What information can you give me on radioactive iodine?
It's next on my treatment list after 2 operations for thyroid cancer.
What information can you give me on radioactive iodine?
It's next on my treatment list after 2 operations for thyroid cancer.
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.
But it's only a bit inconvenient.
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.
But it's only a bit inconvenient.