Most people know that Robert had his thyroid screened for cancer last week, but I thought I would put it on the blog too. For back ground, his dad has had thyroid cancer a few times in his life and lots of radiation. The radiation wasn't kind to him, saved his life, but caused some brain damage. His sister was in her mid 30s when she got diagnosed with thyroid cancer and a first cousin also was recently diagnosed. The good news with thyroid cancer in the family is it has a low mortality rate, but it recurs frequently in a person's life. His sister's cancer has been more aggressive and she has spent some very hard years trying to take care of it. We have spent countless hours thinking, fasting and praying for her. This October she had a scan that didn't show cancer cells. That is very good news and in 6 months she will have another follow up. We pray that everything stays positive.
With this family history Robert and his two other siblings have had scans done to check it out. The specialist sees what are probably cysts around Robert's thyroid. His blood work shows he has Hashimoto's disease which means his body and thyroid don't work together. His sister also has this. The cysts are under 1 centimeter, they don't biopsy anything under 1 cm and even if it was cancer, there is no positive outcome in removing a tumor under that size. The Specialist said that Hashimoto's does not cause cancer, though they see it more frequently in those who have it + he has the family history. So for now there is no bad news and basically no news at all. It could be cancer, but is maybe just a cyst. She said he could go through his whole life with never getting it. He just needs to stay on top of follow ups. Every year now he will have to go in and have a scan done to make sure they are 1 cm. And a cyst can even reach 4 cm, so reaching 1 cm doesn't mean cancer either, but it does mean a biopsy. We were very grateful for this news already having some medical hardships this year and expecting a baby, surgery and radiation were not on our list of things we wanted. I am VERY grateful for this! We just pray that we never have to experience this and that his sister can have complete relief as well.
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4 comments:
I'm sorry, it is so frustrating. I have Hashimotos too. The best meds I have found to help is Armour Thyroid. It is a natural Thyroid medicine, but lately the FDA has decided that synthetic stuff is better and the natural is hard to get. I have to go to a compound pharmacy, but I feel so much better on meds than not. I hope it all works out!
Glad the results were good.
That's good that you got some things answered! Hopefully *everyone* stays cancer free!
I have a nodule on my that turned out not to be cancer. They are watching it as well.
I'm glad that his scan went well....that's unreal how it is in his family so much....wow!!
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