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Meeting with Nuclear Medicine Doctor
By Michelle | April 28, 2008
Since lots of people have asked about our upcoming treatment, I have decided that blogging is the easiest way to keep up since quiet moments are few and far between with the girls. On Friday, Jeff and I met with the head doc of Seattle Nuclear Medicine at Swedish Hospital. Papa took Sarah Jo to swimming lessons for us (and she had a private lesson because no other kids in her class showed up…more about that later) and looking back we probably should have gotten some childcare for Samantha because Daddy ended up walking a few halls with her while I was getting all my questions answered during the consult.
The consultation went great and I was immediately put at ease since my brother-in-law Sam stopped by right before the doctor came in for our consult. I think I mentioned before that Sam actually works in scheduling at Seattle Nuclear Medicine, so he knows all the doctors and they know him. Another cool thing is that both of the doctors that are treating me are Davids. That is Jeff’s late Dad’s name. I don’t know about you, but in situations like this, I’ll take all the supersitions I can get (even though Jeff thinks I’m a little whacky ).
The doctor spent over an hour with us and answered every single one of my questions. He was great and has been doing this for over 10 years, so Jeff and I feel like we are in the very best of care which makes a huge difference in this journey. We went over in detail the treament plan and basically in a nutshell I will come off my long acting thyroid meds on May 30th, start some short acting ones until June 13, start a low iodine diet on June 23 (not a lot of foods that I can eat, but my metabolism will be slower than a slug so I won’t need much food), get a bunch of blood drawn on June 24th, get a whole body scan on June 27th and if everything looks good have the treatment on July 1st. This doc was very realistic with what my energy levels will be and he said that the week before and after treatment are the worst and I will most likely be unable to care for the girls those two weeks. A lot of his patients actually sleep up to 18 hours a day…hey isn’t that as much as a newborn? Who knew that the little gland in the front of your neck, lovingly named the thyroid, took care of that much stuff in your body. Basically he said I’m going to be a walking zombie when I’m awake. Of course he is preparing us for the absolute worse, which I appreciate because it allows us to plan better for the girls. Mom gets out of school on June 17th, so if some of you see me on your couch for those 4 days when I’m on my own with the girls and no thyroid meds on board, thank you in advance!! On July 9th I will get one more full body scan and if all looks good I don’t think I have to do any more scans until next summer.
The isolation restrictions were far less than what we were initally told, so I’m estatic! Basically to be super safe I will not stay at the house or see the girls for 5 days (I asked the doc if it were his kids when he would see them again and he said 5 days, so I feel good about that!). Basically the radioactivity is eliminated through bodily fluids. They do recommend that I stay 3 feet away from people for 2 days, but the doc recommended that if I could go home or to a hotel that would be the most comfortable for me. I don’t want to stay at the house, so my fablous husband found a 900 sq. foot suite that we will be staying in. It has a living room and a room for me, so 3 feet will not be a problem between Jeff and I. Sarah Jo will be going with her Aunties to Salt Lake City from July 2-9 and little Samantha Jane will be staying with Nana and Papa. Of course it will be super hard to be away from the girls, but I have this feeling I will be doing a lot of sleeping!! The doc said that most of his patients say the prep is worse than the actual treatment, but I could have some nausea, taste loss, and salivary gland damage, but nothing permanent and it should all resolve itself.
Now to cure rates! He said that he was going to give me numbers, but since I was a 35 year-old woman, I would probably do better than the precentages he was giving. 70% of all people are cured with surgery alone. 90% of people are cured with surgery and 1 round of radioactive iodine. 97-98% of people are cured with 2 rounds of radioactive iodine and never have a reoccurence. Of course I told him that I wanted him to tell me that I would only have to do the radioactive treatment one time and never have to worry about this again, but he reminded me that even talking about "cure" rates with cancer is pretty lucky. Thyroid disease runs in families, but not thyroid cancer, which is great to know for the girls. Prayers do create miracles and I’m not scared about the treatment and I’m positive that with this one treatment we will knock all the cancer out. Lots of people are sending positive energy our way and we are so darn lucky that the midwife caught it when it was still in Stage 1. I think God thought I needed a lesson and that lesson is still unfolding, but it already feels more clear now than it did back in November. I can tell you this, I walked out of the radiology department at Swedish knowing how lucky I am!!!!
Now that I’ve unloaded my brain on this blog, on to our beautiful, wonderful, amazing girls! They are great! Sarah Jo had a private swim lesson on Friday and the instructor said she is just like a little fish. She loves the pool and we have been trying to swim one other night per week at Bellevue Aquatic Pool to burn some off some of that energy. Gymnastics and music are going great as well and she even did a pull up over the bar at gym a few weeks ago. They have an upcoming "show" at gym class so it is very cute to watch the kids attempt to learn a little rountine. Music will come to an end for the summer and we are not sure whether or not we will continue music class when we start preschool in the fall, we are still discussing that. Samantha Jane is desperately trying to walk and her new favorite activity is to make you take her hands and walk her around the house. We got out the "big girl shoes" and mommy had a moment of sadness, but I’m better now. She now likes the water when we take her to the pool one evening a week and is "looking forward" to starting some activites of her own when her big sissy heads to preschool in the fall. Sammy’s four front teeth are pretty much coming in all at one time, but she is a trooper and has not protested too much. Both of the girls have colds….I swear, isn’t it almost May, what’s up?? They are both doing great and are a true blessing and joy.
Jeff is super busy at work and will do a little traveling in May, but will be here the rest of the summer and taking days off to care for me during my treatment time and then some fun days for birthdays, anniversary, etc. We are planning to go to Vegas in September to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary a month late. The aunties will be there and will help watch the girls while we do some fun stuff together. We are all looking forward to it!
I have a doctor appointment this afternoon with an orthopedic surgeon to check out my hip. It has been giving me lots of trouble and I’m not sure if it is a tight hip flexor, joint pain from my thyroid meds, or something else, so we thought it was best to go in and get it checked out. I had an ultrasound on it last week which came back clear, which is great. Hopefully I will get a plan to help it feel better soon.
Thanks for the continued prayers for our family, I’ll continue to blog the journey here and we’ll update the site with some new pictures of the girls soon.
Hugs and love!!
Topics: General | 1 Comment »
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Wow, you have a lot going on. Best of luck to you! If you have extra time in Vegas, let me know! We should be settled in by then…