Hey guys,

So I saw my thoracic surgeon for a follow-up and he says that he wants to send me to an oncologist to see if I'll need radiation for my old nemesis, the thymoma...He thinks that I should get it because the tumour was so large (he says that in total, it was 9cm), that he thinks it'll come back...While I was there, they also ran some genetic tests on me....They're doing some study to see of there's a gene for thymoma and other cancers...

This sucks...I really don't want to have radiation, but I also don't want the tumour to come back...I read that my type usually doesn't come back, but i think that because it was poking through the fat around my thymus, this means that it was 'invasive,' sorta between a stage I and stage II...

For those of you who've had radiation, was it really terrible? How much did you have to have? What was the procedure like?

The only good thing about it is that it really ensures that it wont come back...But I just recently read a study for stage I and II AB thymomas saying that without radiation, the 10-year survival rate is 93% and with radiation, the survivial rate is 96%...So it's like, yeah, do I even need to do it?

My biggest worry is that it'll grow back somewhere else, especially now that I don't have a thymus....I read about some guy whose thymoma grew back in his brain -but that was after 9-years of having a thymoma in his thymus (he didn't want to have it removed for some reason and it continued to grow over a period of 9-years)....

This thymus/thymoma business is so confusing...I wish that there was a thymus specialist...The thymus seems pretty important...

I've been thinking about it lately...I've been having strange symptoms for almost 10-years....Weak chest, weak fingers,twitching, sweating, intolerance to heat...But it was so subtle, and so insidious that I don't think anyone could have ever figured out what was wrong unless someone ordered a CT scan (I wish someone had since I had chest tightness and 'cramps' everyone once in a while too)...So anyway, I've been thinking...If my thymus has had a tumour in it for let's say, 8-10 years, that means it was in there while I still 'needed' my thymus...The thymus is supposed to start to involute after the age of 18...So is this why I have so many autoimmune diseases? My thymus never got to complete its purpose? And does this mean I'll prolly get more that I don't have a thymus at all? I know that no one prolly knows the answer...i'm just sorta typing away...I just find it strange that plenty of people get 'paraneoplastic' diseases (aplastic anemia, myasthenia gravis, hypogammaglobluneria, stiffman's diseases, neuromyotonic, cramp-fasciculation disease, rippling muscle disease, Lupus, pseudo-obstruction of the intestine) after they have their thymus removed...Sorry, again just sorta talking away...

Talk to you guys soon