I last blogged about my experience with thyroid cancer in early 2020. Back then, I said that I felt pretty much normal. That has indeed continued to be the case, and recently I was declared as having formally recovered from the cancer. The guideline is apparently that after two years with no sign of a cancer resurgence, you are considered fully recovered. Future follow-ups are the responsibility of the primary care system instead of the hospital, with something like yearly or bi-yearly follow-up tests. Not so much to look out for the cancer, but to keep the Levaxin prescription correct.
Life on Levaxin
The one remaining task this year is to calibrate my daily Levaxin dose. The surgeon who called me told me to lower the dose to “just” 150mg per day, since there is no longer any need to suppress new thyroid cancer cells from forming. This dose is a definite improvement compared to the previous 162.5 (implemented as alternating between 150 and 175). I feel more harmonious and calm, and I believed I have an easier time staying focused on a task. Things are not quite like they were before the cancer diagnosis, but getting better.
Comedy of Errors
It must be said that this final leg was a bit of a comedy of errors. On the part of the healthcare system. For some reason, my doctor had a hard time reading dates on the tests. The first time he called me I had not even had time to actually get my tests taken. Instead, he looked at the results from 2020… which is a bit odd since I would have expected the call to be triggered by new lab results appearing in his inbox. After a short while he realized the mistake, and he promised to call me back after the tests had actually been taken.
I went to the primary care facility and got the tests taken. Or so I thought. The doctor then called me, and proclaimed me as officially recovered. Before he realized that he was still looking at the results from June 2020. Apparently, somehow the order for the right tests had been lost. Thus, it was back to the facility for another round of tests.
When the doctor called me for the third time, he finally had properly recent tests. Which happily enough changed nothing about the results, and he basically said “what we said last time still applies”. Done. Maybe not the best moment of the healthcare system maybe, but also no real harm done.