update

I was hoping to have more information before writing about this again but I don't -- so here goes anyhow :)

Basically I met with the surgeon last thursday -- and he confirmed that I will have to have the right side of my thyroid taken out. For whatever reason (and that's where I had hoped to know more) it is enlarged -- twice the size of the left side of my thyroid. He did a needle biopsy in the office that day (yayyy two needles in the neck... how fun!!) and sent it off to be analyzed and told me that it takes 3 days for the results to be in. I also found out that the surgeon performs between 10 and 15 of these surgeries a month, so it is one of his specialties... it sounds like I am in good hands.

So yesterday (wednesday) I phoned the surgeon's office because I hadn't heard anything. The surgeon is out of office this week but I spoke to his secretary and she got the results for me -- basically there are no results -- the results were inconclusive, which means they can't tell if it's cancerous or not. This was really annoying/heartbreaking to me for 2 reasons -- one, at least it would have meant peace of mind one way or another, so I could gear myself up for just losing half of my thyroid or the whole thing... and two, because now they will need to biopsy the right side once they have removed it. This may not sound like anything annoying or heartbreaking but here it is -- if the right side is cancerous, I then have to go through a second operation to have the left half removed. Who wants to do that?? NOT ME. One operation will be fun enough for me thanks.

So I have my surgery tentatively scheduled for 27th April -- because in the meantime I have to have my appointment with the endocrinologist (which I am not sure what exactly that will do for me... as far as I can tell he/she will only be able to just nod and say "yeppp it's gotta come out!" *shrug* I dunno), have a "pre-surgery approval" appointment with my doctor where she will check my health to make sure I am fit enough for the surgery and also draw all kinds of blood for tests etc. for the hospital. Also in between now and then is my sister-in-law's baby shower which I would not miss for the world. Hence the surgery being several weeks away.

Apart from being mildly annoyed and really being ready for this whole scenario to be over, I'm doing fairly well (feel very tired these days, but not sure if it's leftover from lost sleep leading up to the appointment with the surgeon, or if it's something else).

I will keep you all posted. A big special hello to all the Wheelock Heath crowd -- I miss you guys so badly it hurts!!! HUGS to you all!

Posted by kristen at March 22, 2007 2:57 PM