In some respects, this is a dumbass question. After all, it doesn’t change anything. It’s here – I’ve got it…for life.
Most of the literature talks about three separate theories. Because no one really knows. They can be quite complex to understand but in summary…
Theory one. It’s genetic…a silent marker sits on you DNA waiting to be activated at a time of it’s choosing. And if there is a history of auto-immune disease in your family, you have a greater chance of getting an auto-immune disease (and not necessarily the same one your family member has).
Theory two. Some kind of cell reaction occurs as a result of an infection, setting off the chain of events that manifests as Graves disease.
Theory three. An extremely stressful event leads to a severe physiological reaction i.e. Graves.
Based on these three simplistic interpretations of the possible causes (and there may be many more), well I had no chance at all.
Genetics. My mother, grandmother and two aunts have all had complete thyroidectomies. None were diagnosed with Graves or any other auto-immune disease but possibly this is due to lack of appropriate medical attention early in the piece (not uncommon for people living a poor, rural life). A first cousin also on that side was diagnosed with Graves nearly the same time as me. On the other side of the family, my father was diagnosed with the auto-immune disease, sarcoidosis, 15+ years ago.
An infection. About 4 years ago, I developed a seriously bad case of pharyngitis. Thats tonsilitis, without the tonsils (snipped out when I was 5). The infection was so bad, I had to take two full courses of antibiotics (something I would normally do anything to avoid) and moaned through two painful weeks spent in bed. I’d never been so sick before, and never since. More than 12 months later I was having trouble with sore throats and was constantly losing my voice. I went to see an ENT specialist who told me my vocal chords were still inflamed and my throat muscles were overcompensating, causing the voice loss. It was a shock for someone who had years of vocal training behind them (I was a vocal major in a music degree) to end up in speech therapy.
Extreme stress. About three years ago, and after 13 years of remission, my sister suffered a cancer relapse. After ten years, Doctors consider you ‘cured’ from cancer and so we all thought that episode was done with. So it was a big shock to get the call from my mother, that my sister was in hospital because she’d collapsed at work because of a previously undetected, 15 centimetre tumour sitting between her chest wall and her left lung. Then of course the shock of her urgent surgery (lung removed along with a significant chunk of her rib cage), waiting for pathology (malignant), seeing her lying unconscious while the respirator moved her body up and down in such an artificial, mechanical manner. Observing the awful months of chemo and scans and waiting for results. Feeling helpless and guilty, all while trying to hide our grown up fears in front of her kids. Dealing with morons at work or in life who think you care about their petty day to day complaints.
So yeah…genetics, infection and stress. I think I’ve got those covered. I’m thinking about this tonight because yet again, my sister is back in hospital. They don’t think it’s cancer. They think she has a collection of fluid around her kidney and spleen causing intense pain and nausea. It’s almost certainly because of the surgery she had a few months ago (which was for cancer). It’ll need to be aspirated one way or another. Seriously, she can’t catch a break.
So I’ve got Graves and I don’t really know how. But I don’t have cancer.
