Six Weeks Later…

After a couple of weeks including the days after my operation, I was able to go back to work. My stitches were already removed and the only trouble that I was having was this very low tone or pitch with my voice. In my line of work, you do need to talk quite a lot so this new ‘frog-like croak’ that I had instead of my normal tone would take some getting used to. I was able to attend school activities even while I was recovering from the surgery.

After six weeks, the doctor required me to go through some laboratory tests again: TSH, Thyroglobulin, and anti-thyroglobulin. The results came back normal, and the histopath result indicated that there is still a remand of thyroid tissue which needs to be removed so that the cancer cells will not grow again and spread.

My endoctrinologist set up another hospital confinement schedule for me on July 20, 2015. It was for RAI or Radioactive Iodine Therapy. Prior to this, I had to be on a low Iodine diet. This means no salt, milk, or other dairy products, no seafood, bread made with iodate dough conditioners, food with red dye, chocolate, soy products, etc. I even had to avoid restaurant food because there was no way to determine which ones use iodized salt. As such, my breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals had to be closely monitored so I stuck to eating almost the same set of food items every day.

On July 20, I was taken to an isolated room where no visitors were allowed. The nurse had to wear a special suit before going anywhere near me. The nuclear medical tech used a radiation detector to give me a special capsule sealed in a heavy bottle. From the bottle, it has to be put directly on my mouth and swallowed. After the endocrinologist gave me 150 mCi of the I-131 capsule, everyone left me alone for four days in the small, isolated room.

They were giving me meals but someone just leaves it outside the door for me to pick up. From a no-iodine diet, I was upgraded to a low-iodine meal plan. All utensils were disposable. The isolation was difficult but I did have TV and Wi-Fi, I can use my mobile phone and laptop, read books, watch TV. The nurses always called me to check if there was anything that I need. When my doctor comes to visit, it was always from a distance.

I was advised to drink plenty of water and keep a slice of lemon inside my mouth so that my salivary glands would not get affected by the radiation. I had to bathe two or three times a day so that the radiation would drain faster. I also had to urinate at least once every two hours, and drink at least one glass of water every hour.

On my second day, the radiation level was 10 and the next day, it was 1.4. The only time that I can be discharged is if the level goes to less than 2.5. After the whole body scans, the results showed that there was an intense accumulation of radioiodine in my neck region, but no other abnormal accumulation of radioactivity in other parts of my body.

Until August 2, 2015, they were still removing traces of radiation from my body. This means that no person under 45 can stay within 2 meters of me, for more than eight hours per day. There was also a prescribed time limit for hugging, kissing, and touching immediate family. I also had to sleep alone in a room separate from my husband, I had to use separate utensils, and avoid crowded places.

Right now, I’m back at work. I promise to keep you posted on my progress towards my journey in treating this kind of illness. Just continue to pray and be a blessing to others. God bless!

PTC: To Ignore or to Treat (Part 2)

Naturally, my husband got very worried about me. I thought that I was brave enough to handle the situation but I found myself crying while waiting for my operation. Thankfully, the nurses in the operating room were all kind. I heard someone tell me to just inhale and exhale so I won’t be worried. When the anesthesiologist came, I knew that that was it. I prayed for the surgeon to have utmost presence of mind during the operation. When he entered the room, all my worries came flying out the window, especially when he smiled and gave me comforting words.

Still, I got quite scared because of the intimidating-looking medical equipment or any blade that they might be using on my body during the operation. But I didn’t know what happened anymore. After they injected something on the dextrose, I was out like a light. The next time I opened my eyes, I was already in the recovery room. Thank God! I was wondering why I wasn’t feeling any physical internal pain. My voice was husky but there was no other discomfort.

By the way, Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma or PTC, my surgeon explained prior to the operation, is genetically acquired. It doesn’t have to do anything with my lifestyle or what I eat. It’s genetically handed down by my parents or grandparents. That became my motivation to fight the disease because we would already know what to do in case it unfortunately gets handed down to another generation down the line.

Another thing that the surgeon explained to me was the three possibilities of what would happen after the operation. First, my vocal chords could be impacted, in which case my voice will be affected. Second, there could be bleeding which might result to hemorrhage. Third, if the surgeon is unable to identify the Parathyroids during the operation and it accidentally gets removed, my Calcium levels will go down and my bones could become brittle, resulting to numbness. Fortunately, none of these complications happened to me.

If I refused the operation, I might have lived for another five to ten years. But since I did get the treatment, the doctor said that I could live to a ripe, old age of 90. It’s also not true that when you have your thyroid removed, you cannot have kids anymore. I already have two lovely girls at home and if my husband and I decide to have another baby, we could still try as long as my radiation treatments are not on-going.

After the operation, the surgeon explained to me and my husband – who was very happy to see me again – that he successfully removed all the thyroid glands, left and right, as well as the center which is called the Isthmus. He also removed five lymph nodes. Thyroid cancer is very slow-spreading because it passes through the lymph nodes and not through the blood like other cancer types, so the chances of survival are very high. My vocal chords were not harmed, and the reason for my husky voice was just the anesthesia.

Being the very good patient that I am, there was no hemorrhage and my parathyroids were secured so I did not experience any numbness. No solid food so I was on a “lugaw diet” but other than that, I was well on my way to recovery. 🙂

You can read part one of this story here.

PTC: To Ignore or to Treat

Hi, I’m starting this blog to share with you my still-ongoing experience battling PTC or Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. According to my surgeon, PTC, also known as thyroid cancer, is the ‘kindest’ type of the big C there is. It’s slow to spread, easy to treat, and has a very high prognosis.

Let me go back to the story of how I first learned about my condition. I’m a thirtysomething wife/mom employed by a private company. All employees have Annual Physical Exams (APEs) and I’m fortunate enough to be holding a section managerial position, so executive check-ups are required. When I underwent the APE last 2013, a Physical Exam doctor who thoroughly checked my external body parts for abnormality told me that there was a significant mass on my neck. When I held my hand against the right part of my neck, I did feel the lump. I barely noticed it until the doctor pointed it out to me.

She recommended that I visit an ENT specialist for further checking. I had ultrasound, T3, T4, TSH, and other laboratory tests done. Everything seemed to be normal based on the results so we went home with no worries. But when I went back to an ENT to show the lab results, I was told that Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy was needed. The ultrasound showed that my right thyroid lobe was bigger. The results of the biopsy were unclear due to bloody sample so no diagnosis was given. I was referred to another ENT near the Philippine General Hospital. I ended up not going because of the distance of the hospital from our home.

For our 2014 executive checkup, the only issue that I had seemed to be an itchy right eye. A year later, I decided to really check deeper into the lump on my neck. The ENT specialist told me that any kind of abnormality should not be ignored, no matter how busy I was at work. I had the same results as the first time and the same reading that the right lobe on my thyroid is bigger, while the left thyroid is normal and perfectly functioning.

The doctor was pretty persistent to get a good reading this time so I had a sample for the biopsy taken six times – he had to use four needles! I didn’t know that at that point, he already suspected that the lump was cancerous. The doctor later on confirmed that what I had was Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma, a type of cancer on the thyroid gland. Apparently, it has been there for a long time so the doctor had no idea about how widespread the cancer was.

On May 2015, I underwent a surgical operation for Total Thyroidectomy with Right Cervical Node Dissection. (Part 2 coming up…)