I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer last month and rushed (bullied) into a thyroidectomy which I had on march 9th. I have not had anyone talk to me about options or what is next and I wish I had waited until I had more info and control over my treatment. My endo won't give me my new thyroid meds and won't tell me why so I am just taking my old ones because I got sick without any. I am not sure why you would need a low Iodine diet. I regret having my thyroid out now but I can't change that. I do know that if she doesn't get me on new meds and start doing some explaining I am changing doctors.

I felt the same way rush and for two years straight ask anyone on this board I bitched that people needed counciling before making such a drastic step to their lives. Those doctors forget about you soon enough and move on to their next paycheck!
The reason your endo hasn't put you on any medication (my theory and because I went through the same) is he/she wants you as hypo as possible so that when he tells you and he/she will that you need to have RAD 131 you are confused and ripe for the pickens to say yes and right away he/she will send you to do the rest of the dirty work. Ugly side of medicine is that they get big BIG BIG BUCKS to get you to have Radiation treatment it's better for the enviroment for you to have some. Let me see them give their own child radiation hahahahah! that's your answer in my mean as usual self concern why!

Don't stress over it. I had this last May, and except for a couple hours of nausea, which would have gone away if I had just not eaten anything, it was fine.
I suggest crawling into bed, sipping water, and trying to sleep for a while. The solitude is nice, but boring after a while.
The low iodine diet wasn't that bad, was it? It kept me from gaining weight while going hypo. don't be surprised if you lose your sense of taste for a month or so. It way sucks, but it's temporary. Everything feels like wet cardboard in your mouth. Yuck. That was the worst part for me. I sucked hard candies like crazy and it still happened.
It's great when the taste comes back though. Things never tasted so good.
Good luck and stay positive. Catch up on your sleep, read a book or two, and watch t.v.

I have been through RAI twice and yes it can feel awful for months after words. But I think it might be different in your case. For my treatments they would not use Thyrogen and instead insisted I be totally hypo and have a TSH of at least 30 before they would administer the RAI. Being hypo is the worst part of the process. I was allowed to have normal food the day after the RAI and I was back on my Levothyroxine the day of the total Body scan one week after RAI.

The 1st time I had RAI I got 150cmi and it did not have much effect on me. The 2nd I got 200cmi I spent a week feeling like I had just burned my mouth on hot coffee, my sense of taste was destroyed for 3 months. For the 1st few weeks everything tasted sickly sweet.

I had my last RAI on December 23 and I am still exhausted constantly and sleeping 10 hours a day. I have forced myself to get back to the gym. Because in June I have to go Hypo again.

I sure hope things go better for you,Good Luck

Hi jac, i guess today is the day that you had your radiation. I hope it went ok for you. I just went though this about a month ago. I found taking the radiation pill to be the easiest part of this whole process. My sense of taste was a little dulled for maybe a week or two and my glands got a little tingely but that was about it. The worst part of everything was (at least for me) was having to go hypothyroid, I hated it!! Never felt worse in my life. It only took about a week after taking the pill to where i started to feel better. Oh, and i got to go back on a regular diet right away. I would take it easy though with what you eat because your metabolism is going to still be in the dumps for a while. Let us know how it goes!!