Update on Gary's cancer

[Nighthawk]

We went to the endocrinologist yesterday and we got some news that I think is good considering it is about cancer. Gary's thyroid cancer is Papillary Thyroid Cancer:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papillary_thyroid_cancer

We were really impressed with the two endocrinologists we saw yesterday. Hershey Medical Center has also been top notch with their service. It appears as though the tumor is 1cm-1.9cm in size, has not spread to the surrounding tissues nor to the lymph nodes. This is the most curable form of thyroid cancer. Thanks to Amy's insistence that the boy get an MRI for a possible ruptured disc in his neck the tumor was detected early. Call it mother's instinct but had that scan not been performed it may have taken years before the tumor showed signs of it's own if ever. It would have probably been terminal by then or so the doctors told us.

Given his age of 27 along with general good health Gary's prospects for complete cure are excellent. However, he may be diabetic or pre-diabetic. We are dealing with that as well. Tomorrow we go to the Surgeon. Mot likely we are looking at a complete thryoidectomy along with radioactive iodine treatment.

We are convinced that without the power of your prayers, well wishes and positive thoughts for Gary this would not have turned out to be as good as it is. We are so thankful for all of you as well as the doctors, nurses, medical staff and facilities that are helping us along the way.

God Bless All.

[Lotech]

That's good news Eric. Continued prayers from here.

[oldfrat]

I have personally felt the power of prayers from this board for my son. You'll certainly get mine for yours.

[WarrenP]

That is great news! I have had two treatments with the radioactive iodine treatments and they were done as an outpatient. Took about 2 hours of my time due to paperwork and waiting on people and the treatment only took about 15 minutes of that time. Your thyroid will take in all the iodine you put into your system and uses it to create the chemicials needed by your other organs. The iodine treatments I took (about 30 years ago) consisted of 2 capsules of radioactive iodine which the thyroid assorbed and the radioactive killed the cells in the thyroid. I still have my thyroid, but, it is not active and I take meds everyday to provide my other organs what the thyroid is no longer producing. I did not have cancer of the thyroid. What I had and still have (not cureable) is called Graves Disease.

Great news and my thanks goes to the Creator....

[Nighthawk]

Surgery will be on the 28th of June. He will he either first or second in the surgical rotation for the day. The surgeon will remove the entire thyroid just to be safe. Also the adjacent lymph nodes will come out. I believe he will also get dosed with radioactive iodine. This is where it will be done:

http://pennstatehershey.org/web/guest/home

Thank you all for your prayers.

[Nighthawk]

That is great news! I have had two treatments with the radioactive iodine treatments and they were done as an outpatient. Took about 2 hours of my time due to paperwork and waiting on people and the treatment only took about 15 minutes of that time. Your thyroid will take in all the iodine you put into your system and uses it to create the chemicials needed by your other organs. The iodine treatments I took (about 30 years ago) consisted of 2 capsules of radioactive iodine which the thyroid assorbed and the radioactive killed the cells in the thyroid. I still have my thyroid, but, it is not active and I take meds everyday to provide my other organs what the thyroid is no longer producing. I did not have cancer of the thyroid. What I had and still have (not cureable) is called Graves Disease.

Great news and my thanks goes to the Creator....

Thanks Warren. i am glad you are doing so well. It took me two years to finally get fully adjusted after they ablated my thyroid with the iodine pills. I had hot nodules appear on mine. Went super hyperactive then down to zero after the ablation. Yuck what a ride with the hormones. Now I can use your experience and mine to help my son.

[rizeye]

Glad to hear Gary's prognosis is good. Did Gary get a nuclear medicine scan with tracer iodine? this indicatesif there were active sites outside the thyroid and they also use this scan to determine the size of the thyroid.