It looks like we made a mistake in deciding to
take out only half of my thyroid. We just got back from my post op visit with the surgeon. The nodules they went in to take out were
benign but a small (.8 cm) malignant tumor was found in other parts of the thyroid. Now I have to
decide if I want to have the other half taken out and then take the radioactive
iodine treatment or if I want to wait and watch. He says they don't treat
thyroid cancer as aggressively as they used to. People used to hear
"cancer" and they did everything possible to get rid of it. Now
they have a tendency to just see how things go (considering my age, as he
pointed out). I have an appointment with a thyroid cancer specialist on
Wednesday. We'll make a decision from there. I'm a little
dismayed. Maybe I should have followed the first doctor's advice and just
had the whole thing out the next Tuesday. Instead I've been messing
around for four months and I'm right back from whence I started.
Wednesday,
April 25, 2012
It’s not hard to make a decision when you’re
talking to the #1 Thyroid Cancer Specialist in Utah; especially when he’s cool,
calm, and collected.
The thyroid cancer was not at all where they
expected it to be. It wasn’t in the nodules. They found it
incidentally when taking the suspicious nodules out.
Thyroid cancer is slow-growing.
Will it spread?
All cancers spread. The larger the cancer,
the faster it spreads. Cancers spread at different rates and in different
places.
My classification: Thyroid Carcinoma with
Focal Tall Cell Features, 0.8 CM.
Anything under .5 cm, they definitely do nothing.
Larger, you have an option. They used to take them all out aggressively
because people were scared of cancer but now they are scaling back and waiting.
What are the chances it’s in the other side?
10 to 30% higher risk.
Options:
1. Take out the other
side. If it is cancerous, be treated with radioactive iodine.
2. Watch it. Have an
ultrasound every six months for two years at least. If things change,
you can have it out at any time.
If you were to do an autopsy on patients who died
of non-cancer related issues (stroke, heart attack, etc.), 30% of them would
have cancer cells in their thyroid and didn’t even know it. They
didn’t die from it.
"I wish we had taken the whole thyroid out as
originally planned."
"Have no regrets," he advised
wisely.
"All surgeries are a risk. Thyroid
medication is a risk." At my age, thyroid cancer is less likely to
be my cause of death.
"Nevertheless, if you are going to lie awake
nights worrying about the cancer, we need to treat it."
I’m ready to get on with living: Mop the
floors, dust, plant the garden, vacuum. Maybe even cook. Well,
that’s going a little too far. “When are we going to St. George?”
DeRay doesn’t show it, but he’s been under a lot
of stress; not only with me but with apartment related business due to Les
going on a mission before things were settled, meeting the deadline on
complicated taxes he left until the last minute; broken furnace; problems at
the SunRiver property.. He’s calling for a doctor’s appointment at this
moment. His turn.
Art Linkletter, Bette Davis, Groucho Marx,
Katharine Hepburn and everyone else were right when they said, Old Age
Ain’t for Sissies.
Of course, they're all dead.
Of course, they're all dead.
3 comments:
I take your post as good news, well,maybe silver threads among the gold.
I feel as relieved as if it were good news. It's been 4 months since my primary care doctor first told me that I probably have thyroid cancer. It's time to get on.
and you ain't no sissy....
so just live your life like you always have done. :)
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