Hello again! I am back from hospital, in fact was back yesterday around noon but slept most of the day so I didn't get to blog.
I survived! I am also now radioactive! Let me tell you this whole thing has been VERY sci-fi. We are talking next level, stuff I thought was only in movies, sci-fi crazy.
First let's talk about what happened when I went in. I met with a very nice Dr who went over the procedure and all the ins, outs, ups, downs and maybes of receiving this treatment. Extremely thorough and informative.
Then I went to the floor I was supposed to be on and literally "checked in" to my hospital room like it was a hotel reservation. Strange but okay. I was informed that it has been quite some time since they have had an IN patient receiving this treatment and that I could consider myself one of the most very special patients in the hospital this week.
My nurse showed me to my private one-bed room with private bathroom. She checked my pulse, temp and BP 128/89...a little higher than normal but I was nervous. Then I waited for a few hours. I basically hung out in my room and napped.
At 2pm the nuclear tech showed up and explained everything all over again in full detail. They are not messing around. She and her observing resident then prepared my room by removing my garbage can and taping what I call doggie training pads all over the bathroom floor (to minimize contamination) and give me a billion instructions on everything from always wearing socks or slippers to how to cut my food up, etc. They also literally plastered the outside of my room door with large BioHazard signs and warnings and charts.
Here we go. I am given instructions and they go stand outside my wide open door on the opposite side of the hall. I am by the window farthest into the room. I open a large black lead shoebox sized box that has a giant BioHazard symbol on top. There is a square lead lid with a handle, I remove that. Inside is thermos sized lead container with a hockey puck sized lid that weighs 10-15lbs. I lift that off. Inside THAT is a small clear plastic container (similar to the size of a pill bottle) with no lid but a semi large red and white capsule with...you guessed it...BioHazard symbols. I pick up the container and pop the pill into my mouth and down a glass of water.
The nuclear tech comes in and stands on her mark she has taped to the floor while I stand on mine and she picks up what LITERALLY is a geiger counter but looks like it is an original from the 50s. It is a smallish brown metal box with a dial and a needle that moves back and forth. There is a 1 meter long black cord coming out of it leading to a silver microphone shaped thing she points at me.
I am now radioactive.
They leave, locking the door and me in. They have placed a table by my door allowing the meal guy to open the door and slide my food tray onto the table without entering. I'm not allowed to eat until dinner and I'm hungry so I sleep.
The rest of day 1 I slept off and on, ate dinner and called honey for a backup of low iodine snacks. Before I took my pill the meal guy came and gave me a heads up (and two thumbs down) that the LID breakfast was lacking. It wasn't, but I got honey to bring me a bag of LID Snacks anyways which turned out to be a good thing. When he brought it, my nurse opened the door enough for him to slip the bag on the table for me and say "hi honey! I'll call you tonight!" before she gave him the boot and locked me in again.
I slept. I ate. I gabbed on the phone- ALOT. To honey, my parents a bunch and one of my sisters called. Basically ZERO side effects day 1.
Day 2 I woke up feeling like garbage. Just groggy and gross and generally crappy. My mouth was super dry first thing, and my face swelled like a chipmunk. My saliva glands HURT so much. By the end of the day, and many sour candies later, they still hurt but not as bad. But my throat felt sore to touch like someone had punched me in the neck, and slightly swollen. I called and had the TV service hooked up for day 2 and watched 6 hours of Property Brothers, 2 hours of the Food Network and an hour of misc. I also talked on the phone ALOT. My best friend here in the city called a couple times to check on me as did my parents and honey.
The nuclear tech came and checked my levels with her geiger counter again. My endocrinologist stopped in to see how I was doing. Said everything I was experiencing was normal. My nurses called me on the phone to check on me.
Day 3 I woke up to my breakfast being dropped off and my best friend from Alberta calling. My mouth was dry again but my face swelling had gone waaaayyyy down and my saliva glands weren't as sore as before. My throat still hurt to touch. I packed up and got dressed and awaited the nuclear tech at 10am.
When she came she measured my levels and I was way down from day 2. I was under the acceptable levels and could go home! Hooray!!
My dad came and got me and brought me home to my home hideaway for the next 5 nights. He drove, I sat in the backseat on the opposite side of the car from him. I got my cellphone back and started catching up everyone by text. My other 2 sisters called and said they had tried to reach me in hospital but the line was always busy....oops!
I started my meds right away and Honey made me some wonderful food. Literally everything I have eaten since coming home from hospital has tasted like the best thing I ever ate!!! No more LID!!!
By this morning my saliva glands don't hurt at all anymore and I'm finally not freezing any longer. I actually got hot during the night last night! My throat still hurts to touch but the swelling has almost all gone away. I'm mostly just tired today like if I had a cold or a long day.
For those interested, they gave me a dose of 100mcl of radioactive iodine. The range can be anywhere from 30mcl to 200mcl. So 100mcl is on the higher end of the scale.
I know my symptoms could have been so much worse than they were and I consider my body as either super tough and durable or my remaining thyroid cells just gobbled up the radioactive iodine and moved on without too much adversity. Either way I am grateful, so very grateful, my symptoms weren't worse than than were. I didn't experience any nausea, only the occasional wooziness(is that a word?) when I moved to fast or stood up too quick, and the above described face and throat pain.
I am now in my new "home away from home" temporary setup and had **THE** very best shower of my entire life. Now it is nap time.
~Sally
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