How I See It: Reflections on spirituality, technology, and the art of everyday life

Does anybody know how I can get in touch with Dr House? Posted early 2009 I just spoke with my Endocrinologist. Here’s how this works: the only part of the human body that stores iodine is thyroid tissue—or, if you no longer have a thyroid, thyroid cancer cells will absorb it. So, a week after I took the radioactive iodine, any place that still showed radioactivity had to be cancer. That’s why they ran the total body scan. Ideally, after a week, all the cancer would have been burned away. The scan showed six “uptake” spots in my neck: three on the left side, one in the thyroid bed, and two on the right. The two on the right worry me most—because that’s the side where all the fat and lymph nodes were removed. Yet cancer still shows there. During the original surgery they found cancer in the lymph nodes, parathyroid, thyroid, and skeletal muscles. The thyroid bed is also risky; another surgery there could threaten my voice. In December I had a modified neck dissection on the ...

Posted Monday, January 5, 2009 at 6:34 PM My Endocrinologist (thyroid cancer is treated by endocrinologists, not oncologists) called me today. The results of the total body scan are back. The cancer they just removed was on the right side of my neck. Unfortunately, they’ve now found cancer on the left side of my neck—and worse, in my thyroid bed. They’re still deciding what to do next. Hopefully (though not likely) the radiation will take care of it—though this test was supposed to confirm that it already had. The good news is there’s no sign of cancer anywhere else (though I’ve heard that before). As long as it’s confined to the neck, there’s a good chance of surviving. The biggest concern is the recurrence in the thyroid bed, since I’ve already had surgery there. The main risk of the first surgery was damage to the nerves controlling my vocal cords. This time, the staples left behind make it very likely I could lose the ability to speak. I love it—a dyslexic, d...