My husband was diagnnosed with Graves almost two years ago now. He finally agreed to start treatment 3 months ago. This was only after A WHOLE LOT of pushing from family and friends. He has had some serious anger issues associated with the onset of his graves. (No domestic violence) He has also had employment issues. (Lack there of, quitting for no reason, getting fired) My husband had an excellent work history before this. Now I am always stressed out wondering how I am going to pay the rent. Is this anywhere near normal for Graves? Is my husband just deciding he has an excuse to be this negligent? I have a two year old child to think of, so I need to know how I'm going to feed her. Any advice or thoughts is more than welcome.

If you peek at the Hashimoto's thread, here, you'll see my husband had Graves. He battled the military Drs (the plural is relative; he was at Kev, Iceland) insisting that he had a serious problem and they were missing it He was eventually diagnosed, emergency medivac'd mainland, in very dicey medical condition.

Anger? Um, does seriously wanting to kill his most beloved, dearest elder teenage daughter with a baseball bat because she hadn't emptied the dishwasher sound like anger? Nothing even remotely happened - in fact she didn't even know about his thoughts until she was a mother and military wife, herself, many years later and she laughed hysterically. Say what, Daddy?

What kind of treatment is your husband on? If it's been 3 months on treatment, it sounds like maybe antithyroid drugs (ATD) to put his thyroid into remission? This takes a long time to put the thyroid in remission (12-18 months). Current statistics didn't look that promising to my husband when I asked him to look at their success rate. Has your husband considered just having it deactivated completely (through surgical removal or radio-iodine), and then managing it synthetically, like with the drug Synthroid?

Graves is hard. Anger often goes with it. I personally think it's harder on the body than my Hashimoto's at onset. But, there are faster treatments for Graves (just my observation).

Good luck - I know where you are

Thank you. I appreciate you telling me your story.
He talked to his doctor about going on a different treatment because he does't feel that this one is working and his doctor said, "give it more time". (I want to say, "you come live with him and tell me that!") Yes, it is an antithyroid and he has also done the radio active iodine. I would like the faster treatment myself, but the decision is not being offered to me. The problem is my husband has done no research and knows nothing about the disease that myself or his doctor has not told him. His own ignorance will have him living alone.
Again, thank you for sharing with me. knowing that my husband isn't the only one freaking out helps. Good luck with your Hashimoto's.

I am so very sorry that his treatment is not going well for either of you - especially you. You are taking the emotional beating while he seems to be, most probably unknowingly, using his Graves to cloak his behavior (to him). He is truly the opposite of my husband.

Although my husband knew before anyone he was feeling different/wrong, he reached raging (internally, taking a horrendous physical toll) hyperthyroid. He had lost a massive amount of weight at the end, the troops under him (who really and truly loved him) went around him to his own commanding officer, expressing their deep, profound, personal concern for him. After finallly medivac'd, his radio-a iodine was administered at levels to purposely decommission his thyroid for good. 1st, he never wanted its (Graves) potential of return down the line. 2nd, he wanted no neckscar (from complete removal) that showed above uniform collars that would cause curiousity in future assignments. 3rd (most important in my book), he knew that lifelong treatment with synthroid (and initial tweeks to get it right, with checks throughout his life for inevitable minor adjustments) would control things permanently. We still have pictures because, back then, you were put in ICU with nurses in 'spacesuits', during high radio-a treatments. It's all been good, as long as he doesn't get complacent since retiring.

Here's a good link for you to read, first (you may have already read it). Then, decide if your husband might be willing to read it. He really, really needs to do his research, before he ends up (most reasonably) alone. That would be much harder on you and your beautiful daughter in the beginning. He'd probably be dead from something, before he "got it". Push him, gently, at first, advance to 2x4's if you must, before giving up. Please. I can feel how tough this will be one you, but you have to do it if you want to save everyone involved. He MUST learn about what he has. Tablespoons, first, up to a firehose for maximum knowledge. He simply needs to know the medical facts. Maybe reading by himself, without having to face anyone during, might do the trick. You truly are in that old "leading a hoirse to water' paradox, but he needs to actually drink the water

http://www.mythyroid.com/iodinehyper.html

Still thinking of you and truly caring. I am glad if I can help in even the slightest way.