Thyroid Cancer- Body Scan Results

I received the results to my full body scan on Wednesday- and it is very positive.  My doctor said the scan was clear- the only place cancer cells were still showing up at, were in my neck.  But she said this was expected because surgery alone can’t remove every cancer cell. She said the radioactive iodine will continue to work over the next few weeks, and I will have another blood draw in about a month to measure my thyroglobulin level. 

The thyroglobulin level measures cancerous thyroid tissue in the body.  For someone who doesn’t have thyroid cancer, that level will be at zero.  Before my surgery my level was at 38!  My surgeon said that was very high, and he said it was unusual for the level to be that high.  That translated into I had a lot of cancerous thyroid tissue.  Yesterday the doctor told me what my level is now, just taking the surgery into account, and it is down to 4!   She said it was rare that the thyroglobulin level drops that much just from the surgery.  She said the surgeon did a remarkable and thorough surgery.

So in a month, when I have the level tested again, it will be after the radioactive iodine has had a chance to work so the thyroglobulin level should be even lower.  My doctor said everything else looked great- there was no traces of any cancer elsewhere in my body.

For now, I can take a deep breath and relax a bit.  I am pretty much cancer free, and have an excellent prognosis of remaining cancer free.  It seems a bit surreal, but I’ll take it.  I still have to have my thyroid replacement hormone dosage tested in a few weeks, and twice a year check-ups to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned.  My shoulder is still recovering from the surgery, but I am through the worst part of it, and am so happy the prognosis is so positive.  I couldn’t have asked for better news.

Thanks once more for all the support, prayers, kind comments and e-mails, well-wishes, and love.  I wouldn’t have made it this far without them.  Again, thank you to all my family and friends, who put their lives on hold to help me during these last few months.    I am looking forward to getting my life back to normal, and celebrating with all my family and friends in the coming months.   

One of these celebrations will be very special.  I never thought by sharing my experience on my blog, it would lead another mom to me who underwent thyroid cancer surgery the same day as I did, who had the same recovery time, who underwent radioactive iodine treatment at the same time, who lives about an hour away from me, and who has also been given a clean bill of health.  This is my cancer-fighting partner in crime, and we are finally going to be meeting each other soon, and celebrating that we helped each other beat cancer. 

This weekend the boys and I are going camping with my family- grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  The last time we were all together was when I was in the hospital during my surgery.  It will be great to put that chapter behind us, and and start a new one- cancer free.