Before my thyca diagnosis....
I never could get up in the morning. I always seemed to struggle with my weight--I swear I went from tween clothing right to an adult 12 or 14. Clumsy? I am the poster child for lack of coordination and lack of athletic ability. By the time I got to college, someone mentioned "underactive thyroid" for the first time after I made multiple trips to the infirmary with crippling cramps and periods. However, TSH was normal.
TSH continued to be normal despite visits to my GP and my laundry list of symptoms. He told me it was stress, it was my diet, it was my lack of exercise....it was in my head. I don't know why I listened to him.
Fast forward to 1999. My dad died suddenly, and six months later I was so hypo it hurt, but I didn't know that I was truly hypo. Mom went to the doctor because her hyperthyroidism was out of control, and the appointment was to talk about removing it. I went as the second set of ears, and the endocrinologist took one look at me and said, "You have a thyroid problem. You're hypo. Make an appointment to see me ASAP." Hmm.
Thank God I did--the TSH finally came back in the hypo range, and I had antibodies to boot. She put me on levoxyl and thus began a long relationship with Dr. N.
Fast forward to 2008....mom passed away, and after her death my thyroid started to swell. My symptoms were all over the place, but I couldn't complain too much. Dr. N kept an eye on it, but by the end of 2009 I was having trouble with neck pain and swallowing, and the swelling hadn't gone down despite an increase in levoxyl. She did an ultrasound at the end of January 2010 to confirm the nodules she felt on exam, and there were two, supposedly under 1cm each. Since one of them showed hardened edges, she sent me for a fine needle biopsy while assuring me that only 10% of the nodules ever come back malignant, not to worry. I had the FNA--fast but uncomfortable in a creepy way--on a Thursday, and the tech told me I would probably hear by the following Wednesday. I went about life trying not to think about it--Mr. Wonderful and I went out for dinner on Saturday, and on the way home my cell started ringing with a "private number" on the ID. I gulped, thinking that this isn't a good sign, Dr, N calling at 7:30 on a Saturday night. We were sitting outside the house as I answered the phone.
Her opening line (after hi) was, "I can't believe I'm making this phone call, that I'm going to tell you this." She then proceeded to tell me the biopsy came back positive for papillary thyroid cancer. I think I stopped breathing. Mr. Wonderful was trying to read my face, and the look on his face was awful. She then went on to tell me to call the surgeon and get on this right away, and to come in to see her.
I had a total thyroidectomy March 26, 2010 with no complications with the surgery. However, the cancer did spread to my lymph nodes (9 out of 16 were positive) and the pathology report mentioned a bunch of variant cancers wrapped up in each tumor. I had 111mC of RAI on May 20, 2010. Since then, I'm on the same dose of levoxyl as I was prior to surgery. So far the cancer is undetectable.
I started the blog in April, so go back to April and May for details on recovery, LID and RAI.
So far, so good....
