Bobbi
Hi, Claire:
Remissions are — by definition — temporary. It is possible for someone to die of something else before a remission goes away, but generally, people who have remissions lapse back into illness at some point down the line.
Second remissions are significantly rarer than first remissions. At least that was the information available when I was first diagnosed, about 15 years ago. The information then was that approximately 20%-30% of people experienced a first remission, but that only 10% of them experienced a second one.
We do have a fellow who looks in periodically on this board — named James — and I believe that he has experienced more than one remission, and possibly two.
My own decision to do RAI was based on the fact that I did not want to be 10 or so years older, and experiencing hyperthyroidism again. It was too hard the first time to contemplate enduring it again when I was close to 70 years old.