Well, I'm not exactly at my best tonight, am I? I did mean thymus, not thyroid, and have corrected my post accordingly. There are many PubMed articles on the thymus growing back and cancer coming back. I hope these doctors will be correct in their prognosis.

Radiating someone every six months is dangerous too, especially if your son goes on immunosuppressants at some point. You might want to do some more research on that. If cancer runs in your family in addition to your son having it, suppressing the immune system could put him at greater risk.

The reasons for these thoughts are multifactorial.

People are human. We all have those moments of pride and if your son is exempt from that, great. But any disease takes time to adjust to and it is quite difficult to go from "I am a healthy adult and can do anything" to "I have a disease that affects every single thing I do every day." The instinct to "push" oneself is normal. I can't think of anyone here who hasn't done that. Cautioning a "newbie" about that is standard procedure around here.

I did not say your son is denying he has MG. How would I know that? I haven't virtually spoken to him.

People who have been newly diagnosed with MG are more susceptible to having an MG crisis, especially within the first year or two. That is simply a fact of MG research. Having knowledge of the "what ifs" is all about being as prepared as possible for anything. It is not saying that your son wouldn't seek out care. It's urging your son to do so. Do you see the difference? It's the same advice I would give anyone on this forum who has been newly diagnosed. It's not personal.

You'd be surprised how many MG patients pooh-pooh their own symptoms and don't seek out help right away. I don't think I'd be generalizing to say that many MGers don't want to admit when they are getting worse, right guys?!

I've had MG my entire life and have had other medical issues. The one thing I do know is that you can't assume anything when it comes to doctoring. And no matter how good you are at coping with things, having a disease is a challenge for anyone.

My post to you was about helping you and your son, as all of my posts on this forum are. And, frankly, I'm surprised that you took it as anything other than that.

Annie

As far as radiating somebody every six months, it is obviously not a great thing, but in the case of a cancer that could come back, diagnostic radiation is worth the risk. Hopefully it will only be several times and not forever.

Before I was diagnosed with MG, I think I had a dozen spiral CT scans of my chest in a year and a half. Every time I had trouble breathing, I'd go to the ER and they would do one to make sure I didn't have a pulmonary embolism. I'm sure I'm practically glowing by now.