My first whole-body scan for thyroid cancer is scheduled for the week of July 16. It’s five-day party at U of M. What a great summer vacation!
Day 1: Thyrogen injection to artificially raise my TSH
Day 2: Second Thyrogen injection
Day 3: Drink tracer dose of radioactive iodine
Day 4: First hour-long body scan (pass the Xanax!)
Day 5: Second hour-long body scan (pass the Xanax again!)
In preparation for my scans, I have to be on a low-iodine diet (LID), which began on July 2. Four days down, 15 more to go. It sucks. Really, really bad. Those of you who know me know that I am an extremely picky eater. And all my core foods are now forbidden. As a reminder, the crappy low-iodine diet rules are:
- No dairy at all (cheese is all I think about).
- No bread unless I bake it myself with no-iodine salt (that’s not happening).
- No soy (so no protein shakes).
- No restaurant food at all (I get takeout A LOT).
- Very small amount of meat, and no seafood.
- Nothing that has natural iodine content, like the skins of potatoes and spinach.
Here is how I am surviving:
Breakfast: Cream of Wheat and black coffee. Never thought I could miss half and half so much! I do get to put sugar in the Cream of Wheat, so that helps.
Lunch: Salad with homemade lemon vinaigrette dressing and grilled chicken. Still get to have my Coke Zero. Hooray!
Dinner: Imjadara. Thank you to my mom for making me this Lebanese dish! It looks gross, but it is awesome. Lentils, onions and wheat. I even listed it as my favorite food when I was in kindergarten! Just wish I could have some pita along with it.
Snack: I love movies, and therefore love popcorn. Fortunately, I have never been a big fan of butter on my popcorn. So when I air-pop and add kosher salt, it doesn’t taste too bad!
I can also eat fresh fruit and vegetables, so I snack on those too. I am logging everything I eat into MyFitnessPal, and I am consuming about 1200-1400 calories a day, which is pretty typical for me. However, the food I am eating is just not very satisfying, so I am still hungry all day long. I am still running and obsessively weighing myself, because I figure if I still don’t lose weight doing this diet, than my endocrinologist can’t argue with me, right? I can’t do any medication changes until I am done with this experience, so this is truly my last hope to dump the extra pounds before my upcoming thyroidectomy anniversary. I have heard good things about eliminating dairy and bread as a way to lose weight, so I am hopeful. It’s the only thing that keeps me going!
In the meantime, please don’t eat pizza or enjoy Starbucks within 20 feet of me. You may get pounced.
Thyroidless 
Leave a Reply