Wiping the Slate Clean

Friday, I had a follow-up appointment with a new endocrinologist. She works closely with my surgeon, which is why I switched to her. She’s great! Asher and I both really like her a lot. Once again, I feel like I am being given the best treatment. She went over the pathology results in detail. Basically the cancer was in the left side of my thyroid and had moved up the thyroid cavity, but it hadn't spread outside the thyroid!! My surgeon had taken 11 lymph nodes out and they all tested negative for cancer. Now I just have to do a relatively small radioiodine treatment to wipe the slate clean. So essentially, this means NO MORE THYROID CANCER!!

So, here’s the treatment process that I’ll be going through. Monday, Nov.9th, I will stop taking my thyroid medicine, and will be off it for 3 weeks. Since 3 days without thyroid hormone makes me feel crazy, it certainly won’t be fun to go 3 weeks without it. On December 4th, I start treatment, where I’ll be taking a radioiodine pill that will kill any remaining thyroid cells. Since I’ll be radioactive with this treatment, I’ll have very limited contact with adults, and no contact with children, for about a week. So, if you have any good suggestions for TV shows or books, please let me know.

We’re trying to figure out where the kids are going during all this. We’re planning to go to Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with Asher’s family, and it looks like we’ll leave the kids there during my treatment.

After the treatment, they will do a couple scans. There’s a body scan to see if cancer is anywhere else (which they are sure it’s not…. this is just precautionary). And there’s another scan to make sure they got all the thyroid cells. I still have a 15% chance of cancer coming back sometime in my life, but we are going to have faith that it doesn’t!

The last couple of days have been so great! I have had so much joy and hope! I haven’t felt this in a loooong time. I really do have a wonderful family and community. My recovery has been a little rough as I’ve felt pretty nauseous, but I’ve had sooo much help! My parents were here for the first week. Asher has had this last week off from work to help out. We have had a meal brought to us almost every day and have meals scheduled for the next two weeks! I’ve had so many friends dropping by to spend time with me and/or the kids. Not to mention all the prayers and encouraging messages!! I feel so blessed and grateful to be fighting this with so many people who love me. Thank you all so much!

LOTS OF LOVE,

Missy