Approaching RAI

Before Christmas, the plan that I made with my endo's office was that I would start my low iodine diet on January 1st and then call the office on January 2nd to get my Thyrogen prescription (they couldn't send it in earlier because of my insurance change).  Once we knew if/when I'd be able to get the Thyrogen, we'd set a date for the actual RAI treatment.

So I started my low iodine diet on the1st as planned ... only counting the part of the 1st after having gone to bed from the night before :)  On the 2nd, I called my endo's office and they sent the prescription over to my new pharmacy.  On the 3rd, I called to pharmacy to check if they would be able to fill it.  At the end of the day on the 3rd, I had my Thyrogen at home, waiting in the fridge - hooray!  Then on the 4th, I called my endo again and we set a date: RAI treatment on January 23rd.

On the 21st and 22nd, I go to my endo's office in the morning to get the Thyrogen shots (one each day) to up my TSH levels.  Then in the afternoon on the 22nd, I go to the nuclear medicine department to get a small, diagnostic dose of RAI and have a preliminary scan done.  I go back and get another scan the morning of the 23rd, and they use the information from both of those scans to calculate the size of the treatment dose.  By lunchtime on the 23rd, I should have received my radiation and be in my isolation period (about 4-5 days, depending on the size of the dose).  A week later, on the 30th, I go back for another scan.

How things are going so far:  the low iodine diet is both a fun challenge and a huge annoyance.  It makes meal planning pretty complicated, but I've made and tried things that I probably never would have otherwise.  I've roasted my own chick peas and red peppers, tried out a new pancake recipe, and made my own almond milk and tortillas.  I found a really tasty white bean dip recipe and modified a different recipe for a tomato and acorn squash pasta sauce.  Plus I've tried out several salad dressing recipes, the top two so far being a raspberry vinaigrette and a honey-tahini dressing.  But it's not simple to figure out what to eat and when: trying to get enough protein at various meals and making sure I have enough snacks to get me through the day has required a bit of creativity.  I've discovered that some things I thought were good snacks are not - I seem to get headaches after eating raw broccoli, and possibly after parsley too.  Fortunately, I don't have to follow this diet for too much longer, and I can't wait to eat a bunch of cheese!  (If you want to learn more about all of the dietary restrictions, read this)