"every day is a winding road, i get a little bit closer. every day is a faded sign, i get a little bit closer to feeling fine." every day is a winding road, by Sheryl Crow

today was my six months check up for breast cancer. in may, i will officially be  a three year breast cancer survivor, and an eight year thyroid cancer survivor. my surgery dates were only 3 days, and five years, apart. may, as a month, has not been so good to me. it is quite the coincidence, really.

so, as usual, as my husband and i got closer to the oncology center, i tried to divert him into the far right lane, instead of the left one. the right lane leads to the interstate, and eventually( 3 or 4 hours later ) to the beach. the left lane leads to the oncology center. it is a long standing joke between my husband and me. well, an  almost  three year one. the very first time that i went  to the center  for my  first chemotherapy treatment, my husband almost fell for my attempts to run away to the beach. i will have to say that going there for my first treatment was one of the most terrifying experiences in my life- so far, anyway. the fear of the unknown, and the fact that i was aware that the first dose of chemotherapy is the strongest. it is the largest dose that they can give you,basically, that will save your life without killing you. your immune system is strongest before your first dose, of course. but no one is quite sure how anyone is going to react to the chemotherapy. my oncologist did reduce my dose slightly as we went along, and i knew what side effects that i would experience. that made the experience a little less terrifying.

oddly enough, and i am not the only person to experience this, i get nauseous when we pull into the parking lot. i had a lot of trouble with nausea and vomiting with my chemotherapy, and that all comes back to me, i suppose. another thing that bothers me, and this is sort of strange, is the smell of the hand sanitizer soap that the center uses. it is a violent reaction for me. i smell it when we come in the door, and of course i have to wash my hands a couple of times ( small bladder) before i get to leave the center. i am nauseous for  the rest of the day, and even though i shower when we get back home, i can smell that darned soap for a day or two.

also today, i saw a woman that reminded me of myself during my treatment. she was very pleasant (put on a happy face for family and friends) and she told the receptionist that she preferred wearing head scarves instead of wigs. that was me, as well. i learned to tie head scarves from watching a you- tube video, and got rather good at it. i did have some pre-tied scarves, but i much preferred tying my own. i wanted to go up to her and give her a hug, and ask her how she was really doing. but since  i did not want to scare the poor woman,  i just smiled at her.

so the bottom line is that i had a good check up. i did not get all of my blood work results today, but i am not expecting any problems. they will mail me a copy of everything in a few days. i keep a record of all of my tests, procedures, etc, in a three ring note book. that is about the best piece of advice that i can give anyone facing serious health issues. be informed, and know what has happened, and is happening to you. i have amazing doctors, but i am not their only patient. occasionally, test results have been lost, but i have had my own copy and that has actually come in very handy on more than one occasion.

my husband told me today that i will now  be " back to normal"( i should say my new normal ) for about the next five and one half months. then, the test anxiety, nausea, and moodiness will return. that said, i am getting a little stronger, a little tougher when test time rolls around. i guess i do get a little bit closer to feeling fine.

the long and winding road, or AKA, the results blog...

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...