Follow up

Things have been a little crazy since I had my radioactive iodine treatment. Guess I should update on here what has been going on. This will probably be long since it has been almost a month since my last post.

The actual radioactive iodine treatment was pretty anticlimactic to tell the truth. It comes in the form of a small pill. You swallow it and that is it. All the hoopla we went through just for me to swallow a tiny pill. I did wear my radioactive shirt to take my pill though. The people at the radiology center just LOVED it. They were all very impressed with my friends for being so supportive. :)

After taking the pill I immediately left the building and went to my beach house getaway for the weekend. I am so thankful I stayed away longer than what was originally told to us. One of our friends had a geiger counter (measures radiation) that they let us borrow. I was definitely not safe to be around 2 days later, at least for the kids. I spent 3 nights by the beach and the 4th night away Brian booked me a suite with a jacuzzi tub at a local hotel. It was my Mother's Day present. I was safe to be near adults just not kids so it was fine for me to be at the hotel at that point. I have to say that being in isolation was pretty hard. I like to be around people even though I'm quiet so being completely away from anyone for that many days was rough. I got to catch up on my reading and movie watching though. :)

The day after swallowing the little pill that would kill any remaining thyroid cancer in my body I was able to start on my Synthroid. Let me tell you that was exciting because I knew finally I would start feeling better...or so we thought. I did feel better for about 4-5 days. I wasn't back to normal so we knew it wasn't the right dose but I was feeling better. After those 4-5 days though my symptoms starting worsening instead of leveling off. We finally called my doctor on May 18th to see if this was normal. We wanted to get blood work done so we could get my dose upped if need be. After much persistence again we finally got a hold of someone. However, they just upped my dose without performing any blood work. I was a little leery but figured they know what they are doing. I went from 112mcg to 150mcg, skipping 2 doses in between there.

I started taking my new dose on May 21st and by that Sunday, the 23rd, I was starting to feel funny. I thought I was catching a virus that Eric had that weekend because I was running a fever. By Sunday afternoon though my fever was gone which was odd. On the 24th I started getting pretty tired again and lots of body aches especially in my hips and legs again. I thought for sure that my dose was to low once again which freaked me out because there are only 3 higher doses they can prescribe me. The next day I felt a little better. On Wednesday the 26th I was hit with a horrible migraine and extreme fatigue. It was so bad I cancelled the boys swim lessons and called a friend to come watch the boys because I could not get out of bed. The next day I still had a headache but it wasn't a migraine thankfully. I also started running a fever again and could feel my anxiety levels creeping up. By now I'm getting a little frustrated. Yesterday is when the most tell tale symptoms hit and when we really figured out the most likely problem. I woke up extremely fatigued and sweating. It is rare for me to be hot. I still took Eric to a field trip though and had a great time with friends. By the time we got home though my heart was racing and I was having a hard time breathing. That is when we pulled out the instructions that come with my medicine. Sure enough I have been having a ton of symptoms of being over medicated or overdosing. The racing heart is what really gave it away to me as that is a big sign of hyperthyroidism. By 3pm it had eased up but then my hip, leg and knee pain was off the charts. Then that evening my heart started racing again and I had to go to sleep at 6:30pm I was so fatigued (another sign of hyperthyroid...funny since it is a sign of hypo as well). I finally started feeling better by 8pm. Also I lost 2 lbs in less than 24 hours yesterday which is a big sign of being over medicated as well. Some weight loss is normal but rapid weight loss is not.

Of course my doctor's office is closed on Fridays and won't be open until Tuesday. We also have no way of getting a hold of him after hours which is just not right in my opinion. The only number they leave you with is 911 in case of an emergency. Very helpful if I was dying but I wasn't. Thankfully I have a new doctor lined up but can't get in until August. I am just praying she gets some cancellations so I can go in earlier. Since we couldn't get a hold of my doctor we just decided to cut my dose back. He had given me some samples of 125mcg to take so I took one of those this morning. I am feeling so much better it is unbelievable. I still have a tiny headache and I'm a little tired but nothing else is wrong. My fever is gone, heart rate is normal and my leg pain is gone. We will see how the next few days progress as it seems to be about 4-5 days into a new dose that we can tell what is going to happen.

I found out after all of this happens that a doctor should never mess with your dosage until you have lab work done and they probably shouldn't up your dosage by so much at one time. All he had to do was order blood work and then up my dose by one increment and see what happened and we would have avoided all of this. Synthyroid is a type of medicine that the proper dose is very close to the toxic dose so upping my medicine by so much was just not responsible in my opinion.

So now we just wait and see what to do next. I had my whole body scan on the 20th and will find out the results at my next appointment which isn't until July 7th. The body scan will tell us where the iodine was soaked up in my body which tells us where there was additional thyroid tissue which potentially could have contained cancer. This tissue will have been killed off by the iodine. My blood work will be done the last week of June and we will be watching my Thyroglobulin levels closely. If they are under a certain number then I am cancer free but if they are higher than normal then we may have to undergo another round of radioactive iodine. That will be the last you hear me mention that as I refuse to go down that road of thinking. :)

Overall I am so happy to have most of this behind me. While the journey after my iodine treatment is not what I would have wished for it has taught me some very important lessons on knowing your own body and trusting yourself to know when something just isn't right. On June 25th we are having a Thank You party for all those people that pitched in and helped us or supported us in some way during all this time. I am so looking forward to this. To be able to serve those (even in this small way) that have served me and my family is such a privilege. Plus I love a good party! :)