A Brief Journey Through Thyroid Cancer

The Diagnosis

It started off as a routine check-up with my primary care doctor. My former doctor had recently retired and this would be my initial visit with my new doctor. I had heard a lot of good things about him so I was eager to meet him. He walked into the room and we exchanged salutations. He immediately started going over my health history and then moved onto the usual check-up procedures. Toward the end, he started to feel around my neck and then asked, "How long have you had this lump?"

My immediate response was, "I didn't know I had a lump."

He seemed a bit concerned and then proceeded to schedule me for an ultrasound. A week or so later, I had the ultrasound. When the results came in, they were determined to be "moderately suspicious". So, a follow-up biopsy was scheduled.

As I prepared for the biopsy at my local hospital, I joked with the medical staff. The doctor assured me that I had nothing to worry about since 99% of these biopsies come back as benign. I told him that I was not worried at all and just wanted to get the procedure over. I was more concerned about getting home and cutting the lawn before the pending rainstorm got in the way.

The doctor put a topical numbing solution on the area of my neck where the biopsy would take place. After a few minutes, he inserted a probe/needle through my neck and into the "moderately suspicious" lump. He explained what he was doing as we both watched on a nearby monitor. The entire process only took a few minutes and it was totally painless. As we said our goodbyes, one of the staff members wished me good luck. For some reason, it struck me as odd. After all, I had a 99% chance of a good news, right? Why would I need luck with those odds?

A week or so later, I get an email alerting me that I've got a new notification in "My Chart" (a personal online medical chart from my healthcare provider). My test results from the biopsy were in. I logged into My Chart and opened the message that contained my results. As I scanned the report, I was shocked to see "cancerous" in the description. I thought, "This can't be right." Although it was a bit shocking, the idea of actually having cancer seemed so far-fetched. So, I showed the result to Tina. She looked at me with a concerned face. But she advised me to stay calm until I talked it over with my doctor.

The only comforting thing here was that I received this news via an email. My thought was that you can't be told that you have cancer through an email. It's just so impersonal and callous. There had to be some kind of mistake. I planned to talk it over with my doctor in the morning. 

Well, before I made any phone calls, Tina was already on it. I heard her on the living room phone blasting the doctor's office about the way this news was delivered. They apologized and assured her that the doctor would be calling me sometime before the end of the day.

Later that day, I was in local Lowe's store when I got the call from the doctor. As I walked to a quiet spot in the yard tools section, he delivered the official news. Yes, I had thyroid cancer...

He apologized for the way I received the initial news. He explained that he had never gotten a copy of the lab results. The results were simply aotomatically uploaded to My Chart before the doctor even got a chance to review them. Isn't modern technology great?

As thoughts raced through my mind about the treatments and the ultimate endgame, I casually asked the doctor, "So, what's the next step/"

He calmly responded, "We're going to remove your thyroid gland. You'll take a pill that will essentially give you everything that your thyroid produced. And there's an excellent chance that you'll have a full recovery. We'll have you meet with the surgeon and he'll get things scheduled asap."

And that was that...I went into the Lowes thinking I would eventually be laughing about a misread email. But instead, I walked out of Lowes with the Big C...

The Surgery

I met with my surgeon at his office in downtown Baltimore. He was very thorough in his explanation of everything and he had great sense of humor which helped comfort me. He advised to me to get the surgery done sooner rather than later, so we planned on a date within a few weeks. He said the surgery came with a 95% success rate of clearing me of cancer. I joked by saying that the biopsy guy gave me better odds than that and look how that turned out. 

I asked about the risks of the surgery itself. Of course, he covered the anesthesia part and how there's always a slim chance that I won't wake up. This sounds ominous but I've been told the same thing prior to every surgery. He also said that there's a very slight change that the nerve that controls my breathing could get damaged. This would result in me having to breath with a trach tube for the rest of my life. Now, this really freaked me out. For a brief moment, I was ready to just take my chances with the cancer. But the doctor assured me that this was extremely rare. Assuming that there would be no complications, the surgery was scheduled as an out-patient procedure.

A few weeks passed and the surgery date finally arrived. I was expectedly nervous. Tina had just started a new job so my bother-in-law, John offered to take me to the hospital (by the way, I can count on this guy for everything). John picked me up at the agreed time and we made our trek to Baltimore. Once we got to hospital, I went through the normal check-in/prep procedures. An operating room nurse came in and spoke with me. She was very nice and answered all of my questions. Later, the anesthesiologist came in and explained his duties to me. Before long, I was being strolled down the hallway towards the operating room. Once I got there, there was a bit of small talk and then before I knew it, I was out.. 

I woke up a few hours later in the recovery room. As expected, I had a bit of a sore throat. This was more likely due to the breathing tube being inserted during the surgery rather than the surgery itself. I was also having a really tough time talking. It was actually exhausting to even try to speak a few words. So, I pretty much just nodded when anyone spoke to me. I looked into a nearby mirror and inspected the incision on my neck which was secured by a series of steri-strips. It was actually quite a bit longer than I expected. My understanding was that it would be roughly an inch and a half. But this thing was about four or five inches. Surprising, it was as tender or painful as I anticipated.

The hospital staff gave me my post-op instructions and before long, I was being wheeled out to the front of the hospital where John was waiting with his car. 

As I got into the car, I managed to utter, "Hey man, my throat really hurts so I don't want to talk."

John responded, "No problem. I won't say a word."

The ride out of Baltimore was a bit uncomfortable due to the abundance of pot holes and the overall bad road conditions. Each bump brought a slight grimace. But I made it home it one piece and prepared to relax for the remainder of the evening.

The Recovery

I took the following week off of work. I pretty much spent the week on my back porch reading and watching the birds feast on my various bird feeders around the back yard. I only needed to take the pain meds for a couple of days. From then on, it was just my new thyroid medication and a two-week supply of calcium supplements.

Although the pain was very minimal, I was still struggling to talk. Each word was a real effort. But things seemed to be improving every so slightly with each passing day. John pointed out that I now sounded a lot like Clint Eastwood. 

The scar from the incision is fading nicely. With time, you probably won't even be able to tell it's there. Regardless, it is totally concealed by a wearing a regular T-shirt.

A couple weeks after the surgery, I met with the surgeon for a follow-up visit. He said that there were two nodules on my thyroid gland that turned out to be cancerous. But he was able to remove all of it. All of the surrounding tissue appeared to be cancer-free. so, I would not have to go through any additional treatments. I mentioned the issue with my voice. The doctor said that this might be due to some bruising/swelling around the vocal cords or voice box. Since it seems to be getting better each day, I'm optimistic that my voice will fully recover. Until then, my friends are loving the fact that I'm quiet for a change.

There will be a follow-up in the near future with an endocrinologist. He will make any necessary adjustments to my thyroid medicine (Levothyroxine). I'm hoping to that he can tweak it to increase my metabolism so I can finally drop some of those unwanted pounds. But I know that it probably won't be that easy.

Summary

So, in the timeframe of a couple months, I went from being diagnosed with cancer to being totally cancer-free. I kept myself busy in the interim. so it was over before I really had a chance to absorb it. I'm told that these type of thyroid problems mainly occur in woman. But I guess I'm special. Or maybe I'm showing my feminine side, I don't know. Nonetheless, I am happy that it's over and that it was relatively quick and painless.

In closing, I would recommend that everyone get regular check-ups with their primary doctor. My doctor was right on top of this and I am grateful for his prompt concern and action. I have talked about the importance of regular colonoscopies in the past and this is no different. If these cancers are caught early, the survival rate is very high. So, don't neglect seeing your doctor. Ok, I'm done lecturing.

Looking forward to many more years with all of you...

kw