Thyroidectomy: 1 year cancer free!

I have been going back and forth about if I want to post about my thyroid cancer or not. Then I remembered how scared I was when I was first diagnosed and how I searched online for someone else that had gone through the same thing. However, not many people really post all of the glory details, so I figured I would! If medical stuff bores you, I'd skip this post. For those of you that are not sure what a thyroid is, it is the butterfly shaped gland that regulates all of your hormones in your body.

Last year my apartment had mold, specifically my bedroom. I had enlarged glands by my ears so I went to an ENT to get checked out. He did a CT scan that revealed it was just scar tissue, BUT the scan also revealed I had a nodule on my thyroid (what is a nodule?! is what I first thought). I was told it was normal but that I had to get an ultrasound done every 6 months to watch it. Well, it grew and I had a biopsy done. Basically, they jab a needle several times into your neck to grab parts of this "nodule" to test. Yes, it was very painful actually. I got a call from my doctor's nurse at a week later in January while I was at work and instead of giving me the results she just said, "the doctor wants to see you in his office this week to discuss the results," working in healthcare myself, I knew it wasn't good. So I hid in the supply closet and cried like any normal human being would do...and called my mom. I called the doctor's office and told them I couldn't go in because I live out of state, I had just started my second semester of senior year and was working. The doctor called me that night to tell me it was cancer and we needed to do surgery sooner rather than later.

Fast forward a month, a million pre-op appointments and I was going in for surgery. I took about a month off school, thankfully my professors were more than understanding (got to love Xavier professors!). I elected to have my whole thyroid removed instead of just half because the side without the cancer had a nodule on it too that may develop into cancer so why go through it again. I didn't know what to expect with surgery. I was more worried about anesthesia than anything else. I went in to pre-op (sorry, no makeup was allowed, yikes!) and my family was allowed to sit with me. I wasn't too scared then. Once I was wheeled into the operating room I don't remember much but thinking to myself that it didn't look like Grey's Anatomy. My Anesthesiologist (who was very cute!) made a joke that he was going to give me a few good cocktails...and that's all I remember!

Now post-op...ick! I had a rough recovery. I got sick from the anesthesia, which I did with my wisdom teeth as well. They even gave me anti nausea meds but they didn't work. I was in recovery for a while, puking my guts out. The only thing that felt nice was the cold wash cloth on my head. I remember just staring at the person across from me who was waking up and kept trying to get out of bed. It all is very fuzzy and felt like a dream. The phlebotomist kept coming to draw my blood but had to wait and watch me puke, how embarrassing. I had to have 3 nurses with me and let me just tell you, puking while you just had surgery on your neck, hurts! The narcotics for pain made me even sicker so I said I only wanted extra strength tylenol.

After I finally made it back to my room, my family tells me that the first thing I said when I saw them was, "do my makeup and make me look pretty" HAH. I spent the night in the hospital and my throat was SO dry the entire night, I ate about 4 lemon Italian ice, some soup, ice chips and apple juice. Every time I had to pee I'd have to wait for a nurse to walk with me, it was weird. My legs were actually very weak, strange feeling. They had pressure booties on my lower legs while I was in bed to prevent blood clots. I was in pain, probably because I wasn't taking heavy pain medication. My voice was horse, but only for a few days. I winced in pain for about a day or two every time I had to swallow.

The few weeks after surgery were not bad at all. My neck was very stiff, I couldn't really turn my head and I had bad bruising on the back of my neck. It hurt to sleep too, so I slept on the couch for a good 2 weeks but turning sides was painful. It didn't take too long though until I was able to eat normal soft food again. I was too chicken to removed the large gauze covering the steri strips for a while so I left it until I had to take it off. Seeing stuff like that on my body grosses me out. Thank you to everyone that sent me flowers!!!

I left the steri strips on for a while, I went back to work and the Director of Nursing told me I needed to take them off and clean it off...basically she said stop being a baby. So I did! I was SO impressed by how great of a job the surgeon did! My scar is so tiny! I put vitamin E oil on it every night. It doesn't bother me at all, I only wore scarves for a few days after but I don't even care anymore.

The whole point of sharing my story now is because I just had my 1 year whole body scan and it showed CANCER FREE!! I was so very very very happy! Here is a more recent picture of my scar. It has faded a bit but still kind of red..

Wow, that was long and rambley! I am going to do another post regarding the effects of having to thyroid. It is not just peaches and cream after getting the cancer removed. There are consequences when you remove a part of your body that regulates all of your hormones!

Moral of the story: thank God for mold!