thyroid cancer surgery – A Mama's Blog

I have been trying to follow my surgeon’s orders and take it easy and rest as much as possible since my thyroid surgery and neck dissection on June 12th.

I have been at my dad and step-mom, Jean’s, house recovering during this time while Ryan and Cole have been spending some scheduled vacation time with their dad.

My surgeon, Dr. S, had been right- the pain in my shoulder has been brutal. I slept on it funny the other night and I couldn’t even raise my arm enough to comb my hair yesterday.

The thyroid controls metabolism and my surgeon warned me that I could gain a lot of weight during this time, but the opposite seems to be happening. I have no appetite at all. Nothing sounds good, and some foods are making me sick to my stomach. My appetite is gone- I have been drinking Ensure (another Dr. suggestion) and trying to eat.

The pain medication makes me feel nauseated if I don’t eat, so I have been trying to eat as much as I can. Some of my friends have pointed out that Ensure really isn’t much more than sugar and have been giving me some healthier suggestions on other sources of food and protein I can eat. I am planning on trying these and will keep you updated on how that goes.

I had an awful day on Tuesday. I almost fainted while I was out walking. I got hot and sweaty and felt like I was going to be sick. I stopped into a store near my dad’s house and the sales lady helped me sit down, and got me some water. I fortunately was only about half a block away from home, and made it back and laid down the rest of the afternoon.

Some days the pain is fine- I can go six or seven hours between pain medication, but the last few days, I think I have overdone it and now have been watching the clock for the every four hours until it is time for the medication again.

I have been doing the exercises the rehab. physical therapists have given me to do, and those help. I have been trying to help out around the house too, by doing small chores that use my shoulder, like cleaning mirrors and sweeping.

I can’t even imagine if I had to have the neck dissection on the right side of my neck like my Dr. originally thought. It would be so much worse and I am grateful I am healing overall. It is not as fast as I would like it to be though, but I am getting there.

I have had so many kind e-mails and well wishes, and those help too. I have had people ask me what is next so here is what I know at this point.

Ryan and Cole are going to come back to the house with me on July 5th, and my mom is coming in from Minnesota to stay with us for a few days to help me. My wonderful friends have been mowing my lawn, doing some light housekeeping, and are going to cook some meals for us.

I am planning on taking the time my mom is out here to get back into a routine with the boys and take advantage of her help and the help of my friends to get our lives back to “normal” as much as possible.

I want to do some fun things with the boys this summer- take them swimming, take them to the zoo, take them to the park, and take them to play-dates. This sounds exhausting even as I write this but, I am determined, and I will take it one day at a time.

I have a follow up with my surgeon on July 9th, for him to check the scar and the overall healing from the surgery. I could not be more thrilled on how how the scar is healing. It is still looks awful to me but this is what it looked like last week:

scar-1_edited

I developed a rash to the antibiotic on the last day I had to take it so that is why my neck is red and shows the rash, but the scar had been that red.

On Monday, this is is what the scar looked liked:

scar-2_edited

The rash is fading and so is so much of the red from the scar. I have been putting Neosporion on the incision every day, and I just received a product yesterday that I am going to blog more about- it is actually to heal C-section and other surgery scars, but I want to take pictures and document the scar healing before I blog more about it.

I meet with my endocrinologist on July 21st. At that point they will tell me the diet I need to be on to get my body ready for the one dose of radioactive iodine I will have to take, in order to kill any remaining cancer cells in my lymph nodes.

For now, I am not on any special diet except for watching my iodine intake, no kelp, kale, or flax seed. As I understand it for a few weeks, I will have to take in a lot of iodine, and then none at all for a few weeks in order to “starve” these cancer cells of iodine. They warn me my hormones will be out of whack and I could become depressed (fair warning to everyone).

The thyroid is the only organ that can absorb iodine, so when I finally take the radioactive iodine my cells and lymph nodes will absorb up the iodine like crazy. But since it will be poison, it is a very effective treatment in killing off any remaining thyroid cancer cells in my body.

I will have to be quarantined for about 48 hours, and not around anyone. I will have to take the radioactive iodine in the form of a pill. Depending on my blood work, the endocrinologist will determine how strong the treatment has to be.

Thankfully, since my pathology report from my surgery did show I have stage I papillary thyroid cancer, I can be quarantined at home, and not in the hospital. Obviously my boys will go to their dad’s house during this time.

After the radioactive iodine, they will start me on the thyroid replacement hormone that I will have to take for the rest of my life. I will also have to have ultrasounds and blood work every six months to watch for re-occurrences. I am expecting to find out more details after I meet with the endocrinologist, but my chances for survival are excellent and since my surgeon was able to remove so many of my lymph nodes, he feels the chances of re-occurrences are very small.

I am still taking it day by day, but things are getting better for the most part every day as well. I am not done with the process yet, and won’t ever really will be, but I know there is no other cancer in my body and the radioactive iodine will ensure no more cancer in my lymph nodes.

I know I have been saying this a lot, but I can’t just thank everyone enough for all the support. Thank you isn’t enough- but I hope the gratitude in my heart I have for all my family, friends, and well-wishers shines through.

I’ll continue to keep you all posted, and in the meantime I hope everyone is having a fun, safe, and healthy summer with your families.

Love, Heather

Thank you all for the e-mails and comments youyou have sent me. Many of my readers asked me to keep them updated, so here is what I found out today from my surgeon.

The surgery is the worst case scenario. The two lymph nodes that are of major concern, are right below my ears. This means the surgeon is going to have to make a U shaped incision that runs under my ear, to my neck to the other ear. He will then have to work his way up- he said lymph nodes are like a ladder- one layer had to be removed before he can get to the next layer. He said he is going to have to dissect my neck. He said there are 80 nodes in this area, and he is going to try to get them all out, as he works his way up to get the ones with the known cancer. Every one they can get out, reduces the chance of a reoccurrence. He said lymph nodes should be under 1 cm. The two that are of concern are measuring 2.7 cm., and 3.5 cm. He said they could do a biopsy to make sure they are cancerous, but he said in his best professional opinion, he has never seen a case where the nodes are enlarged like this, and it wasn’t cancer.

I would think more seriously about a biopsy, but my thyroglobulin in my blood should be at 0, and it is at 37. He said he was very surprised it was this high. He said that all but confirms the enlarged nodes are cancer, and it is now showing up in my blood work. Dr. said it is more than likely that cancer is in my other lymph nodes in my body. But until they grow large enough, they are hard to detect. Six weeks after the surgery, I will have the radioactive iodine therapy that will kill off any cancer cells in any other lymph nodes. This is an effective treatment- it is a one time thing, I don’t lose hair or get sick. It does not look like I will need chemotherapy.

Because there is so much tissue, nerves, fat, and other vital parts in the neck, they have to work very slowly and meticulously in order to preserve as much of these as possible. It is a possibility I will lose my voice-for good- he said about 4% of people do. The vocal cords are right behind the thyroid and there are lymph nodes there.

Dr. said this is a brutal surgery. They have to cut away so much tissue and nerves to get to the lymph nodes, it is complex, slow, and there are other risks involved.

One thing he told me I am going to have to sacrifice is nerve endings in my neck. After the surgery, I will be numb from my earlobes to my collarbone- permanently. He said there is no way around this. Because I will be numb, I won’t feel the pain in my neck, but he said because all those nerves and tissues are connected, I will feel the pain in my shoulders.

He said the pain in my shoulders will be excruciating. He said he could not stress this enough for me, so I can be prepared. I am going to be in rehab for my shoulders 48 hours after the surgery. The surgery is going to be at least 10 hours. I will be in the hospital for up to 7 days. The recovery time after this is about 2 weeks.

I asked Dr. if I was going to die, and he said no. I told him I have my two boys, and he said I will be around for a long time for them. Learning all this was very shocking, and I started crying. Dr. gave me a hug and told me he knows how hard this is. His wife had thyroid cancer 2 years ago and he operated on her. He said their family went through the same thing, but my chances for a full recovery are very good.

I feel confident with the doctor- he is the leading surgeon for these types of cases in Northern Colorado. He’s been in practice for 16 years. He is on top of the current research and alternatives, because of his wife having the same thing. I feel he understands the emotional aspect of this for me as well. I told him I trusted him with this- to do what he needs to do, to make sure I am around for my boys. I am thinking about obtaining a second opinion, just to make sure I am covering all my options (thanks Mel).

This is shaping up to be one of the hardest things I have faced. I feel I have the information and the facts now to face it head-on. If you believe in a higher spiritual force, like God 🙂 please pray for me. If not, please send me positive and healing thoughts. I will need them.

I thank all of you- my friends (even if I have never met you in real life- 🙂 ) and family for all the support and love you have shown me. I feel it, and it is what will get me through this.