Radioactive Treatment Schedule

Met with my endocrinologist today. Looks like my radioactive iodine treatment will be February 3rd. I have to go on a low iodine diet for 2 weeks before that (not fun) then stay overnight in the hospital until my radioactive levels go down to a set level then I can go home but will still need to be in isolation for a few days.
I think the diet will be the most challenging as it means no eating out, but it's all for the greater good so I can suck it up.

Next Steps

To correct my last post I am happy to report that the cancer hadn't spread beyond the Thyroid but it was excapsulating a nearby parathyroid so that it why they removed the one paratyroid also. I apologize for the mix-up the surgeon talked to D just after the surgery while I was still knocked out and when D told me I didn't fully understand.The pathology report results were that they mass was large enough that I do have to have the radioactive iodine treatment in early January. I went for my post-op appt yesterday and my heart rate and blood pressure was high so they sent me to the ER for an EKG, that came back okay I guess and they ran other tests which came back unremarkable so they think I was just dehydrated. Now I have to monitor my heart rate on my own and try to drink lots of liquids. I feel okay at the moment but still feel a little like I'm going through life in someone else's body and my thoughts are still on the disjointed side.I'm back to work now so please pray that I ease back into things okay.

Surgery

To bring you up to speed..... We were a few minutes late to the hospital around 7am Wednesday morning due to the lovely Rt66 traffic jam..but God provided a wonderful nurse Mary Ellen to greet us and put us at ease. Due to a very busy hospital and my tiny veins (I felt like a pin cushion getting pricked so many times)things got off to a late start but then I was walked into the surgery suite. They removed my thyroid and also one para-thyroid where they could see the cancer had spread. I was finally wheeled into the recovery area about 2:30pm where I woke up to a major sore throat and feeling really out of it. They put this large wrap around my neck that they call the elizabethian collar which feels like a huge scarf ( or the cone of shame for you UP fans), it was comforting to wear but felt good to get to take it off this morning. For whatever reason they ran out of rooms so after my surgery I spent about 8 hours on a gurney until I complained so much that they brought me a bed because my back and butt were very sore. They also forgot to bring me any food so I had to beg for that also and a nice orderly smuggled me a turkey sandwich and some juice. A room never opened up so since the recovery area closed they parked me in stall #13 in the PACU suite for the rest of my stay at Georgetown University Hospital. Now don't get me wrong, the nurses and rest of the staff were awesome but not having a room meant that D, my mom and D's parents had to not only get an escort to come see me but could only stay for a few minutes at a time. I had no privacy,no phone,no TV, no belongings....thankfully the remembered to feed me on Thursday and realized my boredom and let me borrow a DVD player and a couple of movies. That helped drown out the guy who was refusing to pee in a plastic container in the curtain next to me. They needed to monitor my calcium levels every 6 hours and after it went down Thursday morning my hopes of an early discharge vanished and I would have to stay until at least 4pm. Thankfully it went back up at the 4pm blood test so I was able to go home about 6pm.........I thank God for my family and friends who prayed for me and that things went smooth with the procedure even if the hospital stay was bumpy. I go back hopefully Wednesday the 9th for a follow up with my doctor. Until then I intend to rest and recover. Think I'll go take a shower now, I'm a bit on the smelly side.

Tomorrow

So D and I are back from our London holiday and now it's time for me to go under the knife tomorrow morning. I'm praying for the Lord to guide my surgeon's hand and that the surgery and recovery go smooth. I'm still very concerned about my mental state during the time it takes to regulate the levels of medication I'll need to take but am praying that I'll cast that burden to onto Jesus and that He'll grant me peace. My mom will be coming to stay with us tonight until Friday so I'm thankful for that and how awesome D and my in-laws have been. Between naps I'm sure I'll be lonely so if you are local you are welcome to stop by. Just call first so I can make sure I'm not in my pjs :)
I can't thank you enough for all your prayers and kindness. Love to you all.

What is wrong with me?

I have been traveling and working like a crazy person trying to get a certain amount of work done before I am out of the office for recovering from surgery. I do a lot of work on my own and didn't want to leave a lot of work in progress. But I have so much going on in my head that I'm forgetting things, doing silly stuff, etc...and I keep yelling at myself, 'what is wrong with me?' I know what is wrong- I'm stressed out and still pretty scared of the after surgery adventure of regulating my meds. I hate feeling like my head isn't screwed on straight(not that it ever really is anyway).Sometimes I feel like I'm barely holding it together and am thankful that the surgery isn't that far away so I can stop dwelling on it. I do have a praise that my latest ultrasound was unremarkable so there wasn't any obvious areas where it showed that the cancer has spread but they won't know for sure until they open me up.
Anyway, thought I'd blog a little as my own quick typed version of a scream-at-the-top-of-my-lungs to try and purge some of this pent up anxiety. Thank you for how much you all care about me, I love you so much(cheesy I know)

Surgery moved up to Dec. 2nd

My doctor had a scheduling conflict with her other work at the VA hospital, so I'm happy to switch so that a veteran can help when they need it. :)
On another note if you could say a prayer for my folks and sister they are going through a rough patch at the moment. Pray that this brings them all back into the fold of leading active lives for Christ.

Surgery Date December 9th

I have Praise to share. I was able to work the schedule out with my surgeon and the date is set of December 9th@7:30am at Georgetown University Hospital. That should give me just enough time to wrap up some loose ends at work so that my absence will not be a heavy burden on them. So the countdown begins......

Met w/ Surgeon

We met the surgeon today. She was very nice and extremely thorough. Next step is an ultrasound next week and scheduling the surgery itself. Her schedule is very limited so please pray that we can work something out in the time frame we are looking at which is early December. She said that I might be out of work for a week which is longer then expected but if that what it takes then who am I to complain about having to stay home right? I'm feeling very overwhelmed with work and travel at the moment along with all of this so please pray for peace of mind and ability to concentrate on the tasks at hand. Also my cousin had a baby last night so Praise God for welcoming their daughter into the world safe and sound.

Thyroid Cancer update

I'll slowly have to fill in the back story to those of you who are coming to this late, but I wanted to send a quick update. D and I met with 2 different endocrinologists and found that we prefered the second who works at the same hospital where I'll be having the thyroidectomy done. We are very blessed to have friends who worked there and they refered us to some of the best doctors. What a huge blessing that is to not have to worry about whether you are getting a good level of care or not. So I meet with the surgeon on Wednesday and then have an ultrasound scheduled for November 10th to give the surgeon a better idea if they are any other lumps that they need to look at/remove during surgery. I don't have a surgery date yet but will post it when I do.