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| Alanis Morissette... not my doctor. |
Dr. Fine asked a bunch of questions about my symptoms and showed me the thyroid levels sent over to her by my family doctor's office. I would post them for you here, except I don't remember what they are. I do remember that my TSH levels (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone, I think?) were 0.01, and apparently the norm is between .5 and 5.0, so that's pretty low. I guess that when your thyroid is hyperactive, your TSH levels drop because your body doesn't need to tell your thyroid to work... it's already working overtime.
I hopped up on that weird doctor table-bed thing that's always covered in paper and always has a million drawers so Dr. Fine could check my reflexes and listen to my heart. She told me that she would normally have her patients hold their hands out in front of them so that she could see how much they trembled, but that I didn't need to do that since I had a constant full-body tremor.
I was told that she was pretty sure I had Graves' Disease but that we'd need to schedule a Radioactive Iodine Uptake Test to be sure, and that she wanted me to go have another blood test so she could compare the levels. I was given a req. form for the blood work, a prescription for my very rapid and pounding heartbeat, and a bunch of printouts on Graves' Disease and hyperthyroidism. She walked me to the reception desk to book my RAIU (the uptake test), scheduled for one week later - much quicker than I expected. I went straight from her office to my family doctor, got the blood work done, and headed home to Google the crap out of the uptake test.
*****
A week later, I was back to the hospital for the first RAIU appointment. (There were two appointments, 24 hours apart exactly.) From everything I'd read, the RAIU was no big deal. No side effects, no isolation, just a quick pill and I'd head home, which is how it went. Only, the part about "no side effects" was not entirely accurate.
About three hours after I swallowed the little pill, I felt sick, and I continued to feel that way all night. I was nauseated enough that all I wanted to do was lay on the couch, and the thought of eating grossed me out. I was feeling better the next morning, though, and we headed back to the hospital for the second part of the test. The nurse sat me down in front of a weird machine with this probe-y part coming out of it, took a reading just above my knee, and then had me rest my chin on top of the probe-y part that was now aimed at my throat. She took another reading, slid the machine away, and then injected me with more radioactive iodine.
I was led down the hall to another room where they had me lie on the world's tiniest bed - seriously, if I wasn't down to 100 lbs, I don't know how I would have fit on it, it was that small - and a different nurse used a machine that looked like a giant satellite to take x-ray style pictures of my throat.
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| Look, I found a picture of the machine! Only mine was newer and less decrepit-looking. |
(If you're reading this and you're scheduled for an RAIU, don't be nervous. It doesn't hurt... you don't feel a thing, aside from the injection which just felt a little cold. The only thing they ask is that you lay still so the pictures aren't blurred.)
I'd been told the test would take approximately an hour, but I was in and out in just over 20 minutes. My follow-up appointment to get the results had been scheduled for just over a week later, so let's fast-forward to that.
*****
It was a Friday morning, and I was back at Dr. Fine's office for my follow-up appointment. The Mister and I went in, sat down, and were told right away that I definitely had Graves' Disease. As I mentioned in my previous post, this was not a shock to me; I expected it. The doctor explained that in a "normal" person's reading, the thyroid would absorb between 5 and 25% of the radioactive iodine, while someone with Graves' would absorb more; my thyroid had absorbed 58% - more than double the normal levels.
We discussed the various treatment options available to me - more on that in another post - but everyone in the room was not seeing eye-to-eye on the best course of action. Because I wasn't sure what to do, I was given a prescription for an anti-thyroid pill and another follow-up was scheduled for one month later. Dr. Fine gave me a print-out on Radioactive Iodine treatment (which I was not leaning toward doing), a requisition form for another blood test, and sent me on my way.
It was time for some decision-making. And, of course, more Googling.
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