Thyroid Cancer Check-up/Treatment

If you read the blog you know I started the low-iodine diet on December 7th in preparation for a follow-up thyroid cancer check just before Christmas. For some reason, prepping the meals was much easier this time around. Maybe that was because I was more prepared in the stocked food department or maybe it wasn't that big of a 'shock' this time around. My favorite food find this time was sorbet, peach sorbet. Sorbet, unlike ice-cream, is non-dairy and no salt. This particular pint carton was delicious. Not knowing how long quarantine might be this time around, I did not have much prepared, unlike last year when Hubby was healing from the broken leg and hip surgery. I guess my priority was the doll clothes for Miss W.

Since I did not have to go off the HRT (hormone [thyroid] replacement therapy), the time period leading up to the treatment was different than last year; no extreme aches, no extreme dry skin, no extreme mood swings, and nights of good rest and sleep. Instead, I received two shots prior to taking the radio-active iodine during treatment week. On Monday I took Miss W to school and drove the half mile to the hospital campus to get the initial blood work and the first shot in the tush. All went well. On Tuesday I took Miss W to school and drove the half mile for the second shot in the other tush cheek. All went well. On Wednesday I drove to the hospital at 7:00 AM for another round of blood work and sat for 90 minutes while that was processed and my radio-active dosage was determined. During the wait I had the opportunity to ask some questions.

The purpose of the shots (of HRT) was to make my body hyperthyroid. It was tricked into producing high amounts of TSH. OK. That explained the last two sleepless...and I do mean sleepless nights. That also explained the mood swings I began to experience Tuesday and that Wednesday morning. It also explained the extreme joint aches. I was climbing stairs one step at a time. (Weather did have a bit to do with that, but it was mostly the HRT.)

I also learned all of us have thyroid tissue throughout our bodies, not just in the thyroid or throat area. If there were any cancerous thyroid cells floating and growing in other parts of my body, the treatment (low-iodine diet, hyperthyroidism, and radioactive iodine pill) would detect those little buggers during the body scan the following day. Thyroid cells LOVE iodine. I guess by 'starving' my body of iodine for two weeks and then shocking it with the two injections, any thyroid cells, cancerous and un-cancerous, would spring into action.

I also learned the radioactive iodine dosage would be so low, I would not have to go into quarantine. That was an unexpected gift. Bring on round 2 of Christmas!

This time I was able to get a photo of the container in which the radioactive pill lived until I swallowed it.

The aluminum container is a little smaller than the styrofoam coffee cup. This time the technician opened the container and poured the pill into my hand. I swallowed it and left the nuclear department. No paperwork to sign. No last minute instructions other than show-up at 2:00 the following afternoon (December 24th) for the body scan.

I do not have any results from the body scan. I do however, have results from the blood work. On Monday after two weeks of the low-iodine diet, my TSH reading was 0.005, below the normal range, but in the acceptable range for the treatment (normal 0.027-4.200). On Wednesday before the radioactive iodine pill, my TSH reading was 140.0! Of course I wasn't sleeping. Of course, I was grumpy! No wonder my joints ached. Give me a break! The really good news of that high reading was the affects of hyperthyroidism was already wearing off on Thursday.

That was really good news because I/we hosted Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day lunch for my two brothers and their wives and my Mother. (Christmas round 2) Because of the threat of a winter storm and other family commitments, they all headed home by early afternoon on Friday. I did the essentials the rest of Friday and stayed in my pjs all of Saturday, watching Hallmark Christmas movies and playing solitaire on the computer. Today, Sunday, I am back to being dressed and doing the essentials, including some house cleaning. Tomorrow, we begin the checklist to prepare for our winter departure.  Oh, and we both have head colds shared by our grandkids...but that is another post, Christmas Round 1.