I realized I haven't blogged much about this whole thyroid cancer journey I've been on this year and needed to get caught up. Back in December of 2019 I went to the ER with my mom for horrendous neck pain. I had the worst kink in my neck for two days and finally wanted to go to get things checked out. They did several tests, one of which was a CT scan, and didn't find anything wrong causing the neck pain. But, they did find a nodule on my thyroid that they wanted me to follow up with an ENT. I went in to be seen with the same ENT Evan has used for his ear tube surgeries and they said I had a .5mm nodule on my left lobe that they would monitor each year for growth. Then COVID hit and it wasn't easy to get in for a routine scan so I forgot about it for 2 years.
Finally, in December of 2021 I went in for a physical with my primary care doctor and asked her for a referral to the same ENT for a routine ultrasound. I did the scan in January and they discovered that the nodule doubled in size and was now over 1cm big. Once it's over 1cm they ask you to go for a biopsy. I wasn't able to get in for the biopsy until March at St. Joe's. Scott and I took the day off to go together. It was very uncomfortable. They did one injection in the lobe with numbing medicine. Then there were 5 needles injected in short jabbing-like motions to grab cells/samples. I didn't hear anything all weekend which was agonizing, but I finally got a call from my primary care doctor Monday just before 5pm. I knew when the phone rang it wasn't going to be good news. She told it was suspicious for papillary thyroid carcinoma and would be referring me to a general surgeon who specializes in breast and thyroid cancers.
My appointment with the general surgeon was just after spring break (several weeks after the biopsy). It was another hard wait. I joined two facebook support groups and had a good idea of what she would say, so it didn't come as a shock when she told us she wanted to do a partial thyroidectomy or what's called a lobectomy. If needed, once under the knife, she would remove the whole thing or any suspicious looking lymph nodes. She wanted me to do blood work to test my vitamin D level and she wanted me to see the ENT to do a vocal cord scan to make sure the nodule was not resting on my vocal cord (I had been experiencing hoarseness all school year). Blood work showed a slight deficiency and the vocal cord scan wasn't too difficult of an experience. They sprayed numbing spray down my throat and then put a scope down it and made me make all kinds of weird sounds. It had a video camera on it so she was able to show me what she found after. I was good in that the nodule was not affecting my vocal cords, but 16 years of teaching had caught up with me and had created callouses on my vocal cords. She recommended speech therapy that I can do once I'm healed from surgery.
And then the long wait began...as surgery was not scheduled because of the surgeon's availability until August 24th. I opted to do my first mammogram in June since thyroid and breast cancer can be linked. Thankfully it came back clear, except for that I have dense breasts and will require a 3D mammogram going forward.
Surgery day finally arrived. I had a 7:30am surgery with a 5:30am arrival time. Sean went to my parents the night before and Evan and Luna went the night before to my in-laws. I was surprisingly calm and slept fairly well. I think at this point I wanted to know what she would find and how the surgery would go to determine next steps. I was as mentally prepared as I could be. Everything went well! She took out the left lobe only and one suspicious lymph node for testing. I stayed for about 7 hours post-surgery in the short stay unit and opted to go home that night. Recovery hasn't been too bad. Ice and tylenol/motrin have been the most helpful things. And eating warm things like soup and hot tea and soft things like pudding and jello were what I wanted the first few days.
I was super blessed with the most amazing friends and family who called, texted, messaged, and sent gifts and food over the first few days home! We had meals covered by various friends the first 4 days and Evan's soccer team (that we coach) sent us a very generous DoorDash gift card.
The surgeon called on Friday afternoon to let me know the pathology report came back. It was for sure papillary thyroid carcinoma. However, the lymph node was negative and my margins were clear indicating that it was contained to the left lobe. For now, the next step is to see an endocrinologist October 25th for blood work to make sure my right side is functioning properly and ultrasounds every 6 months to make sure the cancer doesn't return on the right side. I'm so happy with how it all went and how great my surgeon was! The incision is healing well! I'll return to work this Thursday after having 2 weeks off.
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