killing the thyroid

On Thursday they decided that I did indeed have Grave's Disease, and decided to give me a huge drink of radioactive iodine (again mixed with disgusting luke warm Ann Arbor tap water) to destroy my thyroid. Again, it made my stomach upset, but I managed not to throw up.

The dose was large enough that I have had to stay in seclusion for a few days. Monday was the first day I had been cleared to go to work, but poor Dan had to continue to sleep on the couch until Wednesday night so as to be protected from radiation exposure. I had to use my own bathroom (thank God we have two in the house) until then as well, flushing at least twice each time I used the toilet (the two main pathways my body will get rid of the extra radiation are spit and pee) until Wednesday as well. We replaced the shower curtain and toilet seat in the one I had been using just to be on the safe side. I had been using all paper and plasticware for eating purposes, and they went into a separate trash bag from the rest of the garbage.

They say I will actually feel a lot worse for the next 2-3 weeks, as my thyroid will release all of its stored hormones as it dies and all of my symptoms will probably get worse until I go into hypothyroidism, and then will be put on artificial thyroid hormones for the rest and my life and stabilize.

I will be taking a drug called propranolol for the next 2-3 months to protect my heart from palpitations. Every time they have taken my heart rate over the past year it has been racing along at around 100 beats a minute, and they do not want that to get worse from the thyroid surge as my thyroid dies. So far the drug seems to be keeping my heart rate down in the eighties, so that is big improvement.

To make things even worse for me, this month I have too go into work on day shift for the first time in more than twenty years. Needless to say, getting up at 5:30AM is not fun, and I hate never seeing any sunlight (as the sun is not up yet when I go into work, I have no window access, and the sun goes down only about an hour after I leave work). This is probably the very worst time for the extreme shift change to happen, and i am exhausted and unhappy with life right now.