I'm Radioactive!

If you look towards Denver, Iowa - do you see a green glow in the distance?  Yup, that's me!  Just kidding.  The tracer dose used at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is a mere 3 millicuries!!  I swallowed the capsule today at 11:30ish - only 1.5 hours after it was scheduled!  Why?  Well, apparently there is a world-wide shortage of radioactive isotopes.  See http://www.medpagetoday.com/Radiology/NuclearMedicine/18495 for more information.  Apparently U of Iowa usually keeps radioactive liquid iodine on hand.  Due to the shortages, the facility that normally produces the radioactive iodine has been re-directed to make some other important medical radioactive isotope.  So, to get me my capsule, they had to order it in from the Quad Cities...and they forgot to do it.  They "dropped the ball" and admitted as much!  They said it should "arrive shortly."  Eventually a guy with a briefcase with a radioactive warning label on it arrived!  Then I got to take the capsule and leave.
I am soooooo grateful to Kelly Kehoe who was my driver and company for the day!  We chatted about everything from the Oscars to why it's so great to have dogs around while healing.  Kelly navigated in rather dense fog for the first third of our journey and we arrived well in advance of the 10 a.m. appointment, only to get stuck in traffic (yes, there is traffic in Iowa) trying to park in the parking ramp at U of Iowa!!  It was marked as "FULL" after getting in line to enter.  We had to wait for others to leave the ramp in order to open up a spot for us.  This stop and go activity took about 5 minutes but it felt longer - it did make for a few good laughs.  We found the right elevator, found the nuclear medicine department, then waited.  And waited.  And waited.  We made small talk with others who were waiting.  And we waited some more. 
The good news is that while there, I switched my scan on Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.  This is a blessing since it takes 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there!  I also learned that they would show me the images on Friday and explain the results to me that same day.  This won't be the final results since we must also look at my "stimulated Thyroglobulin" which is a blood draw that will be collected right before the scan on Friday.  A clean scan and a low Thyroglobulin is ideal.  I won't have the blood work results for at least a week after they draw the blood.
I am officially sick and tired of the diet.  The Low Iodine Diet (LID) itself is not bad...it's not like I'm going hungry or anything.  It's just a pain to have to think so much about what to eat.  I was not supposed to eat for 4 hours before or two hours after taking the capsule.  I did "cheat" and have about 7 almonds after taking the capsule to make sure it went down.  Other than that, lunch waited until I got home and it was home baked bread - sliced and toasted and topped with mashed avocado, lime juice, a sliced tomato and some Kosher salt.  It was like a guacamole sandwich!  It was good...would have been better with a slice of roast beef on it!!
Well, tomorrow is "hide" day - work from home since I'm slightly radioactive.  I can't wait for lunch on Friday - SALMON!!!  With a side of Brie!!!