What I know about radioactive treatment is ,that you need to isolate yourself from young children and pregnant women . I am sure they will give you all the information at the hospital too
Hey. I'm not a nurse, but I've had thyroid cancer and had radioactive iodine.
It's more of a nuisance than anything else. Basically, all you have to do is take a capsule. It doesn't have any effects on you or anything. I did get a nosebleed about 10 days later that I think was related (I googled just out of interest and got results saying a significant minority report a nosebleed 10 or 11 days after it).
However, as rumpelstiltskin said, you have to isolate yourself because you are radioactive, so you have to stay in hospital for 2-5 days after it, depending on how quickly the radiation reduces and even after that, there are restrictions for a couple of weeks like you have to flush the toilet twice after each use and stuff like that.
And you have to get two injections beforehand. My experience was during covid and in Ireland, we have to go to the hospital to get the injections. So I had to travel up to the hospital (in a city twenty miles from me) a number of days in a row and twice, just go into the hospital, get an injection and leave. And there were virtually no shops or anything open so I couldn't even do a bit of shopping while in the city.
Radioactive iodine (RAI) is a treatment that uses radiation to treat thyroid cancer. The radiation comes from a radioactive substance called iodine-131. You usually take radioactive iodine as a capsule that you swallow.
It is a targeted-method of destroying any remaining normal thyroid tissue or thyroid cancer cells that may remain following surgery.
We have information on our website on radioactive iodine treatment at thislink.
I hope this is of use. Give us a ring if you would like to talk anything over. The number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.
