Cancer News

I didn’t quite know what to title this post…it could be “Busy Day”…”Day with Family”….”Eating Real Food”….many different titles would fit the post but I think most of what you all want to know is “what did I find out at the doctor’s office”.

Here’s the scoop.  Today I went to the doctor for the full body thyroid cancer scan.  It’s a 90 mile trip one way and I had some company for the ride.  Kayla and Kelli and Georgie came as my support team.

This was the fourth time I was to Lacrosse in the week.  As early I had to come for shots and tests doses of Radioactive Active Iodine to prepare me for the test.  Here’s the bridge crossing the Mississippi.

First it was a blood draw.  The gal had to stick me twice as she didn’t get it the first time.  Then off to the scan.  This time it was a little different.  First I did the regular scan but because I didn’t have enough iodine left in my bloodstream they had to do a second test.  For the first one I had to lay in the machine for a half hour….the second one, for 40 minutes.  For this these tests, I lay in a tube and have a machine about 1 1/2″ away from my nose.  If you are claustrophobic, you would likely hate this test.  They regularly give people lorazepam to help with anxiety before the test.  I never take anything.  I’ve learned if I just keep my eyes closed and sing church hymns to myself, I’m just fine.

I got out of the test and the girls had chips for me!!  Ah…good ole’ salty chips.  Oh salt, restaurant food, butter, cheese, sour cream, how I have missed you!!

After the tests, off we went to find more FOOD.  I could finally eat, and eat we did.  The Old Crow in Lacrosse is AWESOME.  If you are vegan or vegetarian, they have a VERY friendly menu for you.  That’s why Kayla was all smiles.
Here’s my food.  Ah, yummy restaurant food.  How I have missed you.  Remember I’ve been on that low iodine diet this week??  I’ve missed food with flavor.  There are LOTS of flavors here and I loved them all.

I did learn that my tummy has shrunk though.  After two weeks of eating mostly fruit and veggies, my tummy did not have room for all of this.  So I ate half and took half home for later.

From there it was off to the scrubs store so Kelli could buy new scrubs for work.  From there back to the clinic for my appointment with Dr. Thida.

We waited for a bit as we were back early but then we were called back and I got the news…. The news is…. no news.  You read that right.  After the diet and the week long prep for the scan, nothing showed up on the scan.  Nothing.  I guess that’s good news.  The cancer is small enough it can’t be seen on testing…but it’s here somewhere in my body….somewhere, but we don’t know where.  It’s lurking…but hiding.  So what do we do?  What do we do?

Well..we did make a plan and this is it.  Dr. Thida does “tumor clinic”.  Every month a team of doctors get together and discuss cases that are troubling.  Mine is a troubling case.  They would talk about my case there and team of doctors would chime in with their suggestions.  It’s not typical for them to treat anyone blindly without being about to see a cancer but for me, it might be necessary.  We could also wait six months and go through the same testing again, hoping it would show up…if it did, then we’d know what to treat.

Well the doctors don’t meet until November 7th.  So nothing would be know until then.  I can expect a call from Doctor Thida on the 7th.  At that time she will tell me either the doctors recommend waiting the 6 months and try testing again, or to go ahead and treat me blindly.

The problem with treating blindly is that a person can only have so much radioactive iodine in a lifetime.  We don’t want to use up my chances of treatment quickly.

The other recommendation might be giving me a treatment dose of Radioactive Iodine.  If that happens, I have to make the trips to Lacrosse for shots and a treatment dose much I did this past week.  Then I’d have to be off of childcare for 18 days as I would be radioactive.

So, I’m not going to worry about it until the 8th.  I have a break until then and although I’m a little disappointed that something isn’t a little more conclusive, I’m relieved to know I’m not full of cancer…so we carry on.  There are quilts to make.  There are kids to care for and there is pizza to eat so off we went to Luna Valley Pizza.

Kayla has wanted to go and it was on our way home.  So we stopped by for an early supper.  Karl got off work early and met us there.  I love this picture.
Kelli was not a huge fan of the pizza.  It was good she said but not as good as we raved.  In the defense of pizza, Kelli doesn’t like banana peppers or “strange” things on pizza…like the October version that had apples on it.  Give that girl a meat pizza and that’s what she likes.

Kayla, Karl and I all love the goodness of different flavors and off the normal things added together.
The atmosphere is great…there were so many families there.  The kids just love running in the tall grass and hanging out while the pizzas cook.  I was glad to go during the day.

By the time we left the lines were getting long.  We didn’t wait at all but had come at 4:15 or so.
Thanks to all of you who have hung out with me and thought of me this week as I prepped for the test.  I have to give a HUGE shout out to my childcare families.  They have been such troopers.  I know it’s hard for them to find care when I’m closed.

I’m not taking today as either bad news or good news.  It’s all just news…and I’m here another day to tell it so I guess that’s good, right??