First of all, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to my biggest stalker fan in Philly – what would I do without you? You keep me in line. I’m sure I’d be running amok were it not for your tireless watching over me – so thanks! 🙂
Now that proper credit’s been given where it’s due…
It’s been about 6 months since I wrote part one, so just to refresh a bit:
After I had my thyroidectomy, and cancer cells were found, a round of I-131 radioactive iodine therapy was prescribed for me, for which I had to prepare my body, so that the treatment would be its most effective.
Part one dealt with the special diet I had to go on, to deprive my body of iodine, so that when I swallowed the capsule, the thyroid cells left behind would absorb it and begin to die a slow death.
I also had to be in a hypothyroid state before taking the treatment. This used to mean that patients had to stop taking synthetic thyroid medicine for a while before treatment, and let their body go hypothyroid naturally. It was a long, agonizing, symptom-riddled, and sometimes in some cases, downright dangerous process.
Then, along came the wonder drug Thyrogen. It mimicked a state of hypothyroidism, and accomplished it in a matter of three days. All a patient had to do was have a thyrogen shot two days, and then another one day, before treatment, and voila! No days and weeks of suffering to be ready. Easy peasy, no?
Yeah hang on a sec. This is my life we’re talking about here.
Nothing is ever that easy with me!
The same day I had my thyroid removed… the FDA cracked down on Genzyme, the maker of the drug, for unsafe conditions in the plant that manufactured Thyrogen, and severely limited its availability until further notice.
My endo was explaining the process to me in his usual, skim over the highlights, need to know basis way…
He said I had my option of going hypo naturally, or taking the drug, he was certain I’d be an exception and be allowed my doses, but there was risk involved.
IÂ asked what kind of risk?
“We don’t know.”
Huh? What do you mean you don’t know? How do you know there’s risk if you don’t know what it is?
So as per, I had to get proactive, come home, and google for an answer. It seems Genzyme’s plant in Allston, MA. was having a slight problem keeping their vials free of such things as steel, rubber, fiber….
Nice! I could get a vein full of miniscule metal shavings!
Now I had to decide if I wanted to run that risk, or go hypo naturally and suffer the symptoms.
I asked my surgeon. She hadn’t even heard this was an issue.
I asked the radiation oncologist about it. She sat there silently and looked at me as if I had three heads.
I guess I wasn’t really being given much choice. Nobody was offering me a target date to stop taking synthroid before treatment… so shots it was.
Side effects were possible (uh, yeah, no crap!) but nothing like I’d experience if I did it the hard way.
Alex didn’t want me taking the shots. He was afraid of what might happen. He didn’t understand what would happen for certain if I opted out.
Dutifully, two days before my radiation therapy, I arrived at the endo’s office for my first dose.
So here I was… having been celibate by choice for quite some time… finally alone in a room with a man again, and he’s asking me to take my pants down and bend over…
But as is my usual luck, the only thing I got was a needle the approximate length (and girth) of a knitting needle jammed into my butt cheek…. by a man who turned out to be sheer evil (also my usual luck!)
And all it did was make me tired and sick to my stomach…
but ready for my glow in the dark close up, Mr. DeMille!
Stay tuned for part three…