Scleral injection

Here you see my swollen eye and in the corner a good example of "scleral injection," which is a fancy way of saying bloodshot eyes. There is a tangle of veins and a beefy red patch where the affected eye muscle inserts.

Eyes are the same as ever, and a little worse, since I ate a lot of nori this weekend, which contains a lot of iodine. Oh well.

I keep telling myself I can concentrate on really getting well once nursing school is over.

Good-bye Tapazole, hello PTU

I was off Tapazole for 9 days after I got some sores in my mouth. Labs the same day showed the white cell count to be within normal limits, which is good, because mouth sores on this drug can point to "agranulocytosis," a type of low white count that can be fatal. I expected to be put back on Tapazole or switched to propylthiouracil (PTU) on visiting the doctor again.

And so last Wednesday I started Tapazole again—and promptly got a mouth ulcer two days later. So I looked up my total white blood cell count (WBC) on my clinic's web site, just to see how "normal" it had been.

Well, the latest WBC had been within normal limits, but it had been down to 5 thousand, when my last three WBC had averaged 9 thousand. I'm not sure the busy endo appreciated that, since he told me he had been known to stop people on Tapazole with only a "slight drop" in their WBC. So I stopped the Tapazole and called again today.

Now the plan is to switch to PTU 50 mg PO bid, and have a lab drawn as planned on 3-11. 100 mg a day is a rather low maintenance dose. I see that one common side effect is whitening of the hair. Cool. Not.

Who knows if this was just a run-of-the-mill canker sore, or what, but with the potential for disaster so high, nobody, including me, wants to take chances. The fact that I almost never get canker sores and then got a third one within 2 days of resuming Tapazole is a little more suggestive of a true problem.

The rather unsubtle moral of this story is to be your own best advocate, especially with someone like an endocrinologist, a type of specialist in short supply and great demand. Mine was too busy to spot a trend in my WBC that may have been significant.

Back on Tap

Today was my second visit to the endocrinologist. I had been off Tapazole for a little over a week because of concerns about a potential side effect, but since my labs were all normal. I'm back on—at only 5 mg per day. If all goes well, I'll be on it for about 18 months.

My TSI antibody levels at 24% are not exceedingly high; they are average. The antibody level—and the mildness of the former hyperthyroidism—bodes well for a remission, he says. He thinks my eyes look better, although I say the lid retraction on the right eye is worse than in December. The degree of proptosis has stayed the same (20 mm for both eyes this time; 19 and 20 last time. The ophthalmologist got 22 and 23).

He had a resident along and let her feel my goiter. He also pointed out to her how taut my eyeballs feel.

The scale was unkind, showing a gain of 7 pounds since early December, which is a "good" sign when it comes to most Graves' patients. As for me, I am cleared to exercise again, with a caveat to watch my heart rate. I might get to go off the propranolol if I tolerate exercise poorly while on it.

Crappy med. I don't miss the heart palpitations, but everything else about being on propranolol stinks, in my opinion.

So, back on Tapazole and labs in another month. I may only need to check with the endo every 4 months or so. I asked him again about my low insulin-like growth factor, and he said it might have just been because I was sick. A reaction similar to how ovulation is sometimes suspended during periods of illness.

Sleepless eye

Here's a photo of my pumpkin and me. His eyes are just fine (and a nice chocolate color to boot). My right eye is as swollen as ever. My husband noticed me sleeping with it open for the first time last night, as I sat there zonked out on the davenport (it's clinical time in nursing school, so I get very little sleep midweek). He could see the pupil, he said.

I have noticed that if I don't put the Lacrilube goo in before bed, the eye bothers me more the next day, but so far, Lacrilube without taping seems to do the trick.

I won't tape the eye shut unless the Lacrilube stops working. The idea of taping my damn eyelid shut just takes the cake. Won't do it unless I have to.

Labs, February 2008

Am off Tapazole for a week until a scheduled appointment with the endocrinologist. As of last Monday, though, my labs—liver, blood count and thyroid—were all normal. TSH is now up to 3.1. Free T4 is 0.6. Free T3 is 2.4—so everything is low-normal. The mouth sores resolved, too.

The fly in the ointment is a slightly worsening eye. Still hoping to avoid extensive double vision. I find myself swiveling my head more to look at things above my head and to the sides. Happily, I can look down and to the left without any problem.

Off Tapazole—argh!

Brushing my teeth this AM I noticed that a swatch of gum along my molar was eroded and bleeding, and so was a spot by a canine tooth. Mouth sores are something to watch out for on Tapazole or any antithyroid med, so I called the doc's office to report it. They just called back to tell me to discontinue the med, and the endo's office would contact me tomorrow about doing something else. I might wind up just guzzling soy milk and broccoli, or on propiothiouracil (PTU), which is related to Tapazole but in some ways safer.

And in some ways plus dangereux.

The most common cause of mouth sores is a low white blood count. Other causes are a little more dangerous, but also quite rare. The dose I was on—5 mg bid—should not have caused anything because it was pretty low. We'll see, I guess, when the blood count comes in.

I feel good otherwise (just loaded down with work). Something tells me my thyroid levels are looking very good, but now that could reverse, depending on the drug holiday I have to have.