A long time ago, I was at Hooligans with Bill eating spaghetti, and my neck felt really weird.  I reached up and touched my neck, and I felt a huge lump on it that I had never felt before, and so I asked Bill, “Does my neck look weird to you? It feels really weird.” But no, it did not look weird.

After a bit (I don’t remember how long) the lump went away. Then, about a week later, it came back, and it has been there ever since.  I started going to doctors about it. First, I went to an Ear, Nose, and Throat person. Then I saw another E, N & T person to get a second opinion.  They both agreed that it was a benign nodule on my thyroid (after doing a fine needle aspiration and an ultra sound). One person suggested leaving it there, and the other person suggested getting it removed.  Nice.  Then, I decided I wanted a third opinion, and in October 2006, I went to a Thyroid surgeon in Boston. She looked at everything, did her own ultra sound, and agreed it was benign. Good.

Then, a month and a half ago (September 2007), or so, I was drying my hair in my mom’s room, and I happened to see a note on her dresser from my appointment with the surgeon. It said “See surgeon again after 6 months.” It had been a year. Oops. So I made an appointment. This time, she did another ultra sound, and another needle biopsy. She said, “Call me in a week to get the results.”

Two days later, she called ME (5 minutes before I had class), and said “The cells look suspicious. We want to do surgery to get it out of there, and there is a 65% chance that you have papillary thyroid cancer.”

Ok.

So then I went back again to meet with her, and she explained everything to me: why she thought it was cancer, why they can’t be 100% sure, what the surgery is going to be like, what my recovery is going to be like, and how we’re going to treat the cancer.

She first wanted to do a total thyroidectomy (remove the entire thing), but then we were talking, and she said they can remove only the left side (the side with the tumor), but that means if it IS cancer (a 65% chance), then they will have to do another surgery to remove the other side. But I decided that I would rather take the chance that it is NOT cancer, and leave the other side intact. Otherwise, they will remove the entire thyroid, and then they might come back and say “well, it wasn’t cancer” and then I’ll be stuck taking thyroid hormones for the rest of my life. I would much rather take the risk, and then possibly need another surgery.

My surgery is scheduled for December 17, 2007 ( a WEEK before Christmas)…. but it will leave me with a week with nothing to do, and I can just watch Christmas movies and not worry about school. The other appointment option was for Dec. 7th, but then I’ll be recovering during finals, and that’s no good. Also, Megan will be home from England on the 21st, so she can hang out with me while I am recovering. I will be in the hospital for two days, and then home, and I hear the first few days are really bad. I will be on a “soft foods diet,” and I won’t really be able to move my head at all. The incision is right at the base of my neck, where all the muscles are. I’m not allowed to drive for at least one week, and I can’t work for at least two.  I have to get all of my Christmas shopping done, and all of my homework and studying done by the week before (my finals were scheduled for the 17, 18, and 19, so I have to take them all early). I’m more worried about Christmas presents though…. I’m going to have a busy month of December.

And I also have to decided definitely what I want to do about the surgery. Remove all of it, or just part of it. I’ve been reading up a bit, and it seems I may still have to take hormones even if they remove only half of it. I need to see a few more doctors to help me make my decision.

Nice.