A whopping $51,506.50!!!
Damn.
Holy fucking shit!
(10/28/09 is the date of administration or “service” as it says on the bill)
Hell, cancer’s expensive.
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Tags: cancer, follicular papillary cancer, I-131, I-131 bill, papillary follicular cancer, radiation, radioactive iodine, radioactive iodine bill, RAI, RAI bill, residual thyroid tissue, thyroid cancer
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Tags: ablation, blog, calcification, cancer, carcinoma, diagnosis, endocrinologist, follicular cancer, follicular carcinoma, halli hallöchen, hashimotos, hypothyroid, ibuprofen, knife, liver, mofo, neck, pain, papillary cancer, papillary carcinoma, papillary follicular cancer, papillary follicular carcinoma, pills, regiment, scar, schilddrüse, schilddrüsenkrebs, swelling, Thyknife, thyroid, thyroid cancer, thyroid carcinoma, thyroid condition, thyroidectomy, thyroidectomy scar, thyroiditis, total thyroidectomy, TSH, who are you
Who are you? & then some
Well, I’ve decided that since my blog has had over a couple thousand hits in the past month and a half, I ask out of pure curiosity, who are you? Feel free to either comment on this post or email me (hungryfortsh@gmail.com)– ask me questions, tell me about yourself, rant about your thyroid condition! Tell me what you like about the blog, what could be improved on, and what you’d like to see in the future!
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Today, for the first time in weeks, I was able to reduce the Ibuprofen by 2 pills! My liver is beyond delighted! I can’t really notice a difference in the swelling from subtracting 2 pills from my daily regiment, so I am hoping to get it further and further down. Although the swelling is going down, there is some new thing hanging out right below my scar on the left side of my neck… I named it Thyknife, and it, as its name offers, feels like one of those slim pumpkin cutting knives has been wedged into my neck and is occasionally wriggled and tugged at. I took a picture just for reference- but Thyknife doesn’t look ANYWHERE near as menacing as it actually feels.
Thyknife
Well, I’m off to pick a fight with that ‘lil mofo! More later.
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Tags: ablation, blog, calcification, cancer, carcinoma, diagnosis, endocrinologist, follicular cancer, follicular carcinoma, hashimotos, hypothyroid, ibuprofen, knife, liver, mofo, neck, pain, papillary cancer, papillary carcinoma, papillary follicular cancer, papillary follicular carcinoma, pills, regiment, scar, swelling, Thyknife, thyroid, thyroid cancer, thyroid carcinoma, thyroid condition, thyroidectomy, thyroidectomy scar, thyroiditis, total thyroidectomy, TSH, who are you
Well, there is some legitimate stress in my life right now, but I’m going to attribute the excruciating headaches, sensitivity to comments/situations, and dry skin to becoming hypothyroid… which I am not happy about at all. I don’t mean to be harsh, but I feel like shit and I’m quite down. I found myself breaking down today on multiple occasions about nothing particular and my forehead is just unbelievably painful to the touch!
Anyway, I’m going to do a small Thyranksgiving post to sum up my thyroid afflicted holiday this year:
For the first time since I moved to Germany I had thanksgiving with my family… this occasion was groundbreaking in many ways– first, my family truly tried to accommodate the vegetarians (myself included) which made for probably the most food options at a family gathering able to be eaten by myself in YEARS… perhaps even since I became vegetarian (and that’s about 8 years back!)! Secondly, it was the first time I had seen my father’s aunt and her family since my cancer diagnosis, which became extremely apparent after looking at my now 17 year old cousin, H, and him gasping at the gash across my neck (something I haven’t really taken notice of as “gasp worthy” since the steri-strips were removed and one no longer saw old caked on blood!). He asked me what happened and I thought to myself, go figure, it’s been left up to me to break the news to all of my little cousins! As I started to explain that I had thyroid cancer and that’s where the thyroid gland goes and what not he nodded his head and, in his very teenagery way managed something like a “oh right, I remember”. Third groundbreaking moment was the whole evening going by without discussing my condition at all (with the exception of H’s reaction and conversation). Fourth groundbreaking moment is that my uncle’s mother died on thanksgiving evening, which sort of brought a solemn, grave tone to the holiday.
In other news, I am moving along in my finishing up in the USA process in that I have purchased the gifts I needed to for my return to Heidelberg, and managed most things remotely from the USA for Heidelberg. I hope things come together!
Here’s the scupdate I promised– it’s sequential from the past few days:
You can see the swelling! Imagine the pain!
Not nearly as swollen as above, but still not exactly in Joy-town!
Scar is still healing, "and we are still swollen" <--those were my lymph nodies chiming in! ;-D
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Tags: ablation, afflicted, calcification, cancer, cancer diagnosis, carcinoma, cherry pop, condition, cousin, diagnosis, died, eco-friendly, endocrinologist, experience, family, follicular cancer, gash, gift, good cancer, grave, groundbreaking, hashimoto's thyroiditis, Heidelberg, holiday, human recombinant thyrotropin, hypo, hypothyroid, I-131, levothyroxine, lobe, lobectomy, lymph nodes, metastases, metastisis, neck, nodules, papillary cancer, process, scar, scupdate, shit, solemn, stress, synthroid, t3n0mX, thanksgiving, thyranksgiving, thyroid, thyroid cancer, thyroid stimulating hormone, thyroidectomy, total thyroidectomy, treatment, TSH, USA, vegetarian
Quite brief– more later.
Well, just a quick update– not much has changed– I will still be returning to Heidelberg on the 11th of December (arriving the 12th) and promptly moving into my new apartment. No new TSH levels, although I can only imagine that they are mighty high because I feel very slugish and sleepy.
I’ll post a scupdate soon!
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Just generally…
Well, there’s not much new on my side… just been working a bit, preparing for my return to Heidelberg (yay!) on December 11th! I am trying to collect pieces of Pittsburgh and of things that make me feel at home as well as things from my friends to bring back with me.
I have a new apartment to move in to– and my life is officially different. From the moment of my diagnosis, I have had to pick up the pieces of my life that were shattered prior to the diagnosis and those which were shattered by/from the diagnosis and put them all back together again… arranging the order a bit- some feng shui, if you will. I am pretty satisfied with the current arrangement- my return to Heidelberg, my new apartment, my ongoing medical studies, my job, my friends, the gym. I am looking forward to a time when everything has a routine again and things come easily and simple.
Health-wise I am also doing fine- nothing has really changed on the larger vital scheme– although, I’ve been experiencing some swelling in my throat which makes it a bit hard to breathe sometimes at night, and also to swallow. I called my doctor who told me to get myself evaluated at the ER- I’ve decided only to go in if it gets to the point that I am in danger of aspirating something or choking.
I also went to my first Thyca Support Group meeting– it was very nice and reassuring. I am sad to have to leave that group when I return to Heidelberg, although when I visit here again, I will most definitely attend the meetings.
Sorry this post is a bit fragmented- lots of organizational things to work out, but I at least wanted to post something!
Here is a fresh review of the protocol for treating differentiated thyroid cancer: http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/thy.2009.0110
Here’s a scupdate (scar update, yes, I am just that fancy!):
Scupdate 11.19.09
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Tags: ablation, apartment, breathe, calcification, cancer, carcinoma, cherry pop, choking, diagnosis, differentiated thyroid cancer, doctor, eco-friendly, endocrinologist, ER, experience, follicular cancer, fragmented, friends, good cancer, gym, hashimoto's thyroiditis, Heidelberg, human recombinant thyrotropin, hypothyroid, I-131, job, levothyroxine, lobe, lobectomy, lymph nodes, meeting, meetings, metastases, metastisis, new apartment, nodules, oncologist, papillary cancer, pathology, PTC, RAI, scar, stage 3, swallow, swell, swollen, t3n0mX, throat, Thyca, Thyca Support Group, thyroid cancer, Thyroid Cancer Support Group, thyroid stimulating hormone, thyroidectomy, total thyroidectomy, treatment, vital, vital scheme
The PICChole!
Scar Update 11.12.09
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Tags: ablation, calcification, cancer, carcinoma, cherry pop, diagnosis, eco-friendly, endocrinologist, experience, follicular cancer, good cancer, hashimoto's thyroiditis, human recombinant thyrotropin, hypothyroid, I-131, levothyroxine, lobe, lobectomy, lymph nodes, metastases, metastisis, nodules, oncologist, papillary cancer, pathology, PICC, PICChole, RAI, raidoactive iodine, scar, stage 3, stage three, surgery, synthroid, t3n0mX, thyrogen, thyroid, thyroid cancer, thyroid hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, thyroidectomy, total body scan, total thyroidectomy, treatment, TSH, update
Been Gone a While…
Well, sorry I’ve abandoned the blog for a few days– last Thursday night after I came home I snuggled into my bed, pulled the laptop on to the covers and felt an excruciating pain in my jaw. My right submandibular salivary gland was huge and painful and pressing both on my jaw and on the innards of my jaw. The left side wasn’t as bad, but still not feeling amazing. I finally managed to fall asleep, and in the morning I awoke again with quite a bit of pain- I then called the Endocrinologist, who promptly called me back and discussed it with me. She asked me whether it was warm (it was), hard (it was), red (it wasn’t, in fact, it was blue), etc. She then said, well, take lots of ibuprofen and if you get a fever of over 100 degrees you need to be seen.
Today, almost 6 days after the onset, I am still in pain– although not as excruciating as it originally was. The ibuprofen has reduced the swelling a bit but has hardly touched the pain.
I went to my PCP’s today– he wanted to take a peek at the swelling situation and possibly take my PICC out! He told me I’d have to ride the swelling out, as uncomfortable as it may be, but that I should be pleased that it isn’t infected. He also took the PICC out! (I’ll post pictures after I clean it up tomorrow.)
Both the PCP and endocrinologist are saying that I must be followed up in 6 months in Germany by an endocrine oncologist to do a thyroid ultrasound and a suppressed thyroglobulin (Tg) levels.
I received an awesome care package from J. consisting of both Gangrene and Giardia!!! Picture to follow!
And some of yesterday’s news, I was pushing a stroller down a hill and one of the blue tips of my PICC popped off and into a gross bucket of rain water with leaves and dead bugs in it. I reached in, apprehensively, and removed the jumper– I then pocketed it and continued on the walk. After about a half an hour of walking around worrying about it, I thought to tie it off– which I did. When I returned home I called homecare and a nurse came and put another extension set on it– she also flushed loads of bubbles with it! That was my last traumatic PICC event for a while!
Yikes!
My new microbial friends, Gangrene and Giardia!!!
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Tags: ablation, calcification, cancer, carcinoma, cherry pop, diagnosis, eco-friendly, endocrinologist, excruciating, experience, follicular cancer, Gangrene, Giardia, good cancer, hashimoto's thyroiditis, human recombinant thyrotropin, hypothyroid, I-131, jaw, jaw bone, jawbone, levothyroxine, lobe, lobectomy, lymph nodes, metastases, metastisis, nodules, oncologist, pain, painful, papillary cancer, pathology, PICC, RAI, raidoactive iodine, salivary gland, salivary glands, scar, stage 3, stage three, submandibular salivary gland, surgery, swollen, synthroid, t3n0mX, Tg, thyrogen, thyroid, thyroid cancer, thyroid hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone, thyroidectomy, total body scan, total thyroidectomy, treatment, TSH
Dude Where's My Thyroid? 