well -- the shots have still not worn completely off....
and round two of them is coming up in just about 3 weeks.... the test that i had done back in april (with the first round of the shots) showed that there must still be some tissue left that they need to take care of. the doctor said i have 3 options -- to go after it very passively with a 'wait and see' attitude and watch it -- and do the thyrogen shots & blood test in six months and see if it has changed/grown.... option 2 is to go after it very agressively with a 'take you off synthroid for 6 weeks' (which would mean i would probably spend that time in bed entirely -- with zero energy) and then do the radiated iodine thing (to kill any remaining thyroid cells)... and option 3, which is what i chose, is kind of the middle ground between the two -- agressive in that we're doing 2 more thyrogen shots (which i found out cost around 2 grand for the pair -- we thought the insurance company might give us hassle about this because we had just requested them a month ago -- because they are so spendy, you have to get them pre-approved by the insurance company -- but it was surprisingly easy!!)
so we do the two shots, then do the radiated iodine thing (which has to be done at the hospital under the care of a radiologist md -- i swallow a capsule that they have pumped radiation into some iodine, the iodine travels to the thyroid cells in my body and kills them and then a week later or so i go in for some kind of full-body scan to see where the radiation gathered? i'm not sure about this -- and that reminds me -- i haven't heard from the radiologist's office yet. better check up on that.
so what does that mean in real life every day terms? it means that i'm basically out of commission for most of june and probably part of july at least -- the second round of thyrogen shots on top of this first round not being out of my system yet means that i'll be very very very weak -- and the radiation means that i won't be able to be around people for a week -- they told me that the radiation will be excreted from my body through my saliva, pee and sweat and that if i sat closer than 5 feet to someone, they might experience effects from it. also i'm not allowed to share a bathroom or silverware or cups with andy -- not really a big deal there because we luckily do have 2 bathrooms...
the thyrogen shots are scheduled to be done on the 10th and 11th of june -- and the radiated iodine the 12th... then the scan sometime the following week i guess. when i spoke to the endocrinologist's assistant last she mentioned something about the friday too (the 13th) but i'm not sure which office i would be going to or what they'd be doing...
*shrug*
so there you go. the whole purpose of the radiated iodine is to rid my body of the thyroid cells (and hence rid my body of the thyroid cancer/possiblity of future thyroid cancer) so it's a good thing... it just is gonna be a long bumpy ride.
Posted by kristen at May 21, 2008 10:00 AM