Re: Grave's, preparing for RAI, questions about after

[Guest guest]

It's my understanding that the cleaning of the skin and clothing, double washing everything and not letting it sit is 'supposed' to dilute it with water and move it from the skin, clothing, toilet, shower, whatever and down the drain, at that points it's supposedly diluted to a point where it is no longer harmful.

If you don't keep yourself washed and clothing changed and cleaned you reabsorb it into your own body, increasing the amount of exposure that you already had from the treatment.

I'm not saying it's right.. I think it's totally dependant on the individual circumstance.

Having lived the last 15 years with NO gland function I can honestly say it SUCKS. You are totally dependant on the medication you are taking, there is absolutely no fall back, no buffer. I have NO gland function that will kick in during high stress/increased physical activity... lack of meds... there's nothing there to help out.

On the one hand it makes dosing easier, there is no fluctuating gland to deal with (which is why most docs opt for removing or destroying the gland, it's easier for them) but it's scary knowing that I'm dependant on what I take and that what I take won't show it's full effect (of too much or too little for weeks, or more, after I've messed up a dose, got a bad batch of pills, or had a life style change that was significant enough to alter my bodies demand for thyroid)

Even significant increases or decreases in weight affect how much hormone you need, part of the reason we need to be tested each year to adjust dose. The sad part is that most docs don't understand how to interpret labs and never adjust the dose... that's what happened to me... I kept gaining weight and no one ever increased my dose. (I'm talking over a hundred pounds, not just 10 or 15 here or there). It has to do with the volume of blood and the density of hormone in the blood that determines it's concentration at the cellular level and how it's distributed to the cells. Your body organs and active tissues are the same but the blood volume increases, diluting the hormone. Don't you just LOVE chemistry???? that's why you can't simply say that a woman gets this much and a man gets this much... it depends on too many factors, blood volume, organ efficiency, regional variations in diet and climate, even activity levels and the basic genetics of your metabolism and how your body processes things.

There has to be a better way to do this, I think they should start with determining why the percentage of the population affected by thyroid disorder is increasing and do something with that cause/source. I mean, how many mom's with thyroid disorder are informed of the potential risks to their unborn babies and how they many, or may not, be affected as the grow? Very, very few.... but at least they are now screening new borns for obviously whacked hormone levels, it's a small start.

Sigh... now I'm back to fifteen years ago... getting forced to do something that I had no choices or options for......

Topper ()

On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 16:17:39 -0600 " " writes:

But can regular soap and water actually get rid of radiation? This question has passed in and out of my mind on occasion, so now I'm asking it. My understanding about radiation is that really nothing actually "kills" it, except for time, and noone tells anyone this. The deal to me, the way I see it, is that we're taking all these precautions, even for ourselves (by not using anything more than once), yet the stuff was and is actually already inside our bodies, so protecting ourSELVES from it is sort of a moot point, isn't it? I know that the nuking of the thyroid is sometimes a necessary evil, but I've never seen anything safe about it, period. The alternative, however, is sudden death for some folks, so they have to have it. Protecting OTHER people from it, though, is another matter. Why expose them to what we're going to be exposed to? Thing of it is, though, sometimes a person has no choice of where they go when they leave the hospital because there's either home or a motel, nowhere to go. I do see the point, however, of the motel people being unaware of things. I would have no problem, as noone lives with me at this point, but I have a big question about whether that radiation is EVER actually gone from one's home OR person.