Day 2

Day 2 is all about waiting. They took an ultrasound of my heart yesterday which will tell the Cardiologist if I have clots in my heart that can kill me or a misshapen heart due to all the arrhythmia. I find my asthma has come back with a vengeance and when I do finally get up to use the toilet, I can’t stop coughing. I ring for the nurse but can’t speak. The guy in the next bed shouts for me and Nurse Cathleen comes to the rescue. Well not exactly: Nurse Cathleen comes to tell me that my heart rate, oxygen levels and blood pressure are all fine and so I should just relax.

"But I can’t breath!"

"No everything is fine. We can see it on the monitor."

At this point Dena, who happened to be visiting, gets very angry indeed.

"Can’t you see he is asthmatic?"

"He never told me he had asthma when he came in."

"Oh yes we did, I told you!"

Out gunned by my dear wife, the nurse disappears quickly only to reappear after Dena has gone to tell me how hard she has worked to find a doctor to approve my new breathing treatments. I play along and thank her very much. I’ve been on a nebulizer once before and it really works for me.

As evening falls the Cardiologist stops by again to tell me he is going to refer me to Dr. Peterson the thyroid specialist. "What about my heart ultrasound?"
"Oh that’s fine. Sorry, meant to tell you this morning."

Phew!

Dr. Peterson turns out to be a very skinny 50+ chap with a serious and deliberate manner. He asks me a number of questions, all of which I have already asked myself time and time again when I have tested myself online for "What thyroid disorder do you have?"
The results on there own are inconclusive but Dr. Peterson has the trump card- my blood work.

I am diagnosed with Graves Disease which is a disease which either causes or is a form of Hyperthyroidism where the thyroid is attacked by my immune system and goes into overdrive as a result- spewing thyroid hormone into my body and driving my heart to the edge.
It’s nice to know what I have but what now?

The treatment is pretty standard. I keep taking heart medication to keep my heart rate down. At the same time I take a thyroid suppressant that will gradually cut down my thyroid levels. I won’t see any significant change (improvement?) in my thyroid and consequent heart rate for 2 weeks. The whole thing is a little nerve racking to me as if my heart rate is being lowered with drugs because my thyroid is trying to push it up, what happens when the thyroid stops trying to push up my heart rate? "We’ll monitor you." is all both doctors will say to this.

After that 2 week period Dr. Peterson will nuke my thyroid (literally) with a cocktail of radioactive iodine. The thyroid it seems is the only organ in the body that thrives on iodine- so put radioactive iodine into my body and my thyroid slurps it up and snuffs it!
After that I will take artificial thyroid for the rest of my life like so many other people out there.