" Lord almighty, i feel my temperature rising, higher, higher it's burning through my soul...help me i'm flaming, i must be a hundred and nine...i feel like i am slipping away, it's hard to breathe...just a hunk, a hunk of burning love." burning love, by Elvis Presley

so in the first blog of this series, i talked about the RAI diet- and how you have to wait a while before you can have that cheeseburger in paradise. the second blog was somewhat boring- a technical mash up of why the diet is important, what RAI actually does for you, and some tips and procedure advice. this final blog ( for now anyway, i seem to return to this topic on a somewhat frequent basis) is just a retelling of my experiences with the treatment dose of RAI.

in my family, whenever we tell a story we always start with " and so i got there." i will begin there. i talked my endocrinologist into letting me have my RAI treatment dose at a hospital near me. that was so i could be at home for my isolation, and not in the hospital. so i got there( to the hospital near me) and met with the radiologist who would be taking care of me during my adventures with radioactive iodine. the radiologist started off reading from the pathology report- explaining to me why i needed such a large dose of the RAI. the short version is that i had : unencapsulated tumors, diffuse infiltration into my neck bed and lymph node area, stage three,etc. i also found out that i had cancer in two of my four parathyroids.  when he was telling me all of this, i actually had to refrain from turning my head to look behind me. surely he was talking to someone else! my husband was with me and i highly recommend taking your spouse, best friend, neighbor, or whoever with you when you are to be receiving news like this. at times i just spaced out, but my husband filled in the blanks for me later on.

i had my surgery on May 19th, 2010. i had a thyrogen injection on july 19th, along with a chest x-ray and a full CBC ( blood work). on july 20th, i had another injection of thyrogen,. on wednesday, drum roll here, i had my treatment dose of RAI. thursday i got to rest- ha,ha. and then on friday, more blood work. the following week, i had to come back to the hospital for a full body scan. nothing too interesting about the thyrogen injection on the 19th and 20th, but the day i got my RAI was a day that i will never forget.

i was apprised again of the "rules of being radioactive." i was sitting in a treatment room, alone, when the radiology technician came in. at least i think that it was her. whoever it was had on a full haz-mat suit- from head to toe,  although it looked a little bit like she was planning a walk on the moon instead of handing me my RAI dose. what she placed on a little table in front of me was in a very heavy lead box about the size of some canned goods. inside, the walls were about three inches thick all the way around. there was a glass vial inside that contained a capsule, about the size of an extra strength tylenol, that was filled with some white powder. there was also a small bottle of water. she told me, in a muffled voice,  that i was to open up the box, AFTER SHE LEFT THE ROOM,  remove the capsule from the glass vial, and swallow it as quickly as possible. she said that it needed to go down fast- not roll around in my mouth. i somehow  managed to get it down without choking. before the technician left the room, she told me that  from the time i swallowed the capsule, i had exactly one hour in which to drive home and get upstairs in isolation.

in order to deal with the situation, i immediately thought of the show " mission impossible". the theme song was going around in my head. i had accepted the mission and i had to move quickly to complete my task, before myself and everyone around me, crashed and burned. i will now say that about 30 minutes into the trip home, my throat got sore and i felt like someone was pressing on my throat where my thyroid had been. later on, after i had sprinted upstairs to my isolation room, i did feel hot to the touch, and i had some nausea. this is what made me think of the "burning love" song. i would have liked an anti-emetic, but a cold wash cloth and sipping on some ginger ale worked pretty well. even though i had snacks upstairs in a dorm refrigerator, i did not feel like eating. i did drink sour lemonade and lots and lots of water, though.

so, i made it to friday. i drove myself to the hospital and prepared to make my way to the lab for another blood test. i could find my way to the radiology department blindfolded, but i had never been to the lab. i was told to keep at least 6 feet between me and others, and to not get anywhere near someone who might possibly be pregnant. as i was making my way down the hall, i happened upon a man from housekeeping who was buffing the floors. i had to yell, which made it worse i think, " i am radioactive, stay back from me, but could you please tell me if i am heading in the right direction to get to the lab?". needless to say, he certainly kept his distance. in fact he was probably thinking, " man, this lady needs directions to the psych ward instead of the lab." he did tell me that i was on the correct path and to turn left two doors down the hall way.

which brings up another interesting story. this one deals with the fact that i was not to  get anywhere near someone of childbearing age. the med tech at the lab, who was holding a huge needle and heading straight for my poor over-stuck arm, was of child bearing age. i was going to try to be subtle, but the situation called for action. i shouted, " are you pregnant?" the med tech immediately smoothed down her scrub top, and said, " well no! my oldest child is four years old." i know that she was thinking " i wonder if this top makes me look fat?" believe me, you do not want a person wielding a large needle to be pissed off at you! i told her quickly that i was radioactive, and was told to ask this before my blood test. she looked relieved, and actually thanked me for asking- eventually.

i had nausea for four days. i could go downstairs after my husband left for work, but i had to wear disposable gloves and sit on a piece of plastic. i put a plastic, disposable mattress cover on the bed upstairs. i bought some cheap sheets and a couple of towels that were discarded after i " had done my time in isolation". i also discarded the clothes that i had been wearing, along with magazines and paperback books that i had been reading. all my plates, cups, utensils had to be discarded. i did choose the ones that were made from sugar cane or whatever. my husband would come home, fix dinner, put it on the stairs and run! actually, he sat in the dining room where i could see him. we could talk that way and that was actually nice. after a few days of this, however, i felt like the crazy woman in those Victorian novels- you know, the one who gets locked up in the attic? i was lonely, and i really, really wanted a hug from my husband! of course, that was not possible. besides, one of us " glowing" was enough.

which brings me to my full body scan, which was done  on July 28th. it was an open scanner, thank goodness, and they scanned me slowly from head to toe. i felt like i was holding my breath the whole time which was not possible, as the scan lasted about 45 minutes. when they were finished, the technicians said, " wow, your neck lit up like a Christmas tree!". ha- ha- ha. that did not put me in the holiday spirit, you might say. but  then i tried imagining that the RAI had light sabers, and that there was a fierce battle going on in my neck. i preferred to think that the jedi RAI fighters had the advantage over the rogue thyroid cancer cells.

and in fact, that was the case. my final results were as follows: chest x-ray was clear; there was  focal uptake in my anterior neck( think Christmas tree), but no evidence of distant metastatic disease in head, chest, abdomen, or pelvis. i had another full body scan in december of that year, with similar results. i did have elevated TGA and TG for the next three and one-half years,  but that is another story for another day.....