Radioactive Iodine Uptake Scan

[mar85]

I am having a 24 hour radioactive iodine uptake scan of my thyroid next week. Has anyone had experience with this? I'm a little nervous and don't really know what to expect. Like, will I feel sick after I get the iodine? I'm getting the iodine on Monday and having the scan on Tuesday. It all sounds a little freaky to me.

[mar85]

Thank you so much! Unfortunately, I am claustrophobic and a little panicky :(, but it's good to know perhaps they can put blinders on, etc to help with this. Thanks for that tip!! My doc had told me to stop taking my thryoid meds (levo) for 7 days, but it will actually be 14 days because of scheduling and other things (seafood, etc) that had to be out of my system. I don't know if I'm imagining it, but now I feel like maybe my hypo stuff is coming back b/c it feels hard to swallow. I had been having many hyper symptoms and my bloodwork was coming back more hyper, so I'm hoping being off the meds for this long wont mess up the results.

[yankeeRN]

I had the scan  last year and I did not feel sick after taking the iodine pills.  The techs do a great job at explaining the test.  Are you claustrophobic at all?   You may have either 1 or 2 pills to swallow--they are capsules and are fairly large so if you need to take one at a time just tell them. I think they might have told me to try to drink lots of water after.  The next day, they put you on the scanner table which is rather narrow but if you are average size it is fairly comfortable.  For me they scanned the front of my thyroid for 10 mins  and each side for 10 mins each--so the test was about 30 minutes if I remember correctly.  If you are not claustrophobic then it's a piece of cake but if you are claustrophobic which I found out I was then they can put eye blinders on, blow a fan at you and play music--I needed all three.  As you see I survived--lol  The side shots are easier than the front on shots--you  need to stay still through it all .  Good Luck .