Oh MissKim you don't need to deal with this! But I guess I don't need to say that because you have to... I am so sorry because you just don't need this added stress.
Because this is primary thyroid cancer (and not metastisized cc) I would probably want the surgery too. Why doesn't your doctor think you should have it out? Does he think that you aren't otherwise healthy enough? Does he think it's slow-growing enough that you have time to deal with other things first? I don't know but it sounds like you are doing okay health-wise despite the cc issues, so I wouldn't think the thyroid surgery would be a big thing.
My best friend had very early stage primary medullary thyroid cancer about 5 years ago. That is a whole different kind than yours but still treated in much the same way. Her surgery was pretty uneventful - she has a blood clotting issue so she was in the hospital for a little bit of extra time. Surgery is surgery of course, but I don't think it is usually considered major surgery to have your thyroid taken out.
After you have it removed, you might have to take two different kinds of medicine - one, a radioactive iodine for the cancer (although it sounds so early in your case that you probably wouldn't), and two, the medicine that replaces what your thyroid would normally make. Depending on the exact situation, you would either take one, both or neither of these! Does your doc think that either of these medications would somehow interfere with your cc treatment? I am not familiar enough with it to know for sure, but I don't think it will. You would also need blood tests fairly often (every 2-3 months I think) to check your levels and make sure the thyroid replacement medicine is working, so again although I can't imagine this would interact with anything happening with the cc you should check that out.
This is a pretty "good" cancer (God that sounds so stupid - is there even such a thing?) in that it is extremely curable, over 95%. But I think that cure rate is based on the fact that you have your thyroid taken out, so I think that is very important.
Obviously your doc knows a lot more about your overall situation than I do, but don't let him "write you off" because of the probable cc mets. If you are physically well enough to do the thyroid surgery and are willing to take it on, I personally think you should go for it.
Hannah
Hannah K. Vogler
Co-Founder, The Colon Club
cousin of Amanda Sherwood Roberts
dx 1/99 Stage III at age 24
died January 1, 2002 at age 27
My 2/28 PET/CT scan revealed uptake in my thyroid area (plus 3 nodes in the left clavicle area, several lung spots, a spot on my retroperetinium, and spot on my vaginal cuff). Oh joy for me.
. As if my life wasn't complicated enough. It is a very small spot. I want surgery because I just can't think about having two cancers at once. But I mentioned this and heard about "quality of life" and the colon cancer. Yeah, I know the colon cancer is the bigger threat. I just want to do something proactive.
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