After the radioiodine pill, you feel no different physically at all. At least I didn't. The only side effect I had was a nosebleed about 10 or 11 days later that I firstly put down to my sinus medication, which it is a side effect of, but it was much stronger than most sinus nosebleeds I get, so I googled out of interest and it mentioned that many people have reported nosebleeds 10-11 days later.

To be honest, had I been slipped it in a drink or something and didn't know I'd taken it, I would have noticed absolutely nothing whatsoever.

The scan did make me feel a little like I was captured by a Batvillain and was about to be crushed. I was half-amused and half yikes, this is getting a bit closer than I expected.

I was a bit concerned about the results of the test so was a bit nervous when they came close

Hello,

thank you very much, hearing about people that went through it and are now doing well always helps a lot! I'm sure boredom won't be a problem for me, covid lockdowns taught me how to cope with isolation :D

Also, 10 days after the treatment all my family is coming here to visit me and my girlfriend finally got her visa approved and is moving back to the UK, so I have a number of things to look forward to at the end of the isolation period

Just updating this post with recent results.

Today I had my CT done, a groin ultrasound (there was a tiny palpable lymph node), blood tests and the first thyrogen injection. I think the thyrogen made me feel slightly nauseous for about one hour but it could also have been the stress (I'm needle phobic and have general anxiety).

Other than that both the CT and the ultrasound showed no evicence of spread, which is good news! Going back tomorrow for the 2nd thyrogen injection and then on Wednesday for the radio iodine and more blood tests

Time for another update.

I was discharged on Friday after the radio iodine treatment. I had no side effects, just a little bit of nausea that is hard to say whether it was caused by the thyrogen, the iodine or the stress. It wasn't serious anyway and I was able to eat normally.

I also received the results of the full-body scan. It did not show any uptake, which is consistent with what we saw in the CT. The only thing that is a bit puzzling is that we didn't see any uptake in the neck either, which is a bit unusual, since usually there are some leftover cell clusters (mainly healthy but also potentially cancerous) in the thyroid bed.

The oncologist believes it's fine and the scan just missed the uptake window. For now it seems like we will just have to monitor the situation; I have an appointment with her in a month.

[@MargaretMary]‍ sorry for bothering you again, do you remember what your full-body scan after the radio iodine showed? Thank you very much in advance!

The scan after the radio-iodine showed uptake in the neck but thankfully nowhere else. 

Good to hear yours didn't find any uptake outside the neck. Best of luck with the appointment next month.

And you're not bothering me at all.

didnt want to just read and run.   thank you for all your update, super helpful xxx

Just updating this post since it's been a while. I've been through a couple of doctor appointments over the last 4 months. No big updates, the THS and T4 are where the oncologist wants them to be, everything else is completely normal, my voice got a lot better (although I'm not as loud as I used to be and surely can't sing due to the left vocal cord paralysis).

What I find a bit unnerving is that before we can actually get a reading on the situation we have to wait until May, when we can reliably measure the thyroglobulin. It's a pretty long wait. I'm generally doing well although I tend to be stressed in the week before I have appointments with the doctor, which at this point happens roughly every 3 months.

[@MargaretMary]‍ when was your thyroglobulin measured? What was the outcome? Are you just doing ultrasound + blood tests every 6 months now? Thank you so much for sharing your situation, it really helps people like me to get through this and I hope this post will also be helpful for people going through the same thing in the future

Well, my radioiodine treatment took place during covid, so...things got a little messy about when things were done. I don't actually think they told me the details, but based on the follow-up since, I'm assuming all is well.

I did have a second full-body scan about a year after the operation and they told me all the bloods were good then.

Yup, now just have ultrasound once a year and blood tests twice a year. Next ultrasound is in January, 14 months after my last one.

Time for a new update. It's been almost a year since the surgery (11 months and 2 weeks to be precise!) and I finally got the results from my latest checkup, which was done 10 months after the radioiodine therapy.

Both the ultrasound and the tumor markers in the blood show no evidence of disease and I've been put in the low risk category for recurrence.

I have to admit I still feel like I haven't processed the good news yet.

Thinking of how quickly and badly all the tests and procedures were going a year ago (nerve and lymph node involvement, small percentage of cells with aggressive subtype, vocal cord damage) it's hard to believe things seem to have turned out okay. Of course no one knows what will happen in the future but for now it's as good as it gets.

I hope this might be helpful to someone that is the same situation I was a year ago, to make them feel a bit more reassured while going through a very hard time.