Tag: thyroid

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Cancer Family & Friends Health Me Mothering

After Thyroid Cancer Surgery

It has been 12 days since my thyroid and lymph node cancer surgery, and the recovery has been slow.  Thanks to my friend, Amy, who has posted a few updates, most of you know the basic details, and I am really exhausted tonight to write a lot. 

The best news by far was the cancer had not spread into my lymph nodes as much as my surgeon, Dr. S., had thought.  During the surgery he had sent for some of the pathology reports, and none of the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck were showing cancer.

This basically saved the right side of my neck from having to be dissected.  The left side of my neck had more cancer in the lymph nodes and he did have to do the dissection, but he was able to save more nerves than he had thought as well.  I have complete feeling on the right side of my neck, but as Dr. S., warned me prior to surgery, my left side of my neck from my earlobe to my collarbone is numb. 

I was recovering really well in the hospital, but after I got out of ICU, I ran into some problems with my medications, that  am still trying to bounce back from. 

I saw Dr. S., on Friday for him to take out some stitches and he had my full pathology report.  He removed 66 lymph nodes and my thyroid.  My thyroid was positive for cancer but out of those lymph nodes, only 7 had cancer.  It seems almost like  a miracle, and I am so happy at that good news.  

Dr. S., credited my nurse practitioner with early detection for my case not being as critical as originally thought.  As you can imagine, I am going to write a lot more about this in the future.  But start now at your annual exams having your health care provider check for any abnormalities in your thyroid and get it checked as soon as you can.

I am fighting through some pain in my shoulders, and I had the boys for a few days, before their dad has them for some vacation time.  My family and friends have been nothing less than wonderful, and I am so lucky to have so many people that have taken such excellent care of me.  I will never be able to repay them- but their loving gifts of time and help are precious to me. 

Now a lot of it is up to me.  I am going to start walking more every day (per doctor’s orders) and try to eat more, even though I do not feel like it.  I am going to rest more and and not push myself like I usually do.

Dr. S., told me sometimes a drain has to stay in for up to two weeks to catch the fluid, but I had the last of my four drains out the night before  I left the hospital.  He also said I was somewhat of a medical miracle in that my calcium levels barely dropped at all, once my thyroid was out.  It is very common for the calcium to take huge drops.  If the calcium drops too low, you can go into cardiac arrest.  Dr. S., said he had never had a patient whose calcium hardly dropped at all like mine did. 

This has been a very hard, painful cancer, and surgery to cope with, but as I hope to document, the recovery is coming along well, and I feel very optimistic.  This will be a life-long issue for me from this point.  My life will never be quite the same, but I have been cancer free now for 12 days,  there is no more cancer in my body, so this is a new start for my family, friends, and I.  

The picture below is a picture of me on June 12th, just after my surgery.  I am sharing it to show that thyroid cancer is still cancer- it shouldn’t be ignored.  It is a big deal. 

The next pictures  I share on my blog of me post-surgery will be much better.  Cancer can be beaten, but insist your provider checks your thyroid at your exams, and hopefully you will never have to have a picture of yourself like I do after a thyroidectomy.     

I will continue to keep you all updated, and once again thanks for the prayers and well wishes. I am not a huge “God” person, but I know He has looked out for me, and has taken care of me through this experience.  All the prayers, healing energy, and positive thoughts, have helped-and I thank you again for all of these you have sent to me.  

 I read before my surgery that cancer is a word-not a sentence, and it was all of you who helped me remember that.  I love you all. 

surgery-june-12-09  Thyroidectomy & lymph node surgery removal June 12, 2009

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Cancer Family & Friends Health Me

My Cancer Has Spread

On Wednesday I had an ultrasound my surgeon had requested before the surgery to remove my thyroid for cancer.  I didn’t know ahead of time why he wanted this ultrasound, but found out it was to determine if the cancer in my thyroid had spread into my lymph nodes.

I was really upset leaving the ultrasound, and scared.  I didn’t want to have to think about another issue with my thyroid cancer.  I was told I would have the results in a few days.

Yesterday my surgeon, Dr. S., called me and told me the ultrasound showed the cancer had moved to my lymph nodes.  He said I have two lymph nodes that are measuring over 3 cm., and anytime they measure over 1.5 cm., it is a major cause of concern.

Dr. S. told me those nodes will have to be removed during my surgery and they will have to examine my other lymph nodes in surgery to determine if any other ones need to be removed as well.  He told me the surgery is complex and will be a minimum of 9 hours now.  Previously, the surgery time was about 2 hours-just to remove the thyroid.  Dr. S. said I will now be in the hospital for 4-5 days, and have a longer recovery time.

I was completely in shock as I was listening to Dr. S. tell me all of this.  My heart was racing and I was having trouble breathing. He recommended I make an appointment and he would fill me in on all the details and the process.  Dr. S. told me I still had the papillary cancer, and it was still in the very early stages.  He said he was glad I had gotten the ultrasound, because now he had the complete picture of what my health situation is, and he knows before hand, the direction the surgery needs to go in.

I hung up, and sat shocked and numb- staring at my wall. I stared to cry and utter a lot of four letter words under my breath.  Ryan and Cole were home, and I didn’t want to have them overhear me calling anyone to tell them. I was too upset anyway to talk.

Since then, I have let my family, friends, and Facebook friends know and the support has been overwhelming.  My sister and friends have told me this is bad news, but I am not going to die.  When it is all said and done, it is a complication, but I am going to be fine.

A day later, I am still in shock somewhat- just trying to absorb the situation.  I am going to make that appointment with Dr. S., to get the rest of the facts and ask questions.  I don’t believe I will need to have chemotherapy, but will more than likely have to undergo radioactive iodine therapy.

My family is already making plans to get me the help I need after the surgery, and I know I can count on my friends to help too.  I am very grateful for all the support and love I have.

So where do I go from here? I am not sure.  I am trying to keep a positive attitude and trying not to freak out.  I am trying to remember to take deep breaths and keep everything in perspective.

If anyone has been through this, the removal of lymph nodes, please let me know what your experience was.  It helps me to hear what others have gone through.

Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers.  I need all the positive energy that can come my way.  🙂

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Cancer Health Me

Thyroid Cancer Update

A few weeks ago, I found out I have thyroid cancer.  My doctor says I have papillary cancer, and recommended a total thyroidectomy (a procedure where the entire thyroid is removed.)

My surgery is set for June 12th, around noon- as it stands now.  Before the surgery I have to have a high resolution ultrasound which, as I understand it, will help my doctor determine exactly where the cancer is in the nodule.  I also have to have some blood work done, and a pre-surgery appointment a few days before to discuss the surgery with my surgeon. 

I have been looking into more information on a thyroid lobectomy with isthmusectomy which is a medical term for only having half of my thyroid removed.  It seems though this is only preferred when the nodule is under 1.5 cm. and mine is 1.7 cm.  Still, I have read that the thyroid can function with only 10% remaining, and the idea of not being on medication for the rest of my life, is appealing. 

On the other hand, the cancer has a higher chance of recurrences in my situation if any part of my thyroid remains.  Plus, I would always have to have it monitored which means more biopsies, which I am not fond of.  The other factor in this decision is the emotional aspect- will I always be wondering if cancer is growing again in my thyroid?  Will it always be there in the back of my mind?  What if I am clear after a biopsy, and then it comes back six months later, and it is worse than before?  I am thankful and consider myself lucky this was caught early.  It was basically four months from when my doctor first felt the lump at my annual exam, to my diagnosis.  What if I choose to only have half of my thyroid removed and I am not so lucky a second time?

So I have been debating these options.  I plan to do some more reading and research.  I want to make sure I understand what is happening, and any other options that are available as treatment.  I am not questioning the expertise of my surgeon/doctor- his own wife had the exact cancer I have two years ago, so I am perfectly confident in his abilities and diagnosis, but I want to know for myself that I have explored all options, and this really is the best treatment for me before I go “under the knife” so to speak.

My family and friends have been amazing.  I have been in touch with a lot of other people who have also been through this, and their stories have reassured me and given me confidence that everything will turn out okay for me.  My mom and my sister (my only two family members that don’t live in Colorado) are arranging their schedules so they can be here during and after the surgery.  Ryan and Cole’s father, grandparents, and extended family are going to be able to watch the boys extra times during and after the surgery.  In short, I am very fortunate to have so much support and help.  It is one thing I don’t have to worry about right now. 

I am so grateful for all the e-mails and good wishes I have received and wanted to post a quick update, since these are most of the questions I receive in the e-mails.  If anyone has chosen to have the partial thyroid removal, I would love to hear your experience if you are willing to share it.  You can leave a comment or e-mail me privately.  My e-mail is found on the Contact Page.

Thanks again to everyone for all the support and information.  Love you all.  🙂

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Cancer Health Me

I Have Thyroid Cancer

bamboo

I was by myself on Saturday morning- it was raining and it was my mom’s 60th birthday.  I decided to have a gadget free morning.  I didn’t turn my phone on and I was enjoying a quiet morning.  Around 11, I turned my phone on and saw I had a voice mail.  I checked it and my heart sunk as I heard my doctor tell me he had the results of my biopsy, and he would call me back on Monday.  Doctors don’t call you on Saturday unless they have bad news. 

I suspected the news was not good, as I called the answering service to see if they could have Dr. S. call me back.  I didn’t want to think about it for the next two days- I just wanted to know.  Dr. S. called me back about ten minutes later.  He told me he didn’t have my chart with him but he said,

“I have your results from the biopsy and it shows you have papillary thyroid cancer.” 

Cancer.  How can that be?  How can I have cancer?   

I had no idea what papillary thryroid cancer was- I was only processing “cancer.”  I heard Dr. S. tell me I need to have  a total thyroidectomy- which is the removal of my entire thyroid.  I heard him tell me he was sorry he had to give me this news.  He told me it is very treatable and we caught it early.  I heard him tell me I will have to have surgery, and it should get scheduled this week.  I heard him tell me I’ll be in the hospital 1-3 days, and the recovery time is about a week.  I heard him tell me I will have to be on medication for the rest of my life.  I heard him tell me I might have to have radioactive iodine therapy, depending on how big the nodule in my thyroid is.  I heard him tell me all of this, and I was trying not to cry.  

After I hung up, I just sat in the kitchen staring out at the rain.  Then I cursed, and then I cried.  Then I was scared.  This is what I had been trying to find out if I had or not, and now  I knew.  I didn’t have to wonder anymore if I had cancer- I have it and I have to have surgery to remove it.   And yet, it didn’t seem- still doesn’t seem quite real. 

I thought of Ryan and Cole.  My two babies.  The thought that kept popping in my mind was, ‘what am I going to do?’  I looked up papillary cancer on the Internet, and the first sentence I read was the survival rate statistics.  That was not what I needed to read.  I started crying all over again.  

How do you ruin your family and friends days by telling them you have cancer?    I decided to send an e-mail to a close friend, and figured that was a good way to start telling my family and friends.  I wouldn’t have to say it- I wouldn’t have to speak it.  But then I had to type out the phrase- I have cancer.  It didn’t matter if I had to say it or type it.  Seeing it made it real for me in that moment.  I called my sisters, but neither one of them were home.  I didn’t leave a message, and that was all I could do.  My body needed to shut down, so I stopped reading, started a fresh wave of crying, took my phone with me, and crawled into bed.  I lost track of how long I laid in bed crying.   I could only think of Ryan and Cole, and if I was going to be around to see them grow up. 

I stared at the wall and cried, and heard the rain pounding against the window.  I kept thinking ‘what am I going to do?’  I was exhausted.  My arms and legs felt like they had cinder blocks on them.  A few minutes later, I heard my phone and my friend had sent me an encouraging e-mail back.  It said I would never have to worry about the nodule developing cancer later.  That was something positive.  I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

About an hour later, my sister Vanessa called.  She was very encouraging and made a lot of good points.  She said she would be there for me.  She lives in Seattle, and told me it didn’t matter how soon the surgery was- she would be here for me and she would help me- help me recover and help me with the boys if needed.  After that call, my other sister, Mara called.   She told me a lot of the same things Vanessa did, and she found the website I provided the link to for papillary cancer.  She told me to get myself going and make myself come down to her house that night.  I told her I would- I didn’t want to be alone.  She said we could go out to dinner with my sister-in-law, and a close friend. 

I called the rest of my family and let my friends know.  As more and more people started talking to me and encouraging me, I felt better.  I finally got to Denver- to my sister’s house, and my friend, Christina was there waiting.  She gave me a big hug and told me I was going to be fine.  Kat, my sister-in-law gave me a hug next, and let me cry.  My brother, Jeff, was there, and hugged me, as did my brother-in-law, Kevin.  Everyone told me I was going to be fine.

Then Mara came in the room, and called me into her bedroom.  Kat and Christina were in there too.  My sister shut the door and they gave me a beautiful card, and lucky bamboo plant. (this is the picture at the begining of the post.)  They told me bamboo is strong and regenerates itself.  Christina told me about her mom’s journey with stage three lung cancer, and how she is healthy and fine today.  I know- I met her a few weeks ago.

As I processed all the encouraging comments everyone had given me all afternoon, being with my loved ones,  and looking at the bamboo plant,  it occurred to me I had found my answer to ‘what am I going to do?’ 

I am going to be strong.  I am going get through this. I am going to get this taken care of so I can be there for my boys.  I am going to get the cancer out, and then move on.  I am going to be healthy.

I had a nice night out with the girls.  At one point Christina took a picture of her and I, and posted it to Facebook.  The caption she put under the picture said, “Cancer Shmancer.”  My thoughts exactly.

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Cancer Health Me

The Biopsy that Wasn’t

Friday was my scheduled biopsy.  Except someone failed to tell the doctor.  I’ll explain.

If you have been following this in my other posts, then you remember that after I had an ultrasound, and they found a nodule,  my doctor told me I needed to have a biopsy.  This is to check for cancer.  She referred me and sent my file to an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctor, Dr. S., in town.  I called and specifically told the receptionist that I needed a biopsy.  She told me they had received my file, and they were going to fit me in right away for the biopsy, since I had a nodule.  My sister, Mara took off work, so she could accompany me to the doctor, and the boys’ grandmother graciously babysat.

We arrived at the doctor’s office and I filled out all the paperwork.  Then we went back to the exam room, and waited for the doctor. When he arrived, he started going over my medical history.  He asked me a lot of questions about my health in general.   Then he pulled out a booklet and started explaining what the thyroid does, and what having a nodule means.  I had a hard time focusing because I was wondering when he was going to start the biopsy. 

He told me  in my case, a biopsy is needed, but an ultrasound-guided biopsy at the hospital will give me the most accurate results.  It hit me that I was not going to have a biopsy on Friday.  About that time Mara asked if he was going to do the biopsy.  He said he could do one with the needle in his office, but without the ultrasound, the results might not be very accurate. 

I really wanted to get this done and over with already. I was tempted to tell him to just do it.  But, no matter what the results were, I would have that question in the back of my mind- could I trust the results?  I decided since I have to have it done anyway, I might as well make sure it is the most accurate it can be.  So that means scheduling it at the hospital for the ultrasound led biopsy.

As we left the office, I was really annoyed and mad.  I couldn’t believe the doctor’s office failed to tell me this was a consult only.  I was also annoyed because now this means more waiting.  I just want to get this behind me, one way or another.  I tried calling the hospital all afternoon on Friday, to get the biopsy scheduled,  but no one ever answered the phone!  I was beyond frustrated.  I can’t control it though, so I will have to just go with the flow.

The only silver lining, was I got a lot of my questions answered.  The doctor told me after the biopsy, I should have results within 3-5 days.   He also told me if there is cancer, they remove the entire thyroid.  He says it isn’t worth the risk to just cut out the cancerous portion- the entire thyroid is removed.  So I would be facing surgery.  Then I would be on medication for the rest of my life.  He actually increased the percentage of cases where it is cancer- to 15%.  I had been told 10% previously. 

Dr. S. told me if the nodule is benign, then I can decide to just leave it, but they would watch it very closely to make sure it didn’t become cancerous, which I can only assume more biopsies.  He said sometimes patients decide to just have the benign part cut out, so they don’t have to worry about it becoming cancerous.  That would mean surgery.  He said they would still monitor the thyroid, but not as much.  He said even when the biopsy shows the nodule is benign, and a patient opts to have the benign part removed, they will examine the nodule, and sometimes still find traces of cancer.  He said if that happened, they would remove the thyroid at that point too. 

I don’t like the way most of these options end.  It sounds like nothing is for certain- even if the biopsy shows the nodule is benign- cancer could still be a possibility at some point.  This information is preparing me for the choice I will soon have to make.  Dr. S. told me my ultrasound showed some abnormalities, but he couldn’t make a diagnosis from just the ultrasound.  He also said when the nodule measures more than 3 centimeters, they become very concerned.  He said my nodule measured 1.7 centimeters.  For some reason that sounded reassuring- like I don’t have this awful mass on my thyroid growing. 

Dr. S. told me his own wife had thyroid cancer two years ago.  She had asked him to be his surgeon, and he said she was fine today.  He said thyroid cancer is very treatable, and is very slow growing. He told me it is the slowest growing cancer, and if I had to have cancer, this was the one to have. 

Obviously, I don’t want any cancer.  I don’t want to be treated.  I don’t want surgery. I don’t want to have to take medication for the rest of my life.  But  I also have two little boys to think about, who need their mommy healthy for the next 18 years.  So whatever the result is, I will process it, and make a decision. In the mean time I am going to read up on diet, and more natural things I can incorporate into my life- I figure it can’t hurt, and I will be taking a more proactive roll in my health. 

Thanks again for all the healing and positive e-mails and comments. I appreciate them so much.   As always- I will keep you posted.

**************************UPDATE*******************************

4-13-09

The hospital just called me back, and can fit me in this Wednesday afternoon.  I am glad the biopsy will be sooner than later.  Now if I can just stay calm between now and then.  🙂