Sharon,
Frequent showers are encouraged. Tea, however, is banned on the low iodine diet, as is instant coffee. Certain herbal teas, like peppermint for example, are very high in iodine.
The next step is a whole body scan on Sept. 23, one week from today, at which point my low iodine diet will end after 24 days. The purpose of this scan is to determine if there are any remaining thyroid cells in my body (cancerous or otherwise), and if so, their location. Thyroid cells "suck" up the radioactive iodine because they have been starved of it, and are killed by the radiation over the course of months. However, in one week, any such remaining cells will "glow" on the whole body scan, and tell the radiologist (and my endocrinologist) the location and extent of any such remaining cells. My endo Doc told me that if all they see is "normal neck uptake", or a few glowing cells where my thyroid used to be, my prognosis is excellent. If on the other hand they see a glowing spot in my lung or my bones or elsewhere, there will likely be a followup scan and surveillance to determine whether this round of radiation killed it. In most cases, the radioactive iodine is only given once. So those are the next steps.