That being said, I would think the dosage they give you should be low. I had lymph nodes that were 3 and 4 cm, and I received 100 mcg of RAI. I was able to stay at home, out of the population for 3 days, and not around my kids for 7 days. I was a little surprised to read you were going to have to be in the hospital for 4 days. That seems to indicate you will be receiving a very large dosage of RAI.

If nothing else, you might want a second opinion, or ask them if you can stay at home. Ask them to clarify exactly why they think you need to receive the treatment in the hospital. Find out what kind of dosage of RAI they are thinking you are going to have. At my consultation they said between 75 and 100mcg.’s. Once my labs came back, that is when they decided on the 100 mcg’s.

Let me know what you find out.

Thanks

I had radioactive iodine treatment. It was only one dose, or one pill. I took it at the hospital and then went home and had to stay out of the general population for 4 days.

The hardest part was not seeing my kids for 7 days. I had some slight nausea 8 hours after I took the dose- I felt car sick. My neck was swollen & tender though for 2 days- that is a common side effect. Advil helped.

Good luck to your daughter.

How nice of you to offer your support for your sister in law! Some of the suggestions I have are, if she ends up with only having a thyroidectomy, she will probably be in the hospital from 24-48 hours. If she ends up having any lymph nodes removed, she could be in the hospital 1-4 days.

One thing that my family did for me, which I loved, but would never have asked, was they made sure someone stayed overnight with me each night I was in the hospital. My sisters and sister-in-law took turns. Since I had a neck dissection, I was in the hospital for 5 nights. It was very helpful to have someone call the nurse for me, or get me some water, help me find a comfortable position to sleep, make sure I was getting the pain medication on time, etc., and just having a familiar person around made the experience less traumatic.

Afterwards, I did not have any problem eating food that I normally do. I think it would be very helpful when she comes home, if some meals could be prepared ahead of time for her- then either she or someone else could just reheat the food.

One other issue I ran into was showering right after the surgery while in the hospital. Because of the extent of my surgery, it was hard for me to reach things, and my balance was a bit off. One of my sisters stayed outside of the shower stall and if I needed help, she was there. She just thought of this on her own; I probably would have never have asked, so perhaps you could offer your assistance to her in this way.

I hope that helps- good luck to her, and please let me know how her surgery goes.

Heather