after a very terrible day yesterday, worrying that my thyroid cancer was back somewhere- lurking around in my body, spreading mayhem everywhere, my doctor's nurse left a message on my voice mail today. she said that i have thyroglobulin antibodies present in my body, and the test was probably not accurate!! imagine that. no one has ever told me that, and if they had i would not have freaked out so yesterday.
i am going to include some information from " The Thyroid Cancer Book, 2nd edition" by Sara Rosenthal. this is so maybe some of you out there can avoid this situation that i have had to deal with. ask your doctor about the thyroglobulin antibody test- and make sure they do one when they test for thyroglobulin and that they TELL you if you have the antibodies present or not.
from the thyroid cancer book: " around one quarter or more of thyroid cancer patients ( particularly women) have immune systems that produce antibodies against their own thyroglobulin. the reasons for this are not understood and they do not directly influence your health; however, they can make thyroglobulin testing difficult or even impossible. this is because these antibodies interfere with the blood test for thyroglobulin performed in the lab and prevent the thyroglobulin level in your blood from being accurately measured. If the thyroglobulin antibody level is undetectable, then the measured thyroglobulin level may be considered reliable. if the thyroglobulin antibody level is above the normal values for the lab, then you can not rely upon the thyroglobulin level to see if you have persistent thyroid cancer. "
i mentioned this once in one of my earlier blogs, but i wanted to bring it up again. i did not know that i had thyroglobulin antibodies present and i would hate for anyone else to suffer because they did not have this information. my new doctor- the papillary thyroid cancer specialist( i see her next week) actually called me back today,too. her nurse did not leave a message, but i am going to try to reach her tomorrow. i am curious about what she has to say about my test. and i am sure that she will be repeating it when i go to my appointment. i am not ready to celebrate, but i sure do feel better about things now! i was planning on going to Zumba tomorrow anyway, but tomorrow i can shake those coins on my belly scarf with a lot more joy!!
Whew! That does give one hope, doesn't it? We're hoping that you're just one of those 25% w/the antibodies. I'm so glad you're seeing a specialist next week. Sounds like you'll be keeping busy until then and can relax a bit. There is so much to know. It was 3 yrs ago today that my cancer was diagnosed, and I knew absolutely nothing as they slammed me through the surgery and treatment. Maybe that was all I could handle at the time, but it's good to read and be informed now, and you're teaching us how to be more proactive! Good wake-up call, thank you!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to hearing of your clean bill of health next week! Zumba on!!