Three weeks + 1 day

Just a quick update:

I know more today than I did yesterday, but still very little about what the next months will bring and/or how aggressive treatment will be.  I have some labs pending that dictate how we proceed, how successful the surgery was, and how often I get to go back to visit the north side of Appleton for doctor visits. 

{Perk: Copper Rock Coffee shop in the medical office building.}

My endocrinologist felt at least one unsavory lymph node. He also made sure to ask Issac if he could get him a good deal on a mortgage ;) I have been referred to radiation oncology and will see them next week about a radioactive iodine treatment (more on this later) that will occur somewhere in the first half of December.

I just spent the last couple of hours trying to figure out what I will be able to eat (as well as what I will have to avoid) over the next 2-3.5 weeks. To prepare for the treatment, patients have to be on a low/no iodine diet. Quick & very basic lesson: Thyroid cells eat iodine. Thyroid cancer cells eat iodine. Other cells leave iodine alone, for the most part. Iodine comes into our bodies via our diet, sometimes things just contain iodine (like milk) and sometimes it is added by way of iodized salt. By starving the thyroid cells of iodine (by consuming a low/no iodine diet), their little bellies are empty. When I take this radioactive iodine, the cells are so “hungry” for iodine that they will take up more iodine than they would if I had not been restricting the iodine intake in my diet. Then radioactive part of ‘radioactive iodine’ will then blow up these thyroid+thyroid cancer cells. Oversimplified, but you get the basic idea.  So anyway..   I was making a list (imagine that..) and have one column of “Avoid This Like The Plague” and another called “I Think This is Okay..” I had to laugh aloud when I realized the “Eat This and Waste Tons of Money on Expensive Radioactive Treatment”  list included potatoes, gravy, meats injected with salt water broth, red dyes (often found in canned cranberries), butter, molasses, chocolate, and most breads. Sounds like I will be having a very “interesting” and non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year! I’m having a much easier time finding out things that I cannot eat versus those that I can. I have found sources that state that wine is approved on a low/no iodine diet, so if all else fails I will munch on carrot sticks and sip Cabernet for three weeks. 

::Diversion of the Day::

Photo 1: Intention of pinto bean sensory bin
Photo 2: Ingrid's interpretation