Finally some thyroid treatment

snommintj
snommintj Member Posts: 601
edited March 2014 in Thyroid Cancer #1
I've been dealing with my colon cancer for the last year or so, I've been biopsied and surgery is scheduled for june 30th. I have two large tumors in my left lobe. My surgeon wanted to remove the whole thing and give me irradiated iodine. I really don't want to take a pill for the rest of my now hopefully long life. So I opted for surgical removal of my left lobe only. The Dr is pissed because he says it will be harder to track how I'm healing after surgery. Oh well. If it does come back, then he can remove the other side and then give me radiation.

Comments

  • usljh10
    usljh10 Member Posts: 85 Member
    #2
    It's not hard to take a pill
    It's not hard to take a pill everyday. How large are your nodules? Did they do ultrasound? Are they cancerous?
  • cboo1974
    cboo1974 Member Posts: 56
    #3
    Your decision
    Even though it was your decision about only removing half, your doctor has a point. To make sure that the cancer is gone a body scan is done that will detect activity of thyroid cells. Even though you don't like the idea of taking a pill everyday that pill just may save your life. What if the cancer comes back and they are not able to detect it because you have a partial thyroid? Personally I went and had the whole thing taken out so I didn't risk the chance of the cancer spreading to the other lobe. I also want to live a nice long life and found that getting ris of all my thyrois would help me do that.
  • jcvolt
    jcvolt Member Posts: 69
    #4
    BRAVO
    I allowed myself to be bullied into a Total thyroidectomy when I only had cancer on one side. I actually had what they call a near total since he did leave some tissue behind to avoid damaging my vocal nerves. I did not do the RAI. RAI has a lot of really bad side affects and can cause permanent damage to vision, hearing, taste sinuses etc. and the stuff they use actually causes thyroid cancer in people who are accidentally exposed to it. Most people who have RAI after the cancer is removed have their cancer come back and end up going through this dangerous and permanently damaging procedure more than once.

    I already had to take a thyroid pill before the surgery but it does not give all the same hormones as your thyroid. You are better off keeping as much of your thyroid as you can even if you do have to take a pill also. And don't do the body scan, they use RAI for that too. They can ultra sound your neck and check your thyroglobulen levels to see if your cancer comes back.

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