Thyroid Story - Part III

Let me see - Where did I leave off?

I thought that when the doctor took out the rest of my thyroid that my journey was over with, little did I know, it was not.  That was one of the hardest summers, that I can ever remember and it was one, that I will never forget. 

I had to go in, after the surgery, to have a thyroid scan done just to make sure that there were not pieces of my thyroid left behind.  Well, not sure how it happened, but there was a tiny piece left and it was still active.  So, this meant, that I had to have the radioactive iodine done. 

Doesn't sound too bad, does it?  Well, for the most part it wasn't.  The worse part was the time it was taking to get the test done and the hospital to read the report.  You have to know, that during this time, I was not taking any thyroid medication at all.  If you don't know anything about thyroid, then you will not understand why this was so hard, and the worse part.

I remember sleeping late most mornings, finally getting up and dressed, just before noon.  Then it was time to lay down and take a nap.  I felt so sorry for my kids, during this time, because I just didn't have the energy to do anything.  However, they were the best kids any mother could ask for.  They were there for me.  No one understood, not even my mother.  Until the time, that I was talking to her on the phone and I was out of breath. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her, folding a load of clothes.  It took everything I had to fold that load of towels.

Anyway, the radioactive iodine, wasn't really that bad.  I had to stay in the hospital for 3 days and 2 nights.  I was in total isolation.  At first, that was really nice.  Heck, I had three kids ages of 13, 7 and 3.  I could only take things into the room that I didn't want to bring out.  So, I took magazines and coloring books.  Thank goodness I am a TV junkie.

The nurses couldn't even come into my room.  They would leave my food, on throw-away containers, just inside the door.  They put a large trash can in my room, in order for me, to throw any leftovers away.  Every inch of the room had either paper taped down or saran wrap.  I did do some coloring on the walls and floors.  That was actually fun.

After, the treatment, I had to wait so many days so that I could have another thyroid scan done.  This time they did a whole body scan, to make sure there was nothing else showing and that all the iodine, had gotten all the way out.   (I still haven't had any medication) The results seemed like it took forever to be read.  The person was either out of town or just too busy, to read my report.  The report finally got read and everything was fine.

So, therefore, after many months of agonizing fatigue, pain and emotional roller coaster, I got to go back on my medication.  It takes a few days for it to get into your system.

For additional information on Thyroid and Thyroid Cancer, you can visit About.com.  They have a lot of great information regarding Thyroid subject.
Stay tuned next Friday for the final installment to my Thyroid story ...