I have a reprieve. After speaking to my surgeon this morning, he said that he didn't see any significant risk in postponing my next surgery until August, when I'll be on Medicare, and that it would even make his job easier, since my surgical scars would be fully healed by then.
Well, hopefully all will go well Ken. My dad had cancer a couple of years ago..and had to have a kidney removed. He has the scans every 6 months too. He is close to 80 now..and even though he is in pretty good shape for his age...it is always scary that the cancer might recur. However, as you pointed out, everybody dies of something and once you get cancer it seems to be the thing that will come back at some point, and sadly do you in. No one lives forever, but having your loved one suffer is not cool. I always don't get a lot of routine screenings so I could even have it...but..I feel healthy so I am not going ot worry about it right now. I think you will do well though, and it sounds like your doctors are on top of it, thankfully.
@Ken Anderson A reprieve will allow not only the scars to heal, but the memory of them being placed, as well. That is good. Frank
I'm sure that must be a relief, Ken. Not only being able to have Medicare pay part of the cost but to know that he thinks the cancer is non-aggressive enough that it's safe to wait.
Today, I went in for my six-month PSA test and it's down even further than the last one. Since it has now been five years since my radiation treatment for prostate cancer, this is what is considered a cure. If my numbers come up next year, it will still have been a cure since I made it past the five-year mark. Now I only go in once a year for PSA tests.
A week from today, on the 24th, I'll be going under the knife again, to have my left thyroid removed. I am not anticipating any problems, but I think my surgeon said he was going to keep me in the hospital for a couple of days in order to determine which medications, and the amounts, that I'll have to take in order to compensate for the lack of a thyroid. Apparently, there's a balancing act that they have to do.
I was waiting for you to post this, I knew you said August. It is a balancing act and may take even longer but that can be done with bloodwork every few months til you Find the right dose. You will do just great, will say some catholic prayers for you!
They had to do that same thing with mine, even though I still have a thyroid gland since it was not working right. Eventually, they got the level right, and I have been taking the iodine and thyroid support, and my doctor said that mine is doing much better. The test result this time showed that it is almost back up to optimal thyroid again. Since you had the earlier operation, you probably have a good idea what to expect this time. I guess that @Michelle Anderson will just have to make sure that we mind our P's and Q's while you are in the hopital again. We made it through the last time you were gone with no problems, and will all try hard again this time. Bobby and I will add our Holy Roller prayers to @Chrissy Page's Catholic ones; so you will be well known in the heavenly realm while you are in the hospital.
I am also going to get my thyroid checked since thyroid problems run in my family. I have some symptoms that indicate it might be a problem. so I think it is a good idea to get it checked. I have the feeling that I might end up with a medication but I will know more after I get bloodwork done on the 3oth. Good luck Ken, and I am sure everything will be fine! I will be thinking about you! I hope and pray for your swift recovery.
@Ken Anderson , I've had a problem with my thyroid all my life. I have been so hyper that no matter how much I ate, I couldn't get over 90 pounds. Then there were times I would gain weight although I my diet never changed. My point is that I've had to yoyo with my thyroid medicine for a long time now. My dosage goes up and down randomly. DO NOT THROW AWAY any left over old perscriptions for your thyroid. My perscription goes from 75, 88, 100, and 125 mg's. When I'm told the dosage needs to change, I always have some on hand, and it saves money that would generally be thrown away. I never had to keep a prescription after the expiration date.
@Ina I. Wonder , mine used to yo yo but for the last few years I've been at .88mcgs. Or is it mgs, now I'll have to go check the bottle.
Okay, I am home from the hospital after having my left thyroid removed. There's not a lot of pain involved, but if I turn my head too quickly, it will fall off I think. So far, I am taking only one Levothyroxine tablet, a synthetic thyroid hormone, in the morning, but other things might be added after I've seen the endocrinologist. I still have some of my parathyroid glands apparently because my calcium levels are still good. My surgeon told me that everyone has at least four of them but that some people have as many as seven or eight, and that all that it takes is a portion of one of them to survive in order to regular calcium. He said that they are usually located beneath the thyroid glands, but that often they are buried within the thyroid glands so that they are sometimes removed along with the thyroid glands during a thyroidectomy. In my case, he said that he knows that he left at least one because he could see it, and when he removed my right thyroid in April, he had left a portion of one. He described them as being like seeing a water spot on a piece of paper. In a healthy thyroid, they stand out in yellow against the pink thyroid but where thyroid cancer is involved, it's far more difficult. Anyhow, he said I had at least seven of them but most of them were embedded within the thyroid tissue, so he could see them until they were removed. So I might be okay there. He also said that a portion of my thyroid had grown up around my vocal cords, but that this (not the vocal cords) will be killed with the radioactive iodine that I'll be taking. At least I think he described it as a radioactive iodine. A lot of this stuff is explained to me as I am coming out of the anesthesia so I'm not concentrating very well, and have to depend on my wife to tell me later what he said. In April, I didn't even remember him having spoken to me when I came out of the anesthesia. Such things react strongly on me, including pain killers and Benadryl. For that matter, I can get giggly drunk on a half glass of wine.
I take one levothyroxine .88 mcg. I still have my thyroid gland though, it's just slow but with the med it's fine. So, all is good? I can't even have a sip of wine without feeling dizzy and sleepy, I can drive with pain meds though.
Mine are 100 mcg. but the endocrinologist may adjust that. Yeah, I feel pretty okay. My neck hurts some, of course, but it was just sliced open yesterday so that's to be expected. Talking is a little difficult but that probably comes from the endotracheal tube, or maybe from the scraping he was doing, trying to remove as much of the thyroid tissue from my vocal cords as he could.