I was told to take it first thing in the am with water and to not eat or drink anything for 1/2 hour. No limitations after that.

I don't know nor have I seen any statistics about how many OC radiation patients end up on thyroid meds and certainly it depends on where the rad is aimed but I will say a lot of people on this site over the last 2 years have required the meds. All that I know of have had their thyroid production limited or stopped which is called Hypothyroidism leading to the symptoms Brian mentioned and more. Post Tx I was weak and always tired which I attributed to my ordeal. Then I became very cold all the time and this was late summer, early fall in Florida so that's when I started asking questions.

Hi Dianne...Thanks for the info. I hadn't thought about it, but I guess it makes sense that they can't use a PEG tube for feeding if you've had the bypass.

I know it seems trivial, even to me, to be thinking about such a selfish and vain surgery in the face of all the challenges we've all had. I just feel so helpless about the weight issue and know it by itself has long term negative effects on my health.

Are you happy you did the bypass surgery overall Dianne?

Michael,
How much coffee do you drink a day? I dropped 10 excess lbs in college by drinking my coffee black, no sugar. Haven't drunk it any other way since.

As to synthroid, I was told by druggest to take it two hours before or 6 hours after anything with calcium or iron, so don't tkae with that multi-vitamin. Also told best to take first thing in am.

Take care,
Eileen

Goggled "thyroid issues after radiation" and this came up--I wasn't in the mood to do futher reading


Thyroid cancer (see Thyroid Cancer brochure)
Thyroid cancer may be found anywhere from 5 � 20 years after radiation treatment was given, although about 10 years after the treatment is the most common time.


http://www.thyroid.org/patients/patient_brochures/childhood.html


It usually happens to children (younger then 20 years old) exposed to radiation txs

Ray,

Now that's something I hadn't heard. I guess it's time to do some research and ask some questions. I guess I can be happy to be so "old". Brian? Any words of wisdom for us here?

Lani

Here's info on thyroid right from the OCF site:

http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/facts/hypothyroidism.htm

"Using statistical models, researchers were able to project that 48% of the patients would experience hypothyroidism five years after treatment, with that number jumping to 67% eight years after treatment. The average time to development of hypothyroidism was 1.4 years, but ranged from .3 to 7.2 years. Importantly, there was no difference in risk for developing hypothyroidism between patients treated with radiation alone or those treated with radiation and chemotherapy. The only factor that could predict whether or not an individual would develop hypothyroidism was race: none of the African-American patients developed hypothyroidism."

I just today dropped off two cases of Osmolite 1.2 and five cases of Novartis 1.2 with the nurses where I had my radiation. They will get them to someone who isn't covered by Medicare or insurance.

I have found that if I mix two tbs of Nestles NesQuik in with the Nutren 2.0 (500 cal/can) it tastes OK, so the six cases I have won't go to waste.

I am not having trouble swallowing solid food so much as I am having trouble moving the food around in my mouth to chew and swallow it -- My free flap new tongue is anchored to the floor of my mouth all the way around the bottom, so it only sort of ripples...

Can't write them off because I don't think I actually paid anything for them (except shipping, come to think of it on the Osmo; it was free from another reformed 'user'), but I will take the mileage as charity expense.

Michaelii
I would try behavior modification before I underwent a major surgical procedure. You got through cancer treatments and that took some mental strength. After that I believe you can do anything that you set your mind to, including eating in a healthy and appropriate manner.

Thyroid cancers from radiation prominently occur in childhood radiation patients, not adults. Also if you are in the IMRT group, they do a pretty good job of missing it with the beam these days.

Radiation destroys the thyroid function, that means that you will go hypo thyroid not hyper thyroid.

Yo u

darnit! I wasn't even that worried about radiation induced cancer -- guess I had forgotten for a while about the correlation.

So, what are the "odds" since the 'roid is fried, that cancer will be knocking on the door again as a result of the burn?

Also, if the thyroid is toast, does the cancer incidence increase or decrease?

OK, now I need to have a drink of wine and watch some Dexter on DVD.

Some of you might recall my friend Tim from SF and Alaska. He had a "recurrence" after 14 years. I often presumed it could have been a byproduct of the radiation he had.

Radiation induced cancers in IMRT patients isn't a big risk. and it won't be in your thyroid. Even if it did occur there you can live without it with no real change in your life. The removal is a minor surgery if it went south. Cancer transformation is a matter of genetic mutation. Functioning or non functioning thyroid is a non issue. It is a cellular change and not related to function of the organ the cells are in.

There are many reasons for recurrence. Radiation is not one of them. That would cause a unique and second primary like osteosarcoma of the mandible.

Live your life, worry about recurrence less. You are not going to prevent it if it is in your future, so unnecessary worrying only lowers your immunity and screws up the rest of your life that could be spent thinking about positive things.

Thank you Brian. My spirits have been pretty upbeat - especially since my cancer-scare last month turned out to be nothing - and I just didn't need something new to start worrying about now. The mention of radiation-caused thyroid cancer was a new one to me and I'm so glad to hear that it's not really anything I need to think about.

Peace of mind is a wonderful thing.

Lani