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Hi Warriors,
I had my RAI on July 12/01 and am feeling okay. The first three days I felt kinda drained and really nausious. That passed after the third day. Day four, had energy and did some chores around the house. Wiped me out for day five. Day six was another good one, did way more work and wiped me out, day seven, eight and nine. Today is day ten, and although have some energy, did not do too much!!!!! Guess I will never learn when to slow down. I started steriods on day three to save my eyes and so far (crossing my fingers) I have not noticed much difference. Doc said they would make me hungry all the time, but haven’t noticed that too much. I am glad I made the decision to have the RAI and hope it works. I haven’t noticed any of my Graves “stuff” changing. Still sweating bullets (all the time). Pretty hard to keep a good hair day for more than half an hour!! (ha ha ha). See my endo on Aug 13/01 to have blood tests ect. done to see how I am doing.
God Bless and take care gang.
Sharon
Well, Hi all. Had my I131 treatment last Thursday morning and actually feel quite good. I know it will take work from now on, and I know I will not be able to do things the way I used to (every day was filled with work, then evening kid activites and such. I sleep when I’m tired and when my body tells me to slow down, I will, in order to avoid exhaustion. MY throat slightly hurt the day after (friday) but went away when I continued to drink lots and lots of water. Is there any books out there that can suggest diet/nutrition as I do understand I wont be able to just eat whatever I wanted from now on?
Jake, your’s and Nancy’s (is that right?) book was absolutely wonderful and informing. I read that the 3 entire days I had to sit by myself with gloves (latex gloves lol) on. I even started to highlight the points in the “Graves’ Disease in our Own Words” that really stuck out to me. Thanks for a wonderful book to write for someone who has never heard of Graves’ before.
Hope to learn more and will keep in touch.
Kim
Hi cheermom,
Im glad to hear you are doing well. I am getting ready to schedual my Rai and have been wondering what in the world am I going to do when I cant be with my family for the couple of days after. What did you do? I have 3 children and do not really know where I could go. Thanks for listening and I will pray your road to recovery goes by quickly.
What you should expect — providing there was no permanent damage done by the length of time you were hyperthyroid — is that you can go back to living and eating the way you did before you became ill. Eventually. There is a period of time where healing is needed, and your body still needs TLC.
The only restriction I was given by my endocrinologist was to avoid kelp supplements like the plague. Even though you have had RAI, you can still have some thyroid function left, and kelp will play havoc with it, in unpredictable ways.
Also, when you begin taking replacement hormone (if that becomes necessary — and it usually does) you need to take the medicine carefully. Typically, we are asked to take it first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach, and wait an hour to eat breakfast. We are also told to take other medications and vitamins much later. Say, at noon. (It is not always possible. Some medications need to be taken first thing in the morning, too. But if you do it, you must do it with your doctors’ instructions/knowledge. ) Vitamins, and some foods, contain ingredients that will interfere with the absorption of your replacement hormone from the intestines into the blood. Once the replacement is IN the blood, there are no restrictions. But allowing sufficient time to get it absorbed, ahead of foods you might eat, or vitamins/supplements you might take is important.
Other than that (kelp and timing) I know of no restrictions on what you must eat.
I hope you are feeling much better, and soon.
Bobbi — NGDF Online FacilitatorWell, I had to go to my parent’s home and stay in their finished basement. I went to a used clothing store and bought very very cheap clothing that i could toss afterwards. I stayed in the guess room in the basement (which was fine with me since it was a lot cooler there). I was required to wear latex gloves but who cares? As for my kids, I did it on a thursday morning so that way I didn’t upset their schedule too bad. I didn’t get to see them till Sunday. My husband watched them for me until friday evening when they go to their dad’s home. Do you have family or friends that could watch your children for you? It will help as all I did the first 24 hours + was sleep sleep sleep. If you have any pets (i.e. dog or cat) my nuclear med doc said to not go near them either. Might have someone come over and feed the animals if you have any. Good luck as I guess I had it easy with family very close by me to help.
KimThanks Bobbi for replying. I got information from another site (a couple weeks ago) that I would have to change my eating habits on EVERYTHING I ate. I no longer am a member of that site and it scared me more than informed me. I was told to stay away from all milk products, red meat, etc. Weird as I am not a vegetarian and I know I will have to eat better than before. Even started eating asparagus and I used to HATE it with a passion. I learned by mom to bake it instead of steaming and it tastes wonderful. Also, one very important question for me that is, does Kosher salt have iodine in it. My endo said for a month or so to stay away from a lot of iodine salt and switching to kosher might actually not be a good idea. Please give me advice on that if anyone knows.
Thanks
KimNo, you do not have to drastically change your eating habits, unless something else (other than Graves) is going on. And, if you do dramatically change your habits you could adversely affect your health some other way. For instance, “no dairy” could lead to earlier-than-normal osteoporosis, because you would be eliminating a good, natural source of calcium.
The salt issue: Thyroid cells need iodine to function properly. In the U.S., and some other countries, salt is “iodized” to provide people with enough iodine (theoretically) to eliminate hypothyroidism caused by iodine lack, and to eliminate cretinism (a significant retardation of newborns/toddlers that is CAUSED by lack of iodine in the diet– and the hypothyroidism that results ). So, iodized salt, and other iodine-containing foods, in moderation, are OK. Excessive intake of iodine (either too much salt, or kelp supplements, etc.) can throw thyroid cell function off. And it is thrown off in an unpredictable manner: too much iodine can cause hyperactivity OR hypoactivity of the thyroid cells, with no way to predict. So, we must avoid excessive amounts of iodine. But, again, we must have “some” iodine. Just because you had RAI, it does not mean that you necessarily have “no” thyroid cells left — you very well might. So, you need to have an appropriate intake of iodine, just in case. (Think of it this way, too. If you have no thyroid cells left, an appropriate intake of iodine will have no impact. The thyroid is the only place in the body that uses iodine. If you have some thyroid cells left, you need an appropriate intake of iodine….. Either case, the appropriate intake of iodine is your best bet.)
As for Kosher salt, I have no idea whether it is iodized or not. You might try reading the package label to see if there is information there for you. If it is not iodized, you need to get “some” iodine somewhere. At least after the amount of time specified by your doctor.
The main issue is not to make yourself crazy. Use your common sense. Many places online will give you a smidgeon of true information and then fly off into the realm of supposition. For example: don’t eat any goitrogenic foods. (I checked this one with my own endo.) While it is true that some foods contain a substance that can cause thyroid problems, the amount of that substance in a normal portion (say of broccoli) is insignificant. We would need to eat pounds, or truckloads even, of the vegetable involved to have any significant impact on our thyroid health. That is not true of kelp supplements, by the way. Kelp supplements can have a rather immediate bad effect, but they are hugely high in iodine content.
I hope this helps.
Bobbi — NGDF Online Facilitator -
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