Re: Thyroid not functioning correctly before thyroidectomy?

[Guest guest]

Karlene Behlen wrote:

> I was diagnosed with Pap cancer and had a thyroidectomy in August

> 2002 and RAI in Sept and am just now getting back " up to speed " now

> that my Synthroid is regulated. I now have more energy and feel

> better than I think I have in probably 10 years. My question is, Do

> you think my thyroid was not functioning correctly before the thyroid

> cancer was discovered? When they were trying to figure out whether

> my lump was cancerous or not they ran blood tests and all my thyroid

> tests came back in the normal range, but in the past 10 years or so I

> have been tired and usually took a nap during the day with my

> daughter just to make it thru the day. Curiously enough, when I was

> pregnant with my daughter, my energy level was higher than ever.

>

> Anyway, I was just wondering if pre-diagnosis of thyroid cancer if it

> is common for the thyroid to not be functioning properly or if it has

> any other symptoms.

Karlene,

It's very common for our thyroids to be out of whack for some time

before we're diagnosed. My endo's opinion is that by the time we're

diagnosed with thyca, most of us have had it for several years.

Glad to hear you're feeling better on Synthroid! I thought I was

the only one here who felt better after thyca treatment than before.

ellen

--

mailto:ellen@...

[Guest guest]

Karlene Behlen wrote:

> I was diagnosed with Pap cancer and had a thyroidectomy in August

> 2002 and RAI in Sept and am just now getting back " up to speed " now

> that my Synthroid is regulated. I now have more energy and feel

> better than I think I have in probably 10 years. My question is, Do

> you think my thyroid was not functioning correctly before the thyroid

> cancer was discovered? When they were trying to figure out whether

> my lump was cancerous or not they ran blood tests and all my thyroid

> tests came back in the normal range, but in the past 10 years or so I

> have been tired and usually took a nap during the day with my

> daughter just to make it thru the day. Curiously enough, when I was

> pregnant with my daughter, my energy level was higher than ever.

>

> Anyway, I was just wondering if pre-diagnosis of thyroid cancer if it

> is common for the thyroid to not be functioning properly or if it has

> any other symptoms.

Karlene,

It's very common for our thyroids to be out of whack for some time

before we're diagnosed. My endo's opinion is that by the time we're

diagnosed with thyca, most of us have had it for several years.

Glad to hear you're feeling better on Synthroid! I thought I was

the only one here who felt better after thyca treatment than before.

ellen

--

mailto:ellen@...

[Guest guest]

Karlene Behlen wrote:

> I was diagnosed with Pap cancer and had a thyroidectomy in August

> 2002 and RAI in Sept and am just now getting back " up to speed " now

> that my Synthroid is regulated. I now have more energy and feel

> better than I think I have in probably 10 years. My question is, Do

> you think my thyroid was not functioning correctly before the thyroid

> cancer was discovered? When they were trying to figure out whether

> my lump was cancerous or not they ran blood tests and all my thyroid

> tests came back in the normal range, but in the past 10 years or so I

> have been tired and usually took a nap during the day with my

> daughter just to make it thru the day. Curiously enough, when I was

> pregnant with my daughter, my energy level was higher than ever.

>

> Anyway, I was just wondering if pre-diagnosis of thyroid cancer if it

> is common for the thyroid to not be functioning properly or if it has

> any other symptoms.

Karlene,

It's very common for our thyroids to be out of whack for some time

before we're diagnosed. My endo's opinion is that by the time we're

diagnosed with thyca, most of us have had it for several years.

Glad to hear you're feeling better on Synthroid! I thought I was

the only one here who felt better after thyca treatment than before.

ellen

--

mailto:ellen@...

[Guest guest]

Ellen Van Landingham wrote:

> Karlene Behlen wrote:

>

> > ... I was just wondering if pre-diagnosis of thyroid cancer if it

> > is common for the thyroid to not be functioning properly or if it has

> > any other symptoms.

>

> Karlene,

>

> It's very common for our thyroids to be out of whack for some time

> before we're diagnosed. My endo's opinion is that by the time we're

> diagnosed with thyca, most of us have had it for several years.

I think these are two separate issues.

Our cancer has been growing for many years before being discovered, but our

thyroid function hasn't necessarily been affected.

-

NYC

[Guest guest]

Karlene, as one who had a bad (hypo) thyroid long before thyca, I can

only say that TT was " good riddance to bad rubbish, " a real mental

relief to know it was finally going to be literally trashed! I had

fantasized about having the extra space for years!

Scrolling back to pre-TT days....Some people are born with really

abnormal non-working thyroids and these children can suffer greatly

at birth and beyond if their condition is not realized. But most

people do not have such serious cases and do notice until their bad

thyroids become worse after puberty, and even worse yet after

pregnancy, and better during pregnancy. You can have a normal

thyroid test and still be with symptoms, what is classified

as " subclinically " hypothyroid. You can even have a normal thyroid

test one day and at ovulation have a below-normal test or low-normal

test.

I do not think, though, that having thyroid problems makes you at any

more risk for thyca than anyone else. Lots of people get thyca who

did not have thyroid problems before, so it is true that everyone

should take care to have their thyroid checked by a doctor manually

once a year for nodules. A good time for women is when their gyns

are doing their yearly paps.

In this respect, people who have already had thyroid problems are

more likely to get theirs continually checked manually, to check

goiter size, and thus have thyca caught early.

-----Jan

[Guest guest]

Sorry to post again on same topic, and remember I am not a medical

person; but I forgot to say that I suspect that some people who are

tired, as you mention, might actually have a pituitary problem, or a

pituitary problem in combination with a thyroid problem. That these

problems can be with those one or two glands themselves being

faulty.

Or these problems can be that the glands themselves may be fine and

only acting faulty due to an incorrect feedback loop that involves an

oversensitive immune system. As such the glands act faulty because

they are autoimmune; think of this more simplistically as like having

developed an allergy to oneself. The glands try to work but the

body's feedback system turns them off.

I also suspect that other glands, such as the adrenal system, push

overtime to try to make up for the ones not working, adding more

chaos to tiredness, such as joint pain and panic.

---Jan

[Guest guest]

Sorry to post again on same topic, and remember I am not a medical

person; but I forgot to say that I suspect that some people who are

tired, as you mention, might actually have a pituitary problem, or a

pituitary problem in combination with a thyroid problem. That these

problems can be with those one or two glands themselves being

faulty.

Or these problems can be that the glands themselves may be fine and

only acting faulty due to an incorrect feedback loop that involves an

oversensitive immune system. As such the glands act faulty because

they are autoimmune; think of this more simplistically as like having

developed an allergy to oneself. The glands try to work but the

body's feedback system turns them off.

I also suspect that other glands, such as the adrenal system, push

overtime to try to make up for the ones not working, adding more

chaos to tiredness, such as joint pain and panic.

---Jan

[Guest guest]

Sorry to post again on same topic, and remember I am not a medical

person; but I forgot to say that I suspect that some people who are

tired, as you mention, might actually have a pituitary problem, or a

pituitary problem in combination with a thyroid problem. That these

problems can be with those one or two glands themselves being

faulty.

Or these problems can be that the glands themselves may be fine and

only acting faulty due to an incorrect feedback loop that involves an

oversensitive immune system. As such the glands act faulty because

they are autoimmune; think of this more simplistically as like having

developed an allergy to oneself. The glands try to work but the

body's feedback system turns them off.

I also suspect that other glands, such as the adrenal system, push

overtime to try to make up for the ones not working, adding more

chaos to tiredness, such as joint pain and panic.

---Jan

[Guest guest]

katiekabob wrote:

> Our cancer has been growing for many years before being discovered,

> but our thyroid function hasn't necessarily been affected.

,

True, it hasn't *necessarily* been affected, but for some of us it

has. And the only way we find out, if our pre-dx tests aren't

sufficiently abnormal to alarm our GP's, is to contrast how we feel

after treatment with how we felt before.

ellen

--

mailto:ellen@...

[Guest guest]

katiekabob wrote:

> Our cancer has been growing for many years before being discovered,

> but our thyroid function hasn't necessarily been affected.

,

True, it hasn't *necessarily* been affected, but for some of us it

has. And the only way we find out, if our pre-dx tests aren't

sufficiently abnormal to alarm our GP's, is to contrast how we feel

after treatment with how we felt before.

ellen

--

mailto:ellen@...

[Guest guest]

katiekabob wrote:

> Our cancer has been growing for many years before being discovered,

> but our thyroid function hasn't necessarily been affected.

,

True, it hasn't *necessarily* been affected, but for some of us it

has. And the only way we find out, if our pre-dx tests aren't

sufficiently abnormal to alarm our GP's, is to contrast how we feel

after treatment with how we felt before.

ellen

--

mailto:ellen@...