Doctor Visits, Radioactive Pill, & Body Scan

I have to admit that before this whole issue of thyroid cancer I had no idea where your thyroid was or what it did. I now know a lot. Thyroid cancer is treated differently than other forms of cancer. When the biopsy shows cancer, they take your whole thyroid and some lymph nodes. Because our thyroid is in such a sensitive area, it lays right over our windpipe doctors can not take all the tissue. So after you have surgery you take a radioactive iodine pill, and it sends radiation throughout your whole body. It also kills any remaining part of your thyroid in case there is any cancer cells left, and also to make sure the cancer never comes back. Crazy? Weird? Yes! My thoughts exactly.

I took my radioactive iodine pill on July 20th, and had to be secluded in our back guest room for two days because I was putting off radiation. Crazy I know. What the pill is doing is basically nuking the remaining tissue of your thyroid. I told people I might as well have stuck my head in a microwave.

After about a week you have to have a body scan, and the scan will show where the radiation went in your body. If it goes somewhere else besides your neck, like say a big part of it goes to the lungs there is a good chance you have cancer cells in your lungs.

I got my body scan on Tuesday, and I got a good report. All my radiation was in my neck and no where else. I don't have to go back to the doctor until October. I was so excited!