Drained

Happy Wednesday Friends and Family,

Simply put, the last 48 hours were a whirlwind. Yesterday morning felt as normal as could be, went to story time with Emily and Noah at the library in our neighborhood. Then our pastor came to pray with us at 10 AM. By 11:30, we were headed to the hospital for my 12:30 check-in.

15 minutes later and we were in the pre-operative waiting room. Before you know it, they’re calling me back to prep. By 2:30, I’d had an EKG, blood work, signed a tone of waivers, met with the anesthesiologist, my surgeon (who was a serendipitous connection from my Uncle - Thanks Glenn and Joanne), nurses galore, and by 3 was kissing Emily goodbye as they rolled me back to the OR.

The plan was always a partial or hemi-thyroidectomy with removal of the cyst that’s been drained multiple times since January. During surgery, they would send the resected thyroid tissue off for frozen section to pathology, if the findings confirmed the already suspected cancer diagnosis as confirmed by the genetic mutation, then they’d remove the entire thyroid. And remove it they did along with the large cystic mass from my upper chest. (I have a picture if you’re interested :)

It's been a sleepless last 36 hours. Was up every 15 mins the first night in the hospital with mild pain and discomfort which I attribute to the steroids they also gave in pre-op. Now that I have no thyroid, my body is not regulating calcium efficiently, which is handled by the parathyroid glands and parathyroid hormone and calcitonin which is also of the thyroid. (*Update: I confirmed with my surgeon after the drain pull that he did maintain my PT's -Parathyroids, but they're likely bruised and recovering)

And of course I'm not producing any thyroid hormones. So, hormone supplementation in the way of Levothyroxine (aka) Synthroid, will be my new normal as a daily pill with calcium supplementation. Not to mention I get this cool scar across my neck. The surgeon assured me he put it in a future age fold or current ;) LOL.

My ionized calcium levels which were checked three times were stable, so I was discharged this afternoon. We’re home, resting, and with a bulb drain sticking out of my neck that has to be drained regularly. I’ll have a post-op appointment next Thursday and may have the drain out sooner depending on how much is being drained.

Will know more about the cancer after results and will likely have to have Radioactive Iodine Therapy to kill off any remaining Thyroid cells. As the Thyroid is the only organ that uptakes iodine, it’s very effective treatment for eliminating any remaining Thyroid cells. Prognosis for this is very good and worst case I get a cyst or growth back but just praying nothing moves to any lymph nodes, which wasn’t detected.

Thanks for all the love, support, messages, etc. through this journey. One more hurdle surpassed and few more to go. Here’s looking at you “kids!"

Peace and blessings,

Chris

#CancerSucks