Results and next steps...

I met with my endocrinologist this week to get the pathology results as well as make plans for the future. I left his office feeling very encouraged. The great news is that the lymph node that was removed ended up having no cancer. Additionally, the cancer was contained to the nodule and had not entered into the thyroid. This seems to be a good indicator that the cancer had not spread, was removed during surgery and that treatment will be successful. I had been hesitant to fully accept the high cure percentage touted for thyroid cancer until I learned that my cancer was well contained.  I feel much more confident that these high success rates will apply to me after my meeting this week!

So, what comes next…We are waiting for my TSH levels to hit 30 and I continue on a low iodine diet while I wait. Once I hit that magic number 30 my doctor will make arrangements for me to be admitted to the hospital to receive radioactive iodine to ablate (kill) any thyroid tissue/thyroid cancer that remains. It’s heavy duty stuff – once I return home I will still be radioactive and will have to remain isolated from the kids and Ken. The doctor noted that by sleeping together I could destroy Ken’s thyroid. So, he will be stuck in the guest bedroom for about 10 days.

I’ve been feeling good these past few days. My incision is healing nicely, I’m getting good range of motion in my neck and I haven’t been too tired…that is until today. Today I crashed. I’m getting that foggy brain feeling that I associate with my TSH levels rising. I hate feeling this way but I’m also glad because that means I’m one step closer to wrapping up this little episode in my life. (Little disclaimer here – if this post is unclear/disjointed I blame the lack of thyroid hormone, I started feeling really funky this evening.)

I’m off to get some sleep but I wanted to let you, my friends and family, know that we received great news this week!