Getting better
One of the oddest problems with slow, incremental change, is that it’s hard to evaluate.
Am I better than the day after surgery? LOL! DUH
Points
Pain. There’s never been any pain. I barely used half of my six Vicodins.
Itching. There’s never been any itching at the scar site. Stitches are all self absorbing … so nothing to remove when I saw surgeon after 7 days.
Exercise and Tired. Clearly getting better. NOT 100% recovered. Maybe 50%? Impossible to measure.
Impossible to plan. Get tired MUCH sooner than pre surgery.
Recovery vs Thyroid Dosage.
It is IMPOSSIBLE to determine A vs B and what fraction is which.
It’s both.
WE won’t be checking thyroid levels,for weeks. And it will take weeks to titrate.
Staging.
Gosh. What part of stop asking if my cancer was staged. Stop pretending that YOUR cancer is related to my cancer. Stop pretending that all cancers get staged.
NO ONE is staging my cancer.
We KNOW that it’s NOT stage IV or stage III. These are late stage, metastasis to other organs. Zero evidence of this.
We SUSPECT that it’s NOT stage II. Stage II is typically LOCAL lymph node involvement.
16 lymph nodes were removed and tested. 0/16. This is INDICATIVE of NOT stage II.
We KNOW from the pre surgical PETscan, that there were no OBVIOUS hot spots. From crown to thigh.
Aka, no “easily” detectable thyroid (or other) tumors were detected in the radioactive sugar tracer scan.
We KNOW that 100% of the thyroid gland was not removed. Aka, it’s impossible.
Sometime in the next 1 to 30 months, we will be doing a series of blood tests.
If these tests are “zero”, we’re done.
We’ll check this same tests over time.
Those tests will be used to determine if I need a magic pill to kill random thyroid tissue remaining.
(Tumors, or bits of the original gland get treated by the same magic pill)
There is NO chemo. And no “traditional” radiation.
None. Zip. Zero.
If at some point, one of the blood tests indicates, we might do a scan with tracer.
Radioactive Iodine tracer is the most likely. BUT that would only be to detect the location of the thyroid tissue.
Technically, the treatment is identical regardless of location. Magic pill
Because some asshole incorrected me and told me that I was wrong, I’m calling it a magic pill.
It’s not radiation.
In theory, if the blood tests show the “potential” for metastasis, the scan is “useful” for tracking.
But …. It’s really a why do you need this, if the treatment is the same.
Drs will guide.
As of today.
I am cancer free.
With a 99% ten year and 90% 20 year Survival.
Aka, cancer free and cured.
One of the most interesting questions so far, the falconer asked,
“Does this cure my hashimotos?”
Sort of kind of maybe?
I will so my endocrinologist about this.
Will my antibodies go away over time? Aka curing?
Hashimotos is an auto immune disease where you create antibodies to your thyroid gland and you immune. System attacks it. I don’t have the gland. So what do they do instead??
LOL
Given the tired. I’m not scheduling things still. But getting closer
Blah blah blah blah.
Who knows if or when there’s another update.
No comments:
Post a Comment