Some good news last week!

I went in and had my Iodine Radiation treatment on Feb. 1st. I thought I was going to feel something odd after taking it, but there was nothing.  Simply took a pill that contained 160 millicures of iodine radiation which is in the upper range of doses for patients to not be admitted.  On Superbowl Sunday, I started to get dizzy and light-headed when I stood up, also noticed that I couldn’t get warm.  Thought maybe I was dehydrated so I drank a bunch of fluids, I seemed to be getting better in the evening.  The next day I still couldn’t get warm, but it wasn’t as bad as Sunday, same thing Tuesday, Wednesday I finally decided I need to go into the urgent care and see if they can figure what was wrong.  They hooked me up to an EKG, everything came back normal, next they did a blood draw. Took them 4 tries to finally get a vein that was willing to give them what they wanted. Original results came back normal, but they needed to wait until Thursday to get the results from the Thyroid levels.  Ah ha! The nurse calls me Thursday afternoon and tells me that my hormone levels were super low and prescribed me Levothyroxine, and increased my dosage of Liothyronine as well. Started taking the Levothyroxine the next day, and started noticing an improvement in my energy levels as well as being able to get warm again.

Went in for my whole body scans last Wednesday, interesting experience. Took roughly and hour and a half, maybe a bit less. Went in to see the Endocrinologist on Thursday to hear the results, fully expecting to hear that I need to go through additional radiation treatment because of the size of he tumor and the fact that it had spread to the Lymph Nodes.  Dr. Benson comes in and tells me that my scans came back completely clear.  He was dumbfounded that it was that clear, he went on to say hat even the best surgeon in the world can’t possibly get all the cancer out during surgery.  He tells me he’s going to talk to Dr. Short and Dr. Bayles about the results and see if the can come up with a logical explanation as to how this can be.  I’m still kind of shocked by it myself.  But the scans in addition to my current Thyroglobulin levels tell the same story.

I go in for an Ultrasound and a CT scan in April to see how things are progressing. Dr. Benson said we need to wait 2-3 years before we can truly celebrate, but all signs are looking good right now! Eventually over time I’ll stop taking the Liothyronine completely and continue with the Levothyroxine as my only hormone replacement.

I got clearance to go back to work tomorrow, I’ve been working from home for 3-5 hours a day since the end of December.  Not sure if my body will let me do a full 8 hours a day, but I’m going to give it a shot.  It’s just another step towards getting back to normal, something I welcome with open arms.

I go in for a follow up with Dr. Short at the end of this month for the vocal chord injection we did on Jan 28th. I’ve certainly got a few questions for him.

If you’re interested in picking up one of these shirts that Mike at S&P Designs put together, There are a few larges and XL’s left. $20 or $26 shipped. Proceeds are going directly to my medical expenses.