Status Update: 4 years In

 Went back to Mayo last week for a 6 month (well, 7 month because of COVID) follow up.   We're four years into this cancer gig... starting to think it's just going to be a part of my life from here on out.  Rob went with me, and we made it a little mid-week getaway, which was nice.  He did ALL the driving, and luckily the roads were good, even in mid-January.  We did a little shopping, went out to dinner (restaurants are open in Minnesota!  They aren't in Michigan - so we took advantage).  Had an ultrasound, some blood work, and then met with Dr. Stan the Man.  

Results: Status quo.  Which means good.  The one nodule they can visualize with ultrasound stayed essentially the same size and is poorly vascularized, which means that radioiodine in June of 2019 effectively stunted the growth - which is AWESOME.  Tumor marker went from 1.9 to 2.2, but that's not much of a change.  Basically, the stuff is there but behaving itself, and that is GOOD NEWS.  I asked the doctor about the COVID vaccine.  I know this is an mRNA vaccine that hijacks a cell's own "factory" to create the COVID spike protein for an immune response.  What happens if the vaccine enters a cancer cell?  There's no research on the effects of this vaccine on cancer patients, so I've held off, even though I could get it through the hospital.  Was just hoping for a little more research and data to be determined before taking it, but Dr. Stan said "either the cancer cell will make the spike protein or it won't.  There are no other things that it can do with the mRNA".... such as make the cancer go super active, which is what I was afraid of.  So, I guess there's no good reason NOT to get the vaccine at this point, although I'm still a tad nervous about how new it all is.  There is no research on long term effects for a vaccine that took 10 months to create.  But... it should be good.  This is all besides the point.

Dr. Stan also asked if I wanted a referral to an ENT to see about a procedure to "bulk up" my paralyzed vocal cord.  "Well, " says I.  "My single working vocal cord is super loud.  I can yell at my kids just fine.  I can swallow most things most of the time.  The only thing I can't do very well anymore is jog."

"Do you want to jog?" asks he?

I thought about it for a hot second.  "I'm almost 50 years old.  No.  I don't want to jog anymore.  I can walk and ski and snowshoe and hike.  That is fine.  I don't need to jog anymore."

So that's that.  He said if I ever did want to take up jogging again, to let him know and we'd do the procedure, but at the moment, I feel like I'm very functional and we should just leave well enough alone.  

So good report, good little mid-winter getaway with my husband, and all is well in cancer land!