The two days prior to the radioactive iodine treatment I was injected with Recombinant TSH, Thyrogen.  These injections increased my body’s TSH levels.  Because of this I did not have to discontinue my thyroxin hormone pills. I preferred this method because I didn’t have to go through a state of hypothyroidism prior to my radiation treatment.... 

I arrived to the hospital admissions around 7:30 am.  I was admitted into the hospital and shown to my “special” room for my radiation treatment.  The radiologist and resident came in and discussed my treatment and possible side effects.   Shortly after this talk two hospital radiation officers came in and “wrapped the room.”  They basically covered everything with paper and/or plastic.  Apparently this makes it easier to clean the room once the treatment is over.  I had to change into hospital clothes and just wait for the radioactive pill. 

For the next 7 days I had to avoid people….my wife…my dog…pretty much everything.  I was fortunate enough to have a guest room to sleep in and a separate bathroom to use.  This actually made it rather easy to avoid everyone.  I also took two showers a day to wash off any of the secreted radioactive iodine.  After about day 5 this really got annoying.  My poor dog would come running up to me only to be avoided.   She looked so sad....

On day 7 after my radioactive iodine-131 treatment I had to go back to the hospital to get a whole body scan.   The intention of the whole body scan is to identify if any of the cancer has spread throughout the body, metastasized.  For the scan I had to lie down on a table as the scanner slowly moved over my body.  The scanner has sensors that detect radioactive iodine.  At the time of the scan radioactive iodine should only be found in thyroid cells or thyroid cancer cells.  Then entire scan took about 24 minutes.  Yes, it was very hard to stay still for this long period of time....

So a week later I’m off to MCG again to find out my results from my whole body scan.  I was a little nervous.  A whole body scan will show if any of the cancer has metastasized to other locations in the body.  Typically, neck lymph nodes are a very common location for metastasis, followed by the lungs....