Waiting to Glow in the Dark!

Sorry for the delay, but I forgot that we had tickets last night to the South Atlantic League All-Star game in Rome, GA. It was pretty late when we got back to the house and I didn't post. Fact is, we were a little damp. There has been NO rain in GA for weeks and Mother Nature decides to let it pour last night. They got the game in and we were saved by $18 in plastic ponchos.

Made it to my Endocrinologist appointment yesterday. The first thing he did was to up my Thyroid pills from 137mmg to 200mmg without even asking how I was feeling. He said my dosage needed to by higher, which is good because I have been getting pretty rundown in the evenings. This should help.

The next thing is to do the radioiodine therapy. His office is making an appointment with Northside Hospital for a Wednesday or Thursday in the near future. This is because I have to have two consecutive days of shots before I take the radioactive pill. The shots are to artificially lower my THG levels and make those thyroid cells still left in my body really HUNGRY for iodine.

The radioactive iodine will kill any remnant thyroid cells left over from the surgery, but also any thyroid cancer cells that have my left my neck area and moved to other places in my body. Metastases to the lungs, bones or other organs is very possible, but should be very treatable due to the nasty cells ability to soak-up radioactive iodine.

The pill has to be administered by the hospital, but I can go home as soon as I take it out of the lead box and swallow it (no kidding!). I will have to be quarantined in the basement for three days. Whatever radioiodine that is not absorbed by the cells is excreted from my body (saliva, perspiration and urine) over the next couple days. So I have to be very careful not to expose anyone to my clothing, eating utensils, toothbrush and such. I have to have my own bathroom, sleep alone and pretty much wash or throw away anything that I touch or handle.

It sure would be tempting to just head to a hotel for a couple days, but that would be a nasty thing to leave for housekeeping - and besides, I believe that would be illegal. So I am planning to read a bunch of paperback novels, eat a lot of takeout and wash a couple of loads of cloths for those three days. Some of you might say that already sounds like what I do now.

I will give an update of my quest for short-term disability next posting. But I will give you a hint: it ain't settled yet!

Jeff