He explained that I have papillary carcinoma, the most common and treatable (THANK GOD!!) form of thyroid cancer, and that my tumor is considered a T2 tumor, which means that it's in the 2-4cm range (actually mine is 2.3cm, so it's low in the T2 category). I believe that he said there or 3-4 levels of the "T" or tumor scale so I'm about in the middle in the size category. But thanks to my age, my overall health, and a few other different factors, they put my cancer as a Stage 1 Papillary Thyroid Cancer. All that to say that things are about as good as they can be, at least for having cancer.
So where do we go from here? Sometime in the next month I'm going to be going in to have my thyroid removed. This is a 3-hour surgery where they cut a couple inch slit in my throat (the scar should be decently small and well hidden in a crease in my neck) remove my thyroid, test it again for cancer cells just to make sure and then remove my lymph nodes that are in the area. Over all it's a relatively easy "cure" and should only be a one night stay in the hospital. Then approximately a month after my surgery I'll be going in for radiation therapy. Basically they'll give me some fancy little pill that will make me radioactive for about 3 days. Yes, I will be radioactive. That kinda freaks me out, especially since they actually will be testing me with a Geiger counter to determine when my levels of radiation emitted are low enough to send me home. They even tell you to limit the amount of stuff that you bring because anything that you touch or use during your stay in the hospital will possibly also become temporarily radioactive. I will be in pretty much complete isolation with nurses and doctors coming in only when absolutely necessary. It should be an interesting couple of days. But, once that's done, I should be cancer free and hopefully will have little chance of recurrence.
So, overall, it's a decently "easy" deal. The hard part for me is that for the first 2 weeks following the surgery I won't be able to lift anything. That means that I can't even lift my month-old baby for the first 2 weeks. Now, I will be able to hold him, just not lift him up. Then for the next 4 weeks I can't lift anything over 20 pounds. That means that for 6 weeks my very clingy, loves-to-be-held, 34 pound 18-month-old will be begging me to hold him and Mommy will have to either sit down on the floor to hold him or ask someone to pick him up and give him to me once I'm sitting down on a chair or wherever. It's going to be very hard, especially for the first little while. It also means that I will have to be very dependent on other people for a long time and that's going to be very humbling for me. I have a hard time asking people for help with the really challenging things, so simple things like putting my kid in his highchair or picking up a hurt and crying kid, is going to be very hard. But thankfully my mom and my mother-in-law will both be here for a few weeks each to help me out. The other thing that is making this a little extra challenging is that I will have to wean Caleb. The radiation can stay in your body for up to three months or so, even at levels high enough to set off alarms at airports and such, so it's not exactly safe for nursing. So I'll be going out to buy bottles and formula sometime really soon because I'm going to have to start weaning him really, really soon.
After the surgery and radiation I will then be put on some synthetic thyroid hormone that I'll have to take for the rest of my life. I'm not a big fan of pills and even less of doctors but they are both things that I'll be doing/seeing a lot of for the rest of my life. The sheer number of doctor visits that I've had already this year and how crazy many more I'll have is mind boggling.
So that's it. Things are looking good and now I'm just waiting till tomorrow to find out when my surgery will be. Jeff and I are doing great and breathing a big sigh of relief. It's still not going to be "nothing" but it's so much better than what we first thought when we heard the word "cancer". We are thanking God for his grace and mercy that I have this type of cancer, that I have an awesome ENT Oncologist/Surgeon who will be doing my surgery and I'll be seeing for the next few years, possibly a lot longer than that, and that my cancer was found this early while it is still a simple operation. Please be praying that when I have my surgery they find that the cancer has not spread at all and that none of the possible risks occur. Please also pray that we would keep our "God Focus" and that His peace would continue to blanket us and our family. Please also pray that Caleb transitions easily to formula and that Luke doesn't completely break down when I can no longer hold him like I currently do. Thank you so much for standing with us, believing that God is doing something amazing in our lives and hopefully through our lives.
Now for a little reprieve... while at my appointment the surgeon told us that I was going to have to have a scope to make sure that everything looks good. Jeff and I decided that the word "scope" is one of the worst words to hear in a doctor's office. Jeff went on to change his mind and say that the worst thing you can hear is "probe", but I believe that my addition is the worst... "anything ending in -oscopy." What do you think??
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