Sorry that this has taken me so long to get this out, I know it is a little bit overdue, but I kept feeling like there was more I needed to find out from my doctors before I updated everyone, but I think I know as much as I am going to for now, so here it goes. Also, I want to appoligize for this being so long, but I wanted to tell the whole story.
Back in the fall I had a cyberknife radiation on the tumor in my spine. Then I had a nice long break (almost 2 months) of no doctors appointments from Thanksgiving to after the new year. I think I got a little too used to it, but after the new year started it was back to fighting. I had an MRI that showed that the tumor in my spine had not yet gotten smaller, but it was no larger, so we look at it as a positive. The doctors assured me that it can take months for these treatments to really have an effect. Then I had a PET/CT scan to help decide if we should do another Raidoactive Iodine (I-131) treatment. The scan showed the my lungs look clear (YEA) but that there is a small spot on the right side of my neck, most likely a lymphnode, that looked suspicious as well as the activity in my spine that we already knew about. All of my doctors agreed that I-131 was the way to go, so I went on the Low Iodine Diet and went off my medicine in early March. The last week of March I was at WHC every day for scans and tests to decide just how much Iodine they could give me to be as effective as possible without harming me. I was admitted to the hospital 4-2 overnight where I was given 411 millicuries of Raidoactive Idoine. (I know this probably does not mean much to you, but to put it in perspective they cannot give over 200 without doing the "dosemetery" process that I went through. The doc did say they have given up to almost 900, but that 411 is a very significant dose. Last time in 10-07 I was given 332MCi) I believe that my new Endocrinologist pushed for as high a dose as possible because he knows that I want to be as aggressive as possible, and since I am so young he feels the same way, and feels that I can handle it. I must say that I am so blessed to have Dr Burman as my doctor, he is so wonderful, and truely understands me and how I want to be treated. He understands that Josh and I have plans for our life after this cancer is undercontrol and wants to help us get there. The rest of my medical team is amazing as well, but Dr Burman is kind of the "head chef in the kitchen" and I cannot think of a better person to be there.
Back to the update, I stayed up all night in the hospital chewing gum and sucking on candies to protect my salivary glands, showering, and drinking as much water as possible to try and clear as much Iodine from my system. I was released Friday afternoon, and came home to be "quarentined". Wednesday I went back to WHC for my post therapy scan. Mom went with me since Josh really needed to work. (Just a side note, it was not until my post therapy scan back in Fall 07 that we found the tumor in my lung, so we were a little nervous that again they would find something new, but were trusting God, the doctors, and the loads of tests I have had since then that we were aware of all the metastis) They did the three standard scans, then the doctors took a look and asked for one more of my chest/back. I know mom's heart sunk when they took me away, but I was just praying that they just wanted another view of my spine, which turned out to be the case. The scans show the doctors where in my body the Iodine was taken up. There are particular organs that they know absorb the Idoine, and then any other locations they see are cancer that have taken it up. The spot in my neck and my spine both lit up, which is positive because it means that they are being treated, but there was one spot that was a little suspecious, so they called in another doctor. The mentioned that it could be my "thymus" gland which is known to take up iodine, but it was not really in the right place or qute the right shape. Mom and I were on the verge of panic, but then they thought about my history and realized that because of my lung lobectomy and thyroidectomy my thymus could be displaced. In comparing the scan to my PET/CT they confirmed that this was the case. So all in all, things looked good. There is still cancer in my body, but we know where it all is, and it took up the iodine and is being treated. I feel like it is 1 down, 2 to go becasue there was cancer three places, my neck, lung, and back and now my lungs are clear we just have to get the other two. At this point is is a waiting game to let the treatments I have had work. The Iodine can take 6months to a year to take full effect. They will closely monitor my blood for then next few weeks to make sure my white blood cell counts and other levels are ok, then it will go back to monthly blood work. I go see Dr Burman in a month, then will have another MRI of my spine in a few months, and a PET/CT in August.
I am feeling OK, I am back on my Thyroid Hormone, so my energy level is slowly coming back. They did put me on a steroid (predinsone) during my treatment to reduce the risk of the tumor in my back from swelling and compressing my spinal cord (the iodine can cause things to swell before it starts killing them). Since I have been on them for almost 2 weeks, I have to taper the dose down, rather than just quit taking them, because my body could react badly if I just stopped. The only problem with taking this is that I am retaining alot of fluid in my midsection and face/chin, which makes me feel bloated and yucky, so I cannot wait for that to go away.
I will be going back to work on monday, and I think it will be nice to get back to my normal routine. Just keep praying that this treatment kill the cancer in my body. I was so encouraged by my uncle yesterday. He is a man of few words, but he heard me say "I just hope that this treatment is going to work" and he responded "Hattie, we do not need to hope it will work, we know it is going work".
I want to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers for me, Josh and our family during this season in our life. We will be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary May 20th, and what a ride it has already been. I looked at Josh in the doctors office the other day and realized that three years ago we had no idea that this is where we would be, but God must have something really specail for us in the future to be preparing us like this. We did not think the "in sickness and in health" part of our vows would come so soon, but I am blessed with the best husband in the world, and cannot imagine going through this without him by my side.
Again sorry this is so long, but I hope you are all doing well.
Have a very Happy and Blessed Easter,
Take Care
Hattie
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