Next steps

So surgery recovery is basically over. I'm still puttting vitmain e oil on the scar to supposedly help it heal better... that'll continue for most of the summer I think, but already the scar's not so bad. I've got full range of motion. Neck is still kind of mildly irritated around the scar. At first I thought that was from the suture strips, but they've been off so long now I'm not sure I can still blame them. Maybe I'll call the surgeon tomorrow.

Other good news is that the dosage of thyroid hormone replacement they gave me seems pretty good as far as I can tell...I feel normal. They may still adjust it based on blood work later, but I was worried there would be a lot of tinkering with the dosage just to make me feel ok, and now I'm thinking that won't be the case.

A few days ago I scheduled all the radioactive iodine (RAI) stuff. It is going to be a super pain logistically, but hopefully not that bad physically. So I'll swallow the main I-131 RAI pill August 28 and stay overnight in the hospital that night (happy birthday, Dad!). In the 10 days prior to that I'll have to take 6 other trips to the far side of DC (Washington Hospital Center) for various stuff:

• four trips for Thyrogen injections - that's the drug that'll boost my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels to make the RAI more effective without me having to go off the daily thyroid hormone replacement pills. It's kind of a recent development that you can use this stuff...prior to it people had to go off their hormones for several weeks prior to treatment and scans, which meant they basically had to become super lethargic and grumpy for a couple weeks every 6-12 months, depending on how frequent their follow-up scans were. It's good I don't have to do that.
• one trip to swallow low-dose I-123 pill for pre-treatment scan - this'll help them tell if cancer has spread elsewhere, like to lungs or something, could affect my dosage of scary I-131.
• one trip for the I-123 scan. 

Most of those visits should be fast, basically in and out, assuming I don't have to wait too long for them to take my blood (though last time I did have to wait a while for that). They told me to expect to be there 3-4 hours for the scan though. Boo.

Then after hospital stay when I'm still glowing I have to stay away from people and animals for a week. Probably I'll do most of this at Nate's parents' house in Richmond. That week spans the first day of school, which I will be sad to miss, so maybe I'll come back early and figure a way to be isolated here, I don't know. The half-life is pretty short, and I'll pee most of it out in the first couple of days, so really I think I'm much less dangerous after a few days, but still will be keeping my distance.

Good news is we can still take our trip to California at the end of July, and I won't miss Rowan's birthday (August 25). The low-iodine diet will start August 5 and end when I leave the hospital August 29. My mom has already filled our freezer with low-iodine soups, bread, granola, pies, etc. 

Then the last thing (as far as I know) is post-treatment scan on September 4. Then I should get like 6 months off before follow-up I-123 scan (no isolation, but still 2-3 weeks of low-iodine diet and at least 4 trips to WHC). My endocrinologist promised that the excellence of the nuclear medicine department there would make all the travel worth it. He better be right!