Well, Karlye had her radioactive iodine treatment over spring break. I am sure it was tough for her to be in isolation for 4 days. But, she made it through it. It was just a step in her treatment and it doesn't tell us much. More like a baseline to begin with after the surgery.
When I talked with Dr. Cohen last Monday he gave me the report over the phone. It basically said that there was uptake in the neck. Which means that the radioactive iodine went to thyroid and cancer tissue that was left after the surgery. This is what is expected. The radiation is supposed to kill what is left.
What I didn't expect is that the report also said there was uptake in the upper abdomen. Dr. Cohen explained that there could have been some food in here system that could have caused this on the scan. He did not seem concerned about it but did say we will have to keep an eye on this in future scans.
For now we are still working on getting Karlye's Synthroid dosage correct. This is a long process because we have to wait 6 weeks to make any changes. Our next visit with Dr. Cohen will be in July and he wants to do an ultra sound of the neck at that time.
We have been told that Karlye will have to do the radioactive iodine and scan again in 6 months. I think that is when we will know how successful the surgery and the first radioactive iodine treatment was.
I have been through my 3rd round of consolidation chemo and I seem to have made it through the period where I nadir out after chemo. That is the time when my immune system bottoms out and I can't fight infections. This round I did have to have two blood transfusions with platelets and one day of platelets.
I had an appointment with Dr Brinker on April 4th, the day after Karlye's scan, and we talked about the next and hopefully final round of chemo. The plan is for me to go back in the hospital on Tuesday the 15th for the 4th round of consolidation chemo. Same dosage as the last time and same game plan. Meaning that I will get a Nuelasta shot after this round and hopefully I will recover like I did the last time.
He seems confident that everything will go well and even started discussing the steps after this round of chemo. So the plan is to go through this round, nadir our in seven to 14 days, get blood and platelet transfusions during that time and check my counts 3 times a week. When my blood work shows that my bone marrow has recovered and is back in the normal range we will do a bone marrow biopsy to confirm that the leukemia is not present, you are not considered to be in remission until you have gone five years without a positive bone marrow biopsy. If all goes well that would be the end of May or beginning of June.
After that my blood work will go to every six weeks and I will see Dr. Brinker every 3 months. He also told me if it becomes to much of a hassle for me to see him that I could just follow up with Dr. Patel locally. It was more like once we are done with the bone marrow biopsy he could move on to other patients that need him more than I do. LOL.
Right now I am not sure if we will be on track with our plan. That is because my counts have been dropping over the past week. Monday's blood work will determine if my next round of chemo is next week. My WBC (white blood cells) have been dropping along with my hemoglobin and ANC (absolute neutrophil count - white blood cells that fight infection). Although my counts are still high enough that I do not need any transfusions. I want to be closer to normal before I go through another round of chemo. So, if they are still low on Monday I will have to talk with Dr. Brinker and we will have to hold off a week or so and see how my bone marrow recovers.
Good news will be that when I go through my last round of chemo and get through the nadir out period and my bone marrow recovers. I can go back to work. Something that seemed like a pipe dream for so long now. I so want to feel better. That has been one of the toughest parts of this illness, besides the chemo, ICU etc., not having the energy to do things. Or having low platelets and knowing that I need to take it easy and should not do much. I learned several times that my body will pay for it if I don't take it easy.
It will be nice to have the energy to exercise and do things that I would like to do. But, for now I am looking forward and thinking about the things that I need to take care of during this recovery time. Things that will be tougher to do once I am back to work and a somewhat normal life.
Well that is the update. I know that I have not posted in awhile but it is surprising how long it takes for blood work and then dealing with all the medical bills. I am still trying to get things straightened out with Lakeland. I will try to keep this updated a little better in the future. I hope all is well with everyone that does follow my blog and that you all are enjoying this burst of spring weather!
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