ShilpaShinde's Journey with Papillary Carcinoma, Thyroid Cancer

I had moved to the US less than a year back to get a Masters degree and did not have my family with me except for my then boyfriend and now husband. Just being told that I had cancer was a scary experience but my endocrinologist who got the biopsy results and shared it with me, did it very nicely. It took a while to sink in and when it did I was scared but my support system of family and friends were there to help me deal with it.

The surgery included removing the entire thyroid but during surgery they realised that it had spread to my nodes and it was also kind of encasing my nerve. SO the surgery took a while longer than planned but the doctor was able to remove all the nodes and the entire thyroid. My stitches were removed after 10 days and I had full mobility in my neck within a month or so.

I had to undergo iodine radiation therapy and had to be quarantined for a day and a half till the radiation levels had dropped to a safe level. The experience was painless but rather intimidating as i was in the hospital and was not allowed any visitors as it would affect the person visiting me negatively. But I had no side effects for the radiation therapy pill that I was given.

Once the radiation was done, I was put on supplemental thyroid medication as I did not have a thyroid to generate the thyroid hormones anymore. It took a couple of months to get the dose right but haven't had any issues with the medication ever since. It's become a part of life having the hormone every morning as soon as I wake up on an empty stomach.

Three years after my initial surgery during routine scans and tests for monitoring the cancer, a small node was detected in my neck. This was a scary experience as I did not want to hear the word recurrence or cancer ever again. But well I took it in my stride and this time i had my family (now my husband with me) with me. We had managed it once so we would do it again. Fight the cancer and win

This time the surgery was done as an outpatient surgery and I was home the very same day. It was minimally invasive and the doctor removed a few nodes from my neck out of which three were positive. But he removed all the nodes around the region to make sure that everything was detected and removed this time. I was back to school in a week's time and back to my normal routine.

Now it's been 2 years since my last recurrence and I just had my yearly scan and all is clear. That's reason enough to celebrate!!!