50:50

I had a whole body scan today, which is definitely probably the most fun anyone can have. The idea is that the small dose of radioactive iodine will uptake into the cancerous cells in my lungs and any remaining cells in my neck.

After I got off the table I asked the technician to see the scan to which she replied 'yeah but you probably don't know what you're looking for'. Yeah, those damn patients who think they have a memory about their body and all that has happened to them in the last few years...man are they all dumb. oh well, couldn't hurt anything...so she agreed.

To my surprise there was absolutely nothing in my lungs or neck. "Hmmmmm" thought I. Weird. When you've been sick for 3 years you learn to calm your emotions down pretty quickly and not get too worked up for things. My thought at the time was that we'll wait and see.

After the scan we walked over to see the endocrinologist. It was then that we learned that was indeed good news. The short story is that I do not need a radiation treatment at this time!

The remaining question is whether or not the blood marker that we follow (thyroglobulin) will now drop to undetectable levels now that some lymph nodes have been removed from my neck. If my thyroglobulin drops way down, we'll know that all of those old iodine treatments actually worked. If it doesn't drop, then we'll know that this scan was a bit of a false negative and that there is in fact very small disease in my lungs, that will maybe need to be treated at a later time. The odds at this point of 'cancer gone':'cancer still here' are 50:50.

Right now I still have to finish this dosimetry study. I should be free on Saturday with 2 weeks left to spend this summer before school starts again on August 4th.