What's Next

I haven't felt like updating the blog. It just felt hard to do. Everything has just been weighing on me and I've been trying to process it all. Plus, we've been trying to get back to a somewhat normal life again. That hasn't really happened all that much, but I've been trying. On Monday, April 5 Megan had another thyroid scan again, but this time they did four different kinds. Just the neck, full body, side views of the full body and then a short one I had to leave the room for. We then had a long break so we ate lunch and sat in chairs looking outside at the rain for awhile. Then we met with the endocrinologist again. He showed us the scans and explained what he saw. He said they looked good. We could see the tumors in her lungs, but they didn't light up orange as being thyroid material. He still doesn't know what they are. He says we will watch them, see if they grow and maybe next time we visit have them biopsied. The neck still showed plenty of leftover thyroid tissue from the surgery (you could really see it light up on the scan), some leftover at the very top of her neck probably from when she was forming in the uterus that got stuck as it was lowering into the neck, and some tumor on the left side of her neck that we'll have to watch. He said it was all ok for now because, in his words, no surgeon in there right mind would want to go back in there now. There is just too much risk of more damage. He thought the surgeon did a very nice job and really got everything he could possibly get without damaging more than he already had to damage to get the worst of it out. Unfortunately the thyroid tissue is what produces the cancer, and hers seems to grow fast, which is why they want it all gone. He said we should come back at the end of summer or in 6 months and again at a year and every 6 months for awhile after that too. He said she needs to go home and heal from all the surgery and get all the blood clots in her brain taken care of too. He likes to have ultrasounds done of the neck to watch her neck and the cancer. He finds that you can see more cancer and tumors with the ultrasounds than from the thyroid scans. They each have their purpose, but he likes the ultrasounds best because the scans can miss cancer while the other sees it. He said at the next visits we will look at having more scans, biopsies and possibly more surgery. He wants everything to be done at MD Anderson and I said that was fine, we'd be there whenever he said to be there. He was really very nice. He said we can communicate via email or phone and not to hesitate to contact him if we have any questions or concerns. I'd say we have a lot of the worst behind us for awhile, but still plenty more to deal with in the future as well.