This morning I went in to the medical center to take a tracer pill to start the procedure that will continue tomorrow with a scan of my thyroid gland. The scan will be followed by an assessment of the scan results by the radiology doctors which will determine if and how much radioactive iodine I will be given to ablate my thyroid gland. The appointment this morning was simple and fast and on time which was a pleasant surprise. The technician explained what will happen tomorrow, answered my questions, and gave me the tracer pill which has a small amount of radioactive iodine in it.

The antithyroid med that I’ve been taking has made me hypoactive
now. That means that I am a little tired and achy. I stopped taking it
3 days ago on Sunday according to directions given by the doctor.

The radioactive iodine may cause a burst of thyroid hormone which
might mean that I’ll need to take the beta blocker again to keep my
heartrate down. That should be just a temporary thing though. Probably
a few weeks at most.

The longest shot chance is that I have gone into remission and the
scan will show that I don’t need to have my thyroid ablated. Then
they’ll just tell me to go home without giving me any radioactive
iodine after the scan. But that is a VERY long shot and is unlikely.

It will be good to get this procedure behind me. I would like to see
the scan as they’re doing it but the tech person said that I’ll be
lying down and not able to see it. But they’ll show me pictures later
if I want. The doctor mentioned my thyroid "lighting up" when I talked
to him on the phone. I’d like to see what he means by "lighting up".

This morning’s appointment took less than 15 minutes and only a few
seconds to swallow the pill. If they could prescribe this pill at
K-Mart I wouldn’t have to have driven so far but I guess K-Mart isn’t
prepared to handle radioactivity just yet. 🙂 I wonder if they’d need
a lead lined vault to store this stuff?

Well, off to do work this afternoon.

Snicks