Well, the results of my scan are in and I have to confess they aren't exactly what I expected or hoped for.
First, a bit of background, which I will try to break down to laymen's terms. My quarterly scans are essentially two sets of tests. The first is a blood workup, focused on TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and TG (thyroid globulin). TG in particular is key; you hope that it tests as undetectable. This has been the case for my past three tests and I have come to accept it as rote. The second is a neck ultrasound, where they search for aberrent looking lymph nodes.
The good news is that my neck ultrasound was clean. So, I got that going for me. And that is important, without doubt. The problem, though, was with my blood work. They picked up "antibodies" which essentially render the TG test moot. This is my first experience with "antibodies" and I'm still getting my arms around exactly what it means, but basically, an antibody is something that identifies and attempts to fight foreign matter. According to my doctor, the presence of antibodies can be attributed to one of several things: it's an anomoly (false positive), there's an auto immune issue at play, or it's fighting emerging cancer cells. It's the latter that's obviously disconcerting and according to the Internet research I've conducted, the presence of antibodies seems pretty decent early indicator of a recurrence.
So, we're going to do another round of bloodwork in about a month and will decide where to go from there. Hopefully, they will have disappeared. So, I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit bummed but such is life.
The ironic thing is that I've never felt better and earlier today I completed an absolutely epic run - 9 mile hilly trail run at average of about 7:25 per mile - followed immediately by 10 x 1000 meters on the track at average of about 7:30 pace. This latest quasi-setback is providing even further motivation for me to really give it a good go at the Cal International marathon in December.
(PS. CrazyMama and Gail; hit me on comments or offline if you have any perspective on this matter)
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3 comments:
It's never simple, is it? I will send you an e-mail soon. -Gail
All the Brooklyn Solomon's are sending you positive thoughts that this is an unrelated infection or a false-positive.
1st, WHOoHOO FOR THE CLEAN SCAN! that is awesome! and still a HUGE TRIUMPH!celebrate the little stuff!
2nd. the antibodies suck! but fingers crossed they are just a false positive and next time they do your labs they are long gone.
otherwise, there is other stuff they can do to follow you besides labs.
i kind of feel like the labwork is the lazy way to follow up anyway. GIVE ME A FREAKING whole body scan yearly!
sure the prep sucks but labs are so easily misread or messed with that it's hard to feel great either way.
my opinion only! and i haven't done any research lately since i have been avoiding my own follow up. ignorance is bliss right? yes it is!
relax until you have a few labs with antibodies.
and HOLY CRAP! awesome run! you are in awesome shape keep up the training. and like you said let it inspire you!
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