My Experience With Thyroid Cancer

I'm thinking of my friend Matt a lot tonight. I heard a very tragic song tonight and it brought up a lot for me. Apparently Chelsea Hotel No. 2 by Leonard Cohen is a well known song about Janis Joplin. I adore Janis and a poster of her hangs on my bedroom wall.  I guess I'm still coming to terms with the fact that good things end too soon? My experience with cancer (that's the name of the blog, right?) has changed me. I think it's brought closer to the surface the darkness we all have inside of us. I heard a different song today (Innocent Son by Fleet Foxes) and it reminded me of the two months after my second surgery where I stayed up until 2am most nights listening to music and online shopping. Darkness. The quiet moments no one sees. I was going back through older blog posts and I was shocked to see this picture. I've just had a really emotional reaction to this tonight. I can't fathom that that's how I looked. It must be someone else...

Last week, I got some legitimately good news. My thyroglobulin level came down to 2.1! This means the radioactive iodine is still working in my body, eight months later. Remember that because I have thyroid cancer, that number needs to be 0 for me to cancer-free. Thyroglobulin measures thyroid cells in my body. They also test for thyroglobulin antibodies and I'll be honest, I still don't understand that piece. I've asked my endocrinologist a few times, but it's never clicked for me. Let me give you an idea of where these levels have been. I went back through all my tests results online and it's all dated. These are the total thyroglobulin, not the thyroglobulin antibodies. (9.7) 7/11/12--Two days before radioactive iodine. (6.1) 8/28/12--Seven weeks after radioactive iodine. They thought it would decrease more than it did. Then they found the second malignant tumor and that explained it. (3.0) 12/20/12--Fourteen weeks after second surgery. Because it went down t...

I have made immense progress physically since the beginning of the year. It's funny because I got pretty lazy with the physical therapy exercises I was supposed to do. I've been going to yoga as much as possible and I think that had an impact. One day I was standing in front of the mirror stretching my arm and I found that from my arm hanging at my side, I could reach all the way up without any pain. I was shocked. Today marks 25 weeks since my last surgery and I have very little numbness. The space where my neck meets my jaw still feels a little "asleep" if that makes sense. But right now I'm generally able to do things like I used to. It feels like a whirlwind and I can't believe it's been 25 weeks. Here is a picture my Dad took. We went hiking in the hills of Livermore and stumbled on a beautiful vista. Arms straight out! A few weeks before I went to visit my Dad, a friend I knew from high school died. His name is Matt and he was 20 years old w...