Category: Uncategorized

Stay the course and other news

July 23, 2024

A little late with this post but long story short, not much has changed with my Graves’ Disease. While I’m no longer needing bi-annual visits with my endocrinologist, I am still getting blood work done to help me monitor how I’m doing.

So the latest tests from July 11 are still showing really low levels of TSH (0.006), it’s a slight improvement from January where it was less than 0.005. And I also had a slight improvement for my T4, where it’s at 1.67 (in the ‘normal’ range) compared to 2.20 previously. Lastly, T3 continues to be in that ‘normal’ range, now sitting at 122 (pretty much in the middle) vs 171. All in all, pretty happy with the numbers!

In other news, my cataracts are finally at a point where surgery is recommended. Yeah, I know, I’m pretty young (61) to be getting cataract surgery but it’s one of the safest procedures out there and once it’s done, it’s done and I can enjoy perfect (🤞) vision for the rest of my life.

My right eye will be worked on today, followed by my left eye on August 6. As I have had lasik performed some 23 years ago, meaning my cornea is now flatter than normal, I’m opting for what they call “light adjustable lenses.” While I hope to come out with 20/20 or better vision after surgery, the light adjustable lens can be fine tuned by uv laser light up to 3 times if I have the results I’m looking for.

The downside is that they won’t start making adjustments until 3 weeks after the second surgery. Add that my ophthalmologist has a vacation and then I have a vacation in the middle of September, my vision may not get finalized until mid-October! And during that interval, I’ll be needing to wear uv blocking glasses to prevent the lenses from getting too much uv light before they get finalized. This also means that I’ll be going on the shelf for pickleball so as to not risk loosing my glasses during play. Small price to pay if I can have great vision without having to wear glasses (with the possible exception of readers) going forward.

Looking forward to a bright future! (see what I did there?)

Half year later and still doing fine!

2024-01-24

A little late with the latest results of my latest annual physical and follow-up with my endocrinologist.

Long story short, not much is different from when I was on meds to now being off meds. My BP at the time of my physical was 125/76, heart rate was 49 (it’s only been this low when I was running and my all time low was a calm 42 bpm), cholesterol at 175, weight at 161.2 lbs.

My thyroid levels still gives my endocrinologist fits but as I’m still asymptomatic, there was little he could offer to make me want to irradiate or surgically remove my thyroid. The TSH was again below 0.005 (0.165 at the last half year check), T4 at a modestly high 2.20 (1.67) and T3 within the ‘normal’ at 171 (106).

We also had another bone density test performed as one of the side effects to Graves is osteoporosis. Rather than losing bone mass, I managed to gain 11.1% in the spine, 4.4 % at my femur and a total mean improvement of 6.6% since the last test in Aug of 2020.

As a last Hail Mary, he warns me of the risk for heart problems but, as you can already see from my physical, that doesn’t appear to be presenting itself either.

To his credit, he recognizes that there is little he can do for me without further consent and so we agreed to reduce my endocrinology visits to annually but maintain doing blood tests bi-annually and to contact him if there were any changes to my condition.

Personally, I think my best medicine has been to stay active every day and that’s not a problem living here in The Villages, and particularly with the sport of pickleball. On top of playing, I’m one of the instructors for The Villages run practice sessions, I have my own practice group that meets 3 times a week, I’m a referee for when The Villages has tournaments, and since last summer, I host my own weekly tournaments every Sunday with 18 teams with skill levels going from beginners to advanced play. I’ve picked up golfing again and, when I have time, I squeeze volleyball into the mix.

Yeah, I’m busy but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Just a quick update from my January checkup…

6 March 2017

Where has the time gone? Long story short, making progress with 2 of 3 measures now testing within the normal range:

  • T3 is at 139.1 ng/dL (range is 80-204)
  • Free T4 is at 1.34 ng/dL(range is 0.8 – 1.8)

I’m still showing that I’m considerably hyperthyroidic from a numbers perspective with a TSH still measuring a very low 0.016 ulU/mL (range is 0.35 – 4.5). The big issue with this number is that we have no way of knowing what my reading was prior to being diagnosed as having Graves’ so all we are doing is managing around a low number in trying to get me to be in range without really knowing if my ‘normal’ range could already be a low number.

Overall, still doing well and we’ll see if numbers will further improve at my next check up in April.

A little late with how my last check-up went…

08 October 2016

So I had another follow-up visit with my endocrinologist last month and things look to be settling down a bit on the reduced dose of methimazole (5 mg daily). Free T4 measured at the upper bound of ‘normal’ at 1.8 ng/dL, however, TSH is still way below at 0.01 mlU/L. That compares to 3.9 and 0.02, respectively, back in July.

Not sure how much these numbers truly mean to me as I’m feeling pretty normal despite all these swings. Metabolically, I can feel the effects of the methimazole as it was causing me to put on extra weight when I was at 10 mg a day. At the lower dose, I’ve been holding steady at my pre-Grave’s weight, although it would have been great if I could have kept half my losses at the peak of my episode. All in all, I suppose my body knows what my norm is and I’m fine with that.

Next appointment is at the beginning of the new year.

Ciao for now!

Up and down

2016-07-13

Just got my latest labs and my counts are showing that I’m hyper once again. TSH is back to 0.02 and Free T4 is 3.9. As a result, my doc is putting me back on 10 mg of methimazole daily. I’m going to try and see if he will agree to 5 mg a day instead as the 10 mg got me to being hypo. Since I being off the prescription, I did manage to drop 10 lb. over the last 6 wks and I have noticed that my hands have been feeling warmer as they normally have been before the methimazole. If I have to stay at 10 mg, I think I have to start a new exercise regimen and do something aerobic on a more regular basis to keep the weight in check.

This is pretty disheartening and a setback for trying to reach remission. But despite all of this, I’m still feeling rather normal and it hasn’t really slowed me down from doing my normal routine, knock on wood. I’ll have another follow-up in 6 wks time but for now, I’m just going to enjoy a long vacation starting this weekend (Alaskan cruise, Vancouver and then Seattle).

Cheers!