Hey guys, thank you for being here. A few months ago, I found a large bump in my right side of my neck that ended up being a 10cm large mass and two smaller ones on the left side of my thyroid. Long story short it ended up being papillary thyroid cancer, had my full thyroid removed, right vocal nerve removed (losing function of my right vocal cord,) one parathyroid and 92 lymph nodes with 36 testing positive for the cancer. I just did my radioactive iodine 150mci and had a full body scan five days later and the radiologist found multiple small nodules in my lower right lung with the largest being 8mm. None of the nodules seemed to have any radioactive iodine uptake.
Here is part of the report
IMPRESSION:
1. Foci of iodine uptake in the neck, compatible with residual thyroid tissue status post thyroidectomy.
2. Mild iodine uptake in the region of the thymus, nonspecific, but may represent physiologic thymic iodine uptake.
3. Multiple bilateral pulmonary nodules measuring up to 8 mm in the right lower lobe, suspicious for pulmonary metastatic disease. No definite iodine uptake is seen in the region of the pulmonary nodules, as the small nodule size may be below the resolution threshold of SPECT. Attention on follow up examinations recommended.
I read online that patients who see no iodine take up in the first round generally have no improvement with a second round of radioactive iodine and wanted to hear if anyone has a similar story? With 3 small children I am going crazy and can barely sleep. Because of loss of one of my vocal cords water kept going into my lungs, I am also wondering if that could've possibly caused these nodules. Any insight would be appreciated guys! Thank you!
actually, just wanted to add too.. having reread what you put in the original post.
from my reading of the report they are saying there's no iodine uptake seen possibly because the nodules may be below the imaging resolution of SPECT/their equipment. I read this as they are saying they may be too small to show up as they may be below the size of what they can see with their equipment. Not necessarily because they aren't taking up iodine. They may be just too little to show up.
Thats just my reading of the report though and I am not a doctor /nuclear specialist
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Thyroid cancer warrior
Thyroid cancer warrior
