Disconcerting News

You remember reading about my bitching and moaning over the low-iodine diet and subsequent butt-shots and nuclear scans? Of course. Well, I did that test reluctantly since I've been away from the cancer since 2002. I thought, "OK fine, I'll do this thing and then I'm NOT doing another for, like, 10 years."

Got the results back the other day, and they're...disconcerting.

This test monitors several parameters for thyroid cancer re-growth, one of which is the presence of thyroglobulin--a protein that is produced by only thyroid tissue and certain thyroid tumors.

They use this protein as a tumor marker, sometimes, which is certainly the case here. Because I've had a complete thyroidectomy followed by nuclear ablation of any residual tissue, my thyroglobulin levels should be, and historically have been, zero. 

This time, my thyroglobulin was 0.8. 

I find this markedly irritating. 

Because the level is less than 1.0, my endocrinologist isn't too concerned right now. But it also means that I DO get to do another one of these in the next couple years!

So, what does this mean:

1. Do I have new cancer? Maybe. It could be cancerous regrowth, or it could be normal tissue regrowth. Both of these are possible because of the level at which I am medicated with thyroid replacement hormones. 

2. What happens next? Nothing immediately. They'll demand another nuclear scan in a couple/few years. If the number stays consistent, I doubt they'll really do much about it. If it shows consistent increase, or I am otherwise plagued by cancer-related symptoms, we'll get to do another biopsy and probably another nuclear ablation. Hell.

3. What are the risks of just letting it be for the next couple years? Essentially none. Thyroid cancers are notoriously slow growing and mild in nature. I have heard people say (and for the record, I HATE this saying), "If I ever had to have cancer, that's the one I'd want." What?! Who says that?!

4. Any chance the test is wrong? You bet. It's a difficult test to run, and there have been aberrations between results even from the same blood sample within the same lab. I think that's probably a big reason for the doc's unconcern.

Of course, the issue at hand here is not new nuclear ablation if we do find more cancer down the road. What I REALLY need is some freakin' gene therapy, because clearly I've got issues with growing things that have no business growing in there. Maybe Wes 'n' Linda were huffin' paint in the 60s. It's very inconvenient.

There is a lot more information out there, if you care to read. Check out thyca.org.