I looked up what possible side effects there were.

• A sore throat may occur a few days after the treatment, which can be treated with acetaminophen.
• Rarely, the salivary glands may swell, which is caused by the iodine and not the radioactivity. Some physicians believe that sucking hard candies for a few days can prevent this.
• Mild nausea may develop for a few hours after the iodine is taken, so it is best not to eat two hours before and two hours after the iodine administration

This website said the side effects were rare.  I knew with my luck and history, to probably expect one of these :)

For that first day,  I didn't do much except drink lots of water and use the bathroom.  I stayed in our bedroom alone while Chris was out on the futon in the living room.  I watched a lot of television and called Grandma's house to get updates on what Caitlin was up to (how much did she eat? did she nap?  did she poop?).

After 48 hours, I finally got to see Caitlin at Grandma's.  It was so strange...my little one was holding out her arms to me saying "Mama" but I couldn't pick her up!  This was simply torture.  I decided not to go back for dinner as we had planned.  It was at this time that I noticed I had a bit of a sore throat from the inflammatory process in my thyroid.  The next day, I was super tired and still had the sore throat.  It wasn't horrible, just kind of scratchy.  I chose not to take any pain killers for it.  Watched the finale to the Lord of the Rings triology.

§§§

I guess I should finally update this page.  It is now April 2006.  It has been 5 months since my radioactive iodine treatment.  After the sore throat, everything went back to normal.  I didn't feel any different.  After about a month or so, I would notice that my eyes felt tired all the time.  They felt like they needed a massage.  I knew that the eye symptoms could be aggravated by the treatment so I was concerned and went to see the eye specialist.  They did all the testing and told me that I had nothing to worry about.  I still have the eye soreness once in awhile but I've learned to live with it.  Mainly, this involves wearing my glasses often instead of my contact lenses.  I used to wear contacts all the time but my eyes get sore after a few hours wearing them now.

I was checked by the endocrinologist at 4 weeks, 10 weeks, and approx 24 weeks.  Each time, they checked my blood and each time it showed that I was within normal range.  He told me I was lucky and because of this, I would not have to take the supplemental Thyroid hormone (Synthroid).  He said that if my levels were still normal at 6 months, this would probably mean that they took out just enough of the thyroid to leave me with normal function.

My friend emailed me today to tell me that she is going thru the same thing.  This reminded me to come back and update my page.  It's awful how this can happen so commonly but we never really hear too much about it.  And the doctor's don't say anything to you about what to watch for either.  That's all I've got for now!  (April 2006).