Tens of thousands of people, over the decades since the 1960s or so, have had RAI treatment, and gotten well again. A study done in the UK, looking at the death certificates of approximately 35,000 people who had had RAI, determined that the RAI was not the influencing factor in their causes of death. In other words, medical conditions associated with the radiation were not statistically higher except in minor ways in a distinct minority of the population studied. On the contrary, causes of death tended to look like they were more linked to the problems caused by being hyperthyroid — broken hips due to osteoporosis, and things like that.
I know that there are people who consider it their mission to terrify patients away from RAI. They may have had a bad experience. Name one medical intervention that doesn’t have occasional bad experiences. But there are lots and lots of us who did RAI and got well again. I am one of them. My mother had RAI about 25 years before me, and she, too, got well again, living 30+ years longer, and dying of something utterly unrelated to thyroid disease or radiation treatment.
The main thing to remember when you read boards like ours online, is that they tend to be populated by people who are ill. Generally, that means that people who are new to the disease and feeling utterly rotten are posting their problems, looking for support. Some of the people have complications to their treatment, like TED, and are feeling rotten and looking for support. Typically, you do not see people who have had treatments, and gotten well again. Those folks usually do not spend an hour or so a day reading the board, and responding to questions. We here at GDATF try to keep healthy people on as facilitators in order to provide the healthy perspective to the disease. If you want to check me out on these comments, do a search of our archives. Go back a year or more and read a few pages of posts. You will find that the stories are exactly the same as now. The questions are exactly the same as now. But the names of the people posting will be very different. Except for the facilitators.
Essentially, there are two main treatment options for Graves hyperthyroidism. The first, ATDs, has been ruled out by your doctor. So now you have to look at removal of your thyroid. We can live well without our thyroids, but we cannot live at all without our liver. Removal can be done either by RAI or surgery (thyroidectomy). All treatment options have potential adverse side effects, and it can be helpful to understand them. But please know that all of our options are — in general — much, much safer than remaining hyperthyroid.
I do hope you are feeling better soon.
