Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I Feel Jipped!


Before we get into why I feel jipped, let's talk about the night before I was to become RADIOACTIVE.
(Sorry to those I have already told this story to, you are free to just look at the pictures)

Brian & I sat down to watch The Bachelorette (he will never admit it, but he is an avid watcher!).
Normally, he sits on one end of the couch and I sit on the other (we like to have our space) tonight was different though. I had to sit right next to him with our legs touching. He's like, What are you doing? Why are you sitting so close? I felt as if this was the last time I would ever have any human contact and wanted to soak it all in. To this Brian responded, You're crazy. Oh the love my husband has for me! That night, I slept fitfully. I had crazy dreams about people in lead outfits, being stuck in an elevator while radioactive, Lucy eating other dogs (this has nothing to do with radioactivity, but weird nonetheless). Needless to say, a good nights sleep was not on my agenda.

That morning I had to call Dr. Edward's office to get the results of my blood test to make sure that my levels were conducive to the RAI. Now, let's do a timeline. I had to call at 8:00 am, get in the shower at 8:20. leave the house at 9:20, be at the hospital by 10:00 am, swallow the gigantic pill by 10:15 am and be on my merrily, glowing little way. I was on the money for it all! Yay me. The nurse calls me back at 8:15 am to tell me my levels are good, but I didn't have a pregnancy test and I cannot have the treatment without a negative pregnancy test. Apparently, no one wants to be responsible for a mutant child. She asks me, "Can you be at the hospital by 9:00?" Ugh no! I live 45 minutes away and haven't even showered! Plus Brian wasn't even taking me, our friend was and Brian would meet us there. So back to leaving the house at 9:20 am with a stop at the lab along the way then wait an hour for the results. Which puts the pill taking at 11:00 am now, no big deal.




One of the rooms in the Nuclear Med Dept.



Um, yeah, not so much! at 11:15 there was still no test, but the nuclear med tech called me back to go over the "rules" and side effects of being radioactive because she was sure she would get a call back by the time she went over everything. Now it's 11:45 and another tech comes in to say that since the blood was drawn at the lab and not the hospital, the blood had to be curried over to the main lab and at this point it hadn't even reached the lab! "Why don't you guys go get a bite to eat and be back by 12:45 pm. You'll take the pill and will be good to go." One little problem... I CAN'T EAT OUT!! STILL ON THE CRAZY DIET! Thankfully, my voice of reason came to me very quickly and said, "You can go to Souper Salad" and that's what we did.

Here is where I felt completely jipped... This entire time I had been expecting someone to come in wearing lead from head to toe holding "The Pill" with very long tongs then getting the heck out of the room as I swallowed the "decent sized" pill.

this is what I was prepared for


Not exactly. This is the most I got...



I was in an office and this is the closet in the room where the pill was kept



So, I am sitting in a chair and Lisa (only wearing scrubs, which I am not impressed by since Brian wears them everyday to work), the tech, opens this closet door and comes out with a little plastic container. She opens the container (with bare hands) and slides the pill unto my hand.

This was the size of the pill. THAT'S IT!

Out the door I went. I was freaking out about that?!?! I was expecting much more drama! Oh well.


I know another burning question is HOW DO YOU FEEL? I feel fine. I felt a bit nauseous last night, but I took some Pepto and felt better. This morning I slept until 10:00 am! A lot of moms are jealous out there I know! I just could not open my eyes. I have felt sleepy all day, probably from lack of activity. I also woke up and felt as if someone had punched me on both sides of my jaw. Not sure what that is about... Istill have felt nauseous today, but the thought of taking Pepto again makes me even more sick so I am just sucking it up! I think I have peed more in the last 28 hours than I did during my entire pregnancy. Which has been an inconvenience because Brian banned me to our bathroom upstairs, plus I have to flush twice. So my routine is: do my business, flush, wash my hands, rinse the sink, dry my hands, and flush again. Now, this too has been disappointing. At least my pee could glow a little. But, alas, it is as clear as the water. Bummer!

I do have a funny taste in my mouth. Not sure if it's because of the candy I have to suck on, or all the water I have to drink or the fact that Lisa, the non-lead-wearing tech, told me that the radioactivity sits in my mouth and could possibly burn my taste buds if I don't promote saliva! I'm thinking it's the latter.
I have been fairly productive today, I cleaned the pantry & freezer, I put months worth of pictures in albums, I organized my craft box (are you proud of me Ami? I have a craft box!), I put a few pictures in frames, I have watched many episodes of mind numbing reality TV shows, I worked on a Father's Day present for Brian, I downloaded a ton of music to my iPod, I have talked to a few friends and I have blogged! Busy busy busy! It's crazy what you can get done when you are confined to the house with no dog, kid or husband to distract you.

I go back to the hospital on Tuesday for a full body scan. Following that I see Dr. Edwards and he goes over the results. The scan is just to see where the RAI went, which would be where there were left over thyroid tissue. I guess it doesn't mean that the cancer had necessarily spread. This treatment is supposed to kill any cancer Dr. McDreamy didn't take out, so even if it did spread Iwas told not to worry. So we'll see.

1 comment:

Jaymee said...

I am laughing so hard right now. oh what our minds do to us when faced with the unknown. I am happy that you seem to be taking this all VERY well and getting organized! (really, just ONE craft box??!! I have a whole corner of my front room dedicated to this...) Hang in there, the "glowing" light is just at the end of your tunnel: 0