My Thyroid
I sent out this as an email to my friends & Lee's friends, to let everyone know what is going on with me. Here it is if you are interested too.
Dear Friends & Family,
As most of you already know (or may have heard rumor of), last week I had my thyroid removed because of a 2.5cm nodule that was discovered upon a routine physical exam. The pathology report confirmed that it was a papillary carcinoma that had grown beyond the confines of my thyroid. The surgical team removed as many of the cancer cells as they could from the surface of my trachea and surrounding area. As far as the surgery itself, they did a good job and I am recovering well - a little over a week later and the incision site is almost healed.
In the past few weeks I have learned as much as I could about thyroid cancer (because that is what I do), and I have confirmed my doctor's comments, that papillary thyroid cancer is a "good" cancer to have...with a big IF, and that is, IF you have to have any cancer to begin with! Even with the spread beyond the thyroid, my cancer is only considered "stage 2", and based on my research, the rate of patients being disease-free 10 years after treatment is 76% (and overall survival rates are >99%).
However, having my thyroid removed was only half the required treatment - and in some ways, that was the 'easy' part. The second step is radioactive iodine ablation (RAI) of any remaining thyroid cells (including the cancerous ones outside my thyroid that the surgeons might have missed). While much, much easier to go through than chemo, as RAI is very specific and mostly affects only thyroid tissue, the treatment does have some complications. First, I have to be off of replacement thyroid hormones for 3-5 weeks while my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels rise sufficiently (so that any remaining thyroid tissue is more likely to take up the iodine). At some point during this time, I can expect to start feeling the symptoms of hypothyroidism - fatigue, brain fog, being cold, and who knows what else. It takes some time for thyroid hormone (T4) to leave the body, so it could be 1-2 weeks or more until this happens (I vote for longer!), but it differs from person to person, so it is hard to predict.
Two weeks before the RAI, I will be starting a low-iodine diet, which affects me greatly, Lee a little bit (in that I probably won't be doing a lot of cooking for the two of us), and the rest of you very little - but it does mean that I won't be meeting you out for dinner, and if there is a get-together that I can make it to, I'll have to bring my own snacks. Did you know that iodine is in so much more than just iodized salt? (No dairy, no soy, nothing where I am not 100% certain that the salt used to make it was non-iodized - aka nothing with salt added that I didn't make myself). At least I like cooking :-)
Finally, when the time comes, I will be given a pill containing some amount of radioactive iodine, and I will be in 'isolation' for about a week afterwards... The first two days are strict isolation and after that I will be able to return to work, but will stay in our guest room and should stay ~6 feet away from other people for at least a week. I am hoping to make Jenny's shower but might miss out on Elise's birthday depending on the scheduling of the treatment - if I have received the RAI I will not come, because I don't want to put anyone at risk, especially the little ones. The RAI leaves the body fairly quickly, so after a couple of weeks I won't be radioactive anymore :-) (The most conservative estimates say to wait 8 days before being around children).
The side effects of RAI vary and for most people are mild, but it can cause damage to the salivary glands and some people report losing a sense of taste - that would just be sad, since the 2nd day after treatment I will finally be allowed to eat real food again!
Lee and I are so far doing okay taking in all of this news and handling it. He has been incredibly supportive, and I hope he can put up with me as I remain relatively useless around the house :-). As a final note, all of this will be delaying our plans for children until at least early next winter.
-Theresa
Dear Friends & Family,
As most of you already know (or may have heard rumor of), last week I had my thyroid removed because of a 2.5cm nodule that was discovered upon a routine physical exam. The pathology report confirmed that it was a papillary carcinoma that had grown beyond the confines of my thyroid. The surgical team removed as many of the cancer cells as they could from the surface of my trachea and surrounding area. As far as the surgery itself, they did a good job and I am recovering well - a little over a week later and the incision site is almost healed.
In the past few weeks I have learned as much as I could about thyroid cancer (because that is what I do), and I have confirmed my doctor's comments, that papillary thyroid cancer is a "good" cancer to have...with a big IF, and that is, IF you have to have any cancer to begin with! Even with the spread beyond the thyroid, my cancer is only considered "stage 2", and based on my research, the rate of patients being disease-free 10 years after treatment is 76% (and overall survival rates are >99%).
However, having my thyroid removed was only half the required treatment - and in some ways, that was the 'easy' part. The second step is radioactive iodine ablation (RAI) of any remaining thyroid cells (including the cancerous ones outside my thyroid that the surgeons might have missed). While much, much easier to go through than chemo, as RAI is very specific and mostly affects only thyroid tissue, the treatment does have some complications. First, I have to be off of replacement thyroid hormones for 3-5 weeks while my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels rise sufficiently (so that any remaining thyroid tissue is more likely to take up the iodine). At some point during this time, I can expect to start feeling the symptoms of hypothyroidism - fatigue, brain fog, being cold, and who knows what else. It takes some time for thyroid hormone (T4) to leave the body, so it could be 1-2 weeks or more until this happens (I vote for longer!), but it differs from person to person, so it is hard to predict.
Two weeks before the RAI, I will be starting a low-iodine diet, which affects me greatly, Lee a little bit (in that I probably won't be doing a lot of cooking for the two of us), and the rest of you very little - but it does mean that I won't be meeting you out for dinner, and if there is a get-together that I can make it to, I'll have to bring my own snacks. Did you know that iodine is in so much more than just iodized salt? (No dairy, no soy, nothing where I am not 100% certain that the salt used to make it was non-iodized - aka nothing with salt added that I didn't make myself). At least I like cooking :-)
Finally, when the time comes, I will be given a pill containing some amount of radioactive iodine, and I will be in 'isolation' for about a week afterwards... The first two days are strict isolation and after that I will be able to return to work, but will stay in our guest room and should stay ~6 feet away from other people for at least a week. I am hoping to make Jenny's shower but might miss out on Elise's birthday depending on the scheduling of the treatment - if I have received the RAI I will not come, because I don't want to put anyone at risk, especially the little ones. The RAI leaves the body fairly quickly, so after a couple of weeks I won't be radioactive anymore :-) (The most conservative estimates say to wait 8 days before being around children).
The side effects of RAI vary and for most people are mild, but it can cause damage to the salivary glands and some people report losing a sense of taste - that would just be sad, since the 2nd day after treatment I will finally be allowed to eat real food again!
Lee and I are so far doing okay taking in all of this news and handling it. He has been incredibly supportive, and I hope he can put up with me as I remain relatively useless around the house :-). As a final note, all of this will be delaying our plans for children until at least early next winter.
-Theresa