Heard from the doctor's office this morning. Leanne, my favorite nurse, is awesome. "You're in your car? You're not driving are you?" No, Leanne. I am in my car, but I wasn't driving. I was sitting in the driver's seat with a pen and paper at the ready, because... these are important results. Give it to me.
She, again, was very hesitant and careful about what she said, which raised my antenna. Before giving my results she said "you said you were going to request your own copy of the report. Have you done that yet?" Yes, I told her. I'd requested but hadn't received it yet. That's a weird question. "OK. Because you know, you're going to see things on there. And the doctor really wants to explain it to you in person. He wants you to come for a 40 minute appointment as soon as we can get you in." OK. That also does not bode well. What did the report say??? "Well," she continued, "we know that three lymph nodes lit up on the scan. He doesn't think these are surgical candidates. And all the other stuff on the report... he wants to talk to you in person about that." Other stuff? "It's very technical and detailed. So... he just wants to make sure he's available in case you have questions. And he'd like to refer you to the Mayo Clinic." OK. I had already decided that the Mayo Clinic was most likely in my future, but since he was suggesting it... that's a for sure thing.
Bottom line, my tumor marker TG, when stimulated by those Thyrogen shots (TSH rose to 167 from .08... it did it's job well!), rose from 8.1 to 28. Given that one unit of stimulated TG = approximately 1 gram of cancer, and a whole thyroid is about 20 grams, we can surmise that there's now more cancer in there somewhere than the whole of my thyroid to begin with. And the report with the details of the "other stuff" has yet to arrive from medical records, but I'm guessing that three little lymph nodes do not contain 28 grams of cancer. Scenario #3 may be in play, but I'm not going to go there until I see it in the report, and talk to the doctor.
For now, next step is more blood work next week, and then meet with Dr. Sheehan on Good Friday (the most sorrowful day of the year???? Let's hope that's not an omen of bad news either!). And let's hope medical records gets off their tookis' and get that report to me pronto!
ADDENDUM: FINALLY, after three phone calls, and on the third day of me pestering them, medical records sent me the PET/CT report. Seeing things in black and white is so much better than imagining all the terrible scenarios that it could be. The report said that there were mets to three small nodes in my neck: one beside my trachea, one on my esophagus, and one behind my carotid artery. Location explains why these might not be surgical candidates... the risk of cutting them out is too great. The "other stuff"? Apparently that nodule in my lung, the one we've known about since March of 2017, but after two CT scans they thought must be benign, well... it grew. Not a ton in the past two years, but it went from 5 mm to 8 mm. So they can't rule out that it's metastasis to the lungs, because a benign nodule wouldn't grow. Don't know where all of this leaves us, treatment wise. It's possible we're entering "watch and wait" mode again, since surgery isn't an immediate option. Or maybe more radioiodine? External beam radiation? I really don't know. Thus, we will meet with my doctor to discuss options, and then go to Mayo, to see what they think, too.
So for now, the relief of just knowing what I'm dealing with has brought some sembelance of peace, and a plan of action (even if the plan is to meet to come up with a plan).
Moving on.
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