A few weeks ago I took the cat, Mittens, I've had since I was about seven to the vet and found out that he had an enlarged thyroid. That meant that his metabolism was way faster than it was supposed to be. We had a few choices: give pills twice a day for the rest of his life with frequent vet check ups, surgery with the high chance that the thyroid problems come back, and radiation therapy with gamma rays and a two week long recovery period to make sure his pee isn't radioactive (but it shrinks the thyroid and has low chances of coming back).

Well, those few who know my cat know that he's very picky about what he eats. He'll eat one type of tuna, but not another type. It's the same with cat treats. So, pills would probably be out of the question if they were larger than 1/4 of an aspirin pill. Mittens also seems to have some sort of... acid reflux disease (which is actually a symptom of the thyroid enlargement). He's been throwing up since forever because of hairballs, but I've been brushing him four times a day (he loves being brushed) and he still throws up for one week straight out of the month.

Anyway, we (my parents and I) have decided that the best course of action would be to do the radiation therapy. Although he still has to have the ultrasound to make sure that his heart and other organs are good enough for the therapy.

Basically, when he goes to the vet somewhere about four hours away from my hometown, the vet will give him an iodine pill that will effect and shrink the thyroid. They keep him there for up to two weeks depending on how radioactive his pee is during that time. They'll give us daily updates on how he's doing.
However, I still worry about him. He's never been with strangers for long periods of time, and he's never been in a kennel.

The room the cats stay in is 30" long and ?" (the vet didn't say) wide with litterbox, bed, food and water. The helpers and vets go in to give them attention every day, but my cat has never been real social. He runs and hides whenever the house is filled with more than six people he doesn't know well. I'm sure a lot of cats do that, though.

Anyway, I just worry about Mittens because he's 16 now and that's about 80 in cat years. I think him being gone for two weeks will be more worrisome to me and my parents than it will be stressful for the cat.

I can only hope that everything goes well with the therapy.