Anne

You have gotten so much good advice that I don't have anything original to add except to repeat Christine's advice about getting your TSH level checked. It's a simple blood test and MD Anderson may well do it automatically for all I know BUT you really should ask them to do one. While my CCC doctors were top notch on Cancer, for related issues like Thyroid & PEGs- "not so much".
After IMRT, I was not only extremely tired but also froze for two years, even in summer, and kept a winter coat on in air conditioned places yet I was constantly told: "Your TSH levels are normal" and I did not ask for the actual numbers or test results. Turns out however there is controversy over what is the right TSH level with labs having a 5.5, a 4.5 even though endocrinologists who went to Medical school the 21st Century consider 3.0 as the highest acceptable level. Before TX, I had a TSH of 1.6 and after TX it shot up to 4.3. Now that I am "on the pill", I am finally warm again and back to 1.48

The key is to know what your TSH level is before IMRT so you can get back to it. It's not good enough to be "in the range" of normal, you want to recover to what you were. It's one of the few areas we can actually do that.
Best wishes
Charm


Last edited by Charm2017; 01-09-2011 08:04 AM. Reason: typos

65 yr Old Frack
Stage IV BOT T3N2M0 HPV 16+
2007:72GY IMRT(40) 8 ERBITUX No PEG
2008:CANCER BACK Salvage Surgery
25GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin
Apaghia /G button
2012: CANCER BACK -left tonsilar fossa
40GY-CyberKnife(5) 3 Carboplatin

Passed away 4-29-13