After a whirlwind trip to Detroit for the loss of Emily's Uncle Bo, we returned on 7/29, went home, grabbed some lab orders, and I was out the door to get to a 4 o'clock LabCorp appointment for blood draw. This was "the check" to read all Thyroid levels, PTH, TSH, Calcium, Thyroglobulin and more to see if radioactive iodine therapy was going to be prescribed.
The good news is, no, I do not have to have radioactive iodine! Wahoo! And really there is no "bad news," just information and next steps.
One of the cancer marker tests is for Thyroglobulin (Tg)- the protein synthesized by Thyroid cells. Since I have no Thyroid, I have very few Thyroid cells (since they can't remove everything) and if both my Tg levels and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) levels are low, that's a good indicator there is no active cancer. As the doctor said, there is no guarantee of anything at anytime and he'll be following me for life basically. So, we keep checking and on October 9th, we'll do just that: another round of blood work and an ultrasound of my neck to make sure nothing is growing like a new cyst.
He did a full head and neck exam, verified my scar was healing well, and went through some checkup questions. I shared with him the update on my headache experience over the past 3 weeks in which my PCP wanted me to have a head CT. Since we were leaving for Detroit, that didn't happen. While there, the headaches continued, so I simply stopped taking my Calcium supplementation, just to see what would happen. And to my surprise, the headaches diminished, and then slightly returned, and then diminished again as I continued to take less and less Calcium. He was stunned and impressed it seemed, but also a little confused. Probably a little offended too since I didn't ask for permission to change my plan. But having already brought the headache onset to him and being referred to my PCP, clearly I had to take matters into my own hands. Now for some reason, when they took blood on the 29th of July, the order for my PTH levels was never completed, so he wanted to verify operation of those remaining glands and also recheck calcium. The good news is while I was writing this tonight, I got the labs released and both my PTH and Ca levels are normal and no Ca supplementation is required at this time! (Anybody need a lot of Ca pills?)
Additionally, I was concerned with a CT as it is more radiation exposure, no matter how little my PCP assured me it was, post-cancer-diagnosis, I'm hyper-sensitive to it now. *Did you know? In Colorado, the altitude partly causes higher radiation levels than most other places since we have less atmosphere to block the sun's rays, etc. - Thanks CPR.org for that tidbit :)
So all in all, a great appointment. A sigh of relief and another step along this new health path.
Peace and health, Chris
P.S. - Check out the scar progress photos in the Scar Progress Gallery
The good news is, no, I do not have to have radioactive iodine! Wahoo! And really there is no "bad news," just information and next steps.
One of the cancer marker tests is for Thyroglobulin (Tg)- the protein synthesized by Thyroid cells. Since I have no Thyroid, I have very few Thyroid cells (since they can't remove everything) and if both my Tg levels and Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) levels are low, that's a good indicator there is no active cancer. As the doctor said, there is no guarantee of anything at anytime and he'll be following me for life basically. So, we keep checking and on October 9th, we'll do just that: another round of blood work and an ultrasound of my neck to make sure nothing is growing like a new cyst.
He did a full head and neck exam, verified my scar was healing well, and went through some checkup questions. I shared with him the update on my headache experience over the past 3 weeks in which my PCP wanted me to have a head CT. Since we were leaving for Detroit, that didn't happen. While there, the headaches continued, so I simply stopped taking my Calcium supplementation, just to see what would happen. And to my surprise, the headaches diminished, and then slightly returned, and then diminished again as I continued to take less and less Calcium. He was stunned and impressed it seemed, but also a little confused. Probably a little offended too since I didn't ask for permission to change my plan. But having already brought the headache onset to him and being referred to my PCP, clearly I had to take matters into my own hands. Now for some reason, when they took blood on the 29th of July, the order for my PTH levels was never completed, so he wanted to verify operation of those remaining glands and also recheck calcium. The good news is while I was writing this tonight, I got the labs released and both my PTH and Ca levels are normal and no Ca supplementation is required at this time! (Anybody need a lot of Ca pills?)
Additionally, I was concerned with a CT as it is more radiation exposure, no matter how little my PCP assured me it was, post-cancer-diagnosis, I'm hyper-sensitive to it now. *Did you know? In Colorado, the altitude partly causes higher radiation levels than most other places since we have less atmosphere to block the sun's rays, etc. - Thanks CPR.org for that tidbit :)
So all in all, a great appointment. A sigh of relief and another step along this new health path.
Peace and health, Chris
P.S. - Check out the scar progress photos in the Scar Progress Gallery