Thyroid cancer in the news

I was reading on the internet this evening that President Cristina Fernandez, of Argentina, was recently diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and will undergo surgery next month. I also learned that the first drugs to treat Medullary thyroid cancer, two kinase inhibitors, have been approved. So amid all the people that are being diagnosed with thyroid cancer this year, medical break-throughs are still happening.

I still feel very lucky to have had a clean 1-yr WBS and undetectable stimulated Tg/TgAB. I still worry about it every time I miss my daily Levoxyl or afternoon T3 - How much am I exposing myself to elevated TSH? What if there are any cancer cells that are still roaming around in my blood stream that have had the opportunity to 'wake up' and grow every time I have missed one of my pills? I know, I need to stop worrying, and just make sure to take my pills on time.

Neice's college graduation. I feel old.

The problem w driving overnight is when to take my meds in the AM. To stay awake, I drink coffee and eat constantly, so no empty stomach.

Endo says...my levels are good, but I am not feeling so good. Depression? Labs/ultrasound before next appt, in April. Referred to eye doc.

Blood work from last week: TSH .03 / Free T4 1.0

.03 is better than <0.01, which means I am not as supressed as I have been.

How does my neck look? 12/4/11

I have an ENDO appt this Thursday. Went for a blood draw this past Thursday afternoon. I'll check tomorrow if my ENDO posted my levels or not. Not sure where they will fall since I have missed at least one afternoon T3 dose for the past three or four months. Still worried about how that affects my levels, knowing that missing that one dose means missing 30% of my suppression for that day. I thought he said he wanted another ultrasound, since the first one post surgery and RAI was 'abnormal', just can't remember if that was before or after my appt this week.    

I have not had that tugging feeling along my scar in a few weeks. My arm/shoulder issue still isn't completely healed, but it is much better now, so I am hoping that was what was causing it.

This morning I will be going with my parents to the San Juan Capistrano Mission, to the St Peregrine chapel. This time it is not for me, it is for my mom. She had some x-rays taken this past week when she went in for a cold. She got the call back on Friday that they found a mass on her left lung. A mass on her left lung. I remember when I got the call from my doctor's office after my first ultrasound. The nurse said they found a mass on my left thyroid. Was that a mast or a mass, right? Why do I have a ship in my throat? Then I was told I was being referred to a specialist. My mom was referred to a Pulmonary specialist and a CT scan was ordered, with blood work to proceed the CT scan. Now, I know that doesn't right away mean it is cancer. At least that is what they tell us. But what else can that unknown mass be? And since it is a mass and not a speck, it has some size to it. I'm worried, but who wouldn't be?

I think she has a more positive outlook on this than I did for myself. Although the circumstances were a little different for me. I knew for myself that it had to be cancer when my ENT (the second specialist I saw) told me during the consult. Up until that point, I thought, 'nah, I'll just have to take Synthroid to regulate my thyroid, that is all that will come of this, my ENDO said 5% chance of cancer, right?' But the minute my ENT said "20-30% chance of cancer", boom - that is why I started to ball my eyes out for the rest of the consult. Knowing the cancer history in both of my parents families, I knew I couldn't be in that lucky 70%. The whole time my mom just kept on telling me not to think that way, even when I was being walked to the OR for my first operation 'don't think of it that way.' For my mom, we haven't even talked to the first specialist yet. That is tomorrow afternoon. My mom said her dad had lung cancer, that he smoked cigars. Her mom died of I think it was cervical cancer. I hope and pray that it is not cancer, but if that is in the cards for my mom, I pray that it is early enough to do something about it. The thought of losing any of my siblings or my parents is scary, but the thought of losing my mom....I think that is the hardest loss anyone can have regardless of how old you are.

Health check

While my thyroid cancer issues seem to be under control, the rest of my body issues have not been.

I have been going to PT for my chronic right arm and shoulder pain for a little over a month now. I even went to see a Neurologist for possible nerve damage and have an appt for nerve testing next week. My right arm and shoulder have been feeling better and stronger the past couple of weeks, but I can still feel twinges of pain with certain arm movements - during pilates, picking up things or reaching for something with my right arm, lying down regardless of what side I lay on, these things still seem to irritate my right arm/shoulder. My PT says whenever he works on my T4, C4, and C5 areas, I seem to have better mobility. I was only given two exercises. Things are progressing a bit too slow for me. With my brother and nephews in town for the holiday, I decided to give it a go when I took them to Solid Rock earlier this week. I did a few routes, and I can say for sure that I am not ready to climb just yet. My PT wasn't too happy with me the next morning when I went in. Hopefully I didn't do too much damage by going climbing when I wasn't supposed to.

Last Friday (11/18), I had my appt with a Rheumatologist for my knees. First thing she says to me is 'You should not be running....you have osteoarthritis.' I know that, but why shouldn't I be running? I was confused because no one up to this point had told me not to run, at least not that I remember. Not the Rheumatologist I saw four years ago, not my PCP or her backup, not the PT for my knees. She wrote out the things I need to do: continue my PT exercises, including the ones I have to do at the gym (I've only been doing the first two I was given since my last PT session for my knees at the beginning of October), get down to my ideal body weight (like I haven't been trying, right?), stop all high impact activities (no running). If my knee pains don't improve over the next couple of months, she said we would talk about getting injections. Great. I was sent to get updated x-rays of my knees. Four years ago, my x-rays showed mild bilateral osteoarthritis, tri-compartmental in the right, patellafemoral in the left. This time, bilateral and tri-compartmental in both - the left knee got worse! So she said absolutely no running.

I just couldn't get over the 'no running' thing. I was already up to running twice a week. I had picked out a new pair of running shoes last week after run club and was looking forward to picking them up this week. WTF. I had a PT appt the afternoon after my Rheumatology appt. He told me he didn't think I had to completely stop running because the x-rays can only tell you so much. That sounded promising. I also asked my chiro about it this week. He said the same thing, but I definitely had to start out walking first and work up to it. My acupuncturist agreed with the Rheumatologist, and is concerned about trying to stop my knees from further degeneration. All I could think was that hearing 'you have osteoarthritis' was way worse than hearing 'it was cancer....we need to take out the other side.' At least my thyroid cancer can be surgically removed and managed by my replacement thyroid hormone meds and annual checkups, but OA, well, there is no cure for it.

I had jokingly mentioned to my Rheumatologist that I was probably going to see her in a few weeks for my right arm issues. So she checked it out as well. She looked at the notes for my right arm and said I went to see the Neurologist because of a droopy right shoulder. Huh? She initially said, 'rotator cuff injury', but after a few mobility tests, said it was probably tendonitis. All I could think to myself was 'great, next think it'll be arthritis again....argh!!!' My PT said he thought that my droopy right shoulder may have something to do with my arm/shoulder issues, especially since the droop is more than normal for the dominant side. Interesting.

So, my body seems to be failing me. My thyroid cancer stuff...well, I go in for my blood work pre-ENDO appt next week. Hopefully the several times I have missed my afternoon T3 dose won't completely screw up my thyroid levels.