Second follow up with surgeon

May 6, 2010

Had my second follow up with Dr. Kriesel today. He said that I was healing extremely quickly. Which honestly is very unusual for me. I a normally the slowest healer and major scarrer. But not in this case. So, that has me wondering, if my body was battling against my thyroid as a foreign body has this always caused me to be a slow healer because the white cells, and antibodies and what-nots that handle the healing process have been busy fighting something that was suppose to be there? And now that that battle is "over" they can do what they are really needed to do? Just a thought....

He said I had some swelling in the throat. I'll need to remember to take my ice pack with me to work. We discussed my feeling tired in the afternoons/evenings (boy wish I'd known how bad it would be in the early evening...OMG! to the point of tears!) Since I it has only been two weeks since I'd been on Synthroid he said to watch it for two more weeks and if things don't improve to let him know and he'd take it from there. So we will wait and see.

We discussed the radioactive iodine and he agreed that the usually down play it's affects on a person. So again, realize that I've put my body through a lot in a month. (Gee...where have I heard that...oh yeah. Jeff!)

I asked what they did to my arm during surgery and explained to him the pains and issues I'd been having with it. I figured it may have been hyper extended but unlike other surgeries where my arms are stretched out he said they were down at my side. So I'm wondering if something didn't happen during the transfer from the OR table to the recovery bed or something. It is my left arm and that would have been the side that I would have been moved too. So who knows. He agreed that it would be good to have my chiro and massage therapist have a look and go at it.

He also agreed that adding my chiro back into my care routine is needed. I haven't been able to schedule an appt with them since the end of July before I left for New Mexico. I have SO needed it and have missed my appts and massages as well as that who office crew! I even missed out on their big "We've Moved" office warming party. Which sucked cause it was the day before my surgery and I was a wee bit busy. So I need to get that all figured out.

So what's the take...call him is things don't improve, get back in with my chiro, and keep on keepin' on! Oh and he and Jeff can't wait for the World Cup. Hummm...I have been missing my daily futball and/or rugby matches. LOL!!! That part of returning to work sucks!

Return to the salt mine...

Well, nothing like jumping in with both feet and cement socks.

What a week. Computer system changes and problems left and right, add a few phone issues. At least I have not had any nasty callers mine have all for the most part been very understanding our uncontrollable issues.

Each night I have gone home more tired than the night before. The last few nights exhausted to the point of tears. I've very glad that the weekend is here. Not sure what I'm going to do with it, but glad it's here none the less.

The Phone Call

So Jeff and I are sitting there after making little piggies of ourselves on the BBQ. It's about 6:30pm and we are sitting there working on clearing out our DVR of Japanese game shows and my phone rings. Ring ring...ring ring...it's Dr. Blevings. Okay, well here we go, he's gotten results from the scan. Good or bad...here we go.

He did in fact have the results. The scan some uptake in the median of the neck where it is expected to be, basically where the thyroid used to be and NO WHERE ELSE!

w00t!

Where do we go from here? I have my next appointment with the endo in July. Until then, keep on keepin' on. Keep taking my Synthroid, if I find that I'm getting too tired or having other hypo or hyper type symptoms to give him a call. We'll discuss further scans and such at the next appointment but for now we have kicked the cancer to the curb and told it it's not welcome here.

(rabble-rabble) LOL!

This is what a full body scan looks like. This is NOT my scan. I hope to get a copy of it because I think they are so cool. And I've also tossed in the neck section that shows the butterfly "glow" LOL!!!

Interestingly enough the neck scan comes from a woman that suffered(s) from Hashimotos Disease. But looks like a butterfly doesn't it. And that's why the butterfly is the "mascot" for thyroid cancer/diseases.

As I sit and ponder all that has past it has been a sort of wild ride for the past 30 days. Surgery March 29, to treatment and a clean scan by April 29.

Or if you want to look even further back:

Biopsy January 26

Diagnosis January 27

Surgery March 29

Scan & "Done" April 29

Thursday - Scan Attempt Part 3

Let's try this scan thing one more time.

So far I've been lucky enough that I still have plenty of the I-131 in my system that I don't have to take more for the scan. But if we can't get this in the next day or so I'll have to take the scan dosing and that will add a few more days to my Radioactive Girl status.

Since we were planning on having the scan done by now Jeff told his team that he'd be available on Thursday and Friday so when it came time to head in to Round Rock he was in the middle of a few things so that meant I'd have to go on my own. OMG! Am I allowed to do that? Do I remember how to drive? Guess we'll find out! First off...where are my keys? It's not that bad actually, I've made a couple of trips into Liberty Hill to the market by myself. But this will be the farthest I've gone and the longest Jeff and I have been separated in a while. That's the hardest I think. LOL!!!

I get to Round Rock and I stand in line to check in and this office has a little waiting room check-in coordinator/helper. I explain to her why I was there, she starts asking about paperwork and this and that. I've never had any of that, they should have it, it's not like this isn't the third time I've been there this week. I explain that I didn't know anything about that but the last two time I've had to sign papers and that was it. She asked if they were going to say my paperwork. I don't know...Stephanie said nothing of that, but I would assume that since the issues have been mechanical not patient that she/they would. I didn't tell her the last part but that didn't keep her from scoffing at me. She takes my ID and insurance cards and directs me to the waiting area. At least it's not packed like yesterday.

After a few minutes Stephanie comes and gets me. I'll worry about my ID and cards later. She hands me another class of what I again presume is water. You know I really should ask. Looks like water, tastes like water, tastes just like the water she gave me to take my pills with so I'm pretty sure it's water. She has me lie on the slab/table/bed part of the machine, sticks the bolster under my knees, puts the bungee straps on my feet, then wraps the cocoon wraps on my arms. They were a bit odd at first the first day but after being in it for so long I kind of liked it. It helps keep your arms in the right spot so that you can relax them without having to worry about where they are or touching the cold metal and such.

She positions the camera screen over my neck area and we do the static image again. Since the machine was not working right the first time best to make sure it took a good image now that it's fixed. After about 10 minutes that was done and she moved the screen up to start at the top of my head. The whole body takes about 25 minutes to do. The camera screen starts at the head, goes down to the feet, then flips under and scans from the bottom up then goes back to the feet, flips back up again and comes back up. This is so much easier than an MRI. No loud noises no banging nothing. Nice and quiet. The machine beeps and we are done. That's it!

If it goes well, I should have to see Stephanie again for another six months to a year...we're pushing for a year. :) Hopefully I should know something soon. We shall see!

Once I get my ID and cards and such I head over to Rudy's and pick up some stuff so that we can have an early dinner. Jeff's been taking such good care of me that he deserves the night off.

Wednesday - Scan Part 2

So let's try this scan thing one more time. We head over to Round Rock and the waiting room is PACKED! After about 30 minutes Stephanie (the tech chick) comes out and says that the part is in, but that the service guy who had promised to be there and have it fixed by them had gotten hung up at one of the other locations with a CT machine that refused to come back online.

So we have to reschedule again. Tomorrow. Will the third time be the charm?

Monday - Scan Day - Day of Truth!

Monday, April 26, 2010, the day of truth!

Today will be the tell. Had the cancer spread? Did we get it all? Will I have to go through this again in a few months to a year? Are we done with I-131 (other than small doses for future scans)? We'll know in a few hours.

We head over to Round Rock and get checked in and after a little while Stephanie my nuc-med goddess comes and gets us. She's running a bit behind but takes us back to the waiting area in nuclear medicine. That way it gets me out of the crowded waiting room full of kids and germie people. After a while she brings me a glass of water to drink. At least I'm pretty sure it was just water. It looked like water and tasted like water so I'm pretty sure it was just water but she said here drink this so I drank. I should probably learn to ask more questions. LOL! But I was thirsty so I drank it!

She then took me in and I got in the scanner. It's different from a CT or MRI in a way. Kind of like an x-ray but you lay down the whole time and it moves down you. So there are two scans, one is a static image of just the neck area and the other is the whole body. She did the first one of the neck. It takes about 10 minutes to do. Then she moved the panel and set up for the whole body. Shortly into it the machine started beeping. I heard some click click clicking. Then a sigh. She said that the whole reason she was running behind was because the machine had been giving her troubles all day. The errors weren't clearing and she needed to call the tech guys, they can usually fix it over the phone...cool. I opted to stay in the machine. Hey I was already there, it could only take a few minutes and I was comfortable all snuggled in to the arm wraps.

After a few calls and about 45 or so minutes later it is determined that a sensor in the panel mat has gone out. They'll over night one and get the service guy out to replace it so we'll have to reschedule. We picked on Wednesday to make sure there part gets in and there are no other bugs with the machine.

Oh well, at least we tried.

I want CANDY!

The chemo/radiation therapy treatment for thyroid cancer is different than for other types of cancers. With this you actually take capsules containing radioactive iodine (I-131). Depending on the stage of your cancer and how far it may have spread determines the amount of iodine you will get. One of the big concerns is trying to save or protect the salivary glands from radiation. So just like with bladder, you want to keep them moving fluid through them and the best way to do this is with sour candy.

The "gold standard" is Lemonheads. I love Lemonheads. My dad has been through three rounds of I-131 and can no longer stand Lemonhead. And with all the sour candies out on the market these days why should I have to be limited to just one candy. Do the people who make the I-131 have stock in Ferrara Pan (that's the makers of Lemonheads)?

We don't have kids so I'm not all up on what those wacky kids are up to these days so I did a little Internet searching. I kind of made a list of the items I wanted in my stock pile then set out to try and find them locally. I gathered most of it from one of the local grocery stores (HEB for you local yokels) at kid level on the candy isle and the one checkout lane that has all the wacky kid candies and the others I got one of the local party supply stores (Party City).

Here's my stash. From left to right...

Quick Blast - in Berry and Cherry Blast. The berry is kind of like a blackberry flavor, very pleasant natural taste, not over powering but tart like eating blackberries off the vine. The cherry is more along the lines of a cherry sweet tart.

Then there are the AirHeads Xtremes Sour Belts, the Sour Power Belts and the Chargin' Cherry Sip-n-CHEW straw. These things are covered in citric acid and defiantly get the salivary glands squirting. The nice thing about these is you can bite off a small piece at a time. They are like sour covered fruit leather strips.

That brings me to the Toxic Waste. These I was scared of. It says right on the container it's "HAZARDOUSLY SOUR CANDY" it even has a chart on the back to time how long you can keep it in your mouth and where you rate. I will say this, it does get the salivary glands working but honestly, have nothing on Warheads. They are intense for a bit and then has another little power punch of citric acid in the center but for the most part not as "hazardous" as I expected. I rated a Total Toxic Head. Still, they made for a nice addition to the stash. Each "drum" comes with 15 candies in apple, black cherry, lemon, blue raspberry, and watermelon.

Next up WARHEADS!

Warhead products made up a good bit of my candy arsenal.

I had the Extreme Sour hard candies in the regular and mini size, the Double Drops, the jelly beans and the Super Sour sprays.

The hard candies and jelly beans come in black cherry, apple, lemon, watermelon, and blue raspberry. Where the sprays and drops come in black cherry, blue raspberry, watermelon and apple. The double drops come with two flavors side by side and you can opt to squeeze one or both of the tubes for a single or double shot of flavor.

I'm going to say this now, the minis and these drops and sprays have by far been my favorites. You can get just a little bit of the sour punch enough to make your salivary glands work a little over time but you don't get the over load of sugar and depending on what your instructions have been as far as "taking" the sour candies your taste buds really begin to take a hit from the citric acid. After a point your tongue is so raw. The drops, sprays and minis give you small punches and allows your the ability to take maybe not fry your taste buds. The "belts" are good too cause you can easily stick it between your cheek and gums and suck the citric acid off.

Many people complain that everything tastes like cardboard after they have completed their I-131 treatment. So I wonder, is this actually from the treatment or from frying the taste buds with citric acid?

The jelly beans were okay, but not at all sour. They were sorta tart but I found them even less tart than your standard SweetTarts.

Next up, the Twister Mixers (seen above). These little "inhaler" like containers hold four different mixers powder crystals in sour apple, sour blue raspberry, sour strawberry, and sour grape. These I found to be more along the lines of crushed up SweetTarts and more sweet tarty than sour. They gave a little tingle to the tongue but for the most part were just kind of sugary sweet.

The next items are I think one of my favorites also, but for different reasons than the others. They became my night time buddies. This honor fell to my Too Tarts Sour, Smart Choice Sugar Free Sprays I had blu bewwy and straw bewwy. These are low calorie, just under 11 calories for the .6 fl oz spray bottle and are sweetened with real fruit juice. This is what I kept next to the bed for use during the night. I like the blu bewwy but the straw bewwy was my favorite to hit in the wee morning hours. It has a very natural tart stawberry flavor that would get the salivary glands going but was not a jarring knock you out of bed kind of punch to it.

And since they are so low calorie they are great for helping to keep the sugar overload to a minimum. It also comes in green apple and I've found a site that says they have it in watermelon too.

And my last item, was purchased strictly for it's oddness. LOL!

That would be my Sour Flush. My little pink toilet, flanked by two little plungers. Yes, plungers. I went for the watermelon

but it also comes in raspberry and green apple. Under the lid in the toilet bowl you will find the powdered sour candy. You lick the plunger and roll it around in the toilet bowl, then pull it out and lick or suck the powder that plunger sucker has picked up. Then do it all again! Gross sounding I know, but the watermelon sucker was really good.

That's my stash! And yes, I will admit I got way more than I needed but better to have more than not enough. Not that Jeff wouldn't have gone and gotten me anything I needed or wanted but might as well have it and then any left overs can be used to have torturing fun with the nieces and nephews. Or Red River drunks! LOL!!!