Working on a Future

Terry had a follow up with the oncologist the other day.  We will be adding yet another doctor into the mix, bringing the grand total to 9 doctors he's working with currently.  Nine.  Can you imagine?  Just keeping the names and specialties straight can be a production.  This one will be an endocrinologist and will handle the radiation and tweaking thyroid levels.  


We haven't heard from this new doc yet, but I find I'm getting a little anxious to get the radiation started and finished.  He won't have ongoing radiation like most radiation treatments.  There will be a capsule containing the radioactive iodine, and the iodine will travel to any places where thyroid cells may have traveled and kill the cells.  He will be hospitalized for 24-48 hours while he's radioactive, and that should be the extent of treatment. From that perspective it should be an easier route for him, but from my perspective, I'd just like to get any other treatments related to the thyroid cancer completed so we can start looking forward instead of continuing to be in a holding pattern.


I've been concerned that his voice is still not strong, but we learned it could be 6-8 weeks before that's back to normal.  Hopefully it will be.  He claims he's not nauseous feeling all the time like he used to be, but I see he's still making his evening rampages to the fridge and the pantry.  I really had hoped that would be a thing of the past.  Apparently it was not motivated by thyroid as much as habit.  Not sure how I can break that habit, but I can't feel it's good for him to eat in the middle of the night like that.  


He is starting to sleep a little better, so that has to help him.  It didn't seem possible for him to recover without getting some rest, so maybe that will accelerate the process a little.  I know if he had a job he'd be expected to be back at work now, so I need to be mindful that he's not on the same schedule for recovery that others are, even though he is doing very well by all accounts from the oncologist.  There still is a colonoscopy to be done, so his year of health fun is not over quite yet.  Not quite....


But he is doing better than I think I expected him to when this whole journey began to find out what was wrong.  I'm still not confident we've taken care of all of his health problems that can be taken care of, but I'm not going to borrow trouble by worrying.  I know I have to remain vigilant so we don't get to this point again.  Maybe we won't have to...we've certainly had our share!