# Actual symptoms ya'll experienced post RAI?



## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

I'm just over a week out, and beginning to get a little nervous. Not super stressed (at least not over the RAI lol, for those of you that know what's going on with me here in the past week or so), just normal nervous lol. (I actually slept through the night last night for the first time since last Friday night! Yay! LOL)

Doc said I'll be able to start back on my Levo and kick the LID diet to the curb the morning after RAI (YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!), but am I going to even be feeling well enough to enjoy finally being off the LID? Much less, if I'm throwing up the next morning, should I avoid taking my levo? (I don't want to take it if I'm just going to throw it back up.) My RAI is scheduled for next Friday, with me not going back to work until Wed, and if I start taking my Levo on Saturday, it'll be well into my system by the time I have to go back to work (YAY!), which is how it was planned. (For those who don't know my story, going hypo for RAI and working where I work just don't go well together, so I'm on medical leave until the date of my RAI, with 2 vaca days for Sat and Sun, then scheduled off on Mon and Tues. I know that if I can't take the levo because I'm throwing it up, my doc will extend my med. leave a few days so that I can get back to normal before returning to work, but am just trying to get a better idea of what to expect.)

I'm going to be taking 100 mci @ 1030 am on June first, and am a 5-10 250ish (last I checked) female. (I'll be honest and say that I'm guessing that the same dosage for a 5 ft. even 100 pound person is going to affect them differently than it will me, that's my reasoning for adding my height/weight.)

Also, am I going to lose even more hair due to the RAI? My hair has been thin for a LONG time already, due to whatever reason, and of course more and more brushes out since I've gone hypo. Before TT, I'd have to clean out my brush once a week, but here lately it's been an every day thing. Should I just shave my hair and be done with it? (LOL. You guys probably think I'm crazy, but I'm a total tomboy and would so do it.)


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Throwing up? Why would you be throwing up? Am I missing something? If not...RAI isn't like, say, chemo. It doesn't make you throw up.

For me, it was like a magnified hypo. Most people seem to report that they pop the pill and that's that...I felt pretty crummy and was in bed for two days straight, but it wasn't as if I was sick to my stomach. I just was tired, felt achy and sore, and just wanted to veg out.

The hair loss thing is related to the hormonal upheaval, not specifically to the RAI. I did not have hair loss until my TSH went from the 120s to 8-ish...that's when I had a 4 week period of hair loss, but now it's back and I'm hairier than ever.

I had 100 millicurries as well.

So are they not doing a pre- and post-RAI scan?

Edited to add: you might have some strange sensations with regard to your taste.


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

No scans before, WBS 10 days after.

And as far as the throwing up, it was on some website (can't remember where at the moment) listed as a possible side effect.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

I would be very, very surprised if you vomited. They told me to eat bland foods on that first day so I didn't "process" the pill too quickly, but that's it. I'll bet you really don't notice much of a difference at all.


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

Sweet! Thanks!


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

I did not get sick. I also had 100 millicuries.

I am still concerned about you waiting 10 days post RAI for your scan. The half-life of the RAI is much shorter than that (which is why you're able to be around people after 2 or 3 days), and I'm concerned that a lot of it that SHOULD show on your scan won't.

My 2 cents, if it's worth that!


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

Octavia said:


> I did not get sick. I also had 100 millicuries.
> 
> I am still concerned about you waiting 10 days post RAI for your scan. The half-life of the RAI is much shorter than that (which is why you're able to be around people after 2 or 3 days), and I'm concerned that a lot of it that SHOULD show on your scan won't.
> 
> My 2 cents, if it's worth that!


Knowing my endo, could it be possible that I'll have a scan the day of RAI (like right after it's administered) and then another one 10 days later to see if the amount is truly going down like it should, and he's just considering my "first scan" as part of the RAI and my 2nd as my 1st since it'll literally be JUST a scan? (I know that sounds weird, but I think you know what I'm getting at....LOL.) I know I'll actually see my endo on the day of my RAI, not just some nuclear med guy or whatever, and that doesn't seem to be the norm from what I've found online either. (Granted, most people on this page know that NOTHING with my endo is in the norm.... LOL.) I've been told that when I get to nuclear med at the hospital and get checked in, they'll call over to my endo's office and he'll swing down if he isn't already in the building. (Endo's office is literally right around the corner from nuc. med. / diagnostic studies, so it won't add to my wait by more than 5 minutes, if that.)


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## interpret77 (Apr 10, 2012)

I am having my RAI on June 18th. I will have scans before and after. I was also prescribed anti-nausea meds for mine. I'm going to be doing the 131 dose. Like you, I'm off work till 2-3 weeks after my RAI. That's what my doc wanted me off for. I haven't been told to do the low iodine diet and I'm hoping I don't have to.


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

interpret77 said:


> I am having my RAI on June 18th. I will have scans before and after. I was also prescribed anti-nausea meds for mine. I'm going to be doing the 131 dose. Like you, I'm off work till 2-3 weeks after my RAI. That's what my doc wanted me off for. I haven't been told to do the low iodine diet and I'm hoping I don't have to.


2-3 WEEKS after???? DANG. My endo originally told me to go back to work on Monday, but Mon and Tues are usually my days off, so I won't go back til Wed. I'm still not at all entirely sure about that one, but it's a LOT better than going back on Monday. I'm a dept. mgr. in a Walmart deli, so I wanted the extra 2 days to be away from ready-to-eat foods. Then again, I think you know some of my issues with my endo. *Insert eye-roll* Starting to wonder if there's any sort of guidelines on the net for RAI time off if you work around food. I know it varies state by state, but I sure as hell don't wanna go back, be short handed, have to be behind the counter waiting on customers, and possibly spread contamination. (We wear gloves and hats of course, and I have OCD about keeping my hands clean and sanitized up to my elbows even BEFORE all of this started, but still....)

And I am SO jealous at the no LID. I'll admit, it's not HORRIBLE, but seeing commercials for Red Lobster or Pizza Hut's $10 any size, any toppings carry out deal when you're trying to go to bed at night really SUCKS. (And we don't eat at either of those places regularly, or anything, either. It's just the knowing I can't have it lol.) I DO flat-out-refuse to schedule a RAI treatment around September (when Red Lobster runs their endless shrimp) LOL. NOT happening. It doesn't help that my endo has had me on the LID for just under 7 (yes, 7, that's not a typo lol) weeks! I won't lie, though. The first 4 wks into it, I cheated a bit (if I wanted a small glass of milk, I'd drink it, but it wasn't my normal 8 oz. glass per day, and the salad dressing I used those 4 weeks had soybean oil in it, but I have never been a HUGE dressing user anyway, so that was really the extent of my cheating, other than one night we had burgers and I put them on a bun, but that was like 6 weeks ago), but the past 3, especially after I found out he was in fact doing an iodine level test, have been crunch time.

*ADD* My paranoid self called the local health dept. to ask about the time off work. They said that the 4 days in between my RAI and my return to work date are more than enough, even being around "ready-to-eat foods" provided my RAI dosage isn't high enough that I'll be quarantined in the hospital (which I won't). Had I had a higher dose that warranted hospital quarantine, that would have been a different story, but since it's an outpatient procedure, they said I'll be fine. Yes, I know I'm probably being overly paranoid, and it's probably a side effect of being super hypo, but still. I feel better about it at least, and considering that "most" of my endo's thyroid patients are people who have "normal-9to5-office-jobs" (something he's told me numerous times) I almost needed the confirmation. And my luck we'll have a health dept. visit on my first day back or something. LOL. At least I didn't tell them which grocery store deli I work at.


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## interpret77 (Apr 10, 2012)

teri2280 said:


> 2-3 WEEKS after???? DANG.


He said that he wants to make sure that my synthroid and labs were all good before I returned to my job, and I honestly do not want to rush it. I have been off since my surgery and have had vocal cord paralysis on the left cord and I talk a LOT at work so I'm taking my time to heal. Do you know what dose of RAI you will be getting? Mine is going to be the 131.


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

interpret77 said:


> He said that he wants to make sure that my synthroid and labs were all good before I returned to my job, and I honestly do not want to rush it. I have been off since my surgery and have had vocal cord paralysis on the left cord and I talk a LOT at work so I'm taking my time to heal. Do you know what dose of RAI you will be getting? Mine is going to be the 131.


100 mci of the same. Man, I wish I had your endo. I requested to mine that he put me on FMLA (because being off my meds was apparently affecting my job performance ), which he did, no questions, but he wrote the dang FMLA paperwork through today. Granted he knew I was planning on using vaca/personal time/sched days off so that I'd be off til next Wed FOR the RAI, but I'm having a hard time swallowing that I'll be 100% after being back on them for just 4 days. I mean, I know it's got to be better than it is now, but I know it's not going to be anywhere near normal, either. (Yes, my endo is that big of an idiot. LOL.)


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## interpret77 (Apr 10, 2012)

teri2280 said:


> 100 mci of the same. Man, I wish I had your endo. I requested to mine that he put me on FMLA (because being off my meds was apparently affecting my job performance ), which he did, no questions, but he wrote the dang FMLA paperwork through today. Granted he knew I was planning on using vaca/personal time/sched days off so that I'd be off til next Wed FOR the RAI, but I'm having a hard time swallowing that I'll be 100% after being back on them for just 4 days. I mean, I know it's got to be better than it is now, but I know it's not going to be anywhere near normal, either. (Yes, my endo is that big of an idiot. LOL.)


My ENT had me off for 2 weeks but with my complications and such (vocal cord paralysis) and I spend 5-6 hrs a day on the phone, I couldn't do it. I am thankful the endo redid my FMLA paperwork to extend my leave. If you don't feel ready to go back, have them re-do yours. I think it's best not to push it!


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

Tim Taylor Ooooh Yeeeeahhhh...... LOL. Sorry, I forgot you were the one that had that complication from surgery. (And I'm jonesing me some Home Improvement - the hubs and I usually watch it when we go to bed, but I don't have a tv in the guest room...We never put one in there because until about 2 wks ago it never even had a bed in it, much less guests! LOL.)

I think I'll be fine, providing I can get off this "staying up til 11 and sleeping til 830" schedule! LOL.That double dose the endo had me take those first 3 days is working wonders, and while I don't feel as great as I did on the Cytomel, I don't think I'm too far off.


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