When school started, I had a minor thyroid flare. I thought it was going to be a fairly significant flare, but it wasn't. I believe because I am now taking only Tirosint, which is hypoallergenic, that my flares will be less significant than they used to be. That's very good news.
I recovered from the start-of-school flare pretty quickly and was feeling good about everything at the beginning of this month. I had a routine health screening on September 5 that involved radiation. As always, I asked for a thyroid shield. The technician stopped dead in her tracks and seemed like she had a problem with the request. She then asked if I knew who Dr. Oz was and mentioned how he had convinced people to use a thyroid shield when it isn't necessary.I told her that I have thyroid disease and that when I didn't use a thyroid shield in 2016 that it shut my thyroid down for two months and that I was deathly ill. (Deathly ill is not an exaggeration. I was sicker than I've ever been in those two months. It was absolutely awful.) She put the thyroid shield on me and remarked that everyone is different.
I realize that the thyroid shield is annoying to these technicians, but some of us need one. For me, it's not a frivolous request. I shouldn't have to explain why. I am very nervous when I am exposed to radiation even with the thyroid shield on. I was that sick in the fall of 2016.
I believe that some of the radiation still gets into my thyroid even with the thyroid shield. After I typed my previous sentence, I checked via an online search. The shield does not block all of the radiation. It does reduce the exposure by up to 50% and reduces the dose by 2.5 times. This means that my thyroid did get exposed to radiation on September 5, just at a lower dose than it would have without the shield.
This is why I felt a noticeable thyroid flare from September 6 through September 23. On September 24 (Sunday), I suddenly felt like I was getting back to normal (normal for me). I was also able to resume working through my books on LibraryThing since my motivation suddenly returned.
Back in early June, I started thinking about the Covid vaccine and what to do. I got Covid on July 14, 2022, and received the bivalent booster on September 23, 2022. At that time, the recommendation was to wait around two months after having Covid to get the vaccine. I now believe that I got the booster too soon, which is why I ended up with nearly unbearable hives beginning just a few days after getting the booster. The hives lasted for several months. My medication has been changed five times in the last year because of Covid and the bivalent vaccine.
The recommendation now is to wait to vaccinate until three months after having had Covid. To my knowledge, I haven't had Covid since July 2022. My concern, rather, was how the vaccine would affect me since I have been negatively impacted to some degree by every dose of Moderna. Each time, my thyroid has taken a hit, and I have had at least a minor thyroid flare. What happened last year with the vaccine was my second-worst thyroid flare ever, second only to the radiation-induced flare of 2016.
In early June, I felt very nervous about getting another shot and wasn't sure what to do. As the summer progressed, I decided that my desire not to get Covid again far outweighed my desire to avoid another vaccine-induced thyroid flare. I got the updated Moderna shot on Friday, September 22.
I found that I didn't feel that great Friday evening through Sunday. I'm better this week. I have some mild hives, but some of that may be lingering symptoms from the radiation-induced flare.
