Week 6 roller coaster

Wow what a trip this week has been!

On Tuesday I called Hershey and they told me to go to my Family Doctor to have the Thyroid checked.

My family Doctor set up urgent appointments for me to go to the Endocrinologist in Wilkes-Barre. I saw him on Wednesday.

He told me that I had Graves desease and when I asked him if it could just get better on it's own he said that might for a short time, with treatment, but then it would get worse again. I'd have this problem for the rest of my life.

When I asked him if it could just be aggravated from tx he said that he had only seen 1 other person in his 30 years of practice that had a problem like this and had it resolve on it's own.

He said that I needed to make a decision. Go through a treatment until it gets better....wait for it to get worse again and go back on treatment.....etc. spending my life back and forth between treatment and periods of remission, or taking Radioiodine to kill off my thyroid and spending the rest of my life on Thyroid replacement medication.

We where leaning more towards the Radiooidine because it just seemed like a way to resolve this long term.

He then sent me for more blood work and an Uptake test, marking both as urgent. I left his office, went to the lad and then to Nuclear Med to take the radioactive pill for the Uptake test that I had to return for the scan 24 hours later. After the scan (on Thursday) the Doctor was to prescribe the medication to begin the Radioiodine.

I went back to work and called Hershey to fill them in on what was going on. I called my research nurse who then passed it on to Dr. Smith.....who in turn began trying to get a hold of the Endocrinologist. Dr. Smith and a Endocrinologist at Hersey both felt that my Thyroid would resolve itself saying that this Was a side effect of my tx. She wasn't able to find my Endocrinologist and told me to have him page her.

So on Thursday I before I went to the scan, Jimmy and I stopped at his office and asked him to call Dr. Smith. While he was on the phone waiting to talk to Dr. Smith he told me to go for my scan and then have the Nuclear Med. Department call him. So off we went....

After the scan the Doctor called the Nuclear Med and they put me on the phone with him.

He started the conversation off with "I believe now that you don't have Graves Desease and you are only the second person in my 30 years of practice that I've seen with this" He told me that I have Hyperthyroidism because of tx and that in about 6 weeks that will turn into Hypothyroidism and then it will resolve itself. It may take as long as 9 months to run it's course.

I have to increase my Beta Blocker to control my heart rate and tremors and I have to have blood work every 2 weeks until it runs it's course. But at least I'm not loosing my Thyroid.....yet.

After all of the glands in my neck have swelled and then resolved themselves, it makes sense to me.

Have you ever felt like you're in the ocean and swimming toward shore....just to have a wave come and sweep you back out to sea......then starting to swim back to shore again and yet another wave comes and takes you away.....I think I'm getting tired of swimming and all that I want to do is just lay on the beach and rest for a little while.........

Yep....and then it all went ooops!

So about a week ago a new lump showed up on my neck next to my throat. Right away I thought "well it's just another lump and it'll go away". By Monday I knew it wasn't just going away and I called Hershey.

It's my thyroid. My lab work for had just come in to Hershey over the weekend and it showed my TSH at .03. The reference range is .35 - 5.50. They think that the Interferon has kicked my thyroid out of whack. So off I went to Endocrinology.

Now everything is crazy. I guess we'll see where it goes from here.

I go back tomorrow to complete a test that was started today.

Hey....If I loose my thyroid it will still be worth it to save my liver.

I'm still UD.

Recovery - week 5

I know it's been a while since I posted to the blog. Between my computer having a virus, with the end result being that we had to buy a computer, and then my having to reset up all of our software, website and plotter there just didn't seem to be much time for blogging.

The good news is that I went to Hershey on Monday and my VL is still undetectable. My blood counts are all slowly coming back up and I'm feeling sooooo much better.

The fatigue does tend to still hit me here and there but nothing like it used to. Doc say's my body is still trying to adjust.

My hair has been growing back....but my scalp has yet to fully heal. I can't wait until I can actually go outside without a scarf on my head.

The dry skin still seems to be hanging in there. At least it's not as bad as what it was while I was on the drugs. I just doesn't seem to want to clear up yet.

According to her Roche is starting a new trial with a drug that is fundamentally the same as the trial drug I was on. So I guess they haven't totally thrown the trial drug out. I think that's good because I believe that the drug works.....they just really have to adjust it.

I go back to Hershey for my 8th, 12th and 24 week visit and then I'm done. Thank God because I really need to get past all of this. It's been a long and hard road.

Have a Wonderful Weekend!