A Cancer Survivor & Fighter's Blog
Lots of news as usual. Starting with the biggest: 1) My parents bought a house here! It’s a 5 bedroom colonial 0.3 miles from our house. They’re coming out around Thanksgiving to stay for a week or two and gets some things settled. Right now my dad is still working for Kaiser and it may [...]
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated but not because anything bad has happened…I’m actually doing ok. Just busy with life! I had a tg level drawn about a month after RAI and it came back at 0.57. Ideally it would be 0 meaning that there are NO thyroid cancer cells left, but apparently it can [...]
Lots of pictures to post tonight and many thoughts. First of all the good news. I had my repeat total body scan after my RAI today. I’ve been so nervous all this week it’s almost made me physically ill…even though the first scan was negative this one is done with 150 mCi on board vs. [...]
Synthroid- 150 mcgs. Day 1. Also Day 1 of back to real food!
I decided it was time to update since it’s been a few days…I haven’t felt like writing before because I’m just so darn tired from the hypothyroidism and honestly I’ve felt a little bit down about the whole thing. However don’t worry, I think I’m pretty much done feeling sorry for myself :). Basically on [...]
Well tomorrow is the big day. Initially I thought today was when I would be getting the whole body scan, but my protocol is a little different than I thought. Wednesday I got a 5mCi dose of I-131 and today I got a 2mCi dose of I-123. The I-131 came in a little test tube [...]
Today is the day before my iodine scan starts…I’ll get the tracer tomorrow and go back on Thursday for the actual scan. The closer it gets the more nervous I am, but I do have full confidence this will turn out ok. On a happier note my mom and I will transplant my tomatoe and [...]
Just wanted to wish everyone a happy almost Easter! I am feeling pretty done with the whole hypothyroid thing and low iodine diet but doing ok. Wednesday and Thursday I am scheduled for the radioactive tracer and scan, and Thursday I will sit down with nuclear medicine to get the results and plan my ablation [...]
I just got the word from endocrinology that I can go forward with my radioactive iodine treatment. It certainly took long enough to become de-iodinated! I’m just waiting for a call back now from nuclear medicine to figure out when. I’m scared and excited. Excited to be done, scared of what they will find (metastases?!?!?!) [...]
Still have not done my iodine treatment. Hopefully it will happen soon? Overall the holidays were great. I can’t believe it’s January already! The boys and I just got back from a trip to visit grandma and grandpa Potter out at the beach house. I will post some pictures when I get a chance. While [...]
My name is Kate Stowell. I’m a cancer survivor two times over! I was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1997 and diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer in 2009. Besides surviving cancer, I am a graduate of SUNY Geneseo (2004) and SUNY Binghamton (2006) and work as a registered nurse in a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I have two wonderful children, a loving husband, and a sweet black lab. The purpose of this blog is to keep a record of all the ups and downs my growing family goes through both during treatment and everyday life. I welcome questions and comments. Welcome!