Ca Update

As you'll likely recall, I have had some slightly weird blood test results over the last few months. I didn't update the blog, but have been doing more tests, scans, trips to Vancouver, doctor visits, etc etc. My blood test and body scan results indicated that I had a recurrence of cancer. Hunh. That sucks.

(OK, to give you a little history, there was cancer and I had my thyroid taken out in 2000. And there was cancer again in 2003, and I was treated again. So now I get metastices to lymph nodes in my neck. Thyroid ca pretty much always affects a few lymph nodes in the neck. But unlike other cancers, where lymph node involvement generally indicates a VERY serious outcome, with thyroid ca, it's like "whatever, no biggie." Also, the stats for thyroid ca show that unlike other cancers, a recurrence of thyroid ca does NOT seem to affect survival rates. There's still better than 95% survival after 20 years. And after 20 years, they don't keep track anymore, so a patient is probably not dead, but more likely "not medically interesting". So to reiterate....MY CANCER IS NOT GOING TO KILL ME. IT IS JUST A PAIN IN THE BOLOGNA!)

Yesterday, I had a biopsy on my thyroid bits. Just FYI, this involved my lying on a stretcher in a darkened room with a pillow under my shoulders so my neck was all stretched out. Because it's a teaching hospital, there were half a dozen docs and techs there, with one of them holding the ultrasound thingy on my neck, saying, "See that? That's a lymph node. That's the jugular. There's the esophagus. Hmmm, it's small and tough to get a needle in that little node. Hmmm, gonna be tough. Oh jeez, it keeps moving." I was like, "Ummm, please don't stab me in the jugular." But mostly I couldn't speak nor swallow, because it hurts to move your neck when there's a needle stabbed in it. I know this from past procedures, since docs usually forget to warn you about this... Anyway, it took around 30 minutes for them to stab me in the neck about 10 times. And yes, even when they use a fine gauge needle, it's really stressful to be stabbed in the neck. I left big sweaty hand prints on my hospital gown. And they wouldn't let me leave for a while, since it appeared I might pass out.

The doc who did the biopsy yesterday said the spots were so tiny he had trouble getting a sample. I'll get the results in a couple weeks, which will tell the true tale, but he and I figured it likely just made sense to watch it, and wait till there's something a bit bigger to treat. Not like thyroid cancer is gonna kill me.... I'll just hang on for another year or 2, or5, and then maybe treat it. Maybe. Unless I'm busy doing something more interesting.

Anyway, I'm doing well. Fingers crossed that in 20 years I won 't be so dang medically interesting.