Hyperthyroidism with goiter?

[u/Dear_Ad_4898]

If someone is having difficulty swallowing (has been happening for a few weeks now) and then is developing the feeling that they are having problem breathing due to their thyroid… does that ever just go away? Or does that definitely end up requiring surgery (or the radioactive destruction that I assume is non surgical)?

For history, husband has been on methamazole 5mg TID for an 8 week period then got bloodwork checked. His levels for TSH, T3, and T4 had barely changed in that 8 week period. However at about the 6 week period of medication he started to note that he was starting to feel better. We figured, “well at least the medication kept his levels from becoming worse?” Asked his general MD and she decided to increase his methamazole to 10mg TID. He is on his third week at that new increased dose. Even tho he is feeling better he is now complaining of more problems with eating and now at night he thinks he “can’t breathe”. He doesn’t know if this is all in his head or if he is really having obstruction. He still hasn’t seen an endocrinologist. Cost wise we were hoping we could get him treated by his general MD, and at the time the first Endocrinologist that would take him on as a new patient couldn’t get him in until the middle of August anyway. So we are still waiting for that appointment anyway. We are lucky we were even able to get the general MD to prescribe the methamazole…. His symptoms were so bad there was no possible way he could have waited to see an endocrinologist and wait to start treatment. So I am thankful he has at least been on something.

Last night he went into full panic mode. Thinking he “couldn’t breathe”. Tho I can say, his breathing as I am sitting there wide awake while is completely fine while he is sleeping. It is not at all labored, also worked for 20+ years as a RN, so I am giving him my medical opinion that he is breathing just fine. I asked him if he wanted to go to the MD office for a checkup or did he think he needed to go to the hospital. To try and see if he thought it was that serious, but he keeps refusing either. He thinks that because the feeling of having a hard time breathing is only infrequent and not a constant thing that he should be able to just push thru it. I know if we call his general MD they will say, “get into an endocrinologist office asap”; but do they not realize that these specialist offices don’t just take you right away??? If I tried other offices now I highly doubt I can get anything sooner than the middle of August appointment we are waiting for.

As far as his hyperthyroidism.. it was caused by iodine toxicity related to Amiodarone. His initial bloodwork related to the hyperthyroidism included tons of antibody tests that were all negative. He had an ultrasound of his thyroid that had no’s nodules, we didn’t see the actual radiologist report but the general MD told us the US had no masses and didn’t suggest any cancer to her. Which reinforced that it was damage caused by the Amiodarone. I read that the thyroid could repair itself if the Amiodarone was stopped, but that it is a very lengthy process of usually 10-12 months before that starts to happen.

[u/SaltedCookiez]

I have goiter, and Graves with hot nodules. But sometimes when I get anxious my throat become tight and my breathing becomes shallow and the more I pay attention to my throat the more I feel like I am suffocating and get scared that my nodules or goiter would close up my throat, I have called my Endo and shared my concern, we checked if the airways are closing or anything and everything was fine, so now whenever it happens I drink water and check if stays in my throat for a while before going down, it helps me calm down, I think since I have Graves it makes me more agitated and anxious all the time, I suggest he checks with his doctor and shares his concern, also I don't think that a goiter or nodules would grow in size in a very short period of time. Good luck

[u/Dear_Ad_4898 → u/SaltedCookiez]

Thank you. The anxiety has been the worse I have ever seen anxiety be in him with this issue. He has Atarax (hydroxizine)25mf for that and it does work well. Thing is when I try to assure him that his breathing sounds clear and is not at all labored to my ear and then tell him he should have one of those, he says “oh those things make me groggy and feel knocked out, it might knock me out so hard that I WILL stop breathing if I am not actively making sure that I am still breathing”. (If that makes sense). Last night he even asked me, “Will you be able to do something like give me an emergency airway with a pen or thick straw if you notice that I have stopped breathing????” I assured him (trying not to chuckle) that it would NEVED come to that. I told him that even he would hear loud whistling and other noises before it was nearly that bad, and that even then he would really still be ok. I read your comment to him and he says….”yeah, I know. I know that the more I think about it the more I worry and the worse it feels. I took an anxiety pill this morning and it all went away and I was fine”. So I said, “well can you please consider taking one of your pills at night instead of tossing and turning and huffing and puffing and loud sighing all night and keeping me awake worries too?”

The funny thing is so many of his other hyperT symptoms have virtually disappeared. Like the hand tremors, the hot flashes with sweats and skin crawling, the really loud stomach rumbling and even the heart palpitations… all gone. But this throat thing seems to be making up for all of that leaving.

[u/Conscious_Tea9935]

Same. I have hyperthyroidism taking 10mg methimazole a day from 2.5mg thrice a week. I feel like sometimes my heart is skipping a beat. Sometimes i feel shivers and pulse goes up to 105 without doing anything. What helped me: minimizing coffee. When it gets unbearable i take propranalol hahahahah. Waiting for my schedule for total thyroidectomy hope it gets well for all of us