Diet preparation week...oh what fun!?!

Greetings friend! I hope this posting finds you well. This will be a short one until I find some time to sit down and really write. You will be happy to know that no more emotional breakdowns or hot flashes for me! Shortly after that episode, I took a long weekend and went fishing with a friend down on the coast, and boy did we have some fun fishing! The day before we left was the day I had my appointment with the endocrinologist. Wow! This has to be the best doctor visit I have ever had. This doc sat down and visited with me for over an hour about the whole cancer event, what is to come, and even sat through the details of the fishing trip to come. Good doctor!!! So...here is what is to come...I started the day after the doctor visit to take a different thyroid medication. It is a short term med taken twice a day. On Sunday, October 18, I will stop taking the medicine and start a three week long diet with low- to no-Iodine. Sounds like fun eh? I will not be able to have any foods that have high iodine content. That actually affects many foods I like. No seafood, no iodized salt, milk and products from milk, salty food, commercially made bread, no pizza, no chili, no Chinese food, and no rhubarb...does anybody eat that?

This week will be my practice week for recipes for the diet. There is a 90+ page cookbook provided by a thyroid support website with recipes for foods. I have already started to try some of these out, well at least one. I made homemade bread in a bread maker a friend let me borrow. Boy was it good! Here's a photo of my fist loaf. I am mourning many items that I will miss out on. Seafood, milk products, and no fast food...I may start to cry...not really. This week will also be the last ditch attempt at eating all the things prohibited on the list...I may even try some rhubarb.

Once I have completed the first two weeks of the diet, then on Nov. 2, I will have the radiation treatment. I will go to the hospital and take a drink cocktail of radioactive iodine. I will then go home and will be isolated for the next week from physical contact with people. I will not be able to leave my house or see people for the week. This is where the diet will come in kinda hard. I have a few folks that have said they will make some of the recipes from the recipe book and freeze them for me to use during the week. From what I have read, there will be some specific things I will have to do while the radiation is in me, such as bag clothes I wear, flush the commode 2-3 times after use, change the sheets nightly. This is apparently to remove any residual radiation that I may give off. I will continue to work during the week from home. When the week is over, on Nov. 9, I will have the body scan. Following the scan, I will immediately start the my medication and can start to have the no-iodine items again! I will say that that Monday will be a day to celebrate and finding an all you can eat seafood restaurant!!! Six weeks after the scan, I will see the endocrinologist again to see if the meds I will be taking are at the right dosage. I am very happy that for Thanksgiving and Christmas, I can eat the family cookings!!!

That's all for today. Thanks again for you prayers! Also, please pray for my sister. She went to the doctor recently, and she has an issue with her thyroid as well.

Blessings,

J