Thyrogen injections

Hi . I'm not from this group, just dropped by and noticed you've not as yet had a reply to your post. Whilst waiting for the members of this group to reply it might be an idea to type Thyrogen into the search bar at the top of this page, you should find some answers there. I'm not medically trained but it makes sense to me to have the injection before bloods were taken.

You could ask a nurse by calling the Macmillan Support helpline, freephone number shown below.

Sending hugs, B x

Hello, 

I had my TC 11 years ago now and protocols have changed since then but I'm still surprised to hear you got Thyrgen injections twice, just 6 months apart. Did they also do gamma ray scans and a small dose of radioactive iodine, or just the blood tests? I assume at some point early on you had RAI treatment. 

Thyrogen injections used to cost about £700 a time which is why those of us who had TC back in the bad old days of global shortages, sometimes had to go hypo for up to 6 weeks instead of having the injections. I would imagine that if you get two in a row, just 6 months apart, and the results are good, the doctors may well be reluctant to keep on paying for the thyrogen jabs quite so frequently.

Are you in the UK or another country? Have others in the UK had this protocol of repeat thyrogen injections. 

Hello,

I had my 1st set of Thyrogen injections before I had my Radioactive iodine treatment and the full body/neck scan and  I had the injections again before I had my ultrasound neck scan for my follow up 6 months after that. 

I’ve since been in contact with my oncologist and they’ve said I’ll have them again prior to discharge or any further treatment,  So I’m looking at 8 years before I’ll have them again.

Yes I’m in the UK.

Best wishes 

Kelly

That all makes sense. If the first jabs were preparation for RAI and the second were for the 6 month scan, then that's what I would expect.
Technically, we're unlikely to ever be completely 'discharged' because we'll be monitored for life, but after 5 years, the docs do tend to relax if all's still going well.

I did my only round of RAI last year, with the thyrogen. I didn't feel anything special but sure enough, two days later the blood test showed a TSH in the hundreds