Radio Active Iodine Treatment - would you have it?

[kidsnchicks]

Would you have Radio Active Iodine Treatment if your Endro said that was the best option?  

[graveswoman]

I hate PTU!!!!

I would do RAI in a heart beat just to be off of it. allergic to tapazole, so no other choice for me. i have gained 35 pounds 25 of them on PTU alone. I am desperately unhappy at being this large. have always been a happy person that loved to exercise and eat well. whiile still eating well, exercise has suffered, muscle spasms in my back have put an end to my running along with cramps in the bottom of my feet. not that when i was able to exercise it helped the weight situation any since diagnosed with graves. I am so angry at this disease, it is in my thoughts almost every minute of every day. I feel like a complete stranger in my body. I have heard no great stories on how this will get any better only stories of how i will get even bigger once i become hypo after RAI, but as i see it, what choice to i have either way i will get larger and unhappier, might as well have RAI, so i don't have to take this awful, water retaining med anymore!!!!! have doc appointment at end of month, going to beg for it, it has been a year, some people feel better, i am mildly feeling better, don't see any benefit to stay on this drug any longer.

i do have graves eye disease, so do need to do some research on when i can have it done, eye doc says when graves under control numberwise, but what if that never happens?

anyway, thanks for letting me rant. my husband is sure sick of hearing about it. LOL

graveswoman

[hope4thegoodstuff]

I think there are different ways of doing it.  Mine was a capsule about the size of a contact cold capsule and from the sheet they gave me it appears, in my case, they had a choice of giving me one of three strengths.  The sheet told me to stay away from people for a good two days on my dosage.  I went three and four for most and a stayed away from a couple of pregnant people for over a week. (I felt it prudent to be overly cautious)  Thankfully, I was able to do mine over a weekend and the worst of it was past by the time I went back to work.  The folks at work weren't terribly concerned about me being there, but we isolated me in my own office for a couple of days.  (again more me than them)  Dr advised it would be a dosage that is comparable to living in Colorado in the mountains for a year as there is a naturally occuring radiation there.  But you get the dosage all at once.  

I went to the office, took my pill, they shot a gamma detecting gun in my direction and when I started percolating, they sent me home.  I was told I could be around my husband for short amounts of time, but no sitting down for a movie together.  If I'd had small children, we might of had to do something more for them...Their little thyroids are more susceptible.  My little dog was a bit bewildered as I didn't spend any time very close to him and I wouldn't let him crawl onto my lap.  I slept in a different room from my husband for a few days.  No deep kissing for 5 days.... I went back a week later for a scan to see if there was uptake (and there was)  and that was about it.

I did have some, ok,  a large amount of apprehension about the whole thing, but it is doable.  Smilerdeb and I got into a funny conversation about the apprehension thing.  I told her I kept picturing myself with a mushroom cloud looming over my head.  I was afraid that plants would wilt and die when I walked by...she had some good ones too.  Somthing about green goo coming out her ears.....But alas, my husband, my dog and my plants appear to be fine and there was no cloud over my head.  : )  Oh and no green goo.  

[monica148]

Can someone tell me more about this process?  Is it a pill or an IV you take?  How long do you have to be separate from other people?  What else do you have to do?

[hope4thegoodstuff]

Amen to that, lady.  You nailed it all right on the head.  

[Smilerdeb]

Sometimes we all do things in life that we regret.
My biggest regret was finding out I had Graves.
But I have no regrets over RAI.
All I ask of anyone considering it is......know your numbers, know your symptoms, know hyperthyroidism, know hypothyroidism, know meds etc and most of all ....know that it will NOT get rid of Graves antibodies..
Learn all you can about RAI and the 'afterwards'.
Once you are prepared then the thought of RAI is a little less daunting and so much easier to manage.
Dont think its a quick 'fix it all' as its not.
I always swore that whatever desision I made, that I would stick to that desision as I was 'swaying' backwards and forwards towards TT or RAI.
As it turned out, the desision was taken from me and in a way I am glad, as I wouldnt be here today...if I had 'stalled ' for any longer.
I dont regret RAI and never will.
But I do regret getting Graves (of which I had no control over).

[kidsnchicks]

Thank you all for your replies.  I have chosen to put off RAI for now.  I finally found a doctor that will test for graves, etc.

If it comes down to needing RAI after giving time and thyroid meds, then I will probably choose that.  For me, it was just too soon to choose it.  Granted, if it were life threatening as some of your situations have been, then I wouldn't hesitate to have it.

Thanks again!