****OLD THREAD ALERT****
Just wanted to update and let everyone know that we dropped my kitty off to have his iodine treatment Monday Jan 13 and we picked him up early Friday morning later that week. One of the techs at the specialty vet called me with updates about kitty every day and I could ask questions about how he was doing. Everything went as expected but boy was kitty happy/ready to go home when they brought him out to me on the Friday we picked him up, i.e. he was very vocal the whole ride home and didn't even get car sick like he usually does. He's used to A LOT of attention and the most the vet techs could really do is pet him with a long back scratcher thing since they can't get close to the animals so soon after the radioactive treatment.
Kitty settled right back in at home although was not thrilled about being locked out of my bedroom at night and not being allowed to cuddle with me on the couch, but we somehow managed for the 2-week period following his return home to have very limited close contact.
Kitty had his first round of followup bloodwork at the regular vet on Feb 14 and his thyroid levels are now in the normal range.
Kitty started a potassium supplement gel (that I mix with his wet food) a couple weeks before the iodine treatment based on his pre-treatment bloodwork results because I guess his potassium was a teensy bit lower than they wanted prior to iodine treatment. The regular vet is having me continue the potassium supplement a little bit longer.
I'll have to take him back to the regular vet for followup bloodwork again at the 3-month, 6-month and then 1-year mark I guess, but so far, so good.
In the month since his treatment, kitty has put back on a little weight (less than half a pound) so is back looking about normal again and has drastically reduced pulling out his fur/excessively grooming so no more thin patches of hair on his back and no more throwing up giant fur balls or leaving little clumps of pulled out hair around the house. Also, he used to throw up about once a week even though the vet has him on a special diet for food allergies. Since his treatment, he's only thrown up once and it was during his first week back.
Just wanted to update everyone who shared their thoughts on this thread originally. Also, I should probably mention that not every cat is a good candidate for this treatment. Cats with any kind of kidney issues for example I don't think are considered good candidates for iodine treatment, and the specialty vet required bloodwork, thyroid labs, urine tests, and chest x-rays to be done in the month before the iodine treatment so the specialty vet radiologist could review the results and approve kitty as a good/safe candidate. All that pre-treatment testing though was done at the regular vet in one appointment.
Hopefully kitty's labs will continue to look normal and he's with me for many years to come.