About my new diagnosis of "Persistant Metastatic Thyroid Cancer". Here it is in a nutshell. Both scans yesterday showed no obvious tumors-YEAH. But my labwork tells the Dr that I definitely have something growing (slowly she thinks) in a lymph node somewhere in my body-BOO. Lymph nodes are very good at hiding and she feels this one is less than peanut size, probably hiding behind a dense bone or something! She decided not to do a treatment because of the cummulative side effects of too much radioactive iodine and the fact that they would have no way of knowing, by looking at scans afterward, if the treatment worked or not. In my lifetime, I can only have so much radioactive iodine and in my Drs opinion, she feels it is in my best interest to spread the treatment courses out as much as possible to give me the longest time of coverage that she can. It was relief and a little sadness at the same time...My new normal!
So Shelby and I picked ourselves up, enjoying the fact that my low iodine diet was done and went to Red Lobster to celebrate today! Tasted so good and I was very relieved that I did not have to have a treatment right now. The side effects are very daunting (remember the loss of taste for a couple of months?)
Shelby's brother Benny and girlfriend Erica were at the house when we got home, and the rest of the crew was still hungry, so I rested a little while and then we took the kids out for a late dinner at our neighborhood bar and grill. The kids were really happy that they did not have to move out of the house for 3 days...
I am restarting my thyroid medications and the plan is to watch that level even more closely over the next 6 months as it will help the Dr know if things are changing. She plans to recheck the cancer level for sure in 6 months and redo the PET scan if the lab has changed at all at that time.
Whew!
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