0.1

We took Henry down to Salt Lake City yesterday for an appointment with his pediatric endocrinologist. We needed to discuss monitoring and possible plans for future treatment and get some more bloodwork done. Since we weren't sure if his lung mets were going to respond to the radioactive iodine treatment, we were anxious. It all boils down to the thyroglobulin level in his blood.

Thyroglobulin is an indicator of the amount of thyroid tissue in your body. Since Henry's thyroid gland has been removed and he has had radioactive iodine treatment to kill the rest of his thyroid tissue (both normal thyroid tissue leftover from the surgery and cancer), the ultimate goal is for his Tg to be 0. After his surgery his level was pretty high, somewhere in the 17 range. Two weeks after his RAI it was down to 3.3. Anything under that level would have been acceptable to us, but the closer to zero the better.

It was 0.1. 1/10. Thissssss close to 0. We are thrilled. This indicates that the lung mets are responding to the treatment, which wasn't a sure thing at all. Lung mets can be resistant to RAI and we were warned that they might not go away and that the best result we might get would be for them not to get bigger. So honestly any number that wasn't higher than 3.3 would have been OK with us. But 0.1 is great!

We'll repeat bloodwork in the summer and we have another appointment in August with the endocrinologist. If his bloodwork stays good we'll probably cancel the neck ultrasound that we have scheduled for that appointment and the CT scan that we were planning to repeat in the fall. Then we'll be able to do periodic bloodwork to check his TSH level (and adjust his thyroid meds as needed) and Tg (close to zero is good; any rise in his level could indicate a recurrence). He'll need that monitoring for the rest of his life. And every time I'm sure I'll hold my breath until we get the results back.

But tonight we're relieved. And grateful. And happy. Things are looking good for now and that's just about all we can ask.