Well, it's been a week since the surgery, and all in all, it's not too bad. I still have my voice, thank goodness, but am still sore and my throat and neck are all swollen, although the swelling is going down quicker than expected. Plus, it looks like I survived a slasher movie, with a 6 inch scar across my neck. Michael: thought you'd get a kick out of that one.
The surgeon told us that even though the initial biopsy came back as cancer, that a lot of the time there's an 80% chance of false positives and that it's benign after they do pathology on the actual thyroid tissue. Well, I never was good at odds. I didn't beat these. Mine was malignant papillary cancer in both lobes of the thyroid. Good thing is, they removed it, and the lymph nodes looked clean. Bad news is, over the next two months I have to be off of the Synthroid (synethetic thyroid hormone), which has some nasty side effects: extreme fatigue, depression, weight gain, hair loss, cold, dry skin, and a few more I can't remember -- oh yeah, brain fog and lack of concentration. :)
They do this because when the body is starved of the thyroid hormone, it makes any remaining, hiding cancer cells very attracted to the radioactive iodine which comes next. Once they've found those, I take the iodine, which leaves me radioactive for about a week. They kill the cells, and I'm cured, but I'll have to be sequestered for a week. Luckily, we have the master suite upstairs with my own shower, toilet and bed, but Joe and the cats can't be near me during that time. That'll probably happen some time around my birthday. Lucky me. :)
But first they want me to get over the surgery, which is over the next 2-3 weeks. I actually feel better than when I had my gallbladder out, but I can't move my head around much, and it feels like I have a perpetual hand around my throat all of the time. That's the worst part. I've almost gotten over the mini panic attacks of being choked, but it's still really uncomfortable. I am off of all pain meds except for Aleve or Tylenol, so apparently have a high threshold for pain.
