Good news

I had my two doctor's appointments today.

First the endocrinologist - he had good news! The pathology report was back and the cancer was isolated in the nodule. None of the surrounding tissue was affected. The nodule itself was only 1.1 cm which was even smaller than they thought. So, based on a study done by the Mayo Clinic, the recurrence rate in this situation is the same whether radioactive iodine treatment is administered or not. (It is a less than 5% recurrence rate - but as I pointed out, people kept telling me once we knew I had a nodule that the chances were about 5% that it would be cancerous - so I will be fully prepared for this possibility) So we are not going to do the treatment right now. (yay!) Instead, they will do an ultrasound and thyroid level blood test in two months to get a base level. Then they will check again every 6-12 months and if there is any abnormal growth of the remaining thyroid tissue, then we will do the radioactive iodine treatment. For now, I got my prescription for my permanent thyroid hormones which should help me feel better. Apparently, some of my symptoms this last week might be not only because of recovering from surgery, but because of the temporary hormones I was on. The synthroid hormones should be much better.

Next - the ENT. The doctor who did the biopsy and surgery is on vacation this week, so I saw the physician's assistant. He removed the steri-strips that were holding the wound together and checked how it was healing. It's doing just fine. It was really nice to get the steri-strips off. It's much more comfortable now, but itchy. My voice is still not back to normal. It's still a little gravelly, and I can't raise my voice or use much inflection still. I also can't sing (not that I was much of a singer before, but now it's even worse) I have a VERY limited range. He explained that that's because the muscles are still inflamed and not allowing full use of my vocal chords, but that they will heal and I should fully recover my voice.

I have also been having a problem with my arm that had the IV in it in the hospital. It's a condition called phlebitis, but they weren't concerned about it. I just need to put warm compresses on it and I'm already on antibiotics so there's no fear of infection. My energy level is slowly getting better, but I get winded very easily. I've been very weak the last couple of days, but today is a bit better.

The kids are doing pretty well, but the stress of everything the last week finally caught up to Julia yesterday. She was so teary yesterday morning, anything would set her off. She finally threw a full blown tantrum. Once I got the chance to talk to her about it she yelled "I wish you never had a bump on your neck!" and "I just want to get back to our usual routine!" I totally agreed with her on both counts. I was very proud of her for being able to express those feelings. I let her get out as much of that frustration as I could. Today she seems better, and our routine has been a little more normal today.