Health Update
Lost a week of blogging while the docs figured out if my superduperhyperthyroid was in remission or not.
Nope.
Went on a lower dosage of PTU and the beta-blocker for a while, and six pounds disappeared just like that. Heart rate shot back up to the mid-80s at rest. The good news is, those pounds came off my belly and face. But now my standing heart rate is back down to about 40. Ever tried to work out when your heart rate won’t go up above 65?
So I went back on the triple dose of PTU, and we’ll see if I can keep the pounds off through diet. Diet? ME? When you’ve had an overactive thyroid your whole life, “diet” is not a word you have any connection with.
Then it took a few days to get re-adapted to all the pills — as I discovered the first time around, you feel worse before you feel better. I’m in the “better” stage now.
Next step? I’ll drink some radioactive iodine, and hide in a motel for a few days so I don’t irradiate the baby. Then there’s a 2-6 months-long wait for my thyroid to die off. After that, I’ll take a single Synthroid pill every morning — a nice change from the current 20-pill-a-day regimen.
Sounds weird to kill a vital organ by drinking a radioactive isotope, but this treatment is 50 years old. Although they don’t tell you at first that, for a few days, your urine is radioactive medical waste. And that for a week prior to drinking the glowing stuff, you have to endure an iodine-free diet.
Try that one at home, I dare you.
Anyway, prognosis is great, feeling great, and eager to get on with it.
Steve,
Best of luck with your treatment. I went through the exact same course 17 years ago. After two treatments of I-131, I went from 24 pills-a-day to a single pill each morning. Here’s to hoping they get your first I-131 dosage right!
Thanks, Peter. My thyroid is so over-the-top that, whatever the maximum dosage is, that’s probably what I’ll get. I kinda doubt they’ll mess around with the whole let’s-see-if-we-can-kill-off-the-exact-right-amount-of-his-thyroid process.
Hopefully they’ll nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.
If they’ve been doing it for 50 years and it hasn’t happened yet, I guess there’s not much chance that it’ll give you superpowers. Too bad.
I was so hoping, too.
Maybe if instead of taking a pill or drinking a liquid, they could have me bitten by an irradiated spider or marmoset or something.
So you won’t get laser-beam eyes? Dang.
Though maybe the power to manage the Federal Reserve Bank correctly would be better.
Best of luck.
I am glad to see that you have decided to finally undergo the radioactive iodine treatment. I think you will like the result.
The only downside I see, Doc, is having to pee in a cup for how many days?
Stephen,
It is nice to get an update on your medical condition and I can only hope the treatment is a success. I was very sad to hear of your illness when you let it out of the bag. Good to know that you are still on the mend, even with some setbacks. Keep at it and best wishes to you and your family as you undergo the latest.
I stop by everyday to see what you are up to and I can only hope that continues for a good long time.
Al Hurd
Thanks, Al.
I’ll tell you what, though. If you’ve got to have a chronic condition, hyperthyroid isn’t a bad choice. The treatment is easy and the drugs are cheap — and there’s even a permanent solution.
So all in all, I can’t complain.
Easy for me to say on account of it’s your organ and not mine, but that sounds awesome.
Here’s to your health, Stephen. I wish you the best.
Hahaha, radioactive marmoset. Somehow I think the resulting superpower would be totally not cool.
Good luck with that Steve. Hope it all works out OK.
Hey Steven,
Been there, done that with the RAI, twice — for cancer ablation, though it’s exactly the same procedure for you hyperthyroid folks. Check out Mary Shomon’s ThyroidAbout.com for tons of good advice, and Thyca.org for great, great advice on the low iodine diet (LID), near and dear to all us thyroid cancer patients — it’s the one aspect of our treatment we have some control over.
You don’t have to pee in a cup, you just have to flush two or three times after you go… and stay well away from the little guy for at least 3 days. You might want to check out the “radiation precautions” pages on the Thyca.org website as well. You’ll get a much lower dose than thyca patients usually do (I’ve had 400 mCi so far, you’ll probably get between 10 and 30), so the possibility of side effects is very, very low. Best of luck!
(feel free to email with me questions, or search my blog for “radiation vacation” to read about my own experiences in isolation following RAI therapy — but remember, I’m a cancer patient, not a hyperthyroid one, and my doses were much larger than yours will be.)
Catching up on your site, Steve; sorry I’m late to comment on this. Best of luck with the thyroid slaying!
On the other side of the process, I think you’ll be much happier. My thyroid is useless — thanks to illness, not radiation — and I’m amazed daily that one cheap tiny pill leaves me feeling just ducky. I’ve had to cut out sugar and most starches to keep from gaining weight, but I rarely see any other metabolic symptoms. Steak instead of cake is fine by me.
Stephen, I had the thyroid that wouldn’t die. After the third I-131 treatment that set my throat afire for days because they super-sized it seeing as how my thyroid didn’t skip a beat after either of the first two cocktails, they eventually (after 2 years of the Grave’s Disease) removed it surgically. They wouldn’t radiate me again. I was so toxic from the excess thyroxin circulating that it had pooled in my liver, which prompted the docs to do a liver biopsy. Fortunately, results were negative – just pools of toxicity.
You’re going to feel real good after they fix it and you say goodbye to all the pills, the beta-blocker/PTU see-saw, all the weird side-symptoms/issues/diseases/conditions, weak muscles and the bug-eyed look.
Lotsa luck!
My wife had the radioactive iodine procedure 9 years ago. Once she stabilized and got on the right hormone dose, everything was fine, and has been since.
Beats taking a handful of pills that don’t work, or looking like Marty Feldman the rest of your life.
Overall, if you’re going to lose an organ, this seems like the least traumatic way for it to happen.
I figured your recent hiatus was related to your health issues. Glad you are back so quickly, and with good news, all things considered.
God speed with this, Stephen. You’re a real champ. Keep us posted.