Crazy question

[Batty1]

Can residual thyroid tissue after thyroidectomy produce thyroid hormones ? Anyone Have a link talking about residual tissue after thyroidectomy, please post I can't find a thing..

[Batty1]

I don't have elevated thyroglobin or thyroglobin antibodies but apparently have a considerable amount of residual thyroid tissue and just curious if this residual tissue could be behind my crazy low thyroid levels, no matter my dose.

[Batty1]

Recently had radioactive iodine test (whole body scan)

[SilverAvocado]

I believe that all thyroid tissue can produce thyroid hormone. I think the thyroid is all one big lump of tissue that all makes the hormone. It's not one of those organs where there's a specific structure and shape and only specific parts of the whole do different jobs.

[Batty1 in reply to SilverAvocado]

So, if I do have a considerable amount of residual thyroid tissue left could it produce enough (hormone) along with my synthyroid and cytomel be enough hormone to make my TSH,FT4 and T3 to constantly fluctuate ....I fast and do blood work early morning as well as take no meds prior to test.

[SilverAvocado in reply to Batty1]

I don't know enough to comment that specifically

The vast majority of thyoid patients have Hashimoto's and haven't had thyroidectomies. They will have some working thyroid tissue, so it can't be that it would definitely cause disruption.

[LAHs in reply to Batty1]

Well, my two cents worth: yes, thyroid tissue can regenerate. There have been a couple of posts here from post TT patients who have shown pictures of RAI scans which show a clear outline of a thyroid "base print". That is why patients are usually put on T3 only immediately after a total thyroidectomy to suppress regeneration. It's not that you do not want your thyroid to grow back, it's that you do not want the cancerous cells to regenerate.

I happen to think that cell regeneration is the great white hope for thyroid cancer recovery. There are other organs in our bodies which can grow back if a slice has to be cut off, so why not the thyroid? I am sure research is being done on this, not fast enough for my life time I guess. I am patiently waiting for regeneration of knee cartilage (via stem cells), we are SO close but, as yet, no banana.

[Batty1 in reply to LAHs]

I happen to think that cell regeneration is the great white hope for thyroid cancer recovery. (Can you elaborate more on why you believe this).

I can tell yah at this point my cholesterol levels are going to kill me before the thyroid cancer....my cholesterol (LDL) jumped 36 points in 16 weeks after switching from 2 grains Armour Thyroid to 88mcg synthyroid /10mcg Cytomel to 100mg synthyroid and 10mg Cytomel....

[LAHs in reply to Batty1]

Well, if you can regenerate an organ from your own DNA and some stem cells from wherever. Then you bypass the whole rejection process, it's your tissue so the body's immune system does not see it as a foreign object so it leaves it alone. Now there are a lot of things which will regenerate in the body, I am not medically inclined so I cannot give you a full list but I believe the liver is one such organ. You can be a donor and give away a large slice of your liver and it will regenerate. Researchers have grown an ear and attached it to the back of a mouse. Some researchers are trying to grow limbs, imagine losing a finger but then growing another one. So too the thyroid. Imagine losing your thyroid to cancer but then waiting for another one to grow in it's place. That is why I think it is the great white hope of medicine.