Move to Georgia....1st Emory Visit

The day of my post op visit I moved down to Georgia to start my new job. My dad and I packed up the car and we’re on our way for our 13+hour journey. My wiener dog, Cheerio, was along for the ride as well.

We were going to try and push thru the long ride but realized we would not be able to do anything or move anything in if we did not get some rest along the way. Just outside of Atlanta we stopped and got a few hours rest in a motel.

We arrived in Columbus, Georgia around 9am, perfect timing to move into my new place. Thankfully, I had helpful neighbors because I was not allowed to lift anything heavy for another few days. We got all settled in and I was able to rest for a while.

I started to feel a lot better, just tired. I think the new excitement of moving to a new place and starting a new job, helped me mentally conquer some of the affects I was having.

As the days went by, my mom got on me about finding a doctor down here. It was frustrating trying to find a doctor because I needed someone that specialized in thyroid cancer. I found plenty of endocrinologist but not many that specialized in thyroid cancer. When I did find a physician, she was located at Emory Clinic, which is 2 hours from Columbus.

I called Emory and could not get an appointment for over a month! I don’t understand why it takes so long to get appointments in the south.

As the month went on, I grew more and more frustrated. I was constantly tired and would revolve my life around sleeping. My typical day would be:

8am – Wake Up

8:30-9:30 – Crossfit

10:00 – 1:00 – Sleep

1:00 – 2:30 – Lunch and getting ready for work

3:00 – 7:00 – Work

7:30 – 8:00 – Dinner

8:00 – 9:00 – Sleep

9:00-10:00 – Homework

10:00 – Bedtime

My life was miserable and I didn’t have family or close friends around to help me. I did have one friend that helped me out tremendously, Liv Duncan. I met Liv last year; she was an athlete at Newberry College. Liv lives down here with her husband who is stationed at Fort Benning. Liv would do anything for me and helped me get through some of the rough times I’ve had here in Columbus.

The month finally past and it was time to make the trip up to Emory. Liv came with me as my support system. We tried to make it a day of fun. We planned to have lunch with one of my college friends, go shopping, and make a trip to the indoor trampoline park, Sky Zone.

After having lunch with Sabrina, we headed to Emory. The doctor was friendly but I didn’t feel as great of a connection with her as I did with Dr. Shin. She told me that I would need to have a radioactive iodine treatment (RAI) and that I would have to go on a low iodine diet and stop my snythyroid before I would be able to take the pill. She told me I would get a call from nuclear medicine. She didn’t give me a time frame just that they would call me.

That’s about all the information she gave me. I left will very few answers and I felt frustrated and upset. Stopping my synthroid would make me even more tired then I was already experiencing. I couldn’t imagine sleeping anymore then I already was.

I waited and waited for a phone call from nuclear medicine. I must have called at least twice a week. Finally, after about two and half weeks they called me with an appointment time. They told me they would be sending me more information about the specifics of what I needed to do regarding the low iodine diet and stopping my synthroid.

I got the information in the mail and read over it. The low iodine sounded so horrible! I wasn’t allowed to have anything with salt, no dairy, no eggs, no seafood, no bread, and no chocolate and that was just to name a few. I was lost. What was I going to eat? I went on to the thyca website and found a cookbook that had a ton of recipes.

I decide I would get all the ingredients that I would need and make all my meals on Sunday’s.  The first week of the low iodine started and I made my meals on that Sunday for the week. Some of the meals were not bad but most of them were bland.

For the first week, I did great with sticking to the diet. When the next Sunday came around, I had absolutely no energy to do anything. I was sleeping more and more each day. I still had 2 more weeks of this stupid diet!

I stopped eating. I had no energy to prepare anything and any foods that I could prepare fast and easy, I couldn’t eat because almost everything contained iodine. It was so frustrating! I broke down and cried several times during the last 2 weeks.

I became very cold being off my snythyroid and being hypo. It was awful. I slept with several blankets and a winter hat because I was so cold. I felt so alone at this time. 

On the last week before radiation, I went to the store on Sunday and could not remember why I was there. When I finally got home, I couldn’t even take Cheerio outside or bring my groceries in. I had to call my friend to help me out. It was rough.

I was having a hard time trusting God. I was so miserable!