Praising the Lord in a Port-A-Potty

I praised the Lord in a porta-potty this morning. After watching an hour of Brendan’s hour and a half quarterback lesson in the increasing cold (and then itstarted to drizzle), I had to pee and found a porta-potty just in the nick of time. “Praise the Lord,” I said out loud several times while I was in there. (It’s the little things in life that I am most grateful for.) I wondered if God minds receiving praise from locales as unsavory as porta-potties. Probably not. And that’s one more thing that makes Him such a cool God.

Hypo Hell? Not This Time

I woke up in a really good mood today. I can’t believe the amount of energy I’ve had, despite going off my Synthroid almost three weeks ago. It’ll be three weeks on Sunday. Today is Day 19, and my TSH should be somewhere between 28 and 38. How do I know this? Well, I don’t, but I can make a fairly educated guess because I just made a graph of my TSH levels showing both of the times I’ve gone hypo before this. The graphs look almost identical. For example, on Day 25 the first time, my TSH was 59.78. On Day 25 the second time, my TSH was 60.27. [Note added later: My TSH was 40 that day. My graph was pretty close.]

Anyway, the subject was supposed to be my good mood and how fantastic I have felt during this hypo. I’ve been so lucky. My only side effects this time have been feeling a little hyper during the day, a little gassy, sometimes it feels like a big effort to hold my arms over my head for a few minutes (like when I wash my hair in the shower or comb it afterwards), I dream more and have weirder dreams, and I fall asleep on the couch at night earlier than I used to. Once in a while, I feel like I’m going to faint if I get up too quickly from sitting on the floor, but that happens to me whether I’m off Synthroid or not. Overall, it has been a piece of CAKE (low-iodine, of course).

I got my blood drawn this morning to check my TSH, and I should know the number tomorrow. (I’ll add it to the graph!) At the lab where I always have my blood drawn, the ladies who work there kind of know me by now since I’ve been going every 6 weeks or so for the last year. They are always really nice. The lady who drew my blood this morning said I was brave after she stuck the needle in my arm, which cracked me up. I’m a 42-year-old woman, for goodness sake! I should hope that by now I wouldn’t be a nervous wreck to have my blood drawn. Walking out of the lab, I felt so happy and upbeat, and I had all kinds of energy today all day. I didn’t even have the usual afternoon sleepiness I get in regular life, and I think it’s because I’ve been keeping myself really busy.

I’m continuing to nest. I’ve got the house almost “ready.” I still need to finish vacuuming and dusting the living room and family room, but other than that, it’s pretty much good to go. I’ve got Jack a shirt for his baptism on Sunday, and I have stocked both refrigerators with lots of good food for Pommy and Jack (and Brendan this weekend, when he’s here), and it’s been making me feel very good to get things all stocked up. I feel like I’m preparing for a storm or something—getting all the supplies we’ll need before the thunder starts. Speaking of thunder, it thundered and lightninged (not words, I’m sure) like crazy the other morning at 2 am. It woke me up from a weird dream I was having about a kindergarten teacher at Jack’s school.

But I feel like I’m getting things ready for armageddon or a birth or a transformation. I might be trying to distract myself from thoughts of how much I’m going to miss hugging my family every day for the first few days and how hard it’s going to be not to snuggle with Taco and Brady. Taco sits on my lap every night when I settle down to watch TV, and I’m not going to be able to do that for several days. I don’t know if it’s going to be harder on her or me. (We’re both big babies.)

I feel God’s presence in my life today. I feel peaceful, happy, content. I feel encouraged about the future.

There's No Such Thing as a Good Cancer

--- In Thyca@yahoogroups.com, "cindylew117"
Hi
Had my first appointment with the surgeon today, my tt will be on June 8th. Now I understand that I have papillary, which I understand is the most curable. (I can't say good cancer there is no good cancer if you ask me, and I hate when people say that) Anyway, the doctor, who I know is very good, and I definitely do want to use him, said that he believes it has spread to my lymphnodes, and he has to remove the infected ones, and biopsy them. Now if this is not an aggresive type, how did it spread to my lymphnodes. This does make me nervous. But he also told me surgery and the RAI will cure me. I guess I was a bit surprised to hear that we went from a 2 hour surgery to a 4-5 hour surgery. Am I being rediculous?
Cindy


Hi, Cindy.
First of all,
:--)
Monday, June 8, the day you have your TT, is the day I have my second RAI treatment of 150 mCi. I'm a year and 4 months past my TT and a year and 3 months past my first ablation, which was also 150 mCi. I have gone down the well-traveled roads of research and prayer and have come from where you are (pre-surgery jitters) through a search for a good endo to where I am now--at peace with having a second RAI treatment. My docs don't consider my elevated Tg a recurrence--rather, persistent disease, which makes sense to me. The surgery and first ablation just didn't get it all the first time around. It happens.

I wanted to tell you a few things from first-hand experience to make you feel better and more hopeful about your journey:

1) My surgery was a breeze. Woke up the next morning full of energy, was driving 3 days later (could turn my head very well), and was back to normal in a very short time. Scar hardly noticeable at all.
2) RAI treatment, for me, wasn't all that eventful--even quite hypo (TSH >60), I only felt a little tired, and after the treatment, I lost my sense of taste for 4-5 weeks, but I hardly had any salivary gland issues at all (a few times I had soreness, which I massaged away). I considered these to be minor inconveniences.
3) You're not being ridiculous at all. This is the perfect place to ask questions and ask for support--no question is a dumb or ridiculous one.
4) I had lymph node spread, too, and having spread to lymph nodes doesn't negatively affect your prognosis.
5) Your surgeon *expecting* to find lymph node spread is actually a good thing--knowing that going into the surgery makes it more likely that your surgeon will be extra "definitive" about lymph node dissection (removal). My surgeon just took out the ones that looked suspicious, and all 5 he took out were malignant. I wish he'd removed more so we could have a better idea of the extent of lymph node spread, but that's not what happened. I've learned to accept this. You have the benefit of an experienced surgeon who is going into the surgery expecting to remove at least some lymph nodes. In my opinion, that's to your advantage.

Hope all this helps. Best of luck to you, Cindy! We're here if you need us!

Sincerely,

Lynn in Orange County, California

Dr. Ain Weighs In

--- On Tue, 5/26/09, lpomije Dear Dr. Ain,
After a second (empiric) dose of 150 mCi RAI to treat stimulated Tg of
22 (no TgAb) and WBS showing uptake in the neck but negative u/s and
negative MRI, when should the following be done:

-u/s
-suppressed Tg/TgAb
-stimulated Tg/TgAb
-WBS (not the post-treatment WBS, but well after that)

Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Lynn in Orange County, California
.......
4/13/09 TSH 60.27; Tg 22
4/16/09 WBS: "linear" uptake in neck
......

Dear TCH Members,

Often, "linear" uptake in the neck is not coming from thyroid cancer, but rather
from radioactive saliva that is coating the esophagus. I have my patients peel
and eat a large lemon (as if it is an orange) one hour before their scan, then
swish & swallow a mouthful of water every 10 minutes until the scan is started.
This has been effective in reducing the error of mistaking salivary
contamination from actual tumor.

Anytime that an empiric treatment of radioiodine is administered for elevated
thyroglobulin (using a hypothyroid preparation and a low iodine diet), it should
be followed (within 2 to 7 days) by a "post-therapy" whole body scan. If the
scan demonstrates uptake of the radioiodine in a tumor site, then it suggests
possibly effective treatment, if no uptake, it still might have been of benefit.
I restudy the patient with a stimulated thyroglobulin (hypothyroid or Thyrogen)
6 months later. If the thyroglobulin is NOT significantly reduced (accounting
for Thyrogen increasing the thyroglobulin to only one third of the level seen
with hypothyroidism), then it signals that the residual thyroid cancer is no
longer responsive to radioactive iodine.

**************PLEASE BE ADVISED*********************
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS COMMUNICATION IS INTENDED
FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. IT IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD
IT BE CONSTRUED, AS SPECIFIC MEDICAL ADVICE OR DIRECTIONS. ANY
PERSON VIEWING THIS INFORMATION IS ADVISED TO CONSULT THEIR OWN
PHYSICIAN(S) ABOUT ANY MATTER REGARDING THEIR MEDICAL CARE.
************************************************
Kenneth B. Ain, M.D.
Professor of Medicine & The Carmen L. Buck Chair of Oncology Research
Director, Thyroid Oncology Program
Division of Endocrinology & Molecular Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine, Room MN524
University of Kentucky Medical Center, 800 Rose Street, Lexington, KY
40536-0298
& Director, Thyroid Cancer Research Lab., Veterans Affairs Med. Cntr, Lexington, KY