I'm Irradiated! - My Experience With Thyroid Scan/Radiation Iodine Parts 1, 2, 3

Part 1

Yayyyyy!
Oh. Well, this doc visit took all of 10 minutes this morning. Not too many people in there and the doc was waiting for me. THAT is amazing in itself. Yes, the doc was up front, waiting for my arrival. How often do you see THAT? Like - NEVER!!

Anyway, she took me to the back, all kinds of "radiation" signs all over everything - nice aye? How would you like to work in a place like that? She pulls out this giant red and white pill. Says it's radiation iodine. Nice, can I have one with breakfast every morning? Well, apparently it IS a very low dosage, cause she didn't have any protective coverings over here when she handed it to me and proclaimed that the Arizona sun has more radiation in just walking outside than handling or taking that pill.

It's been 30 minutes since I took the thing and I don't feel anything different. Back there at 1:00 pm to get the pictures taken and then again tomorrow morning. I was wrong about taking the pill twice, tomorrow they are just going to take more pictures and then - whatever news there may be coming from my doctor, I would assume.

Well, whatever the ending, I am playing the game - their game I should say - so I give myself credit for doing something that I absolutely abhor: going to ANY doctor's office, and on top of that, a doctor's office where when you enter the back, the sign on the door says nuclear medicine, danger, radioative materials, authorized personnel only.

Thanks, have a great day, c'ya next time.

The new tenant walked out this morning before I left for the doc's visit and proclaimed that I was up early. Lol. I am usually at work AT 5:30 am, so , not really. She seems like a really nice gal, I was going to ask her if there is too much noise at night, but I thought better and let it go. I'll wait until later. The boys are out of school on Spring break. I guess it IS spring already, or almost there anyway. That's scary. I love spring, but I hate the hell that comes after it. NOT looking to another summer living in the Arizona Sonoran desert.

Well at least my drip system is almost finished. I have one more trench to dig - I had thought I could just run a line to the plants in question under the gravel, but this is going to need it's own station and it's own 1/2 to 1/4 inch line run to it. About 30 plants worth. I will not be purchasing that stuff, however, until my financial situation greatly improves. That may actually happen if the ex-Marine does as he says he's going to do and pays me 2 months worth of rent in the span of a couple of days time. We'll see. The now-unemployed pizza delivery driver? Now $300 behind in rent as of today.

I informed him I would not be willing to go beyond a month's worth - he has til' next monday to come up with some money or he is going to get outed. I am actually a very compassionate person and hate to kick people out, but this is a business transaction and my priority must always be to take care of my own needs. There IS no other reason to rent out rooms, at least for me, than for that purpose alone. Look, in the world of tenants, I have come to accept that here and there, I am going to get screwed out of a month's worth of rent and that's the end of it. If it happens, it happens. I probably won't go after the person for the money, just let it go and move onto the next person. BUT, of course, they have to leave peacably and get out when I tell them to. If it goes to court, then I have to decide, after I win, whether to let it go or go for the throat. So far, I haven't gone for the throat on anyone, and trust me, Mary - I could easily win a monetary judgment against her and then go after her paychecks.

But is it worth the hassle? There is enough involved in doing that that I would have to say - I'm in the middle about it. Mary did a lot of work around here and that work is stuff that is lasting - not just cleaning projects but all the landscaping help I received from her. If she could have just not been a drug user, she would still be here, undoubtedly. I have enough other stuff going on right now that I really don't give it much thought.

Anyway, the newest tenant has a job and is in the military reserve. We have agreement that if she has to leave for extended period, I can do temp room rentals while she is gone. Well, I probably should get that agreement in writing since she's going to be gone for 2 months starting in May. I can rent rooms over night, sometimes a week here and there. Basically like a hotel. When Caleb is out of high school, presuming I am still here and he goes off to college, I will rent out the 4th room in such a fashion. Just temp stuff. A few extra dollars here and there. Fix the room up very nice with nicer furniture to make it a little more alluring and pleasant. Hey, it's not THAT far off. Caleb is turning 17 in May. He will start his Senior year in High School in August. Next May, he will graduate high school and then the rest of his life faces him.

He has been going to school counsellors for advice on what to do after high school. He is fairly determined to go to college first and then into the Marines. Well, I hope somewhere along the way he decides a different military organization. I love the Marines and what they do, don't get me wrong - totally respect them. But - they are the first in and the first to die. Call me selfish, I do not want to bury my son, I would rather have that the opposite way. He was ALL concerned about this news of thyroid "stuff". Of course. Who wants to lose a parent, especially at his age? Hopefully there is nothing major here, fix the problem, move on in life.

I'm very hungry. Wasn't allowed to eat since last night until now. The doc said I could eat an hour after I took the pill. Well, I don't want anything screwing up the results, I definitely do NOT want to have to do this again, so I'll just fast until after they take the pics. Then, I will treat myself to something - whatever I feel like. A nice, thick juicy steak with a baked potato and a salad sounds wonderful. I always believe in treating myself after such ordeals, especially considering I will have gone 20 plus hours without eating anything. No, not a restaurant, I just filled my grill's propane tank - grill that sucker and have at it.

Sometimes, I wish I could find other people who write like I do - they detail the events of what happens in different things that come at you in life. I'm sure there are bloggers out there that do diary type things, but I really don't find people that want to do a complete run-down of your experience in any given thing. If you could read - well for me, if I could read - what a person went through in the same circumstance, I know I would be a little more at-ease about what's going to happen.

So, I have entitled this post accordingly for anyone that might have to go through a thyroid scan. So far, I have taken one very large pill that has done nothing noticable to me at all. I will write later on or perhaps wait until tomorrow after the second set of photos and you will have a little better idea of what you are facing in such circumstances. The mind can play really big tricks on you and blow things totally out of proportion simply for fact that it is the unknown. I went there at first with this thyroid scan stuff, but I am much more at rest with it now. I would far rather know what's going on than to just sit here and act like nothing's happening.

Part 2:

I went down the second time today for the 1:00 o'clock appointment. I only knew that they were going to put a camera on my neck and view my thyroid. At this point, I have no idea whether this individual is a nurse, a doctor or just a lab technician. She was very unhelpful, I was asking questions and getting nothing answers. Questions such as what, exactly, were they looking for from this camera view? Oh, you know, things like nodules and things. Oh, I see.

The scenario played out as follows:
You go into a room, you see this rather large machine with a sliding bed on it, the bed obviously slide underneath an apparatus. I'm getting onto the bed, asking questions, getting nothing answers. She slides the bed - with me on it - underneath what she called a camera. It is nothing like any camera I have ever seen. It was approximately 20 inches by 20 inches square with a white, plastic looking surface. There was no lense and if she hadn't told me, I would never have guessed that that thing was a camera.

She informed me that that camera was going to come very close to my face and her information certainly wasn't wrong. She had this big, flat screen cranked down to about an inch above my nose as I was facing up. I do not have claustrophobia, but a person that does would have a problem with this thing. That's because you aren't sitting there for a few seconds.

No, you are laying there for up to 30 minutes with monstrosity right in your face. She said 30 minutes, anyway, I was underneath that thing for about 20. A couple of minutes of a general view, apparently to get the thing focused on my thyroid, then another couple of minutes doing whatever she was doing before starting the full-fledged ordeal.

The full fledged ordeal was facing up for 5 minutes without moving, 5 minutes with your head tilted as far as it can go to the left and then 5 minutes with your head tilted as far as it can go to the right. It was neither pleasant nor unpleasant, it was just there and I was just biding the time until this was over. Once it was over, that was it, I left. I thought twice about asking her if she saw anything unusual, I figured I would get yet another nothing answer so I let it go. She did inform me the radiation would be out of my body in about 4 days.

Helllllllo? I thought this was a low dosage! 4 days?!!

So, tomorrow is the last portion of this ordeal - more photos and then the results are sent to the doc. So, I'll be posting a part 3 about tomorrow's ordeal - which should be nothing more than taking more photos. I will ask her about the results just for the fun of it, though I consider nothing about any of this ordeal to be fun. If there is a part 4, that will be posted on this entry as well. Part 4 would be whatever the results are and if there is anything wrong what it is and what MORE stuff I am going to have to face.

The rest of this has nothing to do with the doc's visit, if you were here just looking for that info, then don't bother to read on, as this is what happened after I left the lab and is irrelevant to the discussion about the scan.

I went to the marketing agency to do the interview on camera for them. Very laid-back atmosphere, people very nice, no pressure. She took me into a room, we sat down at a conference table and she started asking me questions about my experience going through the loan modification process. As as my want, I went into great detail about the rigors of getting the mod done, the wariness I had of loan mod companies after hearing about all the scams going on, and the fact that I would NEVER just hand over 2 grand to a company without something given back in exchange.

This marketing agency is trying, apparently, to get an account with an organization known as Neighborhood Housing Service, the final question was whether I had heard of it before, I had not. However this interview was supposed to help, they are using interviews such as mine to show to them to apparently try and acquire a new contract with a new customer.

That was that. They had my $50 check written, but they didn't have it signed and the person that is the signor apparently had stepped out. They apologized profusely, showed me the check and said I could get a $50 gift card instead. No problem. They then realized that the check signer also had those as well. I had no reason to disbelieve them, they had a large office complex with numerous people working there and there is really no reason to lead people on for $50. So, I gave them my address and they are going to send it to me in the mail. If they do not, well, I will pay them a visit, in-person : )

Finally got to eat after 20 plus hours of not eating anything and only having a few cups of coffee.

Home - I guess it's no big deal about going over there again tomorrow. Just want to get this over with, find out the prognosis and get on with it already.

Part 3:
Drove all the way over there and ended up spending more time in the waiting room than underneath the camera. In fact, from the time the lab tech took me in there and I left was under 5 minutes. Apparently, the second visit is only to confirm that the first visit's worth of readings were accurate. The tech did come forward a little and tell me that they were trying to determine whether my thyroid is over or under active. I'm guessing with my alleged symptoms it's over. I won't repeat what I have been reading online about radioactive iodine and potential complications as I do not attest to the theorem that a person must acquire such simply because some body of text says it will. The results should be to the doc today or no later than tomorrow, according to the tech.

That's it, that was all there was to it. Part 4 will be whatever the diagnosis is and whatever treatment may be necessary.

ben

Ben