Post surgery endo appointment

On October 25, 2016 I had my post-surgery appointment with my endocrinologist. She discussed with me that there was spreading of the cancer outside of the thyroid and I would be required to have a Radioactive Iodine (RAI) treatment. She gave me two handouts on a Low Iodine Diet (LID) that I would be required to be on before the RAI.  It was very restrictive. Lean proteins, fruits, veggies, beans, and grains. Nothing from the sea, no dairy, soy, lunch meats, packaged foods, potato skins, or chocolate.

Four days out of surgery:

Two weeks out of surgery:

Three weeks out of surgery:

A few things happened in November and December in my family that was totally unrelated to my cancer. The big one was that my mom found out she had Stage 4 cancer and passed away in early December.

One of her friends sent me a message around the time of her death and I found out that she also has thyroid cancer was getting ready to go through her RAI around Christmas. She led to me to a group on Facebook that had ideas for LID recipes and that group led me to LID Life Community. There's a Facebook group as well as a website. They have contacted manufacturers regarding the kind of salt used in their products (plain vs iodized salt) and if they have responded with plain and the food doesn't have any other of the banned ingredients (soy, dairy, etc), then it is deemed safe to have while on the LID. Even some restaurants are on the site and that make me happy since two of my favorites are deemed safe.