i had my big 6 months thyroid cancer check up on february 7th, with my endocrinologist in raleigh. i had the blood work done at a lab in boone, the week before that. it was not quite the check up i was expecting, because either my physician had forgotten to check the box to test for thyroglobulin, or the lab forgot to do it, or did not see it on the sheet,- who knows. to refresh, thyroglobulin ( his friends know him as TG), is a protein only secreted by the cells in the thyroid gland. no other type of cell can make this. so if you have had thyroid cancer, and your thyroid gland has been totally removed and sent to wherever they send those things to, theoretically you should not have measurable TG ( we are friends now) in your body. UNLESS, some thyroid cancer cells managed to escape the jedi fighter, AKA, radioactive iodine, or RAI-131 as his friends call him. these thyroid cancer cells can set up shop elsewhere in the body- being especially fond of the lungs and bones, bless their hearts.
for the first three or so years after my surgery and RAI-131 treatment for thyroid cancer, i had measurable TG. i also had anti-thyroglobulin antibodies ( AKA, TgAb). not to get too technical, but those people with the TgAb, are most likely to have an auto immune type of thyroid disease. having TgAb is not a bad thing ( they are not harmful to your body ), but unfortunately it makes the test for TG very unreliable. it was a gamble. do i really have elevated TG or is the TgAb just making it appear so? no way to tell, folks. since i had two types of thyroid cancer, papillary, and an aggressive form called follicular variant, my endocrinologist decided to err on the side of caution. she kept my thyroid medication on the high side( low TSH, and higher range T4) so that hopefully there would not be any stimulation of any TG that may or may not be present. my lungs and bones appreciate my endocrinologist's efforts.
now to the important stuff. i received my test results today from the TG test that i had to have done in my endocrinologists office. yes, two rounds of blood work this time. i do not have TgAb, and my TG is low. not quite undetectable or zero, but low. that means that i am still on the every six month plan. i will be an eight year survivor in may. i really do not like using the term " survivor". one could make the case that no one really beats thyroid cancer. life long monitoring, testing, medication adjustments to get the TSH, T4 , T3, etc. correct enough so that a person feels well, but also at correct values to keep recurrences down is the norm. but despite that, i feel that this is good news and i am pleased with my overall results.
on february 26, i will have my big six months breast cancer check up. i am so looking forward to march this year...
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