My results from the I-123 whole body scan

doctor with a clipboard
doctor with a clipboard

Yay! I got my results back and I seem to be fine for now. There still is weird growth or whatever in a left gland. I wish that they would just take it out. I have made this request before. With all the other surgeries that I’ve had, I’m getting covered in scars…so what’s one more?

Anyway, I’m just going to copy & paste my results here –

INDICATION: Thyroid carcinoma post thyroidectomy
TECHNIQUE: 2.4 mCi I-123 was ingested by the patient, and 24-hour neck uptake
and whole body planar imaging performed.
COMPARISON: [Fall]/2017

FINDINGS: 24-hour uptake is 0.7% in the region of the neck, equivalent to
background levels and decreased from 1.3% previously. No evidence of recurrĀ  entor metastatic thyroid cancer. Activity in the nasopharynx, salivary glands,stomach, colon, and urinary bladder from normal routes of iodine excretion.

Activity in the left parotid gland remains somewhat asymmetrically prominent.Faint radio tracer uptake about the knees consistent with synovitis.

 

Thyroid medication & thyrogen injections can affect periods

Uterus
Uterus

If you’re a woman like me, and if you’re going through this health issue, you’ll want to know this stuff. If you’re a guy, you’re either curious or grossed out. If you’re the latter, you can stop reading now. I’ll get into the spoiler in the next paragraph.

One thing that your doctor may not tell you is that when your Levothyroxine (or whatever your thyroid medication is called) is changed, this can affect your menstruation cycle for a month or two. Usually, you’ll be a few days late. This is normal.

Now if you lucky (ha!) enough to go through a I-123 whole body scan, you may spot between a period because you’ll have two things against you – the two thyrogen injections and an iron deficiency. TheĀ  iron deficiency would be the main reason for the spotting though, because when you’re on an low-iodine diet, the diet is restrictive so you aren’t getting all the iron you need. And you might not be able to take vitamins during this low-iodine diet either. (I didn’t take any iron pills or vitamins during my bland, boring diet since I can’t be sure that their ingredients weren’t tainted by soy, iodine, etc).

The good news is that once you start taking iron pills and/or your vitamins again, the spotting will stop. (Of course, since I have no idea what all your health conditions are, you’ll need to speak with your doctor about iron pills and vitamins).

 

Another round of I-123 whole body scan

Photo of a syringe
Photo of a syringe

From the last post, I mentioned that my doctor was concerned with some blood draw results, since I have an odd unknown thing on the left side of my neck. She said that the next step was for me to have the I-123 whole body scan to make sure no thyroid cancer cells started growing anywhere.

Starting on a Monday, I began the low-iodine diet consisting mostly of fruits, vegetables, homemade bread, pasta, gluten-free dark chocolate, no sodium ground turkey, and no sodium chicken. I marked my weight being 123.4 lbs. For the first week, I felt fine. But that Sunday, I felt incredibly hungry. I found that a local grocery store carried gluten-free and other special diet foods so that helped. Unlike last time where I lost a lot of weight, the most that I lost this time was 3.6 lbs.

The food was a bit bland at times, as dairy, stuff with sea salt, lots of meat, certain beans, and etc was prohibited. You’d be surprised at how much food has milk, soy, and is probably made with iodine salt. All were big no-no’s on this diet. The lack of a variety of tasty food made me tired for the nearly two weeks that I was on this diet. Besides work, nothing else really got done.

That following Monday, there were medical appointments each day, at approximately at the same time as the previous one. The first two days consisted of one Thyrogen 0.9 mg IM injection. These shots are to make me hypothyroid – so, tired and slow.

Oh, you get these shots in your ass. Just so you know. Just in case you usually go commando most days. But the nurses probably don’t care

The third day was going to the labs for blood and then taking ten sodium iodide I-123 capsules. I was surprised that it was only ten this time. Wasn’t it twenty last time? Also different was how they were packaged. Instead of metal canisters, these pills were in a single thick plastic canister. Inside this canister was a funnel looking thing that held the pills. I could pick out a few easily, but when I tried to bang the rest out, several fell on the floor. I apologized and the medical attendant picked them off the floor and handed them to me, asking if I needed more water. Since I was given a single 8 oz bottle of water, I said yes. And I asked if taking the pills off the floor was okay. The medical attendant said, “five second rule,” and then left to give me another small bottle of water.

You probably don’t know this about me, but I’m a bit of a germaphobe. It drives my husband crazy at times. So, I’m staring at these pills, wondering if I really need to take them. What could a few missing ones hurt? Since the attendant left, I could toss them and he wouldn’t know. But I figured that since I received half the amount than last time, I probably should take these. But it was a struggle. I tried to wipe this pills off the best I could without accidentally opening them. And then I swallowed them, finishing off the first water bottle. Ugh. So gross.

The fourth day was the whole body scan. I had to stay still for about an hour while the machine scanned me. It was nice to have the heated blanket covering me. I should have asked for the plastic splints or whatever they are called to help keep my arms at my side. After awhile of trying to stay completely still, my arms felt weird and week. Oh, and if I have to do this again, I’ll ask to have my phone play music somewhere above my head. It gets a bit boring when you’re the only one in the room and you aren’t allowed to move for an hour.

But once the scan is over, it’s time to eat normally again! It was the highlight of the two weeks. I’m sure that I annoyed many people with my wish list of all the food that I was going to eat once I could eat whatever I wanted again. I think I gained back that 3.6 lbs that same day. So proud. And I’m not even kidding.

That Friday saw me back at the labs for more blood work so that they can check my thyroglobulin levels.

I’ll write about the results of all these fun tests in the next posting.

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