Test Results are in!

Radiologist report says it's "unremarkable"!! That is good news according to the Oncologist, she said the scan results in combination with the Thyroglobulin blood test results do not show any indication of cancer! WAHOOOOOOO

I have waited 10 long months for this answer. It's so weird that they gave me the treatment and then I had to wait all this time to find out if it worked. It was difficult and I tried to put it out of my thoughts but in the back of my mind the thought was always there that it might not have worked.

So now I am celebrating life.

I owe many thanks and hugs to my friends and family who supported me with love and prayers during this whole adventure. Thank you.

More to come as I find the time to blog. Leila is one now and keeps me on my toes, so not much time on the computer it seems.

Whole Body Scan

Okay I had to be at the hospital before 8AM (no coffee, ugh). First I went to the lab to talk to a person with - well - NO personality. She was as friendly as a cardboard box and proceeded to tell me there was no phlebotomist there to take my blood for the lab tests prior to my procedure.
That figures.

Things just don't happen normally for me. I am used to it now. It's a cosmic joke and I have decided to just laugh along with the process, it keeps me from going crazy or postal.

I get kind of funny when I am nervous about things and I was cracking some pretty good jokes and one-liners, just ask my friend Connie who accompanied me. So I told miss no-personality I needed to use her desk phone to call Nuc Med to let them know why I would be late to my appt.. since there was no phlebotomist. She accomodated me. I called them and the lady from that department came down to talk to them. I gave blood. done deal.

Then off to Nuc Med. They gave me another injection of something called Technetium-99 href="http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/technetium.htm">http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/technetium.htm"> which is used as a tracer for the diagnostic scan.

I was out in about 30 minutes. The scan was unbelievably easy and fast. I drilled the tech with questions, he was cooperative but seemed kind of surprised. I guess most of their patients don't ask questions! Welcome to my world, people.

I haven't slept too well this week and have tried to absorb my free time with that good book and some magazine reading. TV just stinks.

Home to Leila today and Rick went back to work. They said I am safe to be around her now. Cool.

The GAMMA CAMERA aka e.Cam

Hey if you click on the title of this post you can read about the technology used for this procedure (scan) on Friday. It's state of the art, very cool and VERY thorough for my needs!

A Quiet Day

Thursday.

Wait.

Let the radioactive stuff do it's job - travel through my body spreading it's tentacles out to every part and hopefully there will be no cancer for it to find. Nothing on that scan means just that - nothing there.

Hope

Radioactive Iodine today

Okay last night when signing off I had a brain-fade. Of course today I received the radioactive iodine. Again this came in the trademark lead container, the pill never touching the hands of the Nuclear technologist or mine. "just swallow it down with this glass of water..." *GULP*

they told me even though it's a small dose it was a good idea not to hold my daughter close - the dose is dangerous to her thyroid. Yeah right, try doing that when you are with her alone all day. Rick and I decided to be cautious so he is staying home with her for two days and I am staying at Shalita's.

It's hard but at least I know she is okay and I am not doing any harm to her.

I still feel nauseated and blah.... but ginger ale and the distraction of a good novel "The Archivist" plus AWESOME Thai Curry Chicken for lunch - ohboy was that a treat!

Better this time

Whew!! After I left the Hospital's Nuclear Medicine department where I received the injections, I started sipping that Ginger Ale ASAP. I have to tell you I think that helped tremendously to keep the nausea from getting out of hand. I still felt kind of dizzy and had a head splitting headache for the day, but never got sick. Thank God!

Tomorrow no treatments. yay.

Okay here we go again

Injection day number two. Filled with dread and thoughts of hours spent in the bathroom again. I would rather be in pain than sick at my stomach.

This time I am armed with Nexium (little purple pill for acid upset) and a 2 liter of Ginger Ale and crackers)

Got the injection, different nurse today. Kind of frightening, neither one of the nurses had ever given thyrogen injections and had to read the prescribing sheet and instructions first. Thank God they were women, or they might have even skipped the instructions part (lol).

Check back later for how I survived today. Home with Leila - hope I won't be as sick as before.

NO ONE TOLD ME I WOULD BARF!!

HA! Now that I have your attention...

ohmygoodlord have I been sick all day. First I was dizzy as heck, happened right away and lasted through the day which was later accompanied by nausea I haven't felt since pregnancy. Then about five hours post injection I started to be sick at my stomach and proceeded to be so for hours... on into the evening. I had to put Leila in the playpen and turn on "Bear in the Big Blue House" until Rick got home and could take over. He found me lying on the floor next to her playpen, too sick to get up and move.

Oh God please don't let tomorrow be as bad. I have to get another injection?! Is this really better than going hypothyroid for six weeks. Ask me later.

Thyrogen Mediscan - First Follow Up since treatment

Well this week it's (finally) time for my Thyrogen Mediscan to check for cancer and see if the treatment I had in Nov 04 worked! So this morning I received the first of two Thyrogen injections which serve to raise my TSH level high enough (over 30) to uptake a very small dose of radioactive iodine. Yes, this is the same I-131 I had back in November to ablate the remaining cancerous thyroid tissue - however it is minimal compared to the dose I received last year. In Nov I was given approx 100 millicuries of radioactive iodine but this time it will only be approx 4 millicuries. This is just enough to uptake into my system and show up at the end of the week in the scan.

Here is some info from the company: "Thyrogen® is a highly purified recombinant source of human thyroid stimulating hormone (rhTSH) developed for use in well-differentiated thyroid cancer patients who have had near-total or total thyroidectomy, and who must therefore take thyroid hormones and undergo periodic testing for recurrent or persistent cancer. Thyrogen raises serum TSH levels, stimulating I-131 uptake and thyroglobulin (Tg) production and release by cells of thyroid origin"

So this is the plan: Monday: 1st Thyrogen injection - Tuesday: 2nd Thyrogen injection - Wednesday: Radioactive iodine - Thursday: Nothing! - Friday: Lab tests and Scan. Then....WAIT WAIT WAIT until following Tuesday for the results, ugh.

Birthday Calculator

A family member sent me the link to this "birthday calculator" - put your b-day date in and it spits out this:
You were born on a Thursday under the astrological sign Sagittarius.
Your Life path number is 1.
The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2440209.5.
The golden number for 1968 is 12. The epact number for 1968 is 0.
The year 1968 was a leap year.
As of 7/28/2005 10:47:39 AM CDT You are 36 years old.
You are 439 months old.
You are 1,910 weeks old.You are 13,370 days old.
You are 320,890 hours old.
You are 19,253,447 minutes old.
You are 1,155,206,859 seconds old.
There are 144 days till your next birthday on which your cake will have 37 candles on it.
Those 37 candles produce 37 BTU's,or 9,324 calories of heat (that's only 9.3240 food Calories!) . [YIKES!]
You can boil 4.23 US ounces of water with that many candles.
Your birthstone is Blue Zircon
birth tree is Fig Tree
Sensibility Very strong, a bit self-willed, independent, does not allow contradiction or arguments, loves life, its family, children and animals, a bit of a butterfly, good sense of humour, likes idleness and laziness, of practical talent and intelligence.
There are 150 days till Christmas 2005!
The moon's phase on the day you were born was new.

"Elvis is dead and I don't feel so good myself."

Pregnant With Cancer Network Link

Thought I should put this out there for any others who may be in need of their services... they were my lifeline during the whole ordeal!

ONE-ON-ONE SUPPORT FOR THYROID CANCER PATIENTS!

I found this post on my yahoo groups:
Hi everyone, ThyCa also offers one-on-one support through it's toll-free number and Person-to-Person Network. We match thyroid cancer patients to volunteers who have similar types of cancer and situations. We also try to match them to someone in close proximity to where they live or as close as we have a volunteer. These services are invaluable to those newly diagnosed, those strugglingwith treatment and those dealing with recurrance. I applaud all of you who reach out to others in their time of need...I know we're making a difference!
Peggy Melton 972-384-1866
1-877-588-7904
ThyCa Person-to-Person Coordinator
ThyCa Toll-Free Number VolunteerFacilitator ThycaDallas Dallas, TX