“Now if the WBS shows cancer, that’s a whole other blog post.”
Um…
Yeah, well the whole body scan didn’t exactly show “cancer”, but it did show something. Could be residual thyroid tissue, could be cancer, could be some of both. But in any case, whatever it is raises the chances of recurring cancer multi-fold, and regardless, it’s all treated the exact same way. It’s got to be dealt with. Here we go. Again. Deep breath. Ugh.
Let me back up just a bit.
As of that last writing I had been back on my thyroid hormone meds for a short time. James and I bought a mid-sized travel trailer, and we decided to hit the road. For just less than a glorious month we traveled, starting with a couple of nights in Santa Fe, NM, up through the middle of Colorado, landed a few days in the magnificent Grand Tetons, then ultimately spent a whole 12 days outside of Yellowstone. We were in our own Paradise… Beartooth Lake campground! James fished, I took loads of photos of wildflowers and the lake and James fishing, we cooked, took long drives, watched the 4th of July fireworks from Cook City…and recuperated. it was wonderful! I was beginning to get my Pixie back! But we already knew… before we left we’d heard from my doctor that my WBS results showed that something was lurking in my thyroid bed, and no matter what it was we should think about having it ablated. That meant going off-meds yet again, becoming super hypothyroid yet again, fatigue, foggy-headed, emotional, headaches, nightmares, yada yadda yadda…yet again. We finally decided it was time to hitch the trailer, leave our Paradise, and head on home to get the party started. This time the doctor said I would only be off meds for 3 weeks since I really hadn’t been back on them for all that long. Ok cool. I started the dreaded low-iodine diet, (another not-fo-fun aspect of all this is “starving” your body for iodine in prep for the treatment). After much heartache trying to find a hospital that would take our insurance, we got all set up with St. John’s Methodist Nuclear Medicine Department. We had a date. The end was in sight!
And then Hurricane Harvey happened. And Harvey happened hard. So many of our friends, family, neighbors were driven from their homes by the flood waters. James’ home that he co-owns with is sister that we affectionately call The Villa had 33″ of water in it. So much work to be done. And yes, even the hospital where I was due to have the treatment had damage. And so my appointment was put off until they could get it assessed, repair and restock the damaged pharmacy, and get patients rescheduled in the order of need. It would be another 3 weeks before we knew a date.
So here we are. I’ve been off meds for at least 6 weeks, (and remember, I wasn’t fully recovered from the last WBS). I’m seriously feeling like a lead balloon. I went into hospital last week and took The Big Red Pills, have been in “isolation” and then partial “isolation” at home for several days, and will go back to the hospital in 2 more days to be scanned, have my radiation measured, and be released back into the public! HOORAY! Of course, it could be several months to a year before I am back to myself. But I’ve been back on thyroid hormones for about 4 days, and I’m already feeling somewhat better.
That’s just a quick update of all that’s been going on. I have more to say, but I want to do that in another post. I want to talk about the emotional aspect of all of this. I’ve got some things I need to say, but that will be separate from this. I may even get that one started this very afternoon!
Hello Butterfly! 