 Patient Advocate (old timer, 2000 posts)
Joined: Nov 2002 Posts: 3,552 | Everyone who gets radiation in the head & neck area should be getting a TSH test every 6 months according to NCCN guidelines. You should have gotten a baseline test before the start of treatment.
Your blood chemistry may never return to the levels it was before treatment, especially WBC. Anemia is having too many white cells however.
It took me a couple of years before I settled into the new "normal". This is when some of the collateral damage from the radiation started to show up as well (mainly damage to the neck muscles on the side with the most radiation).
My SSDI claim was based on long term cancer fatigue which is a well known side effect.
Gary Allsebrook
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Dx 11/22/02, SCC, 6 x 3 cm Polypoid tumor, rt tonsil, Stage III/IVA, T3N0M0 G1/2
Tx 1/28/03 - 3/19/03, Cisplatin ct x2, IMRT, bilateral, with boost, x35(69.96Gy)
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"You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes" (James 4:14 NIV)
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