Inbetween treatments
After surgery but before the radioactive iodine treatment, my life had a slice of normalcy. I started back at work, and I have to say I was blessed with a great job and my boss never made me feel bad for all the time I took off and all the uncertainty there has been.
I met with a radiologist for the first time sometime around June 26. My endocrinologist had originally told me that I'd only have to go off my thyroid medication for five days before the RAI, and that seemed doable. I was pretty bummed to learn that that wouldn't be the case for me. Dr. Ng told me that day to stop taking my medication. The target date for the RAI was July 13. He explained that my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) needed to be around 35 for me to be fit to receive the treatment.
Let me take a minute to explain those numbers. Someone with a perfectly functioning thyroid has a TSH of 0.5 - 5. If someone has a low thyroid, that number goes up. You would think it would go down, but low thyroid actually indicates a higher number. To give you some perspective, I was perfectly in the target range when I had my thyroid removed because the thyroid was still functioning normally. Right after surgery, I started taking 50mcg of Cytomel per day.
So Dr. Ng says I have to go off my medication for the next three weeks. I was so bummed! The symptoms of being hypothyroid are low energy, slower metabolism, dry skin, REALLY low energy....did I mention low energy and weight gain? Okay good. And the doctor said if the number didn't come up to 35, I'd have to wait another week, so that would be another week off the medication. I was very frustrated. I just had to wait and see. It took me while to come to understand that my endocrinologist wasn't necessarily wrong in telling me things, but she was telling me what she knew about how another doctor would treat me. Every doctor is different, so Dr. Ng was just treating me the way he knew how to. From reading online about other people with thyroid cancer, I gather that doctors handle this alllll different ways. I had to learn not to just take everything a doctor tells me as fact. I had to be buoyant. This has been a recurring theme throughout this whole experience.
I turned 20 on July 3, and that was interesting. I love birthdays and I think they should always be a celebration, but this year was odd. Especially because my boyfriend's truck was "hit and run" at my house on my birthday. So my birthday dinner was all delayed because the police had to come. I did have a really nice massage earlier that day, though.
I had many appointments leading up to the RAI. Many times I had to get my blood drawn for all these tests. It felt like I was going to Roseville all the time.
I started a low iodine diet on July 5. I will write a separate blog post for that, because there's a lot to say. Right after I started the diet, Johnny and I went on the most blissful camping trip. It was the best. All this cancer stuff can't be good for a relationship. It was rejuvenating and refreshing. And downright beautiful. It was tough because I didn't have enough energy to do all the hikes I would love to do, so we just relaxed and layed around. Johnny fished a lot.
Fortunately, my TSH did get high enough for me to have the RAI on July 13. After 14 days off my medication, the number definitely surpassed 35! It came up to 49. So soon after that, I had the RAI. There were many scans and a preliminary small dosage of the radio iodine before the actual whole dosage. It was all a process.
I met with a radiologist for the first time sometime around June 26. My endocrinologist had originally told me that I'd only have to go off my thyroid medication for five days before the RAI, and that seemed doable. I was pretty bummed to learn that that wouldn't be the case for me. Dr. Ng told me that day to stop taking my medication. The target date for the RAI was July 13. He explained that my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) needed to be around 35 for me to be fit to receive the treatment.
Let me take a minute to explain those numbers. Someone with a perfectly functioning thyroid has a TSH of 0.5 - 5. If someone has a low thyroid, that number goes up. You would think it would go down, but low thyroid actually indicates a higher number. To give you some perspective, I was perfectly in the target range when I had my thyroid removed because the thyroid was still functioning normally. Right after surgery, I started taking 50mcg of Cytomel per day.
So Dr. Ng says I have to go off my medication for the next three weeks. I was so bummed! The symptoms of being hypothyroid are low energy, slower metabolism, dry skin, REALLY low energy....did I mention low energy and weight gain? Okay good. And the doctor said if the number didn't come up to 35, I'd have to wait another week, so that would be another week off the medication. I was very frustrated. I just had to wait and see. It took me while to come to understand that my endocrinologist wasn't necessarily wrong in telling me things, but she was telling me what she knew about how another doctor would treat me. Every doctor is different, so Dr. Ng was just treating me the way he knew how to. From reading online about other people with thyroid cancer, I gather that doctors handle this alllll different ways. I had to learn not to just take everything a doctor tells me as fact. I had to be buoyant. This has been a recurring theme throughout this whole experience.
I turned 20 on July 3, and that was interesting. I love birthdays and I think they should always be a celebration, but this year was odd. Especially because my boyfriend's truck was "hit and run" at my house on my birthday. So my birthday dinner was all delayed because the police had to come. I did have a really nice massage earlier that day, though.
I had many appointments leading up to the RAI. Many times I had to get my blood drawn for all these tests. It felt like I was going to Roseville all the time.
I started a low iodine diet on July 5. I will write a separate blog post for that, because there's a lot to say. Right after I started the diet, Johnny and I went on the most blissful camping trip. It was the best. All this cancer stuff can't be good for a relationship. It was rejuvenating and refreshing. And downright beautiful. It was tough because I didn't have enough energy to do all the hikes I would love to do, so we just relaxed and layed around. Johnny fished a lot.
Fortunately, my TSH did get high enough for me to have the RAI on July 13. After 14 days off my medication, the number definitely surpassed 35! It came up to 49. So soon after that, I had the RAI. There were many scans and a preliminary small dosage of the radio iodine before the actual whole dosage. It was all a process.
Comments
Post a Comment