Low Iodine Diet and RAI
So it has been a while since I last logged a post. It has been a stressful few of months. Since I last wrote I enjoyed a Low Iodine Diet, had Radio Active Iodine-131, my girlfriend broke up with me and I have had to find a new place to live.I am reminded of the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode when Larry is pondering how long after someone is treated for cancer is it appropriate to break up with them. My ex decided it was shortly after radiation.
So the Low Iodine Diet was not so bad. I ate lots of fresh vegetables and up to 6oz of chicken a day. Sometimes I ate a little more than chicken than the diet said I should, but I am a big guy.
The RAI treatment was scary. There was really no side effects except for the ones I imagined, and those were bad enough. I was off of Synthroid for six days, and the morning of the 6th day, which was the day after my RAI, I felt hung over. From what my doctor has told me and what I have read, this was probably caused my stress and my vivid imagination. The way I see it though, I just ate a radioactive capsule, I can feel bad if I want.I do think I was in a better mood right after I took my Synthroid on the 7th day. Also perhaps imagined. My doctor tells me that Synthroid stays with you a long time and has an 8 day half life.
The doctor who is in charge of me now is an Endocrinologist. He is what you would think of if you thought of a Grandfather with candy. He graduated medical school in 1946. I have been afraid to add up how old that makes him, but his grandfatherly demeanor makes me feel safe somehow. He did have me go off of Synthroid for 6 days, even though he gave me Thyrogen.
My doctor ordered 70 MCi of I-131 and 8 days later I had a full body scan. I will work on getting some pictures up so you can see what one looks like if you have to go through this.
It’s probably nothing, but I want to run some tests.
Two days before I was to move across the country to California for a job I was laid off. In my severance agreement, I was allowed one month’s health insurance benefits before I would have to start COBRA payments to stay insured. I scheduled a trip to a General Practitioner at a hospital near my house to refill all of my prescriptions, and then I figured as a healthy 30 year old male, I could live without health insurance till I found new work. My plans were about to change abruptly.
The appointment started out like any other at a new medical practice. I filled out the paperwork and they made a copy of my insurance card and my driver’s license, so they could track down the proper parties to extract payment. After the ladies at the front desk made me sign several lengthy agreements, I was deposited into a room where I met my physician Dr. Clay. I told him my plan to go off of insurance as he performed what he called a first visit examination. During this examination he felt around my neck. After he had completed his examination with the familiar stethoscope and “breathe deeply” routine, his eyes met with mine and in a matter of fact, clinical tone he said “You have a small nodule on your thyroid, it’s probably nothing, but I want to run some tests.” He went on to explain that there are many reasons why one would have a thyroid nodule, and that most times it was treatable with medicine. He explained how he wanted to check my blood levels of thyroid hormone to see if they were normal and also wanted to send me down the hall to see an Ortolarynthologist or Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist in the same building who would be able to help shed some light on the nature of the nodule. Dr. Clay continued to tell me more about thyroid nodules. He told me that thyroid nodules are almost always benign, and are caused by many things, including hypo or hyper-thyroidism and once corrected the nodule goes away. He told me that other nodules are cystic masses, which are largely benign, and that there is a very small, about 1% chance that it could be cancerous. This got my attention. I knew as soon as the words left his lips that I was in the 1% and that I had cancer.