well for the good news: my dad does not have cancer!! he will meet with his family doctor and the surgeon and decide if he should still have some surgery or not. his nodules are very large, and the larger the size, the greater the chance that they could become cancerous at some later time. he is 84, and while in good health, the surgery would be difficult for him. also, he would have to find a surgeon that specializes in thyroid surgery. he has a lot to think about, and has decided to listen to all of his doctors and make the decision in a month or so.
yesterday, i found out about my treatment plan. my endo said that no matter how brilliant the surgeon, there are still some cancer cells/tissue remaining in my neck. so i have decided to go ahead with the radioactive iodine treatment. some good news is that she recommended, and i agreed, to use the thyrogen injections instead of going off my thyroid medication for 4-6 weeks. that will mean i will have a much better quality of live- no zombie like days, i could drive, work,etc. the concern is that the whole body scan- which would indicate if i have cancer somewhere else in my body- will not be quite as accurate as if i had been off my medication..in about a month ( she wants to wait just a little bit longer- i will be feeling better, and of course my insurance has to approve this treatment) i would be getting two thyrogen injections- 24 hours apart. then, i would be given the radioactive iodine. hopefully, i can get the injections in raleigh, and come to hickory to get the radioactive iodine. a few days later, i would have the whole body scan( again, hopefully in hickory) if i have to get the "glow in the dark stuff" in raleigh, i would have to stay isolated in the hospital for 2-3 days! if i get it in hickory, i can make it home before i start to glow. i would have to live separate from my husband- either upstairs or downstairs- and can not ride in the car with him or cook for him for several days.
my doctor said that i will have to get these scans every six months until i get a certain amount of "clean scans". then, they will be one year apart, two years, etc. i am a little nervous about the scan. i mean, what if the cancer is somewhere else? well, they usually give another, larger,treatment of radioactive iodine.and then if that does not work, radiation or conventional chemo. i am going to try to look on the bright side ( no pun intended!) and hope that the radioactive iodine does it job and soon i will be healthy. oh, and i have lost 13 pounds. i told my husband it was sad when you were excited about losing weight, even if it was because you had cancer.hahahahah.
Thyrogen is a Godsend. I had to do the RAI treatment while being off meds for about 4 or 5 weeks and it was the worst time in my life. I coldn't leave the bed or the couch, go to work, take showers some days - it was as if I were 100 years old. The next time I had to go off meds for the scan a year later, my insurance approved Thyrogen and it allowed me to have my life over the 5-6 weeks that I would have had to suffer through. From what I understand, not a lot of insurance companies approve this, but Aetna did. In spite of their other issues, that one approval made up for everything. I hope you get your Thyrogen approval, it really does allow you to live like a normal humanbeing during scans.
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