How long between surgery and RAI?

[joplin1975]

I'm having surgery next Monday and my surgeon wants to follow up with RAI once my TSH is elevated enough (forgot to ask what the magic number is...). I understand it will likely be different for everyone, but I was just curious how long, in your particular case, you needed to wait?

[Octavia]

My doctor would have had me do the RAI right away after my 2nd surgery, but a mistake was made after my first surgery--he ordered a scan of my neck and chest after he saw the papillary carcinoma pathology report, and for that scan, they gave me an iodine contrast, which should not have happened. So they needed to wait a couple of months for that iodine to work its way out of my system so my cells would be "thirsty" for the RAI. I got the impression that for most people, they do the RAI pretty quickly after the thyroid is out (like you said, as soon as the TSH is elevated enough).

[joplin1975]

Thanks. :) I was given an estimate of 3-6 weeks. Which is fine. I'm just overly anxious to get this all over with, so I'd be very happy with three weeks. :)

[kimberllee]

I had surgery for stage 2 papillary thyroid cancer on July 8th and had rai done exactly one week ago as of tomorrow. Personally, my tsh had to be over 30. Additionally, I had to be on the RAI diet for 16 days, and off Cytomel for 14 days. My tsh was pushing 70 a whole week before ablation.

[webster2]

Hi Kimberlee!

I hope you are feeling well. Glad you checked in, I was wondering how you are.