You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!

Four years.  Four years.

It’s been exactly four years since I took my I-131 radioactive iodine treatment for my papillary thyroid cancer. My oh my, how my life has changed since then!

I’d like to say I haven’t given cancer another thought since that day, but truth is, I think about it every day. Every morning I wake up and take my thyroid replacement pill first thing and wait an hour before eating or drinking anything that might affect the absorption.  During my pregnancy my daily dose was changed 5 times to meet the increasing demands from my body and from Maddie. Since her birth 2 months ago, my dose has been changed twice as my body readjusts to my “new normal.” Without this one little daily pill, I would slowly go more and more hypothyroid and eventually my mind and body would shut down.  I would be so screwed in a zombie apocalypse scenario.

I have just one more year until I can say I’ve been cancer free for the magical five years = cured mark.  In this upcoming year, I have plans to undergo a whole body scan once my daughter is weaned.  Once again I will have to go hypo on purpose.  Once again I will have to take some RAI and go into isolation for a short time – this time from my husband and daughter – to protect them from my radioactive self.  Hopefully this time nothing shows up on the scan in my thyroid bed or in my lungs.

If I think on it too long, it terrifies me. So I try not to let my mind go there.  I have a long life ahead of me – including seeing my great-grandkids grow up – and I'm positive there are many adventures awaiting me!

One Advantage

Hearing all the reports of the radiation worries in Japan lately makes my heart go out to the people there.  The country is already devastated from the damage caused by the earthquake on March 11.  Now those poor people have to worry about their water and food and even the air…

I’ve been reading the news reports and thinking how bizarre it is that the radiation that is causing all the hubbub is the very same stuff that I had to ingest in quite a large and concentrated quantity just 17 months ago.  The very same radioactive isotope used as the treatment for thyroid cancer also causes thyroid cancer. 

I have first hand knowledge of what can happen if you ingest this isotope in high doses. I won’t recount all the dirty details of just exactly what did happen in this post but if you are interested you can read about it here, here, or here. 

After going through all of that and having every last thyroid cell radioactively burned out of my body, its nice to know that there is at least one thing I won’t have to worry about should a nuclear disaster happen nearby.

World Cancer Day

Every year 12 million people receive a cancer diagnosis.  Of those, 7.6 million will die of their disease. 

I am one of 12 million who heard those words in 2009.    It’s amazing how isolated you feel when you hear those words yet there are 12 million others that have heard the same thing within that year. 

Reading the statistics above, I feel extra lucky today that I am a survivor.  Did you do the math?  Those numbers mean that over 60% who have cancer die of cancer. But it is estimated that 30-40% of those deaths could be prevented and as many as one third could be cured through early diagnosis and treatment.

It’s time for us to fight this global epidemic. Click on the logo above and sign the declaration urging our global leaders to come to action.

A cancer patient will thank you.  I thank you.

Isolation Station

This is my new slogan for the week… or really pretty much since surgery over a month ago… Staying In is the new Going Out. Yes, I have the t-shirt thank you very much.

Today I happen to be feeling much better for the first time since last Wednesday. Not feeling normal yet, but I hardly remember what normal feels like so I'm just happy to not be fighting nausea for 98% of the day! Yesterday I started back up on my thyroid meds and even though it will take about 2 weeks for my TSH to start dropping into a more acceptable range I'm so glad that I'm finally on the way there.

I’ve had some questions about where I'm staying during my isolation period so I'll tell you I'm in an extended stay type hotel with a mini kitchen area and such. No maid service to radiate, brought my own pillows & comforter & towels & food… trying to keep the kitties and the hotel staff safe from my radioactive waves. For those of you who find this radiation thing to be a little far fetched, I'll give you the snapshot of my homeland security card – the one that will get me out of interrogation at the airport when I set of their radiation detectors for the next months. I was told to have this card on me at all times as it gives details about my treatment and contact numbers for verification. Anywho, back to the isolation room… Here are some more shots for your enjoyment.

You can see I was was watching an ANTM marathon on my hotel TV which is sitting next to my own personal TV. Odd I know, but with no TLC, Lifetime, A&E, 5 Discovery Channels, my DVR… I decided I needed my DVD player which wouldn’t hook up to the ancient hotel TV. So my wonderful parents brought me a TV that would work! I’ve also had a couple flower deliveries since “moving in” that have helped brighten the days.

So I guess that’s about all I have for today! For those curious what I ate as my first meal – it was the BK followed by dinner of grilled chicken and mashed potatoes from KFC. Since then I've had pizza, salsa from the Dungeon, toast with butter, Dutch cream curls, and ramen noodles. I know it sounds super nutritious but I've only been concerned with what will stay down. When I get back home is when I will actually start eating more normally in part because I will have my pantry, fridge, freezer, pots/pans, oven… Oh and I can’t wait until I can get my hands on some popcorn at the movies! I have missed that salty, buttery goodness…sigh… Oh and actually going out to see a movie would be nice too!