hacer memoria...: Still Sans Thyroid!

The other day, I finally heard from my endocrinologist about the results of my thyroid cancer one year follow-up test*, which was basically checking for the presence of any thyroid tissue…my levels were undetectable, meaning that I am still sans thyroid and thus without any signs of any further thyroid cancer!

For those of you who don’t know the whole story, I was diagnosed with papillary carcinoma of the thyroid – a type of thyroid cancer – just over a year ago. I had surgery to remove my entire thyroid and then had a treatment of radioactive iodine to get rid of any remaining thyroid cancer cells. Since then, I’ve been on thyroid suppression therapy (and will be for the rest of my life), which means that I take just enough thyroid hormone replacement to not only keep my body functioning properly but also to hopefully keep any thyroid cancer from growing back.

I haven’t really had much trouble since my surgery except for low calcium levels, which is a common temporary side effect (due to damage of the nearby parathyroid glands during surgery) which has turned out to be permanent for me. So I’ve been back in the hospital several times throughout the year when my calcium gets too low. But it seems like we’ve finally figured out my medications that I need to take to keep my calcium level where it should be, so as long as I’m taking those medications and getting enough calcium in my diet (and avoiding the stomach flu, which recently sent me to the ER, as I couldn’t take my meds nor drink/eat much of anything!), it will be something I have to live with but I should be just fine.

As far as the thyroid cancer goes, since my radioactive iodine scan looked good a year ago and these most recent lab results are negative now, I only have to have check-ups and labs yearly now...and my endocrinologist said that it’s fine with him if I go to Mexico, as long as I come back to visit him once a year!

This whole process, especially during the time of my diagnosis and surgery last year, has been hard...but God has been kind and near to me through it all. He has blessed me with some very supportive friends/family and an amazing trio of doctors – Dr Sedgley, Dr Zera, and Dr Stuart – who have all cared so well for me and for whom I am so thankful. There is a song that I found myself listening to again as I awaited these most recent test results, a song that I often listened to throughout that long hard month of October last year. The words yet again reminded me of my God that is kind and near through that which is hard:

God, my God, I cry out/Your beloved needs You now/God, be near, calm my fear/And take my doubt

Your kindness is what pulls me up/Your love is all that draws me in

I will lift my eyes to the Maker/Of the mountains I can’t climb/I will lift my eyes to the Calmer/Of the oceans raging wild/I will lift my eyes to the Healer/Of the hurt I hold inside/I will lift my eyes, lift my eyes to You

God, my God, let Mercy sing/Her melody over me/God, right here all I bring/Is all of me

'Cause You are and You were and You will be forever/The Love that I need to save me/Cause You fashioned the earth and You hold it together, God/So hold me now

I am so very glad for this good news that I am still cancer-free, but also I know that whatever might happen next in this journey, God will go with me and so I will continue to lift my eyes to Him. As you thank God with me that these recent thyroid cancer follow-up tests were negative, please also be praying for my continued health – especially once I go to Mexico and am farther away from my amazing doctors! And I’d ask you to pray also for K and L, friends who are dealing with thyroid problems as well.

*A bit more explanation for those of you who are more medically inclined, more familiar with thyroid problems, or just curious: This test was a TSH-stimulated serum thyroglobulin level. Thyroglobulin is a protein which is only made by thyroid cells and which then serves as a sort of “tumor marker” for those of us with thyroid cancer status-post total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine treatment. For this test, it was drawn after I received injections of recombinant TSH to stimulate any thyroid tissue that may have remained and therefore cause higher levels of thyroglobulin to be released.