It showed some “activity” with my thyroid.  No masses anywhere, though – good news!  But what the heck is going on with my thyroid now, I wondered.  Something else to worry about.  Cancer?

I saw my oncologist a week later and she said it’s not cancer, but it’s something, so let’s do a thyroid function test (a blood test) and see.  She also told me that thyroid problems have been known to occur from radiation.  Just my luck!

She called me a couple of days later and said that the blood test confirmed that I have hypothyroidism.  She suggested I schedule an appointment to see an endocrinologist, and so I did.  She said that hypothyroidism could be transient, but it could also be a lifelong problem, and is most often associated with fatigue and weight gain – GREAT!

Thyroid function tests looks at three thyroid hormones:  T3, T4 and TSH.  While my T3 and T4 are within normal limits, the TSH is high.  The normal range is 0.40 – 4.50 and I mine is 16.99.

Now I’m being told that I have something else wrong with me – because apparently breast cancer and all the other crap I’ve had to go through just wasn’t enough on my plate!

I’m trying really hard not to dwell on it, but I was given the choice of whether or not to get radiation therapy because my case was borderline and the doctors were torn.  I chose to do it even though I didn’t want to because I could not think of a good enough reason not to do it.  I should have gone with my gut!  Everything that’s happened to me since completing radiation therapy is my reason to say no to the choice of radiation or no radiation – too bad I didn’t know this before I made my decision.