Graves' Disease Support Group

Hi Marysmum!,

I believe all those symptoms you listed are ones that I have also experienced with Graves disease. Its just such a weird disease, and it effects everyone differently, so I'll list my extra symptoms and we can see if we all match up?

I got bulging dry eyes
Slight double vision
muscle weakness (so bad I could barely get down stairs...going up was easier than going down.)
aching joints
red, raised-irritated skin on my forehead and shins.
I had insomnia for weeks at a time
so much anxiety that I had to force myself out the door every morning, and then avoided people as much as possible at work.
I also got a noticeable goiter on the right side of my neck.
A choking sensation when I tried to swallow anything, (which was pretty much all the time because my appetite became voracious.)
My hair fell out in clumps,
and my period stopped for a few months.
I also got an overwhelming sense of doom all the time, like I was going to die, especially when I tried to lie down or recline. My heart would race and I'd just feel like "This is it! I'm going to die."

Ugh. Very unpleasant!!! My whole list of symptoms has gotten smaller now that my levels are better. Now I just have dry eyes and achy joints.

How about you guys?

I forgot to add: Out-of-control emotions and extreme anger.

Hi marysmum..I also have all those same symptoms. The dizziness is one of the most uncomfortable. I call it vertigo. Since Ive been on meds it has gotten better but not gone. If I wake up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night Im like a ping pong ball bouncing off the walls a door jams until I get there. Ive asked my doc about it and she has no answers as to why it happens, but almost everyone that has graves gets it to one degree or another. At one time I thought it was because of the swelling behind my eyes but many people have it without TED. When you've been on meds for a while these symptoms should get better.

I also developed obsessive compulsive disorder, and started washing my hands all the time, got bulimia (at the beginning), and color coordinated my closet and towels. This disease has been way bizarre for me. I'm so glad that I'm experiencing a lull in symptoms at the moment, and really hope you feel better soon, too!!
What a weird, hellish disease!

Ditto for me with the symptoms, except for the bulging eyes and bulimia, I totally developed OCD and MAJOR ANXIETY!!!
I hate Graves Disease, and everybody says, oh if you just do this or that you will be all better and I can get through such and such, why cant you get through what you have? I am so tired of people telling me that if I just do this or that, that I will be all better and I'm tired of people making me feel guilty for being sick and tired!!

Hey Tootz!
Isn't OCD weird? At one point, I had all the clothes in my closet sorted into rainbow colors and from long sleeve to short sleeve, lol! Everything is a big mess now, so I think I'm getting better, but how weird.
The bulimia was really weird. I remember going out before I knew I was diagnosed with Graves and I'd just pig out and never get full. When I'd realize what all I had eaten it would make me so sick, I'd throw up. I think one day I ordered a whole medium pizza and ate it, and then got a hamburger and fries and then stopped by the bakery and ate almost a whole pie and some eclairs. Everything would just evaporate in my stomach, and then I think I would finally feel what I'd eaten and out it would come.
I was totally out of control.

All those symtoms I also have and the dizziness scares me and im not pregnant!!!Are you taking a beta blocker? The pharmasist said with the b blocker i should rise slowly, dangle my feet over the bed before i get up. The part thats most scary for me is bending down, thats when i am the most dizzy. I too am also affraid there is something else wrong with me and have been to the cardiologist in march. I was so scared sitting there thinking i was dieing. The lady doing the ekg was laughing at me for being scared and assured my i wasnt dieing right at that moment. I had corrective heart surgery when i was six and have a faulty aortic valve. Have you had you blood pressure checked lately?

I also had OCD I would count everything and couldnt stop doing it. I also had a clean thing but just at my work. Very strange. Since Ive been on meds that part has disappeared.

Hmmm...
Our Ears, nose and throat are all connected, and I was getting ear pressure earlier with this disease, and dizziness. I wonder if the enlarged thyroid can cause the ears to get some pressure?
They felt like they were plugged all the time, but mostly on the right hand side, where my goiter was largest.
If I put my finger on the right side of my throat and gently pulled it downwards across the bulge, I could feel the motion in my inner ear more than on my neck. Is that just me? I remembered thinking that was so odd!

OMG i feel soooooooooooooooooo much better about my symptoms now, i could just jump up and kiss u all. Makes me feel so much better knowing im not experiencing these things alone, when i would tell my doctor before they would give me a look like thats not one of the symptoms, liek i was paranoid or something, i kinda felt afriad to bring it up after awhile. I also was told before i get up dangle my feet alittle and don't rise fast. The sense of doom is so scary actually i am having that right now so i hoped on the net to distract myself lol. I was watching tv all of a sudden i felt like today im going to have a stroke lol then i said let me get my mind off this and ran to get ont he computer before i end up riving to the emergency room just to hear that ur ok "AGAIN"