Five Months Ago Today

 Five months ago today, Tanya was diagnosed.  Seems like a lifetime ago, but just yesterday.  Tomorrow is the I-131 (Radioactive Iodine) treatment.  Waiting at John Muir Walnut Creek for the pre-treatment capsule so that a base-line scan can be done tomorrow morning.  CAN'T WAIT FOR THIS TO BE OVER!!!

Finally Feeling Better

 After being sick for close to a week, Tanya is finally feeling better.  Being on the LID, she wasn't able to take any cold meds, so she had to go through it au naturel.  Sucked, but being the trooper that she is, she dealt with it.  How do colds know the perfect time to show up and screw with you???

What a week

It's been a really crazy week.  Between my work (working on the never ending demo setup), getting Tanya's RAI appointment schedule (incompetent medical professionals) and Tanya coming down with the cold the Zachary and then I had, we are ready for this week to be over.

The process of getting the appointment setup was much harder than it should have been.  To get it scheduled, it took Tanya following up with her Endocrinologist's office multiple times (who knew it was so tough to call someone back to discuss what needs to be done, especially when you say that you will), calling the Nuclear Medicine department at the hospital multiple times ('No, we still have not received the faxed order from your doctor's office'), and having to provide the doctor's office with the proper fax number to send the order to.  Not like she isn't under enough stress already!

We were able to confirm that the treatment will happen on the 15th.  Tanya will be making multiple trips to the doctor's office and the hospital the week of the 13th to get all the Thyrogen injections, blood work, scans, etc.  Then comes 3-5 days of isolation followed by another 5 days of no close contact (10 days total).  We can't wait to get all of this over with. 

Low Iodine Diet - Almost done with 1st Week

 I can't believe that we are almost done with the first week of the Low Iodine Diet (LID).  Some of the meals have been better than others; all have been bland.  The 'Scottish Beer Pot Roast' was mediocre at best, the Tabouli Salad was pretty good, and the 'Gypsy Soup' was really good.  Only 2 more weeks to go...

Low Iodine Diet (LID) - Day One

Today starts Tanya's Low Iodine Diet (LID).  So far, so good.

An Update, Finally...

Sorry for not posting anything in such a long time.  Life, work and laziness got the best of me...

It's now been 10 weeks (10 WEEKS!!!) since the surgery.  Tanya is continuing to heal; the scar is getting better, her calcium levels have stabilized, her voice is back to normal, and she is feeling pretty good overall.  It took longer than expected to get the calcium levels to get back to normal (low-normal, but still normal).  She has been going in weekly to get her calcium and PTH (para-thyroid hormone) levels checked, but hopefully that is now over.

At the suggestion of Dr. Hsieh, Tanya has been going to Physical therapy to work on her neck and right shoulder.  Thanks to those appointments and the exercises she is doing at home she is starting to regain the strength and movement she had pre-surgery.

We have finally gotten to the point of setting the date for the radioactive iodine (I-131 or radioiodine) treatment.  We are currently planning for February 15th.  There is a lot to do before the treatment, including a low-iodine diet and some lab work.  The low-iodine diet starts on Monday, and lasts until 3-4 days after treatment.  That makes it about 2 1/2 weeks on it.  Luckily we found a cookbook from ThyCa (Thyroid Cancer Survivors' Association).  It doesn't look terrible, just bland.

We did get good news in that Tanya will be able to get the Thyrogen injections prior to the I-131 treatment.  This means that she doesn't need to go off of her thyroid meds (Levothyroxine), which will make her more comfortable.  We were not sure until this week if she would even be able to get it, as it has been back-ordered for over a year.  We will go in to Dr. Kimmel's (the Endocrinologist) office on the Monday and Tuesday before the I-131 treatment for one injection each day.


I'll post more info shortly.  I promise...  Really! :)

Continuing To Heal

Tanya is continuing to get her strength back and to heal.  The 'steri-strips' that covered the incision have come off so we can see where the doctors worked their magic. It looks really good, better than I could have hoped it would.  I am calling it Tanya's battle scar.  Also Tanya's calcium levels are looking better.  She has to go in for more blood work tomorrow to get it checked again.  Hopefully it will be closer to normal by then.

I can't believe it's been over two weeks since she had the surgery. I also can't believe that my time off of work is coming to an end. I am so grateful to all of my coworkers who filled in for me while I was taking care of the family (you know who you are).

Later this week we have our first post-surgery appointment with the Endocrinologist. Hopefully we will find out when the next step in treatment will happen.

Pathology Report: They Got It

Last Tuesday we had follow-up appointments with Tanya's Surgeons, Dr. Lee and Dr. Hsieh.  Both Surgeons told us that they received the pathology reports from the tissue removed during the procedure.  We were also told us that the results while sounding scary were good.  Nineteen (19) of the twenty-three (23) lymph nodes removed had cancer, which appears to be not that unusual for thyroid cancer.  The report showed that there were clear margins around all the cancerous tissue, so it looks like they got it all.  Tanya will still need radioactive iodine treatment to nuke any of the microscopic cancer remnants that might be left.  We were also told that this was in Stage 1, also really great news.

Parathyroid, Calcium Levels and Blood Tests

We were told that during the surgery it was possible that Dr. Lee might remove one or more parathyroid glands in addition to the thyroid, but that this was common and the parathyroid glands would be reimplanted into the muscle in Tanya's neck.  This did happen.  The parathyroid maintains the calcium levels in the blood, among other things, and we knew that Tanya's calcium level might be a little off for a few days.  When we were discharged on Saturday, the discharge slip contained orders for the blood work for Monday to get the calcium levels checked, and for the results to be sent STAT (within 4 hours) to Tanya's Endocrinologist (Dr. Kimmel) and Dr. Lee.  That should be no issue, right?

When we went to the lab where we have had other work done, they told us that they couldn't take the discharge slip as an order for the STAT blood tests. In addition they couldn't seem to be able to fax the request for the blood work to the Dr. Kimmel's office (tried twice) and couldn't find the Dr. Lee or her office in their system.  The lab did draw Tanya's blood, but wouldn't do any tests on it without the order.  I finally talked to the Dr. Kimmel's office and got them to fax the request to the lab.  This whole process took close to 4 hours.  We found out the next morning that the Dr. Kimmel's office still hadn't received all of the results they needed...

Homecoming

Tanya was released from the hospital after lunch on Saturday. She was kept Friday night due to her calcium levels being low, which is normal in this type of surgery. The test on Saturday showed that the levels were going up, so they said she could come home.

This coming week will include more blood tests and some follow-up appointments with her surgeons and Endocrinologist.

Thank you to everyone who has followed Tanya's journey so far, and have sent their positive thoughts, prayers, and wishes. We have definitely felt them.

Resting Comfortably

Tanya is resting comfortably.  She thanks everyone for all of their good thoughts and wishes.  We don't yet know when she will come home, but should know more tomorrow.

Tanya 1 : cancer 0

That's it cancer, you are out of here. Thyroid is removed along with the lymph nodes on the right side of the neck. Tanya is in recovery now and I hope to see her soon; I can't wait. :)

Long Day

Wake Up at 4:00 AM
Say bye to Zachary at 4:55 AM
Leave for Hospital at 5:00 AM
Check into Hospital at 5:30 AM
wait
wait
wait
wait
Surgery starts at 7:40 AM
wait
wait
wait...

One More Day...

The day we never thought would get here is a day away. I can't be it's been over 2 months since Tanya's diagnosis. Thank you to all of those who have sent email, notes, good thoughts, or who have just kept checking this blog. It all means a lot to us.

Sorry that I haven't posted anything in a while.  Nothing much going on besides waiting, and that's not really interesting to read about.  Tomorrow will be a really long day, but I will update as I can.

Comments

I just realized that I was limiting the ability to add comments, so I have opened the comments to anyone who wants to make them.

The Surgery Date Is Set...

The office of Tanya's primary surgeon (Dr. Lee) has let us know that November 17th is the day.  Tanya is slated for surgery at 7:30 AM (we get to arrive at 5:30 AM).  It is further out than we had hoped, but at least it is now scheduled.

Spleen Ultrasound Results

We heard back from Dr. Lee (Tanya's surgeon) this afternoon with the results of the spleen ultrasound, and it is good news! The spot that Dr. Lee saw on Tanya's spleen from the chest CT appears to be a cyst, and nothing that needs to be worried about right now. We will have it looked at again in 6 months to see if anything has changed. For now it is one less thing to worry about.

An Interesting Article

We came across this article, 'Talking to someone with cancer', in the USA Weekend today. It's an interesting read.

Courage

Courage is looking fear right in the eye and saying, “Get the hell out of my way, I’ve got things to do.” 
- Author Unknown

Still Waiting...

We are still waiting to hear back on the results of the Spleen Ultrasound that Tanya had on Thursday. We hope to find out the results early this week, and also get confirmation on the date for surgery. I will post more as soon as I know more.