So, I haven’t been posting so much lately because there’s not much going on. But something happened! Granted, not a good something, but a something nonetheless.
I have had this lump on my throat for a while now. I was sick, so I thought it was a swollen lymph node and I didn’t really worry about it. But it was getting bigger.
This Monday (Oct. 5th) I went to an ear, nose, and throat doctor who immediately recognized it as a mass on my thyroid. He talked briefly about maybe it being a cyst and how great that would be. He then delved into all of the different kinds of cancers I can have on my thyroid. Luckily, I didn’t really qualify for the two cancers that are crazy rare and not treatable. But there were two other Thyroid Cancers in the running but they’re “the ones you want” apparently.
As I left Dr. Hamilton’s office, he said, “So I’m just hoping for Thyroid Cancer.” I told him my vote was also for Thyroid Cancer only because I hoped he was joking.
Needless to say, I was freaking out. I tried to play it cool but totally lost it as I walked to my car.
We still needed some answers so I made an appointment to see the endocrinologist. I had my appointment yesterday. In order to know what was up, I needed to have an ultrasound and a biopsy. The ultrasound would tell us if the mass was full of fluid or if it was solid. If it was full of fluid, we would just suck that business out and be done.
For those of you who are at all familiar with my medical history, you know I always have some crazy cyst taking over my life. So, understandably, I was sure it was a cyst.
But, alas, the time for the ultrasound came. To my dismay and the two endocrinologists in the room, it was a solid nodule. It was larger than a centimeter, which I guess is pretty big; to the point that they were surprised I didn’t have a hard time breathing or swallowing (Which is kind of a lie because I have been having a hard time breathing for a few weeks when I would go to bed. If my pillow would even think about touching my throat, you better believe my windpipe didn’t even try to do its job). Cancer was then an option. That’s when you start crying in the doctor’s office.
At that point, we knew I needed surgery to remove the nodule. My right lobe would also have to be removed with the nodule. However, we didn’t know if the nodule was cancerous or not. I was hoping that they would be able to do a biopsy right then, but the soonest my doctor could do it was next Thursday (Oct 15th). As you can imagine, waiting nine days to find out if you have all kinds of cancer is not acceptable. The only comfort was knowing that it was the Thyroid Cancer you want to have. ☺
If I were to have cancer, they would remove my whole thyroid and I would be on thyroid meds for the rest of my life. The nice thing about this cancer is that it doesn’t require chemo or radiation. They just take everything out and then I drink some iodine drink and it’s done.
So I was waiting all yesterday to hear back from Dr. Maturlo (Endocrinologist) and Dr. Hamilton. Definitely didn’t hear back from them. I called Dr. Hamilton this morning and we decided that we would wait for Dr. Maturlo to do the biopsy to determine if one lobe was coming out or both. So we would get the results back on the biopsy next Monday and then we would do surgery October 26th. Call me crazy, but I didn’t want to wait that long. So a new plan was presented.
We would forgo the biopsy. Instead, we would have a pathologist in the operating room. As soon as the right lobe and nodule were removed the pathologist would cut it open and check it out for cancer. If there’s cancer, we’ll take out the rest of my thyroid. If they don’t find cancer, the lobe will be sent to a final pathologist who will cut it all up into tiny pieces and check for cancer again. There is about a 5% chance that the final pathologist will find something the first one didn’t.
When he told me the surgery would then be on the 15th, I said, “Sold!” Of course, I asked Dr. Hamilton if he was comfortable about the new plan. He was. So that’s the plan.
The surgery is very straightforward; Dr. Hamilton wasn’t worried about it at all. The only risk is that there is a nerve that goes down and around your thyroid and connects to the vocal cords. If that nerve is damaged, I will have a scratchy voice. I prefer to say I will have a sultry voice. ☺ Unless I just sound like Marge’s twin sisters on The Simpson’s. Not cool. The chance of that happening is less than 1%, so I think I’m ok with that.
There you have it. I’ll have surgery in about a week at which time I will find out if I have been cancerous. Sorry if this post has seemed casual and almost jokey but it’s really all I can do to stay under control. And I was kind of freaking out before I even knew what was up, so I got a lot of it out of my system. I feel good about what’s planned. I’m scared out of my mind for the surgery (I’ve never had surgery), but it will be ok.
My family has also been helping a ton. Everyone has been super supportive and are willing to cry with me. ☺ Today our family had a fast, everyone has been putting my name in temples, and my brothers are coming over tonight to give me a blessing. There has been so much support; it’s been amazing. Sure they’ve only known for a day, but they’ve been champs, especially since this news came out of nowhere.
Stay tuned for cancer results! Geez louise, that sounds horrible. But what are you gonna do?
Thing are getting better, though; I don’t fall asleep without warning anymore.
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