Side effects of radio-iodine

The iodine goes to the remnant thyroid cells, any cancer cells that have spread around your body and to a few places you don't want it to go to, including the salivary glands.

It's a week since I had the RAI and I have had a sore neck, sore ears, and I have felt generally fluey since about day 4. I thought this was just due to swelling around the site of the thyroid operation, and the remains of the thyroid cells.  Yesterday  I had a whole body scan in the nuclear medicine department and was told that there is still radioactive iodine sitting in my salivary glands and that I should chew gum to get them to empty out. The swelling under my jaw, is swelling of the salivary glands, when I sucked on some sour sweets, it felt much better.

I chewed so much gum I gave myself a headache and an upset stomach from all the sugar free sweetners. I tend to be a bit sensitive to Xylitol, Mannitol, Sorbitol. I'd much prefer to eat sugar, but now my mouth is feeling a bit dry, so I know I am at risk of having problems with tooth decay if my salivary glands don't recover.

So on day 9 after  RAI, I have sore glands, and my mouth is a bit drier , particularly in the mornings and if I haven't drunk water for a while. I'm  looking at resources on dealing with salivary gland issues. Here is information about salivary gland massage if that becomes necessary. http://www.sjogrens.org/files/brochures/Salivary_Glands_Massage.pdf

Other side effects were , feeling mildly nauseous for 3-4 days after the radio iodine dose. This was worse if I hadn't eaten for a long time, so was worse in the mornings before breakfast.

A very sore swollen neck, which is probably a good thing, as it means the radio iodine is doing its job and has collected in the area where the thyroid remnant cells are.

Many of the other symptoms of tiredness, digestive issues, dry eyes, absent minded ness, are symptoms of hypothyroidism, and should improve as my TSH level goes down and my thyroxine level goes up.