Last Friday
So, I think I'm finally done processing this fully. Last Friday I had a dental appointment and an endocrinology appointment. The dental appointment went fine; I got two root canals with no anesthetic.
The endocrinology appointment, on the other hand, went not so as expected. My appointment Thursday with a general practitioner and the one on Friday with the endocrinologist are due to me being in the hospital at the beginning of last week. The general practitioner didn't have much of anything to add; $30 copay for nothing. The endocrinologist had plenty to say; got much more for my $40 specialist copay.
I was taking a medication to lower my thyroid hormone levels. I was to be on the medicine for 18 months, taking 3 pills a day. Now, I need to be off the pills for a week to start a different treatment. I thought I was going to walk out with a prescription for potassium supplements.
The new plan for treatment involves skipping the first round and going straight to radioactivity, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. My potassium levels could drop again at any time, so the solution to nearly all my health problems is correcting my thyroid. I go in this Friday to take radioiodine, my thyroid is just going to slurp it up. My throat is going to be radioactive. Mercedes is going to get so tired of me saying "Up and atom!"
The things I will not be able to do for a couple days afterwords include, but are not limited to: sleeping next to somebody, kissing, being around very little children or pregnant women, traveling without a doctor's note explaining why I'm radioactive, and not glowing.
The end result is damaging my thyroid a little bit, so that it produces less thyroid hormone. My endocrinologist does not think they will get mine in one go, and the procedure can be done up to three times. The pills I was on had a 50% chance of at least 2 years of remission. The radioiodine has an 80-90% chance, each time. After the third time with that, they will remove my thyroid and I will be on hormone pills the rest of my life.
My main concern at the moment is the treatment leaving me with hypothyroidism, where they damage it too much and it doesn't produce enough thyroid hormone anymore. In which case, I will be on supplemental hormone pills the rest of my life. Secondary concerns involves side effects of the radioiodine, primarily reduced sperm count; though fortunately Mercedes found that that particular side effect tends to wear off in two years.
At this point, I'm taking it one visit at a time. I'm down to only taking my beta-blockers, and am mostly feeling in decent health. I can't have any alcohol, do any strenuous activities, or get eat a bunch of carbs, because they tend to cause the potassium problem I had with Graves' Disease. I did DDR the night before and drank a Bud Light (my only in about a month) the day that the problems started.
Lastly, before I pass out, hyperthyroidism causes bones to become less dense, and I was told that treatment would thicken my bones. My teeth really started to fall apart around the same time I started to lose weight. I've never had the best of dental hygiene, but I'm now wondering if my hyperthyroidism has had a large part to do with my teeth falling apart so quickly since I left Boston.
Love,
Radioactive Man
The endocrinology appointment, on the other hand, went not so as expected. My appointment Thursday with a general practitioner and the one on Friday with the endocrinologist are due to me being in the hospital at the beginning of last week. The general practitioner didn't have much of anything to add; $30 copay for nothing. The endocrinologist had plenty to say; got much more for my $40 specialist copay.
I was taking a medication to lower my thyroid hormone levels. I was to be on the medicine for 18 months, taking 3 pills a day. Now, I need to be off the pills for a week to start a different treatment. I thought I was going to walk out with a prescription for potassium supplements.
The new plan for treatment involves skipping the first round and going straight to radioactivity, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. My potassium levels could drop again at any time, so the solution to nearly all my health problems is correcting my thyroid. I go in this Friday to take radioiodine, my thyroid is just going to slurp it up. My throat is going to be radioactive. Mercedes is going to get so tired of me saying "Up and atom!"
The things I will not be able to do for a couple days afterwords include, but are not limited to: sleeping next to somebody, kissing, being around very little children or pregnant women, traveling without a doctor's note explaining why I'm radioactive, and not glowing.
The end result is damaging my thyroid a little bit, so that it produces less thyroid hormone. My endocrinologist does not think they will get mine in one go, and the procedure can be done up to three times. The pills I was on had a 50% chance of at least 2 years of remission. The radioiodine has an 80-90% chance, each time. After the third time with that, they will remove my thyroid and I will be on hormone pills the rest of my life.
My main concern at the moment is the treatment leaving me with hypothyroidism, where they damage it too much and it doesn't produce enough thyroid hormone anymore. In which case, I will be on supplemental hormone pills the rest of my life. Secondary concerns involves side effects of the radioiodine, primarily reduced sperm count; though fortunately Mercedes found that that particular side effect tends to wear off in two years.
At this point, I'm taking it one visit at a time. I'm down to only taking my beta-blockers, and am mostly feeling in decent health. I can't have any alcohol, do any strenuous activities, or get eat a bunch of carbs, because they tend to cause the potassium problem I had with Graves' Disease. I did DDR the night before and drank a Bud Light (my only in about a month) the day that the problems started.
Lastly, before I pass out, hyperthyroidism causes bones to become less dense, and I was told that treatment would thicken my bones. My teeth really started to fall apart around the same time I started to lose weight. I've never had the best of dental hygiene, but I'm now wondering if my hyperthyroidism has had a large part to do with my teeth falling apart so quickly since I left Boston.
Love,
Radioactive Man