thyroid cancer is not the " good cancer" and here are some reasons why...

if you have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, you have probably heard people say, " oh, you have the good cancer!". this response, though well meaning i think, is still one of my pet peeves. first of all, there is no " good cancer". cancer by definition is not a good thing. any type of cancer is serious business, and should not be taken lightly.

i received my thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2010. i had papillary with follicular variant, stage three. after having my thyroid and two parathyroids( also cancerous) removed, i received the I-131 treatment because  even the best surgeon can not get all of the thyroid cancer cells. think of them as little storm troopers who escape from the mother ship and make their way to other parts of the body. one way we know that they are present is by doing blood tests for thyroglobulin and thyroglobulin antibodies. only thyroid cells make thyroglobulin, so if you destroy the mother ship, and you have measurable thyroglobulin in your blood stream, that means that you have the rogue cells, or thyroid cancer cells elsewhere in your body.

for three years after my surgery and treatment for thyroid cancer, i had measurable thyroglobulin and thyroglobulin antibodies. there are a couple of ways to deal with this. some people, depending on how high the level of thyroglobulin is, have to receive another dose of the I-131. unfortunately, this does not always work in all cases . the I-131 is supposed to destroy the rogue cancer cells. one way to explain it, is that thyroglobulin cells love iodine. if you " feed" them the radioactive kind it is supposed to destroy them. another way to deal with the presence of measurable thyroglobulin is to keep the TSH very low- close to zero. what TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) does is to stimulate thyroid cells into action. this is fine if you do not have cancer. but if you are stimulating CANCER thyroid cells into action, well, it is obviously  not a good thing.

as i said, after three years my thyroglobulin went down to an "acceptable" level and my antibodies were no longer present. my last blood work revealed that my thyroglobulin was less than 1. the range that this lab uses is " less than 1 is acceptable, 1 or greater is positive for thyroglobulin.". so, my level is low, but not zero. what the heck have those rogue thyroid cancer cells been  doing in my body for the past seven years? my doctor keeps my TSH near zero so that they do not spring into action, so to speak, but that still gives me pause. i continue to  get blood work and ultrasounds every six months. once you have had thyroid cancer, you basically have testing for life. there is no " five years and you are done" to this type of cancer. for those of you who have been thinking that thyroid cancer is the good cancer, are you beginning to see how this is not the case?

if thyroid cancer is able to spread to other body locations, it is most often to the lungs and bones. it can go anywhere, but those are two primary locations. when i had breast cancer in 2015, one of the first questions i asked my doctor after the surgery was " were there thyroid cancer cells present in my breast tissue?". i am happy to say that  there were not. 30% of thyroid cancer patients will have another primary cancer in the body, and i fell into that category. the best thing that you can do in this situation, is to make sure that you have your mammograms, colonoscopies, and other tests on a regular basis. early detection is key- as with any cancer.

thyroid cancer affects all age groups, male and female, though there is a higher incidence in females. there are several types of thyroid cancer, and a person can have more than one type, as i did. this is hardly a good cancer to have. life long testing, the possibility  of recurrence, or an increased chance of   developing a second primary cancer are all part of having thyroid cancer. as with most any other disease, a person never really understands until it happens to them. i like to be connected with other thyroid cancer patients. no one understands our situation and daily challenges like another thyroid cancer patient.  no, this is not the good cancer at all...