my thyroid cancer story
by kellie

Hi all, this is my story of dealing with Thyroid Cancer.  Luckily, my cancer was found early and was dealt with. If you have any questions after reading my story I'd love to hear from you or if you are battling this disease too, feel free to email me.

  March 30, 2010 

As promised, I got the results of my thyrogen shot testing of last week. My ENDO called and said my Thyroglobulin was .01, a low reading which is indicate of being cancer-free, and was nothing to be concerned about. YAY!!!!!

March 13, 2010

I’m due for the last part of the treatment process the end of this month where I’ll receive shots to “stir up” the cells in the neck cavity to make sure there aren’t any hidden cancer cells.  Only then can I be considered cured or in remission.  But I am positive and try not to worry about it.  My appointment is on March 23rd and I will update you more then for those that are following my story  :)

February 12, 2005:

My endocrinologist noticed that my thyroid gland was noticeably swollen.  An ultrasound showed two thyroid nodules.  They had increased in size since my last visit when I would receive routine checks on my thyroid.  At that point, they had been previously sampled on a routine basis, and showed no cancerous results.  I was advised that nothing further needed to be done and just to keep an eye on it.  I totally trust my endocrinologist ("endo") who had also been taking care of me for my for diabetes.

May 21, 2005:

I starting thinking that I would feel better if these growths were again analyzed so my endo scheduled another biopsy.  This biopsy showed "two large predominantly solid complex bilateral thyroid nodules, both increased in size" (from the last biopsy).  However, both indicated no malignant results.  My endo continued to say that unless they posed a swallowing or cosmetic problem, there was really nothing that needed to be done.

June 2008:

Skip to three years later. I noticed that I had trouble swallowing and my thyroid was growing in size to the point that I could actually feel and see the nodules.  The physical symptoms I was having were: extreme tiredness, achey and weak limbs, moodiness, a 'brain fog" feeling, and was always hot.  I scheduled an appointment with my endo who did indeed agree that the nodules had grown and since they were causing me trouble, it was his recommendation my thyroid be removed--a thyroidectomy. 

June 9, 2008:

Today I had a Subtotal Thyroidectomy.  All went well and I was up and running with a week.  My surgeon was sending a tissue sample to the lab but stated that "everything looked good".  I was given thyroid replacement medicine.  For anyone that has thyroid problems, finding the right level of medicine is total trial and error.

June 17, 2008:

I went for my 2 weeks follow up to my thyroid surgeon to have the stitches removes.  The biopsy report from the tissue they removed was back and nothing could have prepared for me what I was going to hear:  "there were findings of Papillary and Follicular Cancers".  I was stunned.  No one, even the doctors, had suspected this was the problem.  Ok, so at this point all sorts of things are going through my head.  Is it treatable?  How long has it been there before my thyroid was removed?  Is it all gone?  Am I going to die?  The cancer was out but they scheduled a follow-up radioactive treatment followed by a complete body scan to make sure that all they cancerous tissue and cells were removed.

August 20, 2008:

I had full body scan followed by a radioactive iodine treatment.  I was advised that it can take up to a year for the full effects of the radioactive iodine treatment to take effect.  I would continue to have bloodwork to monitor my thyroglobulin (Tg) levels until then.

June 20, 2009:

This brings us to June 20, 2009 where blood work showed my thyroid levels were off.  My Tg level test was highly elevated and my endo strongly felt this was indicative of thyroid tissue still remaining in my neck/throat.  He sent me to a new surgeon at a different hospital for a deep bed ultrasound.  This test showed that I had a substantial mass, which the endo has suspected was the reason for the elevated Tg level, and that it had to be removed.

August 21, 2009:

I underwent a substantial mass surgery.  Again, it was fairly easy and I was in very little pain and back to work in a week.  At this time, no cancer was found in the mass that had been removed!

February 3, 2010

It's still trial and error with my thyroid replacement med but so far so good.  I am no longer tired or moody (well, unless you ask my husband *S*, and the only thing left to do now is to get thyrogen shots to test the cells in the thyroidal area to ensure there are no leftover cancerous cells in my body.  My Thyroglobulin ("Tg") test indicated that there were none, but the thyrogen tests do a double check on this.  So, I will be updating this page after I get the test shots done.

I hope you've enjoyed my story.  I have found a wealth of really great resources on the Net for thyroid and thyroid cancer.  The best site I can recommend is http://www.thyca.org (Thyroid Cancer's Survivor Association).  They have information, plenty of links for most everything you want to know, diet tips, and you can even be paired up with a member whose "been there".  Check it out!

I have a cancer blog here: