What will I experience during radioactive iodine therapy?
There is really no specific sensation associated with radioiodine treatment, either for hyperthyroidism or for thyroid cancer. It has a very good record over the past decades of use of this procedure. However, the higher the dose the radioiodine is, for example when you use it for treatment of thyroid cancer, the patient initially may feel some of what we call stomach upset or discomfort. Therefore we ask them not to eat for two or three hours just so that they don't have a vomiting experience with bringing up the radioiodine which is actually administered orally to the patient. In patients who are hyperthyroid and are being treated with radioiodine treatment, in a very, very small percentage of them, they may develop what's called a thyrotoxicosis. That is when cells that are killed in the thyroid gland suddenly release a large amount of thyroid hormone that was within them. That large amount of hormones can have consequences, metabolic consequences, which we call thyrotoxicosis, which is like somebody having very high heart rates, with sweating, and fever even. But that occurs very seldomly, and can be actually, if it's expected in a specific clinical situation, can be prevented by giving appropriate treatment, other treatment beforehand, before the radioiodine is given or even when this develops, if it develops. So for the most part there is really no specific sensations or pain of any sort, but I wanted to mention these two things that some people may experience.
