Ahira's Hangar

Well today was the day I went in for the first round of serious tests for my thyroid, with round two tomorrow.

It was sort of a weird day.

Had to go in "bright" and early, at 0830, when it was still freaking dark out. I hate that crap. People should not have to get up before the sun. Of course, in the depths of the Michigan winter, that would not happen until what many would call midmorning. It was ten degrees farenheit, too, and I also hate that crap.

First I waited in a waiting room with my husband. Then they called me away, and I got to sit in another waiting room for a while.

Then I got called in to an exam room, where they used a special camera with a lense that looked like a telescope to take the before pictures of the outside of my throat, and also measured the baseline radiation readings. (The after pictures will be taken tomorrow, after my thyroid has had 24 hours to suck up all of that tasty radioactive iodine).

And then I got the joy of drinking some low dose radioactive fluid, mixed with disgusting lukewarm Ann Arbor tapwater (Ann Arbor has the worst tasting city water of any place I have ever been - depending on the day it can taste like anything from sewer to swamp. Oddly enough, Detroit has some of the best tasting city water anywhere - but I digress). So I drank it down. The radioactive stuff was in a plastic container put inside a lead lined thermos thingee.

Then I got called to another exam room where they pulled blood and then shot me up with a low dose of radiation. The shot came in a lead lined box.

I then got to wait in a third waiting area, while they gave my thyroid 15 minutes or so to suck up and trap the crap they injected me with.

Then they had me lie down on a table and they took films of my thyroid. Some of the films involved them putting a huge machine right over my head, with the cone pressed into my throat. Unfortunately, this made me have a panic attack, with made me hyperventilate and nearly faint and nearly vomit. But by closing my eyes and counting to one hundred over and over again (each image took about five minutes and I had to stay completely still for that time even though I wanted to slap aside the machine and run away screaming and throwing up and peeing in terror and panic and horror) I managed to remain sane and still.

I was told I could go home after the doctor looked at the films to make sure that they were usable. But I think he saw something in the films, as he decided to feel up my throat. So he put his hands aroung my neck and felt it by opressign his hands up against it, and had me drink small sips of more disgusting lukewarm Ann Arbor tap water (not good when your stomach is already trying to puke) to see what it felt like from the outside when I swallowed.

So after that, then they said the films were fine, and that I could leave.

We got the hell out of there and started driving home, and was still feeling really queasy. But I was trying really hard not to throw up, as who wants radioactive vomit all over themselves and their car? Even though it was still very cold, I had to crack the car window open for the cold air as it helped calm my stomach, and my husband had to pull over in city parks a couple of times when I started gagging. I did manage not to throw up, which was good. That way my tests tomorrow will not be messed up, plus the city did not have to call out a hazmat team to clean up radioactive puke in a city park.

This took all morning, and they had originally told me I would not have to miss work (I talked to my supervisor as soon as nuclear medicine called me to tell me about my appointment and arranged to have the day off anyway, thank God, as there was no way I could have gone into work after that panic attack or with a stomach that upset) or a driver (my husband volunteered anyway, thank God).

Round two will be tomorrow morning, again bad and early and dark. They will use the telescope thingee to take more pictures of the outside of my throat and read the radiation levels. And then I will get to see the endocrinologist on staff with the nuclear medicine department.

I am really hoping there will be no more panic attack inducing stuff.

Aaaaahhhhhh!

Sounds like a fairly nauseating procedure. Ingesting radioactive fluid mixed with crappy tap water? Ewww! Not sure how calm I could remain with a big ass machine pressing down on me either.

But I hope the tests provide definitive answers. And hope tomorrow goes better for you!

Wow, hang in there, Duchess.

When they thought my thyroid was swollen, all they did was send me for an ultrasound. Looks like you're getting the deluxe treatment.... (Mine was for underactive thyroid, tho, not overactive.)

Sheesh...bringing your shots in lead-lined boxes would not inspire confidence..."What? You won't even be exposed to this for a few seconds, and you're injecting me with it?"

--A

All rightey, then.
Who's heard from Duchess since she posted the first post in this thread?
(I know, I know...
I worry too much over nothing)

She's had radioactive Albuquerque tap water before, and lived, it'll cancel that out, she'll be fine.

On Thursday they decided that I did indeed have Grave's Disease, and decided to give me a huge drink of radioactive iodine (again mixed with disgusting luke warm Ann Arbor tap water) to destroy my thyroid. Again, it made my stomach upset, but I managed not to throw up.

The dose was large enough that I have had to stay in seclusion for a few days. Today is the first day I have been cleared to go to work, but my poor husband must continue to sleep on the couch until Wednesday night so as to be protected from radiation exposure. I have to use my own bathroom (thank God we have two in the house) until then as well, flushing at least twice each time I use the toilet (the two main pathways my body will get rid of the extra radiation are spit and pee) for a couple more days, too. We will be replacing the shower cutain and toilet seat in the one I have been using just to be on the safe side. I have been using all paper and platicware for eating purposes, and they go into a separate trach bag from the rest of the garbage.

They say I will actually feel a lot worse for the next 2-3 weeks, as my thyroid will release all of its stored hormones as it dies and all of my symptoms will probably get worse until I go into hypothyroidism, and then will be put on artificial thyroid hormones fo the rest and my life and stabilize.

I will be taking a drug called propranolol for the next 2-3 months to protect my heart from palpitations. Every time they have taken my heart rate over the past year it has been racing along at around 100 beats a minute, and they do not want that to get worse from the thyroid surge as my thyroid dies.

May the cure be worth the treatment Duchess.
Feel well.

Dam! That's intense! Hang tough duchy!!!!

Egad. Wishing you well, Duchess! Like Menolly said, hope all this crap you're going through will be worth it in the end.

I didn't realize that the cure for Graves Disease is to kill the thyroid! Hang in there, Duchess.

You have a choice of three things with Grave's Disease:
*trying to control the hyperthyroidism with medication, which is really hit and miss (the doctor compared it with trying to control a car on the freeway with one foot on the gas and the other on the brakes with no steering wheel) and which the doctors discontinue after 18 months if they cannot get the dose right
* surgical removal, followed by taking synthroid for the rest of your life
* destruction with radioactive iodine, followed by taking synthroid for the rest of your life

The side effects and recovery time are actually by far the least with the radiation. The iodine specically targets the thyroid and your body eliminates the rest of it through urine and saliva, and there are no reports of cancer caused by it in any patient or any patient's family members.

So we will see.

I am actually able to get more sleep, and feel calmer now (though I think that is from the propranolol rather than the radiation treatment), so things are already looking and feeling better.

Thankfully, I have really good health insurance - I pay a huge amount for it out of every paycheck, but at times like this it is really worth it!

Yeah...it's one of those things you don't think of how important it is until you really need it.

Anyway, glad you're feeling better. Yay Meds!

--A