I got released from the hospital today (yesterday now... is taking me awhile to finish this) and am at home and recovering. I feel bad for not even posting anything prior to my surgery, but there was a lot of last minute decisions that might have impacted where/when/if I was actually having my surgery. The shortened version, which is best for today's post, is that while I was preggers I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease, which is an auto-immune disorder. Basically my body was attacking and would eventually kill off my thyroid. Because of the disease I have to take thyroid hormone replacement drugs for the rest of my life. During the diagnosis, my doctor found a couple of nodules, or growths, but decided to wait and see what they did over the course of my pregnancy. He believed they would shrink once I had the baby because there would be less stress on my thyroid and because after delivery he could increase my thyroid meds. So fast forward to last June... they did several more tests and found one nodule had gone away completely (as predicted), but the other one on my left side had grown... a lot.
My doctor did a biopsy but couldn't rule out cancer because of the type of growth it was. The portion of my thyroid the growth was in needed to be removed to see how the growth related to the rest of the thyroid. If it was just sitting there growing, minding its own business then it wouldn't be cancer. If it was growing and attacking other cells or veins then it would be considered cancer. Since I was already having to take thyroid meds because of my Hashimoto's, removing the left section or the whole thyroid was not too big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. The doctor said during surgery they would take out the half and send it down to pathology while I was still under and if it appeared to be cancerous then they would go ahead and remove the entire thyroid. The only problem with all of this is my thyroid was so swollen from the Hashimito's that it made the potential of nerve and parathyroid damage higher, so the doctor didn't want to take the whole thing out unless it was completely necessary. The reason I never posted any of this, was because even by last Friday, we were still waiting to hear back from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Hospital in Seattle for a second opinion. Another long story short, they agreed taking out half was the best thing (and maybe the whole thing depending on what was found when they cut me open).
So on Wednesday I went in for surgery. The doctor took out the left half where the growth was and sent if off. Because of the type of growth I had, my doctor didn't think pathology would be able to tell if it was cancer so she started to close me up, only to find out that pathology was very certain it was cancer. They said I have papillary cancer, which is different than what they thought before I had surgery. The believed I had a follicular neoplasm, which is very different than papillary... so this is the only part of all this cancer talk that we're still waiting to hear about.
During surgery, I also had two lymph nodes and two parathyroid glands removed. I still have two parathyroid glands left, but they were "traumatized" and we are still waiting for them to kick into gear. My doctor is hopeful they will start working again this weekend. I go into for a blood draw on Monday and should know by the evening if they are functioning. The parathyroid glands regulate the amount of calcium in blood and bones, which is surprisingly important on a day to day basis. I always knew calcium was important, but more in a "drink a lot so you have strong bones when you're old" sort of way... which actually, it's more like "you need a ton in your body or your lips and hands start to go numb and then you might have a seizure" kind of thing. Which really hasn't been fun. I got a full 12 hour nights sleep last night, which turned out to be a very bad thing because that was 12 hours without any calcium intake. I paid the price when I got up! No seizure or anything, but I was definitely not in my prime. I'm really crossing my fingers for my parathyroid glands to start working....
Our family, friends, and coworkers have been totally amazing during all of this! Dan's parents had Easton for a few days/nights while I was in the hospital. Yesterday and today, my mom is here dealing with E and cooking us food while I recover (you might be asking where Dan is today... he's at Oly high coaching baseball - with my blessing because every girl needs a break from her hubby sometimes). I really appreciate everyone's emails, texts, phone calls, thoughts, and prayers. I will be sure to update more frequently... especially now because I'm rather useless for the next month or more! YAY for the blogging world!!
Useful cancer links:
http://www.thyca.org/thyroidcancerfacts.htm
http://www.endocrineweb.com/capap.html
http://www.endocrineweb.com/parathyroid.html
http://www.endocrineweb.com/hypopara.html
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2 comments:
Wow Kristen....thats some tough stuff to deal with. Fortunately I know that you are one tough chica and will kick the shiznit out of that cancer crap.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you!!
Let us know if you need any help with anything...I know you have tons, but we are here if you need us!
oh my gosh. so glad to hear that you are home and recovering (or at least starting to). i am such a crybaby since i had my baby - your post got me all choked up. i hope you get good news and feel better soon. let me know if there is anything i can do (not likely, from ohio, but still). adam's brother is a doc at uw now - i don't think he specializes in anything relevant to you right now, but he has connections and is good at interpreting results and literature, and he can be a great sounding board. we'll be thinking of you... and your adorable baby!
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