Information Dump

I've been procrastinating on this post for a while mainly because all I had to report was ambiguous and bummer information. Let's start with that:

I went to Dr Lori Book, my endocrinologist 3 weeks ago. Before that she had an informal conversation with Dr David Book: her husband, my surgeon about my case and they realized that yet another doctor had ordered a CT scan with contrast early on in the diagnostic process. The contrast contains loads of iodine and an aggressive treatment plan calls for 6 months between such a scan and radioactive iodine treatment. So the treatment I was supposed to have last week was delayed until January. The other shocker was when she told me that I had an extensive and aggressive case and that it had probably been going on for 10 years!! The primary tumor was small but the spread to the lymph nodes in my neck was extensive which is abnormal. Usually the size of the tumor correlates with the aggressiveness of the cancer. Where I had been viewing the radioactive iodine as just a clean up procedure and the end of the road for this little chapter of my life, she made me realize how possible it was for me to have "distant metastases" in my lungs and bone due to the apparent aggressiveness of my case. We talked about the possibility of recurrence etc. So I wasn't very upbeat at the end of all that.

I have some good information now though. I just got off the phone with her medical assistant with the results of my blood labs. There's a protein called thyroglobulin that is monitored in these cases. It is produced by thyroid cells and in my case it's a direct indication of the amount of remaining cancer cells in my body. The level of thyroglobulin was so low it showed no cancer! I haven't talked with the doctor yet but I'd imagine this would affect my treatment plan going forward. It's absolutely good news though!

Major thanks to the skill of my surgeons Dr. David Book and Dr Gregory Buchalter!