I Have Cancer

Great, huh? I have Papillary Thyroid Cancer. I had the biopsy yesterday afternoon, which sort of stunk. It wasn't as uncomfortable as dental work, but my tumor is so big they had to use six needles instead of four. The numbing was nice, but it left my neck super sore. It's still sore tonight. The doctor used a cool voice-recognition ultrasound machine while he poked into my neck.

So today I get a call, right when I'm drifting off to sleep at naptime, of course, and the nurse is all personable and nice and then the doctor gets on and he's all nice-able and then he's all, well, I don't like to have to tell you that it's Papillary Thyroid Cancer. And he kept on talking, about how if you have to have cancer, it's a pretty good, slow-growing type to get and the survival rates are pretty good. I guess if you have to drop bad news on people all the time, you learn that there's not much they're going to want to say when you tell them they have cancer and you should just keep going. It is scary, though, to hear someone telling you your survival chances and realize you could DIE. Left untreated of course.

My treatment will probably include surgery to remove if not all, then most of my thyroid gland plus the big old tumor on my neck. Most likely we'll do this after the baby comes at the end of the year. There's a chance I could have to get radioactive iodine treatment, depending what the surgeon thinks of my tumor. The good news is that my lymph nodes are clean, according to the ultrasounds. So they can stay.

Bless this baby's heart, this pregnancy is about to break my camel's back. One thing after another and now I have cancer. I guess I'm the same as I was yesterday; it's just scary mostly when you say,"I have cancer" or talk about chemo or other cancer treatment things. The chances are slim that it will metastasize to other organs. But then the chances were slim that it was cancer, too, like only 10% or so and here I am. Just like me, when I tell people they pretty much don't know what to say. Huh, they're thinking. That sucks. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking, too.

In other news, Seth got a raise today. YESSS!! Now I can afford to pay for my Synthroid prescription I'll probably have to take for the rest of my life!!! But seriously, thank you, Martin and Vejvoda. We super-ultra appreciate it.