Ken Martin’s Blog

First, nothing bad. It’s a check up.

I often have to wonder if I should post something or not. Is it too personal? Is it not “mine” to share?

Well, I’m undergoing testing to verify that the thyroid cancer I had about eight years is still gone. I went back and forth on posting about it, but finally thought I should in case somebody wanders in who’s dealing with thyroid cancer. Be of good cheer. It’s able to be dealt with very nicely.

In fact, dealing with it just keeps getting better. Years ago, in order to verify that there were no cancerous thyroid cells wandering around me, I needed to be completely off my Synthroid, a pill which provides the hormone that used to be created by my thyroid, for weeks. This meant declining into hypothyroidism; being exhausted and generally “down”. This made any remaining thyroid cells hungry for iodine. Which we then provided: radioactive iodine. Which would glow on a scan, showing any place there were active thyroid cells of some kind.

Now, my body can be tricked into craving iodine by a Thyrogen injection. No hypothyroidism needed. And still accurate testing.

So I’m going through that this week, which means my otherwise normal life is interrupted with reminders that I once had cancer. But thankfully, I can say “once had”. All indications are that it’s still gone. It will be nice to have solid verification of that.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 7:00 am and is filed under General.