How to Prepare for Radioactive Iodine Treatment

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By DWCINDC
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Having Thyroid cancer is not the end of your world, literally and figuratively. However, going through treatment is a pain in the neck (yes a bad, but appropriate pun.) Getting ready for your radioactive treatment can make a big difference in the next few days and the rest of your life.

Remember, you are going into a lead lined hospital room where they are going to give you a radioactive substance to ingest. The room will be covered with disposable gloves on light switches, disposable pads on the floors and a plastic bag over the phone. With the exception of reading glasses, which they will clean, nothing you take in with you can come back out.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Good snacks
magazines
moisturizing soap
flowers
Inkjet printed pictures

Step 1

Set the scene. Bring some flowers and pictures from home printed from your Inkjet printer on plain paper so you can just throw it away when you are done, but brighten up the room with something reminding you of why you are going through this. You are going to be in the room for awhile and you will feel isolated and possibly depressed by the end.
Step 2

Keep yourself entertained. Stop by a newsstand and get some magazines or cheap paperback. Again, you can't take it with you when you go, so if you are not a fast reader don't bring a Tom Clancy, Anne Rice, or Leo Tolstoy as you may be buying it again to finish it. Also consider a pocket poker, yatzee, or blackjack game. They are only about five dollars and a good investment to keep you entertained.
Step 3

Finally you are off your low iodine diet. Go wild with the snacks, but consider things that do not require the taste of salt to be pleasurable. The iodine can temporarily reduce your sensitivity to the taste of salt. So imagine those salt and vinegar potato chips you have been craving now being heavy on the vinegar taste without the salt.
Step 4

Get ready to shower and shower and shower... Bring some really good non-exfoliating extra moisturizing body wash. You are going to be taking multiple showers and while one shower with hospital issued Dial anti-bacterial soap is ok, by the time you take you seventh or eighth (not an exaggeration) your skin will feel raw.
Step 5

Find a way to keep you drooling. Really DO IT. You may have heard about sucking on hard candy to keep you salivating to try and flushing the iodine out of your salivary glands. This works but it gets old and after awhile your stomach my feel sour from it all, so find a variety of foods that can keep the saliva flowing.
Step 6

It's just one night of sleep. Following up on step 5, you may want to consider pulling an all nighter, or at least breaking up the night with some quality drooling time. I did not and I awoke in the morning with my salivary glands aching and now I have a reduced capacity to salivate. It means that for the rest of my life I will have a drier than normal mouth and eating foods high in carbs and low in moisture are just about impossible, i.e. Chinese fortune cookies are like chewing on a spoon full of flour. It is a very small price to pay to be cancer free but it is one thing that could have been prevented.

Comments

augirl said

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on 12/2/2009 I think it is depends on your dosage. I was told absolutely nothing I take in can come out. I will also be in for 3-4 days. The higher the dosage the higher the precautions.

ruarmani said

on 6/9/2009 This is article is not correct at all. Why are you saying that everything you take with you win not come back?? It is totally not true. I was told I can take anything I want with me, my computer, books and so on. If you hands clean after you go the the washroom and you don't lick your hands before you touch your thing you should be fine. I asked two times the nuclear department if I could bring my stuff and I was told YES.