Advice please ....

[Jollypolly]

My 18 yr old granddaughter is away at uni..

Clear that she has symptoms of hyperthyroidism ..her mum had Graves..radioactive tablet.... ow on Levo,..

She wants me to help...years of unhappy experience with hashimotos...But very fortunate in that our GP prescribes me NDT..

The thing is....granddaughter has registers with GP near uni....

Knowing the complexities and pitfalls of possible treatment for Graves...do you think it would be wiser to re register her with our GP ..even though she’s away normally in term time.... the alternative is her going alone...and the doctors there sorting her out..for good or bad...

She is coming home for a fortnight at weekend,,.and soon will be the three week Christmas break..

No decision will be optimal...but I’m tending to think she’ll be safer under our GP and with me there to keep an eye on things...

But it will be a little awkward with her being away.!

Thoughts , anyone..?

[Emyloulou]

I would be inclined to register her with the gp you know. There will always be a walk-in centre nearby if she desperately needs it while she’s at uni x

[Jollypolly in reply to Emyloulou]

Thanks Emyloulou..you’ve endorsed my strongest thought ...

[SlowDragon Administrator]

I would agree with Emyloulou

She's likely to need to see endo. Best to organise via home address and GP

[Jollypolly in reply to SlowDragon]

Yes, thanks Slowdragon...these are my thoughts and shall set things in motion if I can.

[Cooper27]

How far would she have to travel to see your GP? And how far would she have to travel if they referred her to a hospital? I stayed registered with our family GP for my first year of uni, but it was impractical. You can't guarantee you'll only fall ill in holidays, and it was a 4 hour round trip for an appointment, and cost £25 in public transport. Your GP may also not accept people outside their catchment, as there's an issue with house calls.

What would she prefer?

[Jollypolly in reply to Cooper27]

Hi...thanks for replying....still giving it thought but inclining towards the GP I can trust...and uni holidays are long...nothing is optimal, just taking the best course on balance.

[Valarian]

If she has got Graves, she will most likely be referred to an endocrinologist, and remain under their care for maybe twelve months, so which endo she is likely to see may be as important as the GP. The first treatment is usually to try a course of antithyroids (typically Carbimazole), and when this first starts, she will need regular blood tests and endo appointments (from once a month, to once every six weeks, but the blood tests typically need to be drawn a week before the endo appointment). This goes on for a year to 18 months. Would it be practical from the home address ?

Either way, if she’s got hyper symptoms (such as ?), given her family history, it would make sense for her to get a blood test and find out one way or the other.

[Fruitandnutcase]

Has your grand daughter had blood tests done yet? Like the others say if it is Graves she will need to be treated by an endocrinologist. Once I had been referred to my endo for my Graves my GP had no further part in my treatment.

If you know her blood test results it would be worth posting them along with their lab ranges on here for people to look at, if not she needs to get them done by either the GP she has registered with at uni or by the one you want her to register with or pay and have one done privately. I use Blue Horizons Thyroid 11 which does the thyroid stuff plus vitamins D and B12, ferritin, folate and antibodies. I always use their home fingerprick test.

[Jollypolly in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Thanks very much for this

Yes getting sorted now . Got an appt for Tuesday ... no recent tests yet .. I realise there’ll be a long haul ahead ...

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to Jollypolly]

That’s good. Don’t expect too much from the consultant though then you won't be disappointed.

I don’t know what I was expecting but I only ever came away from one consultation with an endo - I say an endo, my hospital is a big teaching hospital so over the year I was being treated I saw a different assistant endo every single time I went - anyway I only ever came away from one consultation thinking ‘Yay!!!’ and that was when I saw my own consultant who was amazing.

So good luck to your grand daughter

[Jollypolly in reply to Fruitandnutcase]

Thanks for that .. yes ... I know what it’s like I e done the rounds and ditched the lot ... - am 68 and only just finding the way to get well with hashis ... and it still takes forever !

We have a good GP he gives me NDT So my granddaughter will be in the best available hands on that front 😉