Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Days Leading Up To RAI - 6/16 - 6/18

June 16th - I was waiting to hear from nuclear medicine or Dr. F's covering doctor regarding the dosage amount. I kept on waiting and waiting and was getting extremely frustrated once again at what seemed a lack of urgency to keep me abreast of my situation. I finally called NYU asked for my test results and found out that Dr. Tiu was not in the hospital that day and I would have to wait until Tuesday for a clearer picture of what was going on. I called on Dr. F's covering doctor, another person in her group, if she heard anything about my case. She spoke with Dr. F and found out that she spoke with Dr. Tiu before she left and that my dosage would most likely be 150 millicuries. Matter of factly, I asked her if I could go off of the diet and back on my meds after I took the radiation pills (thinking it was a forgone conclusion since Dr. F already gave me the go-ahead previously). To my horror, the covering doctor recommended that I wait until after the post treatment scan to go off diet and back on meds - UGH!!!!! My jaw dropped and I couldn't believe it. I was going to have to endure another week of this crap. That was a huge blow to me both mentally and physically. I was crushed.

June 17th - I spoke with nuclear medicine and they confirmed that my dosage would be 150 millicuries of radiation and my appointment was still for June 19th at 10 AM - thank god I made that appointment a month before or who knows when it would have been. I was told that a radiation officer would be calling me the next day to ask me some questions.

June 18th - It was already 12:30PM and I still hadn't heard anything from the radiation officer, so as usual, I had to pick up the phone myself and get the ball rolling. Finally, I spoke with him at around 3PM and he didn't ask me anything new. Basically, he was looking to see if I lived alone or not to see if I needed to be an in patient or outpatient after taking the radiation. Since I lived alone with no pets, I was allowed to stay in my apartment after treatment. He sent me a list of precautions, but most of them were for the benefit of a partner or roommate which I did not have - flushing twice in the bathroom, washing utensils, sleeping separate beds, wiping down common electronics, staying a certain number of feet away, etc. Therefore, I really was not inconvenienced at all by staying at home. I was not endangering myself or permanently contaminating anything in the apartment by touching it. So I was fine.

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