All Clear! (well kind of…)

I had a busy day with 2 doctor appointments! Grandpa was my chauffer to the first and mom drove me to the second.

First one was with the dentist to get my new retainer. His assistant saw my stitches and steri-strips and asked what happened to my neck (I had a diamond necklace surgically implanted so no one could steal it). My dentist knows what has been going on and he asked how I was doing and what the results were. I said I didn’t know yet but I was getting my results (hopefully) and my stitches taken out in the afternoon. Then he graciously offered to take my stitches out and I told him no way, I still wanted to like him after the appointment!

Then I had lunch with Grandpa and mom at Russ’ where they did the handoff. Then mom and I headed up to the Surgeon’s office to get my stitches pulled out and to hear the results of my pathology. He came into the room and immediately said that my right lobe and lymph node were all clear of cancer! YAY! I was still digesting this news as he pulled out the stitch. Then he did some reflex tests because of my calcium issues and gave me lab slips to check my calcium (today) and my TSH (next week). I’m still on the Tums but he did mention tapering the dose if this test comes back good!

Future plan: I'm still having the RAI because of the tumor on the left lobe - we still don’t know if it spread on that side to lymph nodes, etc. I will have a whole body scan with a tracer dose of RAI and whatever that shows determines the dosage for the real RAI. After I get the real deal RAI I will get another super sensitive whole body scan – this one will tell us if even a tiny amount of cancer went anywhere else, and the real deal RAI will kill it.

So its now a waiting game until my TSH levels go above the 30’s. (I’m starting from 0.34), at which time we can schedule the first scan and appointment with nuclear medicine (the thyroid cancer version of chemo/radiation).

	Z scar & swelling 3 days after surgery
scar & swelling 1 week after surgery with stitches removed a

Pancakes Make Everything Better

My mom and I went to my big doctor's appointment today.

For those of you out of the loop a bit - it was my first appointment since finding out I have cancer and the appointment at which we would discuss further actions.

In the nearly 3 weeks since getting my diagnosis by phone call, I have been researching thyroid cancer and in the week since I got copies of my path reports, i've been researching my specific type of thyroid cancer. So I walked in with my notebook of information and my list of 20 or so questions to ask. The doctor started out by telling us his thoughts and assesment on things and then let me ask my questions...

The biggest question I had was "what size was my tumor?" The path report does not mention a size which is slightly odd [but all of this has been] and so he called the pathologist who was miraculously on duty right before the holiday. She said they couldn't define a size really - I could have had cancer first and a cyst grew around it which spread the cells out or the cyst grew first and the cancer cells developed all over the lining. Either way she didn't think if you put all the cancerous cells together that it would be much more than 1/2cm. He asked her if she thought they got it all and what she would do if it was her body they were talking about and she said "I would want the rest of the thyroid out."

He then said to us that yes, with me being 30 and having a very long time for a chance of any remaining cancer cells growing and spreading that he thinks taking the other half out was a good idea but the decision was ultimately up to me. With everything I've read [estimated 80% have cancer in both lobes of the thyroid], I knew going into the appointment that I wanted to do everything to get it all out.

I need 3-6mos to heal from my prior surgery so we are looking at early September for the thyroidectomy completion. Four weeks after that I will have a whole body scan with a small amount of radioactive iodine to check for remaining thyroid cells in my body. And a few weeks after that we are planning on a large dose of radioactive iodine to kill off any remaining thyroid cells. I will have to be in "isolation" for a week because I will be radioactive and will leave traces of radiation on whatever I touch. Isolation means total isolation for 24-48hrs where no one is allowed in the room, then pretty much total isolation for about a week to ten days after that with minimal contact with adults and still no contact with children. Well I have 2 cats and have heard horror stories of pets getting radiation poisoning from their owners so i'm considering a hotel for the week if i can scrounge up the money! After that I will need blood tests and scans periodically to check for recurrence. Starting tomorrow I will be on thyroid hormone medication for the rest of my life to supress recurrence and keep my body functioning.

If all goes well, by Christmas of this year I should be able to say that I'm "cured". [correction: in remission, "cured" means no trace of the disease for 5yrs]

After all that news, mom and I went out for pancakes.