When Life Hands Your Thyroid Cancer…Get a Lemon Colored Thyroid Stuffy?
I had big plans for 2024. This was the year to choose peace, love and happiness. 2022 and 2023 brought a lot of change to my life and I was looking forward to continuing to find a healthier version of myself. If you’ve been here for a while, you may remember my blog called “Lumps and Lymph and Tests, Oh My” where I shared about having some issues with random lymph nodes in my armpits. As part of that follow-up care, I had to continue to see my endocrinologist and the breast specialist every 6 months for the next 3 years as per the protocol, getting regular mammograms and thyroid ultrasounds to make sure my systems behaved themselves.
I was approaching the end of my screening protocol when I had my bi-annual appointment with my thyroid specialist in June. We talked about how my thyroid was due for an ultrasound and since I had already met my insurance deductible for the year, we decided to have the test done in December of 2023. When I went for my follow-up appointment, my endocrinologist saw that one of my cysts had grown beyond the “allotted” amount and he said this warranted a biopsy. I had previously had a thyroid biopsy 6+ years ago and was not worried at all. My body likes to grow cysts and so I was really just annoyed to have to schedule another appointment.
I’m not going to lie, being a busy business owner who’s also a single mom and self insured, I didn’t really want to have to pay my deductible and make time to go for a semi-painful test right at the start of the new year and I debated pushing off this test until later in the year. Luckily, I decided to be a responsible adult and scheduled the test for as soon as possible. I had a lovely experience at Atlantic Medical Imaging in Galloway. I was in and out in under 30 minutes with no pain!
I was quite surprised when I got an email two days later from the pathology lab saying that I had thyroid cancer. I have worked with patients with cancer my whole career but I don’t think anything ever prepares you for getting that diagnosis for yourself. I sat in my office on a Thursday, about to shut down my computer and rush to the school bus stop to meet my daughter and read the words “malignant” and “papillary thyroid carcinoma” multiple times before they sank in. I immediately called my endocrinologist’s office and asked them to interpret the results. Unfortunately, my provider was on vacation and they hadn’t even received the results.
My doctor very kindly called me the next day and I texted him a picture of the results and he confirmed that I had thyroid cancer based on that report. I was shocked. I had no new symptoms other than my usual thyroid problems – temperature insensitivity, fatigue, weight fluctuation, dry skin. I’ve had thyroid issues since I was 23 years old and have been on thyroid medicine since then, so these were not new to me. My doctor recommended that I find an endocrinologist oncologist as soon as possible for a consultation for surgery.
I lucked out and it snowed enough for a snow day, which meant I had a day to research some of the local programs that took my insurance and decided to go with Cooper’s program. I went for my surgical consult and was given the option of a full thyroidectomy or a partial thyroidectomy with the pros and cons being listed for both. If I did a partial, the cysts on the remaining part of my thyroid would have to be regularly monitored with more ultrasounds and biopsies and I just don’t have the time or mental bandwidth for that. I chose the full thyroidectomy because that would mean less invasive and easier screening with just a blood test on a regular basis to know if the cancer came back versus having to undergo more ultrasounds and more biopsies. (Side note: If you have to have a fine needle aspiration biopsy, don’t be scared. They’re not terrible but it’s also not something that you want to do every 3 to 6 months. It’s honestly no worse than having a cavity filled and much shorter.) My surgeon wanted to schedule the surgery as soon as possible due to my age and I was scheduled for the procedure a week later.
I had to do some pre-op testing to look at the lymph nodes in the surrounding area and do additional blood work to make sure that I was healthy enough for surgery. I had a planned long weekend trip to California with my significant other that I chose to continue to take as a last hurrah before the medical stuff that would be upcoming for me in the next few months. Unfortunately for me, I picked up a bug along the way and returned home with the snuffles. The pre-op ultrasound showed that I had some “weird” lymph nodes that needed to be biopsied before my surgery because there was not way to tell if it was due to my sickness or my thyroid cancer. I went from having a surgery date of 2/2 to 2/15. The most frustrating part for me was the disruption in my scheduling. Anyone who knows me, knows I like to run a nicely scheduled life, and having to cancel, reschedule, then cancel my patients was really tough for me emotionally.
I went for my second biopsy procedure (at Cooper this time) and will await those results. The big difference for my surgery on the 15th will be whether they take my whole thyroid and only my whole thyroid or whether they take my thyroid and the problematic lymph nodes that they see. The reason they don’t want to go taking lymph nodes out willy nilly is that the lymphatic system runs how fluid moves in the body and being without lymph nodes can cause problems such as lymphedema.
I am truly lucky that my doctor followed protocols to ensure that I was screened appropriately for cancer. I did have the added benefits of having a medical background and knowing to be proactive with a strong family history of cancer. Because I had no symptoms, if I was not routinely assessed, I could have lived a lot longer not knowing that I had cancer which could have allowed it to spread even further into my body.
I am told that because of my age and because of the stage and location of the cancer, that the odds are very much in my favor. After the surgery, they will do pathology on my thyroid to decide if I need any further intervention afterwards. But my surgeon was very hopeful that the thyroidectomy would be the “cure” for this particular type of cancer with regular follow up monitoring.
Why am I writing a blog telling you very personal details about my medical history and situation? My “Practically Perfect” community shares a lot of their personal details to help them get better and I believe in some transparency as a provider. I get to be there with our patients as they go through trials and tribulations. I wanted to “keep it real” and show you that providers also sometimes undergo these things. It helps to make us more compassionate and empathic providers to you, and it also helps us to understand how to help you advocate for yourself. If you’ve worked with me, you know I’m brainstorming a worksheet on “how to medically advocate for yourself in a sticky situation…” IYKYK
If you’re worried about your services at Practically Perfect, please do not! For the past year and a half we have built a team of skilled providers that can all take excellent care of our patients. If you’re not sure what services Practically Perfect Physical Therapy offers, you should know we basically do everything. We treat newborns to the very elderly and although we market ourselves as “pelvic health and pediatrics,” we do ALL OF THE THINGS!
A list to include the things that we do as far as therapy goes includes:
* Pelvic floor therapy – pee, poop and sex things, plus prolapse, pain and “down there” cancers
* Pediatric therapy – torticollis (tilted head), plagiocephaly (flat head), delayed gross motor skills (baby not doing what they’re supposed to OR doing it in a weird way)
* Pediatric pelvic floor therapy – potty training, constipation, pee leaks, poop smears, bed wetting, etc.
* Lactation support and breast body work and positioning for tethered oral tissues including tongue, lip and cheek ties
* Vestibular therapy – for vertigo, balance and dizziness
* Neurological therapy – for things like Parkinson’s & MS
* TMJ therapy – for those painful and clicking jaws
* Chronic pain services – for those aches and pains that won’t go away
* General orthopedic stuff – that tricky knee, sore back, painful neck etc.
We also offer a variety of wellness activities because we believe in preventative and maintenance care:
Monthly Birth Preparation Classes
We also intermittently offer infant massage classes and sex education classes based on interest.
I’m so grateful to have such a supportive network of family, friends and patients. I’m anxious to have my surgery completed to move on to the next phase of healing. I will continue to give updates as I have them. In the meantime, please be patient with us if we have to reschedule appointments. It does not help that our electronic record keeping system broke up with our billing company the day after I got diagnosed! I will have to always battle with myself to put my care before that of taking care of patients but unfortunately the next few weeks do not give me much of an option. You can best help me by sending us positive vibes, be patient if we must reschedule and continue to support our small business!
