Low-Iodine Diet

I finally went to the Endocrinologist! It was so good to talk with him, find out the size of the mass, 3.5 cm, and finally know that yes, I need to receive radiation. It's been pretty easy to put this whole cancer thing out of my head for the past few months. I've been feeling...normal, which is great! So having to go to the endo and get that news, even though I've known in my heart I'd have to get radiation, was somewhat unnerving and brought back a lot of past feelings. Dr. Andrews explained that this was being used to do "clean up". Even though they removed 99% (or so) of the mass, they want to make sure it's all gone (plus there's a chance it has spread). Ross asked if we could wait and not do the radiation for a few years and get a scan to see if it has spread (he has a friend who went through this with not a good experience). But the Dr said with the size of the mass being over 2 cm he wouldn't risk it, that we didn't want to get 5 years down the road and wish we'd have done it. That's all I needed to hear! Radiation it was...is, whatever.

With this type of cancer, the radiation I get is Radioactive Iodine in pill form. For 2 weeks before I take the pill I have to be on a low-iodine diet to deprive my body of iodine, which apparently thyroid tissue "soak up" (my terminology) like crazy. It's actually pretty amazing. Because the thyroid is the only thing in the body that "soaks up" iodine, the only thing affected by the radiation will be any thyroid tissue, including the cancerous ones. Unfortunately I will have to be quarantined, but I do get to do it in my home. So my boys are staying with Grandma and Poppy. Seriously the hardest part of this whole thing is going to be not seeing anyone for a week, but not seeing my boys is going to be especially hard.

On Friday the 5th I found out I was going to be receiving my radiation pill on the 17th, a week earlier than I had originally planned. So I had to start on my lovely low-iodine diet right away! I was kind of disappointed because I was planning on having my "last meal" be something really good, but, it ended up being a bowl of Apple Jacks. Oh well! :) Luckily I had already begun to start pinning things on Pinterest, so I spent that day making my menu and grocery list. That day was a hard one, I didn't have a lot of foods I could eat around the house. I ended up eating a salad for lunch-with no dressing, nuts and a banana for a snack, and cream of wheat for dinner-with no milk of course!

This diet is a good bit of work, a lot of prep has to be done. But it really hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be, but I know if I didn't have a menu, I'd be lost! And I really do feel blessed, because the food I'm not supposed to eat isn't even tempting me. I even went to McDonald's (Poppy wanted to take the boys out) and my mouth didn't even water over the fries, I ate before I went so I wasn't hungry and I had no problems.

So in case you're wondering what the diet entails, no iodized salt (kosher and non iodized salt is ok), no egg yolks, no dairy of any kind, no chocolate, (but I can have 100% cocoa) no red dye, pretty much nothing that has been processed. I bought 100% natural peanut butter, added my own non-iodized salt and sugar, made home made potato bread, made tortillas, guacamole, and peanut butter cookies, bought salt free ketchup, dairy free chocolate coconut "icecream" and a whole bunch of fruits and veggies. Plus I had a friend make me some more bread, another bought some delicious peach sorbet, and another make me a no bake crumble to snack on!

As I said this diet really hasn't been too bad, but it's starting to get more difficult. I think that is due to the fact that I'm almost done. I'm ready to get back to my normal diet and not have to be so careful.

Just a couple of days and I'll receive my radiation pill, ready or not, here it comes!