I think it is time for a cancer update.
Just a recap of my cancer journey these last few years.
A suspicious lump on my neck that I just happened to discover when talking to someone about their thyroid problems led to a biopsy and surgery to remove my thyroid in early 2013. The surgeon supposed that if the nodule were cancer it would be one of the common types of thyroid cancer but I like to be different so mine was the very rare medullary thyroid cancer. Because this type is usually slow growing and not susceptible to the normal chemo treatments, patients are on a 'wait and watch' plan. Regular blood work to track the existence of calcitonin in the blood and ultrasounds of my neck have been the only things I've done over these years.
Without a thyroid there should be no calcitonin in the blood. If the first surgery 'cures' the cancer then calcitonin goes to 0. My doctor told me that while this does happen, it is the exception rather than the rule. Had they known beforehand that my cancer was medullary they would have taken lymph nodes on that side of my neck during the first surgery but they didn't know. My first calcitonin post surgery was 26.8 and that number just kind of slowly crept up until a big jump to 116 last summer.
After another biopsy the specialist at Oregon Health Sciences University decided that I needed to have further surgery on the right side of my neck and it was scheduled for September. Lucky for me the surgeon is considered one of the 10 top neck surgeons in the country. The surgery went well and 42 lymph nodes were removed with 6 of them positive for cancer. Because I think I am super woman, I drastically underestimated how long it would take me to totally recover from this. I don't think I felt 100% normal until around Christmas although I went on a trip to Galapagos Islands, a class reunion trip to Arkansas, Isabella's birthday in Boise, did Thanksgiving and Christmas for the family, and kept up with my church responsibilities fairly well. I also have had to go to physical therapy to recover full use of my shoulder. Happy to report that my shoulder is close to normal again.
Now for the good news...my 6 month post surgery calcitonin check showed that it had fallen from that high number of 116 all the way down to 11! Good news indeed! To put it in perspective, people with multiple metastasis will have calcitonin numbers up into the 1000s and even higher. I'm back to wait and watch and won't see the doctor again until November. That is fine with me.
Just a recap of my cancer journey these last few years.
A suspicious lump on my neck that I just happened to discover when talking to someone about their thyroid problems led to a biopsy and surgery to remove my thyroid in early 2013. The surgeon supposed that if the nodule were cancer it would be one of the common types of thyroid cancer but I like to be different so mine was the very rare medullary thyroid cancer. Because this type is usually slow growing and not susceptible to the normal chemo treatments, patients are on a 'wait and watch' plan. Regular blood work to track the existence of calcitonin in the blood and ultrasounds of my neck have been the only things I've done over these years.
Without a thyroid there should be no calcitonin in the blood. If the first surgery 'cures' the cancer then calcitonin goes to 0. My doctor told me that while this does happen, it is the exception rather than the rule. Had they known beforehand that my cancer was medullary they would have taken lymph nodes on that side of my neck during the first surgery but they didn't know. My first calcitonin post surgery was 26.8 and that number just kind of slowly crept up until a big jump to 116 last summer.
Now for the good news...my 6 month post surgery calcitonin check showed that it had fallen from that high number of 116 all the way down to 11! Good news indeed! To put it in perspective, people with multiple metastasis will have calcitonin numbers up into the 1000s and even higher. I'm back to wait and watch and won't see the doctor again until November. That is fine with me.
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