Treatment for my thyroid cancer

Well, where to start. The treatment for the type of cancer I had was different than the typical radiation treatment. I was lucky enough not to have to do chemo, just radiation. But it wasn’t your typical radiation….

The thyroid gland is one of the major glands in your body that uses iodine…it pretty much lives off of it like I live off steak. That being said, for my radiation treatment, I pretty much had to swallow a pill – not hard to do, you’re right, but it was the month and a bit leading up to it that was the hard part. Essentially, I had to “deprive” any remaining thyroid tissue of iodine before taking the radioactive Iodine pill, which, by the way, did not make me glow – pretty lame!  So what does that mean? Well, we all know that salt is in everything we eat and pretty much makes food taste amazing. But what I didn’t know is that they add iodine to salt. So the “tough” part of my treatment was drastically cutting back on my salt so that I could deprive my body of iodine. This was tough for me because I have a love-love relationship with food!

After swallowing this pill, I wasn’t allowed prolonged contact with my family for about a week after. It was nice having all my meals prepared for me, having my own bathroom, etc. but it did get a little bit lonely…thank god for social networking! There were some precautionary measures that I had to take (other than hiding from my family and children): I had to flush the toilet three times after using it, disinfect everything, etc…oh and eat a lot of candy! Clearly this was part of the treatment….no lie. Because of the nature of the salivary glands, they may get damaged because of the radioactive iodine. Eating candy helped ensure that the salivary gland was always producing saliva – although, they still got mildly damaged and swelled up huge.

After that was all said and done, I went for a full body scan. The typical, lay down for 45 minutes without moving drill – not so fun. I had to repeat this process (but with a milder dose/kind of radioactive iodine) every six months or so for the first two years and then a year later in the third year; yes, diet and all. Here’s a little tip I found out during my last diet: Kosher salt doesn’t contain iodine…who knew! At least my food wasn’t bland anymore! I also had to stop taking my thyroid hormones, or pay a ridiculous amount for two shots before my scan. I opted for the second option since I pretty much sleep all the time if I go off the hormone supplements. I haven’t had a scan for a while now, but I still have frequent (about every 3-4 months apart) doctor’s appointments – just a routine check-up of the neck and blood work. I also think they are still trying to get my hormones in balance too. I’m not quite there yet, but it will be one day!