| Index | Recent Threads | Unanswered Threads | Who's Active | Guidelines | Search |
 |
World Community Grid Forums
Category: Community
Forum: Caring and Sharing
Thread: doing much better radiation next (revised topic) |
| No member browsing this thread |
|
Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 75
|
|
| Author |
|
|
nasher
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Dec 2, 2005 Post Count: 1423 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
That's a place that's ALWAYS good to get out of!  Hope your recovery goes smoothly. My understanding is that the radioactive iodine is used to make sure they got all of the thyroid cells. I would expect they are checking to see if the cancer has spread any. With no thyroid, you'll be on Synthroid (or the generic) for the rest of your life. You may find that you're going to be more sensitive to the cold and can get chilled easier. Until you get your dosage worked out and your body gets stabilized on that dosage, you may find yourself a bit irritable and such. Hormones, or the lack thereof, can mess with a lot of things. On my drug plan at least, I don't see any real difference in the cost of Synthroid vs. generic but Synthroid does seem to absorb into my system better. You'll always want to take either first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and wait 45-60 minutes before eating. Otherwise, the food can reduce how much of the dosage gets into your system. You'll be seeing an endocrinologist at least yearly with blood tests to check your hormone levels. They may adjust your dosage level based on that. Expect your initial dosage level to change probably within the first year.actualy right now they have me on liothyroninr 2x a day. so you dont have to google it its a short acting T3 only. i am curnetly not geting any T4 replacement and the T3 one is very short acting. The doctors tell me that is because if they do Radioactive Iodine they need to drop the replacement thyroid meds to basicaly as close to zero as they can. Once they are done with the radioactive Iodine (or decide i dont need it) they will be putting me on a normal thyroid med. i also found out that when they removed my thyroid they also removed to of the parathyroids cause they were inside the thyroid itself. cause of that i am on suppliments of calcium and magnesium till the remaining 2 parathyroids get to full function. and yes my moods, and my hormones are all out of wack.. i also have eithor no energy or feel like i just downed 20 expressos.  i find out on tuesday the continuation of the plan and the final disision on if they are going to allow me to do the other surgery i need (stapedectomy <--repair the bones in my middle ear so i can hear better) i have about a 85db loss in both ears for the past 1.5 years. or if the radioactive Iodine is more important to get done and they bump the hearing surgery again :( but yes i am recovering and in good spirits most the time. Thanks for your careing and support. if i am not already cancer free i am going to beet it.. if i am cancer free i can continue on with life. and from the tests on they thyroid they removed there were only 2 spots of cancer and it looks like we got it before it spread through the thyroid and it dosnt look like any cancer got anywhere else (fingers crossed still)  |
||
|
|
JmBoullier
Former Community Advisor Normandy - France Joined: Jan 26, 2007 Post Count: 3715 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
Count two more pairs of fingers crossed, nasher!
---------------------------------------- Thanks for the news, and keep on fighting! |
||
|
|
keithhenry
Ace Cruncher Senile old farts of the world ....uh.....uh..... nevermind Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 18665 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
|
That's a place that's ALWAYS good to get out of! Hope your recovery goes smoothly. My understanding is that the radioactive iodine is used to make sure they got all of the thyroid cells. I would expect they are checking to see if the cancer has spread any. With no thyroid, you'll be on Synthroid (or the generic) for the rest of your life. You may find that you're going to be more sensitive to the cold and can get chilled easier. Until you get your dosage worked out and your body gets stabilized on that dosage, you may find yourself a bit irritable and such. Hormones, or the lack thereof, can mess with a lot of things. On my drug plan at least, I don't see any real difference in the cost of Synthroid vs. generic but Synthroid does seem to absorb into my system better. You'll always want to take either first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and wait 45-60 minutes before eating. Otherwise, the food can reduce how much of the dosage gets into your system. You'll be seeing an endocrinologist at least yearly with blood tests to check your hormone levels. They may adjust your dosage level based on that. Expect your initial dosage level to change probably within the first year.actualy right now they have me on liothyroninr 2x a day. so you dont have to google it its a short acting T3 only. i am curnetly not geting any T4 replacement and the T3 one is very short acting. The doctors tell me that is because if they do Radioactive Iodine they need to drop the replacement thyroid meds to basicaly as close to zero as they can. Once they are done with the radioactive Iodine (or decide i dont need it) they will be putting me on a normal thyroid med. i also found out that when they removed my thyroid they also removed to of the parathyroids cause they were inside the thyroid itself. cause of that i am on suppliments of calcium and magnesium till the remaining 2 parathyroids get to full function. and yes my moods, and my hormones are all out of wack.. i also have eithor no energy or feel like i just downed 20 expressos. i find out on tuesday the continuation of the plan and the final disision on if they are going to allow me to do the other surgery i need (stapedectomy <--repair the bones in my middle ear so i can hear better) i have about a 85db loss in both ears for the past 1.5 years. or if the radioactive Iodine is more important to get done and they bump the hearing surgery again :( but yes i am recovering and in good spirits most the time. Thanks for your careing and support. if i am not already cancer free i am going to beet it.. if i am cancer free i can continue on with life. and from the tests on they thyroid they removed there were only 2 spots of cancer and it looks like we got it before it spread through the thyroid and it dosnt look like any cancer got anywhere else (fingers crossed still) Sounds like all good news to me (relatively speaking that is ). Your temporary thyroid med makes sense as I suspect that they will want to see none of the thyroid hormones in the blood work they'll do once the radiation therapy is done. From what my endo has told me and my own experience, once you're on the replacement Synthroid and your body has settled back down, you won't notice much if any impact if you miss a day. As my endo put it, it has a long half-life. If you have any drug coverage, check the pricing on the various dosages of Synthroid and the generic version. If it's enough for the savings with generic to be worthwhile, get your doc to prescribe generic. Don't be switching back and forth. With the generic, you may need a slightly higher dosage as the generic doesn't absorb into your system as well as the brand name. You'll want to always double check the prescription you get to make sure you're not getting switched inadvertently (that little notation that allows generic substitution for a brand name med). I believe you're right about being cancer free too. From my understanding, if they thought it could have possibly spread, they would have taken some lymph nodes with the thyroid to check for that. Since you don't mention that, I think they are of the view that your case was localized. Still, I'd ask about that since it's your neck on the line!  Good luck and we all hope to hear more good news from you here! |
||
|
|
Hypernova
Master Cruncher Audaces Fortuna Juvat ! Vaud - Switzerland Joined: Dec 16, 2008 Post Count: 1908 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
You will beat that cancer nasher.
---------------------------------------- Keep us posted.  |
||
|
|
nasher
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Dec 2, 2005 Post Count: 1423 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
If you have any drug coverage, check the pricing on the various dosages of Synthroid and the generic version. If it's enough for the savings with generic to be worthwhile, get your doc to prescribe generic. Don't be switching back and forth. With the generic, you may need a slightly higher dosage as the generic doesn't absorb into your system as well as the brand name. You'll want to always double check the prescription you get to make sure you're not getting switched inadvertently (that little notation that allows generic substitution for a brand name med). I believe you're right about being cancer free too. From my understanding, if they thought it could have possibly spread, they would have taken some lymph nodes with the thyroid to check for that. Since you don't mention that, I think they are of the view that your case was localized. Still, I'd ask about that since it's your neck on the line! Good luck and we all hope to hear more good news from you here! im military.. so i have the military health plan. yes they think it was localized and did not touch the lymph nodes |
||
|
|
keithhenry
Ace Cruncher Senile old farts of the world ....uh.....uh..... nevermind Joined: Nov 18, 2004 Post Count: 18665 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
im military.. so i have the military health plan. Hey, thanks for serving!!! yes they think it was localized and did not touch the lymph nodes That is definitely good. Still, cancer is so hydra-like, you never really fully relax afterwards. |
||
|
|
nasher
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Dec 2, 2005 Post Count: 1423 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
well they are doing my ear surgery on Friday ... once i recover from that they will do the radioactive iodine then once recovered will do my other ear... so sounds like im setup for surgery's and such for the next few months
---------------------------------------- |
||
|
|
Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hello nasher.
Hoping for your successful surgery. Hold tight there soldier, and never say die .; |
||
|
|
bjbdbest
Master Cruncher Joined: May 11, 2007 Post Count: 2333 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
Thoughts and best wishes going your way
---------------------------------------- |
||
|
|
nasher
Veteran Cruncher USA Joined: Dec 2, 2005 Post Count: 1423 Status: Offline Project Badges:
|
well its approaching the time for my radiation treatment (first week of next month) i am healing well and slowly recovering.
----------------------------------------my ear surgery went well. my hearing has definaly had a vast improvement and while there is still swelling i am amazed how loud everything is. oh and i realized a few days ago that i heard birdsong for the first time in i dont know how many years. i did get some minor side effects that they told me i might get 1) i have a strip of loss of taste in my tongue 2) the ringing in my ears has gotten worse but by a marginal factor compared to my hearing increase. 3) i have mild vertigo but seems to be geting better so all and all a major success just time to recover now |
||
|
|
|