Today was a "good" day. We fought traffic to get to my 9:30 AM appointment with a new, hopeful endocrinologist that was recommended by the PA of my surgeon as they also see this provider for their own care post-thyroidectomy.
After completing typical intake paperwork with medical history, current health status, etc. and providing the receptionist with the latest paperwork from my followup yesterday, we only waited a short while until the nurse brought us back. They took my weight, height, vitals, etc. before the meeting with the doctor.
The appointment lasted about 45 mins. The doctor was very knowledgable, detailed, and thorough. Friendly to Emily and Noah, and assuring again of the outcomes of Thyroid cancer. He has a solid background "in the field of thyroid cancer and subclinical thyroid disease, and won a national award for his work in thyroid cancer research." So, my confidence from the referral and his background was high.
He discussed everything from the hormone replacement that I'm on currently and based on his calculations, concluded I should be on a higher dose for my height/weight. I left with a prescription for Synthroid at 175 mcg as opposed to the 125 mcg I have been on. Which could also be why my energy is very low - of course also being 10 days post-op might have something to do with it... He is a proponent for the brand name replacement therapies as they show better promise for stabilizing the Thyroid hormone replacement which is why he also wanted to switch from Levothyroxine.
*Did you Know? Thyroid cancer has now become the number 6 and 7 causes of cancer for both women and men? That was the doctor's share that I took away as a "I didn't know that." However, I did fact check in a couple places and couldn't find those exact rankings. Needless to say, it's still popular and apparently on the rise, having tripled in the last three decades according to the article in Cancer.org
We kind of bounced around from a complete physical check of all the systems - heart, lungs, lymph nodes, scar check, and calcium check with a Chvostek's check of my facial nerve again. I did show signs of low calcium as the test revealed more facial twitching, especially in my eye and lip areas, which is what I experienced last week in before the ER drop by. I surprised him when I filled in that blank as he started to explain what he was checking for and why. I took that opportunity to remind him, I've been in this for 7+ months and haven't sat on my butt waiting to be told everything.
I've felt it important to remind doctor's that I'm an active participant in my care. I'm curious about my body and how it works and why. The why, that's what brought tears to my eyes as we continued talking. In all of this, I don't know the why. He even admitted, it's just "bad luck" and they, the specialists, don't know why they've seen the increase that they have in the number of diagnosed patients with Thyroid cancer. But having had a poor experience with my previous "endo," I wanted to be sure he knew I would be heard - my concerns, opinions, suggestions, all of it, and that I needed to be sure he was an advocate for me, despite how "common" Papillary Thyroid cancer has become. Early on, he did acknowledge that I am a unique individual, and despite there being many cases, he assured me he looks at my individual case, even admitting that my unremarkable findings of the size of the cancer in the Thyroid, benign lymph nodes, all of it, left one atypical finding in the mediastinal mass they extracted, which he could not explain and was perplexed by. Both my surgeon and he as well as the pathologist suggest it was a Lymphoepithelial cyst of sorts and odd that the cancer sort of centralized there, but seemed to originate from the nodule in my Right Thyroid.
Nevertheless, we circled back to cancer-chat and he positioned going to give his "cancer spiel" to include outcomes, prognosis and of course the lingering question - will I need Radioactive Iodine Therapy? He stated that the goal for today was to get more data, which I appreciated. So, he wrote up an order for labs to check my Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and Calcium (Ca) levels to see how they're recovering post-op. It's too early to check Thyroid levels because despite how good a surgeon is, there are always Thyroid cells left behind, which is what the Radioactive Iodine would target. After the appointment, I did go down to the LabCorp office on the 4th floor to have blood drawn. The wait wasn't too bad and once I got back there, I said, "left arm please!" and threw my left arm down on the pad. I could still see the IV entry on my right elbow pit from the ER a week ago and some slight bruising on my left forearm from the hospital IV, so the left elbox pit (antecubital fossa) seemed like the next best place to abuse.
However, to determine the necessity of that, we'd wait 6 weeks for followup and blood work again 1 week prior to include additional testing of all Thyroid markers. As a reminder, you've probably heard me talk about the Parathyroid and their job of regulating blood calcium levels. With the PT glands remaining, possibly 3, it just takes time for things to stabilize. If I do have Radioactive Iodine, he did state it would likely be a small dose. I've done a lot of reading around this and talked to friends who've been through it, and the scary part, I can't be around anyone for a week, especially Noah. We'll cross that road if we get to it, but he was sure to bring that up.
Overall, it was an encouraging appointment, having someone recognize we have to find my balance and the right formula for my hormone replacement. And that jumping right into something like Radioactive Iodine is not necessarily the answer. Another hurdle leaped and a few more laps around the track 'til we hit another hurdle. One day at a time.
Monday, I return to work, which I'm actually looking forward to getting back to my team and continuing the great work me and my manager have been doing together to grow and develop our team. I'm on a couple project teams and have missed making active progress on some big ticket items for our organization. Plus, it will be nice to get my mind off the medical focus for a bit. Bring some mental balance back to my life.
Thanks again for following along, the love, support, and encouragement.
In health,
Chris
#CancerSucks #Progress #endocrinologist
After completing typical intake paperwork with medical history, current health status, etc. and providing the receptionist with the latest paperwork from my followup yesterday, we only waited a short while until the nurse brought us back. They took my weight, height, vitals, etc. before the meeting with the doctor.
The appointment lasted about 45 mins. The doctor was very knowledgable, detailed, and thorough. Friendly to Emily and Noah, and assuring again of the outcomes of Thyroid cancer. He has a solid background "in the field of thyroid cancer and subclinical thyroid disease, and won a national award for his work in thyroid cancer research." So, my confidence from the referral and his background was high.
He discussed everything from the hormone replacement that I'm on currently and based on his calculations, concluded I should be on a higher dose for my height/weight. I left with a prescription for Synthroid at 175 mcg as opposed to the 125 mcg I have been on. Which could also be why my energy is very low - of course also being 10 days post-op might have something to do with it... He is a proponent for the brand name replacement therapies as they show better promise for stabilizing the Thyroid hormone replacement which is why he also wanted to switch from Levothyroxine.
*Did you Know? Thyroid cancer has now become the number 6 and 7 causes of cancer for both women and men? That was the doctor's share that I took away as a "I didn't know that." However, I did fact check in a couple places and couldn't find those exact rankings. Needless to say, it's still popular and apparently on the rise, having tripled in the last three decades according to the article in Cancer.org
We kind of bounced around from a complete physical check of all the systems - heart, lungs, lymph nodes, scar check, and calcium check with a Chvostek's check of my facial nerve again. I did show signs of low calcium as the test revealed more facial twitching, especially in my eye and lip areas, which is what I experienced last week in before the ER drop by. I surprised him when I filled in that blank as he started to explain what he was checking for and why. I took that opportunity to remind him, I've been in this for 7+ months and haven't sat on my butt waiting to be told everything.
I've felt it important to remind doctor's that I'm an active participant in my care. I'm curious about my body and how it works and why. The why, that's what brought tears to my eyes as we continued talking. In all of this, I don't know the why. He even admitted, it's just "bad luck" and they, the specialists, don't know why they've seen the increase that they have in the number of diagnosed patients with Thyroid cancer. But having had a poor experience with my previous "endo," I wanted to be sure he knew I would be heard - my concerns, opinions, suggestions, all of it, and that I needed to be sure he was an advocate for me, despite how "common" Papillary Thyroid cancer has become. Early on, he did acknowledge that I am a unique individual, and despite there being many cases, he assured me he looks at my individual case, even admitting that my unremarkable findings of the size of the cancer in the Thyroid, benign lymph nodes, all of it, left one atypical finding in the mediastinal mass they extracted, which he could not explain and was perplexed by. Both my surgeon and he as well as the pathologist suggest it was a Lymphoepithelial cyst of sorts and odd that the cancer sort of centralized there, but seemed to originate from the nodule in my Right Thyroid.
Nevertheless, we circled back to cancer-chat and he positioned going to give his "cancer spiel" to include outcomes, prognosis and of course the lingering question - will I need Radioactive Iodine Therapy? He stated that the goal for today was to get more data, which I appreciated. So, he wrote up an order for labs to check my Parathyroid hormone (PTH) and Calcium (Ca) levels to see how they're recovering post-op. It's too early to check Thyroid levels because despite how good a surgeon is, there are always Thyroid cells left behind, which is what the Radioactive Iodine would target. After the appointment, I did go down to the LabCorp office on the 4th floor to have blood drawn. The wait wasn't too bad and once I got back there, I said, "left arm please!" and threw my left arm down on the pad. I could still see the IV entry on my right elbow pit from the ER a week ago and some slight bruising on my left forearm from the hospital IV, so the left elbox pit (antecubital fossa) seemed like the next best place to abuse.
However, to determine the necessity of that, we'd wait 6 weeks for followup and blood work again 1 week prior to include additional testing of all Thyroid markers. As a reminder, you've probably heard me talk about the Parathyroid and their job of regulating blood calcium levels. With the PT glands remaining, possibly 3, it just takes time for things to stabilize. If I do have Radioactive Iodine, he did state it would likely be a small dose. I've done a lot of reading around this and talked to friends who've been through it, and the scary part, I can't be around anyone for a week, especially Noah. We'll cross that road if we get to it, but he was sure to bring that up.
Overall, it was an encouraging appointment, having someone recognize we have to find my balance and the right formula for my hormone replacement. And that jumping right into something like Radioactive Iodine is not necessarily the answer. Another hurdle leaped and a few more laps around the track 'til we hit another hurdle. One day at a time.
Monday, I return to work, which I'm actually looking forward to getting back to my team and continuing the great work me and my manager have been doing together to grow and develop our team. I'm on a couple project teams and have missed making active progress on some big ticket items for our organization. Plus, it will be nice to get my mind off the medical focus for a bit. Bring some mental balance back to my life.
Thanks again for following along, the love, support, and encouragement.
In health,
Chris
#CancerSucks #Progress #endocrinologist