Best News Yet!!!

Amazing News! Basically just got the best case scenario results from the doctors! Ultra sounds show nothing, blood levels are perfect and while they know there are still a few cancer cells left, they may not grow or turn into anything for many years if at all!!!!! I don't even have to come back back to Colorado except for a checkup in a year!!! I'm so happy!!!!! Wooooooooooo!!!!

For those of you who want all the details here's the full story/ramble; I've returned back to Colorado late Tuesday night after long and somewhat frustrating travels (don't fall asleep in the airport and miss your flight, it sucks!) On Thursday I headed to Denver for some pokes and prods and a follow up from my last visit. I got blood tests and an ultrasound. The ultrasound was a bit scary at first, the girl was a intern and focussed a lot of several areas and seemed concerned, so she got another doctor in to have a look. The other doctor looked very thoroughly and discovered everything the other girl was worried about was nothing to worry about at all, just scar tissue from my surgery, and healthy lymph nodes. They sent the results to the radiologist to look at and as we were leaving one of them  stopped us and said with a huge smile on her face, "I'm not supposed to say anything regarding the results, but just know that everything looks really really good!" which was a huge relief!

Then on Friday we went back for the official results, feeling excited, but trying not to get our hopes up too much. But to our delight we got nothing but good news! The ultra sounds looked great and showed absolutely nothing to worry about, and my blood tests were at the perfect level! He explained what we already knew in that there are still a few cancer cells in there, but chances are it's an incredibly minute and microscopic amount and that we'll have to keep an eye on it, but basically it most likely won't cause any trouble for many years, even decades, if it grows much at all. He even mentioned that on rare occasions such small amounts of desease simply get reabsorbed into the body and it cures itself! So all I have to do is continue to make sure my medication levels are correct, and come back in a year for another follow up, and after 3 years of yearly follow ups than we can move it to every couple of years! Absolutely amazing news and a million times better than we could have dreamed!

So now I'm enjoying the beautiful summer weather and all of my amazing friends and family and looking forward to truly be able to relax and enjoy my holidays before returning to my amazing life in Australia! I still can't believe how absolutely wonderful my life is and how lucky I am right now!  I can only hope everyone else is feeling as much joy and amazing energy! I cannot thank everyone enough for being such outstanding foundations and support systems for me throughout this whole ordeal and throughout my whole life! Thank you from the deepest corners of my heart and soul! With any luck at all this will be my last post on this blog, but all the wonderful adventures of life wil no doubt continue! Wahoooo!!!

Great news to start off a great new year!

I got the test results back from the doctor and it is great news! The scans show absolutely nothing!!! all results are "unremarkable"and there is no evidence of uptake or residual tissue! I have been fighting back tears of joy ever since hearing the news!

That being said, I'm not 100% cancer free yet, but I'm pretty damn close! The tests did show a very small rise in my thyroglobulin (about 1.4 which is practically nothing in comparison to the >70 levels I had after my first surgery.) This suggests that there is microscopic desease still, but since it didn't uptake any of the radiation it's not worth the risks of more radioactive iodine. I'll most likely have to return for more ultrasounds in a few months, but it's pretty much as close to cancer free as I can be!

It's been a fantastic way to bring in the new year! I've been feeling better and better and have almost complete mobility of my shoulder and neck back! The whole left side of my neck is still pretty numb, but the swelling has gone down a bunch and I've been enjoying scaring people with my impressive new scar and thinking of new stories to go along with it! It is so wonderful to be back in Australia and I have been soaking up the summer sun! I just got back from volunteering at a big music festival and boogieing in the new year with a few of my amazing friends! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and I couldn't think of a better start to what I have no doubt will be the best year yet!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

radioactive once again

Still waiting on the actual scan, but I thought I'd let everyone know how it was all going. So far everything is going really well! I've been on the iodine free diet which is luckily not too tough in Boulder with all the options for fresh organic produce. I've been extremely lucky to have my mom and sister and the rest of the family baking and cooking and over all spoiling me as well! Monday and Tuesday I got my injections of the thyroid hormone suppressors. Two very easy if not slightly uncomfortable shots in the bum. I've been pretty lucky and only had a few side effects of nausea and headaches. Over all nothing too terrible and much better than a month of being severally hypothyroid but still not particularly fun.

Today I went in for the small dose of radioactive iodine. It was a much smaller dose than my last one and is actually a different isotope so none of the radiation will actually stay in my body or kill any disease but it will get taken up by any if there's any left in there. This way in case I dont have any more cancer cells I dont get any unnecessary radiation. It also means I dont have to be isolated which is really nice! It was a very surreal experience getting the radioactive iodine. They took me back into a small room and a woman with big gloves came in with a big metal thermos with big "radioactive substances" and "nuclear medicine" stickers on it. Then she opened it up and poured 3 rather large pills into my bare hand, handed me a cup of water. I swallowed them and that was it. Very easy.

Tomorrow is the full body scan as well as several pictures and scans of my neck and chest. It will be boring more than anything. About 2 hours of laying as still as possible in one of those oh so fashionable hospital gowns, but it will be great to have it over and done with! I think the hardest part will be having to wait a few weeks before we get the results.

Other than that things are really great and I've been enjoying my extra week in America. We've been decorating the house and with all the snow on the ground it's really feeling like the holidays! It's been wonderful to get to spend so much time with my wonderful and amazingly supportive family! I am so so so lucky! It's hard to believe I've been back almost six weeks! Saturday I fly back to Australia and I am extremely excited to get back! It will be very nice to get back to my life and friends again and finally get some summer.

I'll keep this up to date with anything new that happens but chances are we wont know anything new for at least a week or two. I hope everyone has an absolutely wonderful holiday and a new year full of great joy and good health! I for one am hoping for an easy and quiet year to come.

follow up... good and frustrating news

I've just returned from my endocrinology appointment and have received both good and somewhat frustrating news. They seemed very happy with the way the surgery went and my overall thyroid hormone levels are great and the antibody test came back negative. All very good things! However, My blood tests still show a very small amount of thyroglobulin. This indicates that some desease my still be present. It's important to note that it is a very very small amount (only 0.2 and they can't detect anything lower than 0.1) especially in comparison to my blood test before surgery (which was 2.9) and does very little to change my overall prognosis. However, it does mean I am now staying an extra week in America to do a body scan which will decide what my next course of action will be. We already knew that I have a very agressive form of this cancer so in some ways being able to find and treat it now is one of the best outcomes.

I am getting what is called a thyroglobulin stimulated whole body scan. Basically its just a very small dose of the radioactive iodine followed by a scan to see if any of it is taken up by any cells or if my thyroglobulin levels rise. There are three possible outcomes. The first is that the scan shows an uptake of the radiation and a rise in my levels which indicated there is more desease but it will absorb and can be treated by another dose of radioactive iodine which we would then schedule for the next few months. The second possible result is that there is no uptake of radiation but my thyroglobulin levels rise which will indicate a very small amount of desease may be left, but it most likely will not be fully absorbed and treated with more radiation and we would simply keep an eye on it and continue with another ultrasound in 6 months. And the third possibility is that there is no uptake and my thyroglobulin levels changes very little if at all which indicates there is no desease left! All three options are very straight forward to deal with, but fingers crossed it's option three!

I've had to once again go on an iodine free diet starting today for the scan. Nothing with any meat, dairy, salt or that has been processed at all. Luckily Boulder has great fresh produce so one week of it wont be too hard. I will also have to go to Denver every day next week for the whole process. The first two days I will get shots which will surpress my thyroid hormone and trick my body into thinking it had no iodine in it which will help insure the uptake of the radioactive Iodine. This will also allow me to not have to go off my meds like I did for the the full radioactive iodine treatment which is great since it means less side effects and less feeling yucky! Then on Wednesday I will get a very small dose of Radioactive Iodine and Friday I return for the scan. But we're planning some fun activities in Denver so we'll make it as much of a fun adventure as we can!

So it's not bad news, but still very frustrating! Other than that however, I am doing pretty well. I had a suture come out near the top of my scar but they cut it out while we were there today and didn't seem at all concerned. I am feeling better and better every day and have almost had all of my range of motion return in my neck and shoulder. Still very weak and tender, and I'm not allowed to carry anything heavy or anything for a while, but the muscles seem to be stretching out which is a very good sign. I had a wonderful vacation to mexico last week which was fantastic and I believe a huge help in my recovery! A really great distraction and a good chance to hang out with family more! I am so lucky! It wore me out and I am still extremely exhausted, but I'm in good spirits over all if not a bit frustrated. It will probably be a few more weeks until I'm %100, but I am taking advantage of being able to relaxe and take things slow. I know not to get my hopes up too much, but if all goes well I'm hoping to be on a plane back to Australia by next weekend and enjoying a relaxing, stress free summer!

Post op

So i've had a very busy but good day! I had my post op and everything went very well! They removed the drain and seemed very pleased with my recovery! It feels really great to have the drain out! I've also been given some neck and shoulder exercises to make sure my muscles recover well and don't tense up or anything. It's really wonderful to be able to finally lift my arm over my head and I have almost full motion of my neck and jaw! The only weird thing is that half of my neck and ear are still numb. The doctor explained that there are a lot of nerves in that part of the neck that were no doubt disrupted during the surgery. It will most likely take a while until I regain feeling again. He also said sometimes the nerves never fully repair and that is nothing to be concerned about either. However, it's a very weird feeling so I am hoping I gain at least some of the feeling back.

The pathology reports also came back and they were pretty much what they were expecting which is good news. Out of the 37 lymph nodes they removed only 4 came back positive for cancer. Very reassuring! We'll find out a bit more about what the next steps are when we meet with my endocrinologist in early December, but for now all I have to worry about is relaxing, recovering and enjoying my time back home!

Over all my recovery is pretty amazing! Hard to believe I was in surgery less than a week ago! The scar is already fading into my neck and with the drain gone I'm only scaring away half the amount of children I was just a few days ago! My voice is tired but seems undamaged which is a huge relief! I've even started singing and playing my ukulele and writing songs again! I'm still pretty exhausted, but I'm starting to get cabin fever from sitting around so much and very ready to start getting back into the swing of things again!

It's been a crazy year reflecting back on everything that has happened, but I feel very lucky all things considered and with how incredibly showered with love and support I have felt throughout this whole ordeal! I feel extremely spoiled! I've already started getting birthday wishes from the other side of the world for tomorrow! (I could really get used to this whole two days of celebrating!) Also, my parents are amazing and have offered to buy me an electric Ukelele for my birthday so I spent the afternoon trying different options out and singing and playing music! It's been wonderful! Tomorrow I'm looking forward to a big family dinner with heaps of my favorite people and ridiculous amounts of my favorite foods! I am so luck and I am still riding on the high of it all!

p.s I think it's only fair to warn anyone who reads this that as I recover more the updates will probably be less frequent. But I think we can all agree that no news is good news in this case! I'll be sure to update with any new information I get and there will be a few more updates before I return to Australia again. I will also keep this blog active for my 6 month check up and any other relavent events, or if anyone has any questions or anything. It has been such a wonderful communication tool. I really can't thank you all enough for everything you have done for me! Every kind word, thought and gesture has been felt and deeply appreciated! I can only hope you can feel my deep gratitude and love for you all in return!

my new battle wound!

Freshly showered and feeling a lot better! Here's my impressive new scar! But if you think that's bad, you should see how beat up the shark was!

recovering back home

I've been back home a little over a day now and despite being a little woozy from pain meds I'm feeling pretty good so I thought it would be the perfect time for a quick update. Sorry in advance if it's a little disjointed.

Thank you Amy for the wonderful update yesterday as I was a bit too out of it to write a very coherent entry. It is so good to be home and I have been enjoying lots of love, amazing food and a ton of sleep. Despite having to sleep sitting up I slept pretty well last night and it was really great to back in my own bed. I did wake up several times to hear my dog scratching on my door pathetically but apart from that I slept pretty hard. I woke up this morning in a bit more pain, but it was mostly my shoulder muscles and after a gentle massage from my mom and several more pain meds I feel a ton better. After breakfast I went back to bed and slept all morning. I've just woken up again to a wonderful lunch of bagels (and yummy leftovers, thanks Brad!) and a cute scene of my brother in law Mike asleep on the couch with the cat on his chest. Very cute!

I've been getting more and more mobility with my shoulder and I've been doing some stretches the doctors gave me which have helped a lot too. The most painful part is my shoulder muscles, but I'm beginning to even be able to move my neck which is a big help. The grossest part is my drain, but even that is looking less disgusting. The weirdest part is that my neck from my collar bone to halfway up my ear is completely numb on the left side still. I keep getting an itch on my ear, but since I can't feel myself scratching it, it just keeps itching. It's very weird! I've also had a bad reaction to the adhesives they used on me so I have lots of red itchy welts from where ever they stuck anything too me which is a bit uncomfortable. But I get to take my big bandage off today which will feel really good! It also means I finally get to see my scar which is kind of exciting! But I have to admit I'm most excited about the fact that I get to shower this afternoon! It's going to feel so good!

Other than that everything is pretty good. My appetite has been surprisingly big and I have had no lack of delicious food! My amazing sister Amy has been spoiling me with copious amounts of delicious options! She even cooked a full chicken meal last night complete with mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy! Delicious! And I've got endless supplies of entertainment thanks to ridiculous American TV, My parents new blue ray player and the millions of shows and movies I have on my hard drive (Thanks Mark!) And the fact I can't keep my eyes open for more than an hour at a time help insure I don't get bored by anything too quickly! I also just had a quick but fantastic visit from my aunt cindy and my little cousins! I'm sure it's not easy for them to see someone with a big gross bandage on, but I got some good hugs and beautiful paintings! I am so lucky to have such wonderful people looking after me!! I feel extremely spoiled!

Ok I am starting to feel my pain meds kick in and I think I'm rambling now, I think its nap time again so I can rest up for my shower! I really can't thank you all enough for all the support and love! It makes all the difference!