Day +5: Out in public: no longer a menace

I am back among the general populace. The radioactive iodine was not too bad...I stayed in my basement craft room for 3 nights. I watched a lot of really (I mean really) bad movies, slept, drank copious amounts of water/diet soda/lemonade to flush my system from any leftover radiation, and of course, peed--a lot! My stomach was upset on Friday and Saturday...not sure if from the iodine or from the steady diet of fast food and take out that my family provided me with.


Friday till Monday I had a metallic taste in my mouth and food tasted funny, but it seems to have resolved today (Tuesday). I am still drinking lots of lemonade (with extra lemon juice to make it more sour. The sour candy and lemonade are thought to help the salivary glands keep from getting plugged up...from the iodine more so than the radioactive part).


I am feeling pretty good today. I went back to work and cooked a REAL, NON low iodine meal. Now the fun of tweaking the Synthroid dose begins (I was told to take 5 days of Cytomel along with the Synthroid to jump start things...it takes about 3 weeks to establish a decent blood level of Synthroid, so there still may be ups and downs).


So thus I begin the rest of my life as a "cancer survivor"...please keep praying that I am among the 80% of patients who do NOT have a recurrence after radioactive ablation therapy!!!

Officially Radioactive!!!

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...I am officially radioactive for the next 3 days, since precisely 11:45 am this morning. The good news is that there was no indication of any thyroid tissue except the leftover from the surgery (which is normal since you don't want to cut things like nerves, other glands, etc.)

The I-131 (radioactive iodine) will now go to work to ablate (destroy) all that remaining tissue.

The treatment itself was anticlimatic...a small vial of liquid to drink and then home. I need to stay away from my family (in passing is fine) so I am staying in my new basement craft room which is complete, as of yesterday, and is stunningly beautiful.

I can go back into public on Sunday afternoon.

The best part of today was getting off the low iodine diet and eating take out...in fact, I'm not supposed to prepare food for other people for 3 days (what a change from the past 2 weeks!). I think we'll eat a lot of take out in the next few days.

Day -1 1/3: Tomorrow is the big day

I have labeled this T-1 1/3 instead of T-2 because I now have really good information about what is going on. I just got back from Radiology where I took my "Tracer Dose" of Iodine-123. Tomorrow I go in, get scans and then (most likely) take my therapeutic dose of I-131. But the good news is that after that, I can go off my low iodine diet almost immediately. (Do I smell Pizza in my future???)

Day T-5: Strike while the iron is hot

I'm not even sure where that phrase came from, but it has become my motto. Welcome to Day 12 of hypothyroidism. I am your host, Lisa Francis.

Today my parents and grandma are visiting so I am recreating my Spaghetti dinner for them. As what has become usual, I woke up at 5:30 this morning (after an 11:30, yikes!, bedtime). By 9:30, I had 3 lbs of hamburger browned, the sauce made and simmering, the chocolate fudge pudding cake ready to go into the oven, and the 2nd batch of bread ready for its second rise, not to mention 3 loads of laundry done. I had unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, put away the 2nd load of dishes and am deciding if I have enough time to stain my pocket doors. When I have energy, I have it all at once. Will I still be awake at 2:00pm?? Probably not.

When the fatigue hits, it hits hard and fast, but I know that I absolutely have to sleep. But otherwise, I feel pretty much OK. I notice that I get a lot more head rushes if I get up and down too fast, but otherwise, frankly, I am shocked at what I can do. But I never, ever take it for granted that I'll be able to do it tomorrow.

Hopefully, I'll be back on meds by the end of the week or early next week and be able to even out a bit.

T-7: 10 days without Thyroid meds

I think I am starting to feel this whole hypothyroid thing...walking to the breakroom to heat my lunch was like running a marathon...although food seems to help, so I am hoping to get another burst of energy to get me through the afternoon.

Weight is starting to creep up even though I have not been eating junk and watching portions. UNFAIR!

The Accidental Chef, T - 10

On the plate: chips and salsa, chicken fajita with onions, peppers, salsa, small plate: apple berry salsa with cinnamon and sugar matzo. See, so tortilla or cheese on the fajita!!

OK, this post is actually being written on T-9, but it is 4:30 in the morning and I meant to do it last night.

Once again, I am beside myself with glee, merely for doing what most people do all the time...cook a great meal. I do, however, have a greater appreciation for restaurants now and will never take for granted all the work that they save me!

Anyway, last night (or should I say all day yesterday) I made chicken fajitas with onions and peppers, homemade fresh salsa, homemade tortilla chips (made with corn tortillas which had no prohibited ingredients), apple berry salsa, cinnamon chips (which I could not eat, so I put cinnamon and sugar on a matzo and used that--turned out well) and finally, after a week of NO CHOCOLATE, I made a chocolate fudge cake (in the low iodine cookbook, but almost identical to the "chocolate mess" recipe I make all the time.

Surprisingly, I am still feeling rather well. Besides all the cooking, I got a lot of painting done in the basement. I am a bit more tired, and falling asleep about 9 pm, but I am waking up so darn early and not being able to go back to sleep. From most accounts, people sleep a lot during this time, but I really have been sleeping worse at night and minimally during the day, although I am taking more rests between tasks.

The hardest part is not knowing whether or not this is as bad as it gets or if the whole thing will unexpectedly catch up with me without warning. So I thank God emphatically that I expected to feel like crap for this period and I have had no meds for 7 days so far and have had 7 really good days.

Tonight: leftovers. The Accidental Chef is taking a break.

Silver Lining, T-13

Do you have any idea how much sodium is in food? Even "fresh" chicken and some pork can have lots of added salt. If nothing else, I will always be more conscious of what I am eating. Maybe with this new awareness, I can lower my bp somewhat.

Ahh...Day 4...starting to feel the effects of no thyroid med...a bit tired, but OK. It is a busy time making bread and everything from scratch. I think I'd be tired under normal circumstances!

So, today Josh made a loaf of bread (I can't eat), I made the cinnamon bread from the Low Iodine Cookbook (more like a dessert/coffee cake). Then I decided that I'd made Italian Beef for sandwiches for supper tonight, so I had to make French bread to serve it on. I never even thought about making the French bread before, but it was easy and looks excellent.

Tomorrow: pot roast with carrots, onions and potatoes (no skins, potato skins are BAD BAD NEWS on a low iodine diet, but the inside is OK). The trick will be deciding how to season it since I can't use onion soup like normal. I also want to try making homemade pork breakfast sausage for pancakes and sausage (dinner Monday night) and apple berry salsa with homemade chips.