Diagnosis

When you are diagnosed with any cancer, you go into shock, but thyroid cancer can sometimes be very uncertain. A fine needle biopsy can show abnormal cells but it is often not completely clear that you have cancer until the surgeon gets inside your neck. I think I was hoping that the abnormal cells would be something else, but the large calcified lymph nodes were a pretty good clue for the medical staff that were dealing with my case and I was advised to have a full thyroidectomy and modified left neck dissection. I have private insurance but my surgeon found a cancellation in the public hospital which needed to be filled, and slotted me in.

In February 2014, I had my thyroid removed along with 18 lymph nodes. The pathology came back about 3-4 weeks later and was positive for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. Six lymph nodes were also positive with several that were over 1 cm in size. The largest tumor on my thyroid was 4cm but very little of my thyroid was normal, the one quarter without tumor in it, had signs of Hashimotos thyroiditis which was undiagnosed and may explain why I had problems with losing weight and other signs of hypothyroidism before the surgery (even though my blood test results were always within normal range).

The morning after surgery I started to take Thyroxine to replace the hormone that would normally be provided by the thyroid gland. I was also put on Calcium tablets and Vitamin D to regulate my calcium levels, as my Parathyroid glands had been removed and two had been transplanted back into my neck muscle. As I write this, it is 9 weeks later and my parathyroid glands are starting to work again so I have been able to reduce some of the calcium that I take.

At the beginning of this week , which was 9 weeks since surgery I was given a dose of radioactive iodine to kill off all the left-over thyroid cells and cancer cells. I intend to write more about the preparation , the low iodine diet and the radioactive iodine treatment in the next post.