Hello, New here

That's a great attitude to take with you through your cancer experience.

Thanks Barbara, 

I have remained positive throughout my journey so far but I am now starting to feel anxious about the drink, what is the process how will it make me feel etc.. I have some questions I need to ask the consultant on Thursday as I feel tired a lot, my hair hasn't grown for a year is this because my thyroid wasn't working as well as it should? He said that Thyroid Cancer is one of the better cancers to have as it is contained to the Thyroid yet the lymph node they removed was cancerous not sure about the other lymph node as I get that result this week but how can that be if its doesn't spread? 

I havent returned to work yet due to the tiredness as well as I've kind of shut myself away from the world and not wanted to really talk to anyone as people want to talk about me and whats going on yet they don't really understand and makes them feel uncomfortable and then make jokes to make light of it which I get but on the other hand its not a joke which is why I joined here, hopefully someone will understand xx

I didn't have a drink. I had a capsule. It was sitting inside a solid lead container in the treatment room. I didn't even spot it was there. The nuclear technician screwed a tube onto the doodaa that contained the capsule, and all I had to do was up-end it into my mouth and wash it down with a cup of water. Quite how a liquid would work, I'm not entirely sure - maybe somebody else will know more about that and can help.

Covid has given lot of opportunity for people to shut themselves off from the world, so you're probably getting away with it more than under normal circumstances. 

If people want to talk, you don't have to. Just tell them "I'm not yet ready to talk about this. Do you mind if we change the subject?" 

They may well be relieved.

A lot of people suffer really badly with 'foot in mouth' disease when talking about cancer. My husband was the worst. I just totally banned him from talking to anybody about cancer after he had a habit of telling long rambling stories about something he'd heard on the news and then realised halfway through that the punch line was "and everybody died horribly". I also found the well-meaning tales about people I didn't know who had something completely different from me were absolutely not helping me at all.

Ah ok maybe I will have the same, I had my meeting today and confirmed I will need the treatment so I am now waiting for an application to meet my new consultant to go through the treatment plan, did it make you feel ill? 

Not even the tiniest bit ill. It was like spending a few days at a particularly dull spa.
If the nuclear tech hadn't come in with the geiger counter, I wouldn't have believed I'd taken anything at all.

I was waiting for the lights to flicker or for me to start glowing or developing Spiderman-like super powers but it was all rather 'so what'.

Hi Tinkerbell.

I'm far earlier in my journey having only been 'officially' diagnosed last week. But I feel lucky to have found out too.

I felt like I had to push to be taken seriously and get the appointment in the beginning and ultimately ended up going private. I now have my surgery booked for this week. 

Haha thanks Barbara, that makes me feel a bit more at ease, I was worried about how ill it would possibly make me feel x

Hi Emma, 

Silly question but how are you feeling?  Are you have part removal or full? 

Dawn x

Hi Dawn

I'm having full with about 40-50 lymph nodes as part of the neck dissection.

The main lumps are in my glands around 4cm with the lump on my thyroid being only 1.2cm and contained to the right lobe.

I did ask if I have to have the whole thing out or just half but my consultant said no you need the whole thing out. I think maybe because it's spread and ill be having the RAI...

I felt relief when the biopsy results came back. I'm a massive control freak and the waiting was so hard to deal with. This treatment plan feels manageable and I haven't thought too much about the daily tablets and post op follow ups just yet. 

I'm reassured that the prognosis is good and the statistics on cure are so high.

How are you feeling? 

Oh wow thats a lot of lymph nodes being removed, I can't believe you had to push so hard to be taken seriously, but now you have a plan, and I'm told that once removed and with the RAI that there is a very slim chance it could come back, my consultant said its one if the best cancers to have if that's such a thing I am also glad they opted to remove it all rather than part, just because its better on you to only have to recover once from surgery rather than twice and also eliminates everything in one go, no need to have that constant worry.

Haha I am the same a bit of a control freak couldn't stand all the appointments and the waiting it felt like torture, my consultant has done my stage by stage biopsy waited for results so had part removed then waited for the results and next steps, 6 weeks later had the rest removed waited for the results and then next steps, always felt quite good though after each appointment just because there was a plan for each bit always feel calmer when there is a plan in place so totally get you.

When I had my meeting with the consultant this week he advised I wasn't on the right amount of thyroxine so he has upped the dosage but he said that's normal, they put you on a base level based on height and weight then increase or decrease gradually till your on the right one but suppose every condition does things slightly different, im quite sad that I'm leaving my current consultant for a new one because he's a really nice guy, and no idea what the new one is going to be like, he assures me he is really nice as he is a good friend of his haha.

What date is your surgery? 

Dawn xx