# 2 hours post RAI



## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

Not gonna post every 2 hours, just happened to be on the computer at that time lol.

I'm 2 hours out. I'll take my first dose of Levo here in about 20 minutes. YAY!!! Doc told me to do a double dose today, tomorrow, and Sunday, in order to get it going here in my system. LID he wants me to wait til tomorrow to go off of, just to be safe, but it's all good, and while I'm never going to truly LOVE my endo, he's earning some major points. LOL. What's 2 more meals (at the time, down to 1 now) on LID after as long as I've been on it? That, and I know I've got pizza, shrimp, and scallops in the fridge/freezer waiting on me for this weekend.  Oh, and a little ice cream shop right around the corner. (Can ya tell what I'm craving? LOL.)

Overall, I feel pretty decent, a little tired, but it's rainy and 60s here in NW Ohio (a pj kinda day lol), plus I've been off my meds for 4 weeks now and messing with, uh, mother nature a bit. *Cover your eyes, for a sec, males.* I've been on my BC for just under 4 years, get it every 12 weeks. In the time I've been on it, I haven't even had a SPOT, and being off my meds, I've had a bit heavier spotting. Called the endo, and it is ANOTHER side effect of being "this" hypo. *Safe for the guys again.* So given everything, I honestly don't think it's the RAI making me tired.

I got a good look at my endo through the eyes of someone on the "outside" today too. The nuclear med girl told me (before my endo got there) that the dosage was based on where the cancer was. Since it had made it to my lymph nodes, it warranted at least 100 mci. She looked at my file and said that since it was in only 2 of the 12 neck lymph nodes, that's why it was the 100. She said that 1-3 nodes = 100 mci, 4-7 = 150, and 8-12 = 200 (Or something to that effect - I may have the dosages off) . She just said that's how my endo (the only one in town) has always done it, and it's worked for him so far. Even the nuc. med. girl said that at 10 days for the WBS, they'll be able to tell where the RAI "took", therefore knowing where/if it spread to anywhere other than those 2 lymph nodes. She said that if we wait past much longer (like 2 weeks or more) for the WBS, there won't be many traces of it left, and that they give if 10 days so that it has time to FIND the spread thyroid cancer cells. If, at 10 days, it's only in my neck area, great, but if it's in, say, my lungs, (just an organ that popped in my head), my endo will know to monitor that area on future scans (which my next one will be 6-9 mos. out.

I also asked her if there were a lot of thyca patients in the area, and she said, "Oh yeah, you'd be surprised. But you're in good hands. As long as you do what he says, you shouldn't butt heads. Getting older has calmed him down a LOT, and he's not near as bad as the rumors you've heard." My endo doesn't have the greatest reputation around town. While I've had my issues with him, they've been minor compared to some of the stories I've heard, but this guy's been practicing endocrinology in this town for at LEAST 30 years (he treated my grandmother's diabetes, and she passed away 30 yrs ago this August due to esophageal cancer), so hard telling if the rumors are actually RECENT rumors or not, esp since he's been the ONLY endo in town for that long.

Over all, not bad. The hubby is home all weekend with me. He took off the same days I did, since we truly had no idea if I'd need a baby-sitter. Granted, he's not going to complain about some extra couch time, plus he's got a toy (his current project truck, a 1973 IH crew cab pickup - he's a body guy) sitting out in the garage he can play with if he gets bored. He doesn't have a decent enough air compressor here at home to do bigger stuff, but we brought home enough little tools last night from his shop up town that he can attack small stuff if he wants to. That, and he could use a good, long, stress-less weekend too.


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

teri2280 said:


> Not gonna post every 2 hours, just happened to be on the computer at that time lol.
> 
> I'm 2 hours out. I'll take my first dose of Levo here in about 20 minutes. YAY!!! Doc told me to do a double dose today, tomorrow, and Sunday, in order to get it going here in my system. LID he wants me to wait til tomorrow to go off of, just to be safe, but it's all good, and while I'm never going to truly LOVE my endo, he's earning some major points. LOL. What's 2 more meals (at the time, down to 1 now) on LID after as long as I've been on it? That, and I know I've got pizza, shrimp, and scallops in the fridge/freezer waiting on me for this weekend.  Oh, and a little ice cream shop right around the corner. (Can ya tell what I'm craving? LOL.)
> 
> ...


So very good to hear from you and what wonderful news. I also think you have a great doc that definitely knows what he is doing.

You also have a great hubby!! Whoohoo! Life is good!


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## teri2280 (Feb 7, 2012)

Yeah, I've questioned some stuff, but I think I've been a good patient and "done what he said". LOL. For the most part, at least. Yeah, I didn't feel bad about "cheating" on the LID early on, but even during the first of 7 weeks, it was small cheats. Not once have I had pizza or seafood, but if I was craving milk, I didn't feel bad about having a small 3-4 ounce glass. (I didn't use bigger than a 6 oz. glass, and only poured it about half full. I'm a pretty decent milk drinker, so in the first 3 weeks, that was really my biggest "cheat", but it was like a once a week thing.) But the hubby and I set a "crunch time" date, of 2 weeks before my blood tests, (or I should say when I accidentally thought my blood tests were LOL) as I knew he'd have to change the date of treatment if my tests came back off, and it worked out to being a little over 4 weeks COMPLETELY LID. Did I like it? Heck no. Was it horrible? Well.... maybe a bit.... For a first timer, it pretty much sucked, but now that I know what to expect, what I can and can't eat, etc, next time it will be a SNAP. The plus side, I think I've lost weight on it. Not much, and not 100% sure since my scale is busted and I keep forgetting to replace it, but it feels like I have, considering the way some of my clothes are fitting. (Which is a super plus considering that as of Sunday I'll have been off work for 2 weeks. LOL.)

I also found out today, that future scans will include thyrogen!!! YAY!!!! No more going hypo!! It was an option this time around, but my ins. co kept telling me that my drs office would know if it was covered, and vice versa, and to avoid THAT headache, I said "Screw it, I'll go hypo." Had I known the outcome, I def. would have dug a little more, but I was already stressed out to the max from everything (this has been a pretty crazy first half of the year for me lol), PLUS under the mistaken theory that if it had spread, to say, my lungs, that I'd need trad. chemo, so I wanted this all over and done with for now as much as was possible. (Don't ask WHERE I got the chemo theory from. LOL. I honestly don't know, but I know better now.) I was speaking to the nuc. med. girl about the thyrogen, and she said it should be covered one way or the other. I might have to go to the hosp's diagnostic center for the injections, instead of my endo's office, but it's covered by at least my current insurance. (She even asked me what insurance I have, and said they just gave a couple doses to another thyca patient with the same insurance. It's not that my insurance wouldn't have covered it, it's just that they might have not covered it if it were endo-administered instead of hosp-administered.


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## JPGreco (Mar 2, 2012)

Glad its going well so far Terri. Now that I'm out of work for the day my RAI is starting to weigh on my mind a little more. Mainly how long I'll be out of work.


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