Thyroid Uptake with Radioactive Tracers

[Nnoi 50]

Hello My Friends 💜

I had Gastric Bypass in July. So far I am doing pretty well, feeling great, I have my three month check-up with my surgeon the end of the month!

But today I wanted to talk more about something else

I am a thyroid cancer survivor, I was diagnosed, had my thyroid removed and did radiation in 2012. Every year my oncologist alternates between doing a chest x-ray or a Thyroid uptake scan to check that the cancer is not back. I am due for a Thyroid uptake scan soon. I WILL be talking with my surgeon at my appointment about it. But was curious if any of you wonderful people were also Thyroid Cancer survivors or have done a thyroid uptake scan post-op.

My main concern is that while the dose of radiation you take for an uptake scan is not as high as when you are doing actual radiation I will still be swallowing a radioactive pill, which they request/suggest you take with a full glass of Water all at once. I know I can not drink that much water all at once, but I am also concerned that if I am discouraged to consume caffeine for six months post-op (which is what my program suggests I know not all of them do) that consuming actual radioactive materials is probably not advisable either.

Anyone here who does Radioactive Thyroid Uptake Scans? Any suggestions on how long you waited post-op?

Again I will talk with my doctor's both my Bariatric Surgeon and my Oncologist about my concerns and imagine that I will just be pushing the Uptake scan out at least a year post-op but I am just checking to see what other peoples experiences were...

[Nnoi 50]

I am just going to reply to this topic with an update in case anyone searching comes across this post.

I did discuss it with my Bariatric Surgeon and they did not see a problem with it (which honestly still surprises me) but when I saw my Oncologist he just assumed we were putting it off a year and I was FINE with that. So I am seeing my Oncologist again next month and will be scheduling my uptake for most likely late August or Early September (more than a year post op) because I will have to do the Low Iodine Diet for a few weeks before my uptake. The Low Iodine diet is a whole different can of worms. So anyone who is seeing them in the future that is going through what I am, please feel free to reach out to me here and I can discuss my experiences with Radiation Uptakes and Low Iodine Diets after RNY with you.