Diets and Crazy Me

~Posted by Ang

In preparation for my radioactive iodine treatment in a few weeks, I have to go on a low-iodine diet, beginning tomorrow. This is trickier than it sounds. It's not a "no-iodine" diet or a "no sodium" diet. It's a low iodine diet. Which is...?!? Basically, I have to limit dairy (no more than a cup a day, this including yogurt, ice cream, and chocolate--ouch!), abstain from anything with iodized salt (which means no canned, pre-marinated, or packaged foods); and eat only fresh, non-pre-packaged breads (actually, I'm excited about this one!) and fresh deli meats (except for ham). I could go on, but you get the idea.

In addition to purging my diet of iodine, I'll also be going off my thyroid medication until after the treatment, medication which for the past week and a half has made me feel SO GOOD and almost NORMAL again!! Ah well. Feeling normal really isn't all it's cracked up to be anyway. In order for the treatment to be effective, my thyroid hormone has to be pretty much nil. Some have labeled this brief period of time as entering "hypo-h[eck]" because that's pretty much the way it makes you feel: terrible! So a heads-up for those of you who may be around me over the next few weeks: if I act/look/talk like I'm chemically unbalanced...well, it's because I AM!! ;-) In all seriousness, though, Danny and I have resolved that we can do this for at least 2 weeks --I WILL be happy! I'm praying and trusting that God's Spirit will overcome my frail flesh for His glory and for the sake of my husband and children!

So to prepare for the low-iodine, low-thyroid-hormone scenario that begins tomorrow, I'm doing two things: making a lovely Wegmans trip and gathering as many laughter-inducing materials as I can find. Some might say having young children during this time is a disadvantage, but I disagree: they provide that very necessary laughter-inducing material every day!

As do their books...there is, in fact, a humorous little poem in one of our anthologies that ties in perfectly to my dieting over the next few weeks. If I can just think this way, maybe I won't mind so much not being able to eat all the high-iodine, salty goodness that is really, when you think about it, the mainstay of my diet. And here for your reading enjoyment (I hope ;-) ), is...

What You Don't Know About Food
by Florence Parry Heide
[from The 20th Century Children's Poetry Treasury]

Jelly's made from jellyfish.
Spaghetti's really worms.
Ice cream's just some dirty snow
mixed up with grimy germs.
Bread is made of glue and paste.
So are cakes and pies.
Peanut butter's filled with stuff
like squashed-up lizard eyes.
And as you eat potato chips,
remember all the while--
they're slices of the dried-up brain
of some old crocodile.