Most recent round of test results came back yesterday during parent teacher conferences- which didn’t make for the most private of medical phone conversations, but it was what it was. Bottom line, TSH remained stable at .08, which is fully suppressed and means we’re still starving the remining cancer. However, this cancer must have the same metabolism as I do, in that, despite starving it as much as we can, it STILL gets bigger! Quite a bit bigger, actually. TG tumor narker rose from 5.1 to 8.3. It has been slowly creeping up over the past year, and I had already decided I wasn’t comfortable with the slow creep (see my New Years resolution post) but this big jump just kinda confirmed things for me. Enough is enough. Initially, the nurse on the phone was a little hesitant to give me the number. When she finally told me, I was like “wow! That’s kind of a jump there!” She agreed and said in an unsure way “I guess we’ll keep monitoring it for now”. No. Not ok. That’s when I told her in that I was no longer comfortable with “monitoring” and I felt it was time to do some more thorough imaging to find this stuff. She sounded almost relieved, and agreed with me immediately. “The doctor’s still here in his office. Hang on while I go talk to him”. So she left me there on hold, in the middle of the high school hallway waiting to talk to the Spanish teacher for parent teacher conferences, and went to go hash out my future with the doctor.
Bottom line: we’ll do another whole body scan, a PET scan, and a CT scan as soon as it can be approved by my insurance and set up. It’s a little tricky, since I live in the middle of nowhere. The scan entails going once again on a low iodine diet for two weeks, then going to Wisconsin for a shot, spending the night, getting a radioactive pill the next day, then coming back three days later for the scan. The shot alone is reportedly $2000, so insurance is pretty important here. Sounds like I will miss most of a week of work just getting a single scan, which wouldn’t be the case if I lived closer. The goal of the Thyrogen shot is to increase my suppressed TSH from .08 to over 30 in a matter of days, before taking another radiodine pill. That’s a big change, and will probably make me feel pretty crummy, like I did before radiation. But it’s better than going off my thyroid meds for 6-8 weeks like I did before, so I can handle it. It is essentially the same preparation as I did Radioiodine ablation two years ago, just the sped-up version. And I won’t be nearly as radioactive this time;).
Anyways. That’s where we’re at. As much as I don’t like the big jump in tumor marker, it does feel good to do SOMETHING, to feel a little on the offensive, rather than just sitting back and watching the cancer grow. If we can find the dang stuff, we will schedule surgery to cut it out. That’s a path forward that could potentially lead to an END and that’s what I want.
Dear Lord, I pray that Your will be done in all things, but You know the desire of my heart. Please grant wisdom to my doctors, accuracy for the tests, and a clear path to follow towards healing. Through it all, I ask for continued peace, found only in resting and trusting in You. Thank you Lord.
Amen.
