Wonderful Link to E-Medicine on Pap Cancer PLUS talks about quality of life re PapCa and RAI treatments ..

[ChitChatNine]

A must read:  http://www.emedicine.com/ent/topic286.htm

Scroll all the way down to near the bottom where it talks about the psychological impact of Thy Ca and how it affects WORK, FAMILY, etc. when preparing for RAI!!!!!!!  Also talks about studies being done for long-life meds after TT and that these people endure LESSER QUALITY of LIFE ... interesting .. very interesting ...
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HERE IS THE EXCERPT ON QUALITY OF LIFE:
Quality of life and psychosocial issues

Despite the relatively favorable prognosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma, multiple studies have demonstrated that the quality of life among these patients is lower than would be expected, both in the initial year after diagnosis and long term.

Follow-up monitoring for thyroid cancer can have profound effects on patients' lives, as they are required to undergo levothyroxine withdrawal for 4-6 weeks prior to whole-body scanning. This places the patient in the position of trying to maintain normal activity and function while experiencing the well-documented effects of hypothyroidism, including increased fatigue, memory loss, mood disturbances, decreased motor skills, and the many other effects of thyroid dysregulation. The impact of this experience on work performance, family relationships, and social life can be detrimental to the well-being of these patients.

Although the significant effects of levothyroxine withdrawal have been documented for some time, significant deficits in the health-related quality of life and psychometric functionality of patients while on maintenance levothyroxine have recently been reported. Although these deficits are less severe than those experienced during periods of levothyroxine withdrawal, they can be significant, as levothyroxine supplementation therapy typically continues for the remainder of a patient's life.

C~

[At The End of My Rope]

Thank you so much for the information I think we all should show our friends and family this info so that some might understand were we come from during this time of our life.

[DLA]

Meant to tell you I got the media release info from ThyCa site sent to local news organizations.  Still have to get letter sent to news papers.  Have anything you think I should put in the letter to the editors that maybe I wouldn't think of having never gone through this myself?  Am just going to try to tell them some of the stuff I know from this site.  Thought there would be something on ThyCa site to just send in, but if it's on there I didn't find it.

Thanks for the help.
Dac