Medical Mistake

I was referred for a thyroid scan due to an enlarged thyroid. Not a big deal, something that is relatively common, right? Except, my doctor forgot to note that I am breastfeeding my son, 9 months old. And the clinic personnel didn't ask. And I, unforgivably, did not think to look up the potential side effects of radioactive iodine on breastmilk until AFTER I had taken the d#$n pills! And guess what??? It's concentrated in breastmilk!!!

I was extremely upset after reading this (naturally), and a flurry of phone calls ensued between me and my doctor's office. First they said to pump and dump for 48 hours. Then they said they spoke to the chief radiologist and it wasn't really necessary to pump and dump, the percentages that were expressed in breastmilk were so small, but to be conservative I could pump and dump for 24 hours. And then they called my pediatrician for me and she recommended pumping and dumping for 24 hours.

What followed that evening can only be described as sheer hell, as I listened to my son wailing non-stop for me, then escalate to screaming non-stop for over an hour, even with my husband holding him. AND I COULDN'T NURSE HIM. I just really cannot express in words the sheer hellishness of knowing your child is crying FOR YOU and you can't give him what he needs. We gave him milk that I had frozen (fortunately, as with no warning I hadn't had a chance to prepare a stash of stored milk) but he just needed the comfort of nursing. I ended up nursing him 16+ hours after taking the I¹²³, because I figured out that he would not be getting much at that point, based on some journal articles I found online. (Thank God for my degree!)

My son tossed and turned all night, woke repeatedly crying, and in general was inconsolable until I was finally able to nurse him. Then all was well with his world again.

What is really p!ssing me off about this whole thing is that after researching this online, I find that post-partum thyroiditis is common and can last up to 18 months postpartum! Eighteen months!! So I didn't even need to have this test! It could have waited until my son was weaned! They could have just checked my TSH levels in my blood occasionally and if it was still present at 18 months postpartum, THEN we could have gone down this road. So my son and I went through this for no good reason!

And, I am really pissed off that there was no standard information sheet given to me about this radioactive iodine, nor was I required to sign any permission form, nothing that might have said, "Tell your doctor if you are pregnant or breastfeeding." Heck, my doctor KNEW I was breastfeeding, and still sent me for this test (a mistake!). And the technician administering the test didn't even ask if I was pregnant! Not one check before I could have been giving my kid potentially damaging doses of radioactivity straight to his tiny thyroid gland. Thank the Lord I looked it up, because I then knew the seriousness and that if I had nursed him 6 hours after taking it, he would have gotten a significant dose of radiation! Come on!

I am going to be following up on this with the clinic and my doctor. They assured me they will be changing all their literature to ensure it doesn't happen again, but my point is, what literature? I wasn't given anything, I was not asked to sign anything. So they really need to do some serious retraining, because someone else could have done this and then gone home and merrily dosed their little baby up with radioactive iodine. What if it was a smaller baby, or a relative newborn, or a baby with some immune-compromising disorder? I mean, COME ON PEOPLE!!! I don't intend to sue them, but there had better be more that comes out of this than some rapid heinie-covering behavior with me on the phone and absolutely zero follow up the next day. They were supposed to call a lactation consultant and get back to me with her advice, too, but I haven't heard a d@mn thing back about that. Hello?

As you can tell, I am still very upset about the whole thing. For something so important to be missing, well, that's a huge problem. I just don't want anyone else to have to go through this, and I don't want some little baby to be exposed to something when it's so easily prevented. And I don't like knowing I was sent for a test that I probably didn't need to have right now, which caused such excruciating pain for me and my son. I pumped ELEVEN OUNCES of breastmilk from one side within an hour that night, and I STILL had a hard spot and some symptoms of mastitis that night. I was not happy. I'm still not happy. I'd better see some real changes and concern from this clinic, or I'm going to be talking to the director.