[Anonymous]

#1020047

I hope you get lots of answers. While yhou are waiting, you can do a search by words – in this case – “RAI” and will probably pull up thousands of posts. Some will be pro-RAI and others will be against it. It is a decision that you and your doctor will have to make, based on good information. If you will call the Graves’ Fdn. voicemail and leave your address, I will mail a great information sheet on all the treatments for Graves’.

[Anonymous]

#1075828

You have not done anything in 8 or 9 months? You need to do something, right now, if you are hyperthyroid. Most of us go on the antithyroid meds while we are trying to decide what type of “permanent” fix to give our thyroids. They can provide protection while we dither — which is a very normal state to be in. But you must do SOMETHING to control your thyroid levels. It is very dangerous to let things go.

You asked about the RAI. I did it about 10 years ago, and have been on replacement hormone ever since — and healthy. The only place in the body that uses iodine is the thyroid. Radioactive Iodine (I131) has two characteristics that make it an appropriate form of treatment. It is very soluble in water, and it has a very short (in radioactive terms) “life span”. The half-life of I131 is 8.1 days. Scientists measure radioactive compounds by their half-life, and consider that after about 5 half life periods the compound is essentially gone. So, that means that in a little more than one month, the I131 is no longer in our bodies. So, when we take I131, it either goes into thyroid cells, where it works for a month or so to damage thyroid cells, or it is eliminated from the body very quickly via the kidneys, saliva and sweat (because of its solubility in water).

RAI has been used to treat hyperthyroidism for over 50 years. Long-term studies have been done to try to determine whether or not RAI has long-term health consequences (other than what it is designed to do), and basically the studies have determined that it is safe.

Essentially, all you do for this treatment is swallow a pill, or a small quantity of flavorless liquid. Usually it is a pill. A few days later, you can develop a soreness in the throat. I had such an insignificant amount of soreness that I didn’t even need over-the-counter pain meds. But some people have reported severe soreness, due to an unusual reaction to the treatment. The most typical reaction we have seen reported here is “some” soreness, not a huge amount. The soreness is related to the fact that thyroid cells are being destroyed.

About one week — give or take — after RAI we become more hyperthyroid than normal. Thyroid cells not only make thyroid hormone, but they store it for future needs. When they are damaged by the RAI, they dump all of their stored hormone into the body. This typically takes place in larger quantities about one week after we swallow the pill/liquid. These cells are not making new hormone, so the dumping period of excessive hyperness typically lasts only a few days.

The goal of RAI is usually to “ablate” the thyroid — i.e. get rid of most of it, to assure that we cannot continue to be hyperthyroid. By getting rid of most of the thyroid, we become hypothyroid and need to take replacement hormone.

Replacement hormone is chemically identical to the body’s own T4 (thyroxin). What this means is that the body uses the replacement hormone in exactly the same manner as it used the thyroxin it made itself. If you look at a list of “side effect” issues for our replacement hormone, you will see that they are the same problems that are associated with having either too much thyroid hormone, or too little. We do have to be careful with how we take the replacement hormone, as a result. Our dose is carefully calibrated for each of us, individually, to give us a dose that is “just right” and not too much.

If you have other questions, please feel free to ask.
Bobbi — NGDF Online Facilitator

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