la Matriarch

I finally reached my Endocrinologist yesterday.  Well, technically I reached the Fellow.  It’s virtually impossible to talk to or see my actual Endocrinologist because apparently he’s some big fancy Thryoid Cancer specialist.  Anyway, here’s a brief discription of my Thyroid cancer history and my questions along with the answers from the doc.

Diagnosis: Follicular Carcinoma Minimally Invasive

Treatment:

• High Does Radioactive Iodine in October 2003 followed by whole body scan to make sure all the thyroid cells are gone.  Thyroid cells love to eat iodine so the long-standing therapy for Thyroid Cancer has been to attach a radioactive thingy to iodine and give it to the patient.  The iodine finds its way to the thryroid cells and because it has a radioactive molecule attached to it, the thyroid cell is killed.  Following the high does RAI, I had cancer screenings in 2004 and 2005 which were done by giving me the same radioactive iodine (much smaller dose) then doing a whole body scan to look for any glowing cells which would indicate Thyroid cells.  If any thyroid cells are present, they assume the cancer is back. 
• The past 2 years they’ve switched my cancer screening away from the RAI (thank goodness!) and now they shoot me up with Thyrogen then do a blood test to look for a protein that is produced by any active thyroid cells.  I’ve been clean the last 2 years.

Questions:

1. Complete thryoidectomy. They found 2 large tumors and diagnosed me with Follicular Carcinoma, Minimally Invasive.
2. Radioactive Iodine- Will this prevent me from getting pregnant?  Is there any risk of pregnancy related complications or birth defects from my previous RAI back in 2003?  No.  We recommend waiting at least 6 months to get pregnant after RAI because the effects <6 months are not well studied.  You treatment is so far in the past that you should have no problems.
3. Thyrogen injections- Is there any risk of pregnancy related compliations or birth defects from the injections I’ve received the last 2 years for my cancer screening?  No.  Thyrogen is a hormone that exists in your body already, we just give you a high dose.  It clears your system really quickly.  There should be no problem with this.
4. Synthroid- I’m still on a suppressive dose of synthroid.  Is there any risk of pregnancy related complications or birth defects from the high dose of synthroid I’m taking?  The risk is that it will prevent you from getting pregnant.  You’ll need your dose decreased so that it won’t impair fertility.  You’ll also need your dose monitored during pregnancy because pregnancy can cause fluctuations in your hormone level.
5. Can I breastfeed while taking synthroid?  Yes.  There is no problem with this.  Synthroid in breast milk is minimal and the baby’s system will regulate and know how much of it’s own thyroid hormone it should produce.  (this still doesnt sound good to me but what can I do.  I have no thyroid so I have to take the synthroid)

So, that’s that.  He basically said that I should be a lot more worried about my age than my history of Thyroid Cancer.  Thanks, doc!

I’m consumed with wondering if I’m too old to get pregnant.  I’m good at getting consumed over things.  That’s what I do. 

I read something the other day that said that women my age have a 1 in 30 chance of having a baby with birth defects.  That’s high!  That’s much higher than the chance I had of never being able to talk again after my thyroidectomy. 

MD “there is about a 1% chance that I’ll damage your vocal cords during surgery and that you won’t be able to talk again.

me “WHAT??? that seems high!”

MD “well, there are risks with any surgery”

me “how many of your patients have had this type of damage?”

MD “1%, Gina.”

He was so annoyed with me but who cares.  How am I supposed to react when you tell me that the surgery is not that bad except for the possibility that I may never be able to talk again when I wake up?  It was at that moment that I realized just how much I loved to sing. 

So, I beat that statistic, but I didn’t beat the only-five-percent-chance-it’s-cancer-one. 

These are thing kinds of things running through my head.  It’s not all bad, though.  I’ve also found a couple of cool blogs I like over at Babble.  My favorite is The Fosters.  And besides reading blogs I’ve also been looking at all kinds of green baby diapers. 

Next week I see my Internist for a check up.  No decision has been made about whether or not to actually have kids.

Last night I was up for hours past my bedtime reading all kinds of stuff about “advanced maternal age“.  Apparently there is a proper diagnosis for people like me who, for many reasons, find themselves thinking of having children late in life.  The top two reasons it seems that people are 40 and trying to get pregnant are either that they’ve been trying for a million years but have an infertility problem and/or they met Mr. Right way later in life. 

The information on Advanced Maternal Age is just as variable as information you find on the internet about any other topic.  Reading this stuff made me feel sort of like I did when I had Thyroid Cancer and was consumed with reading information about it.  One second I’d be all like “whew! I’ll be OK. I’m not gonna die” and they next second I would have read a few horror stories and find myself in tears wondering how many more years I’d live.  It was so out of hand that my Endocrinologist nearly fired me over it.  I remember one day while I was in his office whining about something I’d read on the Internet and he suddenly morphed into pissed-off-father mode.  “Gina - you have GOT to stop reading that crap! The 80% of people who survive Thyroid Cancer don’t spend hours per day writing stuff on discussion boards because they’ve gone on with their life.  If you insist on reading this stuff for yourself then let me give you some sites where you can get good, accurate information.” 

So, while I read all the horror stories about women over 40 struggling to get pregnant and/or having babies with birth defects, it suddenly hit me that it’s possible that there are countless women over 40 who’ve had their babies and are enjoying their families rather than fooling around with discussion boards about having babies. 

Be careful about what you read on the Internet.  It really can be all-consuming and scary. 

image from mosterguide.net