This was a day I will never ever forget. This was the day that I submitted to a RAI without doing any research or without understanding the complications that could result from this treatment. I had incredible misgivings about this treatment. In fact, just two days before RAI, I went to see Squirt to ask him if this was really my only option. His answers, like always, were vague and even more confusing. This disaster taught me to always listen to my intuition. Never again will I submit to treatment that I do not understand. Never again will I allow a medical professional to dictate what I must do! NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.

The report about my RAI procedure sites my clinical history as follows and I quote, “49 year old female with Graves’s hyperthyroidism.” The clinical history continues with, “Thyroid 30 grams and four hour uptake at 21%. The report states that the provisional diagnosis is Graves’s disease. Wonder why it is called a provisional diagnosis? Were they not sure? The pharmaceutical report states that I was given I-131, 510 MBq p.o. (per mouth) on April 3, 1998 at 1335 hours. The report also confirms a second time that an oral treatment dose of 510 MBq of I-131 was administered.

When I was getting ready to leave the hospital that day after my treatment, the nurse assured me that I would feel better in no time flat. In this case, ignorance was NOT bliss.

If there is one message that I can get across with these journals, that message is “do not submit to RAI until you have looked at all your options.” RAI may very well curse you to a life with horrendous non-treatable side effects. Trust me I am a prime example of such an error.