Health Update

I had an meeting at 8:40 AM with my doctor this morning. In a nut shell, my thyroid cancer is continuing to grow.

My doctor tracks my cancer growth by testing the level of thyroglobulin, which is a protein produced by the follicular cells of the thyroid. My thyroid was surgically removed 3 years ago, so they are using thyroglobulin to track the evil, mutated, cancerous thyroid cells that don't want to behave. Like... REALLY. The 204 millicuries dose of radioactive iodine + my 2 surgeries should have ZAPPED ALL those suckers out! But alas.... they are still hanging around.

Simply put, the more thyroglobulin in my blood, the more cancer I have.

I've been in a battle with this cancer since the summer of 2014, and might I say, my cancer and I have been on quite a roller coaster together. In the past 2 years, my thyroglobulin has gone from:

13.4 ng/mL (WOAHHHH NOT GOOD!!!),
to 2.7 ng/mL (WOOOHOOO, SO MUCH CLOSER TO ZERO!!),
to 1.8 ng/mL (YAYYYYY! EVEN CLOSER TO ZERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!),
to 2.4 ng/mL (OKAY.. I see you. Slight increase...),

And now, it is at 3.3 ng/mL (HOLD UP... WHY YOU GOING UP?!)

This increasing trend has concerned my doctor a little, so she has ordered that I get a PET scan. Our hope is that something shows up on the scan so we can TREAT IT. It might mean more surgery. It might mean more radiation. It might even mean nothing. Literally, I might just need to be patient and wait another 6 months to analyze the next blood test results. Unfortunately, I have a very rare and aggressive form of thyroid cancer (Google: "poorly differentiated thyroid cancer" at your own risk... haha), and it usually has a liking to spread... soooo.... I need to make sure I stay on top of all my testing and make sure this thing knows who's in charge.

In the meantime, I am fervorously researching ALL my health insurance plan options, as I am aging out of my insurance plan VERY soon and need to find a way to STAY insured and continue my care at Memorial Sloan Kettering. *GULP*

Send positive vibes to the universe as I move forward to figure this of all out...