June 26th - My post treatment total body scan at 8:30AM. After the scan, I was told that I needed to come back because there was still radiation pooling in my pelvis, bladder and intestines. This was expected because the same thing happened after my diagnostic scan. My only concern was that this would delay my meds and diet once again, further dampening my mood. The radiology tech told me that there was no need to stay on the diet, however I needed to speak to the doctor to be sure. I spoke with Dr. Ponzo and he said that he read the scan and that it looked like the activity in my neck was clear, as was the rest of my body. The only activity was in my pelvis area - intestines, bladder, urine, etc. He said that the need to come back on Saturday was purely academic to get a better picture of my pelvis and make sure that the excess radiation was pushed out. As far as he was concerned, the purpose of being on the diet regarding the effectiveness of the radiation uptake was over. He said that I could go back on my Synthroid right away and back off of the diet. Eating anything with iodine at this point would not mess with any future scans or pictures. When I told him that Dr. Tiu recommended that I wait until after the last scan, he said that that was probably just as a precaution. This just proves to me that when to go off of the diet is not an exact science. Dr. F and Dr Ponzo felt, along with the tech, that I was fine to go off of the diet after the radiation treatment pills, while Dr. F's covering doctor, and Dr. Tiu both recommended to stay off of the diet until the scans were completely over. Dr. Ponzo's explanation was good enough for me. Finally, today was the first time in over 4 weeks that I was able to go back on my meds and eat a normal meal - yeah!!!
However, I did lose my sense of taste and I have a constant dry mouth, especially waking up in the morning. I am hoping that this is only temporary. I have read a lot of online article and it seems that temporary loss of taste is a common side effect of the radiation and should be pass after a few days or weeks. I hope so!! I have a metallic taste in my mouth and any liquid or food that I put in my mouth has either no taste or a metallic/rust taste. It feels like all of the taste buds on my tongue were burnt off and there are sores on both sides of my tongue. They are pretty painful. In the meantime, I am chewing a lot of gum to keep the salivary glands active and my mouth moist, hopefully flushing out the toxins in my mouth and tongue.
June 27th – The metallic taste seems to be getting worse. Even water tastes bad. So now in addition to having the inability to taste anything, I have a dry mouth and bad metallic taste. Even with nothing in my mouth. I started chewing a lot more gum to hopefully give my mouth a constant barrage of saliva and flushing out of toxins in my mouth and tongue. Was this some sort of cruel joke? After four weeks, I can finally eat anything I wanted but I can’t taste anything. Once again, the worst part is not knowing how long this will go on or if it will continue to get worse.
June 28th – Follow up total body scan today at 9AM. Usual drill. I will need to wait until Monday to see if I need to come in for another scan. At this point, I am not as anxious as before. The scans at this point are pretty academic and I am already back on my medication and able to eat normally. There is no real rush. There was some encouraging news this morning. When I woke up, for the first time in more than a week (since taking the radiation) my mouth was quite moist and I didn’t seem to have much of a metallic taste. Hopefully this was a sign that my salivary glands were getting back to normal and have flushed out a lot of the toxin remaining in my mouth and tongue. Next, when I took my pills with water, the water did not have a horrible metallic taste as it did yesterday. Hopefully, another positive sign. While I still couldn’t taste food or drink, the metallic taste seems to be subsiding. My tongue still feels burnt/raw, but hopefully it just needs to heal now and the toxic chemical reactions are over.
June 29th – No sense of taste, salivary glands are starting to feel sore.
June 30th – Still no taste, my salivary glands seem to be producing a normal amount of saliva but my glands are sore. I have been massaging them but it doesn’t help too much. My tongue seems to be healing a bit and doesn’t feel as “scalded” or “burnt” but still does not feel normal. I hope my sense of taste comes back soon. No matter what I put in my mouth, I cannot taste a thing. I have been reading a bunch of thyroid blogs. Most of them say that almost everyone experiences a loss of taste after the RAI. However, it varies considerably how long this will last. Some say a few days while some say a few weeks, and on rarer occasions longer than that.
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