything feels backwards.

I have not had trouble since my RNY, but I had Graves Disease back in 1989 and dropped 100 pounds in about 5 months because my thyroid was so out of whack.  There are several medications thaey can put you on to try to  correct the thyroid levels (propylthiouracil is the one I used) or thay can "burn" out part of your thyroid with radioactive iodine.  Because you have had the RNY, though, you may need to eat a full meal  (not just a snackl) every couple of hours in order to not drop to a dangerously low weight, and your doctors may need to take action more quickly than they would with non-RNY patients.

Lora

I got in with an endo really quickly and I have an uptake and scan to find out if it is graves or the big C tomorrow/tuesday (as you are aware I am sure its a two day thing). I was really disheartened because I went to a support group meeting and when I tried to talk about it two of the women rolled their eyes at me and chastised me for complaining about losing weight. Sigh.

Although some may envy the rapid weight loss, when your thyroid levels are that high for a significant amount of time, it also carries with it some severe symptoms: I had constant nervousness and physical shaking (I could not hold a cup that was more than half full without spilling it), voice tremors, extreme muscle weakness (I could not climb a flight of stairs without stopping), memory problems, and disruption of normal brain processes (I would have trouble completing thoughts, my ability to make reational decisions was impaired, and would sometimes say things that made no sense whatsoever). NOTHING to be envied about all of that!

It also can result in eye bulging ("Graves Opthamology", which may become permanent (e.g. Barbara Bush, wife of President George HW Bush).

I'm glad you are getting prompt attention.  Will you let me know what they find?

Lora

Only 1% of patients with Thyroid issues end up having Cancer. If it is Graves- then they most likey put you on meds and may give you a low dose of radioactive iodine to slow down the thyroid, though in many cases the dose actually kills the thyroid sort of speak and you end up hypothyroid- which also has its own set of nuances.

I hope they start a treatment for you soon because it is not just the rapid weight loss that can be a problem, you can also develop cardiac arythmia (sp?) amoung other dangerous conditions.

I was diagnosed with Graves in 08- had no nodules at that point, just a real stubborn hyperactive thyroid. Meds and radioactive iodine did nothing to make it better, and I was to the point that I was taking beta blockers.

In 09 I had a car accident and they discovers a tiny nodule in the thyroid then, so tiny in fact that the needle biopsy they performed a month later was inconclusive. At this point I had been waitin over a year to get a normal thyroid so I could have Gastric Bypass, and meds and radioactive Iodine had no worked, and now I also had to worry about Nodules so I told my endocrinologist to just take my thyroid out--- well we were all shocked to find out I had Papillary Carcinoma with the Sclerosing (sp?) Variant-- meaning it was flat and fibrous rather than lumpy and nodule type- which is why no one ever suspected that is what I had, regardless of the numerous scans I had.

I had cancer on both sides of the thyroid, on the outside and in some of the lymph nodes- so they took everything out and about 10 lymphnodes- gave me a hefty dose of radioactive iodine and almost a year later finaly gave be the all clear for my gastric bypass.

Cancer came back on my right side and attacked those lyphnodes- so this past march I had a Radical Neck Dissection where they removed 20 lymphnodes- out of the 20- 18 had cancer. Then underwent an even heftier dose of radioactive iodine- and just last month they said it was on remission.

Life with no thyroid has been better for me than life with a hyperactive thyroid. I make sure to take my meds, my endocrinologist keeps an eye on my levels, the dose has been adjusted several times as I have lost weight, but I feel great, have a good amount of energy and life is good right now.