Let's start at the very beginning...

Hi all! It's good to be back! Some of you know about my "adventure" these past few weeks and others don't so I'm going to give you the whole story~it's LONG and you don't have to read it, but I wanted to document it all, so bear with me =)

In November, I was at the instant care doctors office with Lauren when she had strep throat, and I always seem to catch it after her, so I asked him if he would mind looking at my throat while we were in there. He touched my neck and said, "whoa, did you know you had a goiter?" (an enlarged thyroid) Sure enough, there was a lump sticking out of my neck. He said to get it checked by my regular doctor. Our insurance kicked in Dec 1 with Texas Tech, so I made an appointment that first week in December. My doctor that we chose actually specializes in thyroid issues, so I felt confident he would know what to do.

So I met with our family doctor, Dr. Robinson and he had me do some blood work, which showed I was hyper-thyroid, meaning my thyroid was making too much thyroid hormone, and most likely this was a hyperfunctioning nodule on my thyroid. This explained some of the symptoms I had felt in the last couple of months: racing heart that would take a long time to come back down after exercise, fatigue, yet it was hard to rest, always feeling hot, just not feeling myself, etc. He sent me to get an ultrasound of my neck to get a feeling of what this nodule (growth) was on my neck.

I got the ultrasound, and found out it was a solid mass about 1 cubic inch around. The radiologist said that he'd get it taken out and not mess with it. Dr. Robinson felt the same. Nodules are actually very common on thyroids, 95% are benign, and most everyone will get some at some point or another in their life and never have to do anything about them. But, they were worried if this grew, it could interfere with my breathing or swallowing and felt it was just best to get it out and rule out cancer.

Soooooo, we met with an awesome surgeon, here in Lubbock that we had heard wonderful things about, Dr. Catherine Ronaghan. She sat down with Hyrum and I, showed us what she would do~take my right half of my thyroid where the nodule was, and leave my left side in, and that would be enough to make thyroid hormone for my whole body. She said when they removed it, they would do some preliminary lab work in surgery to see if it looked malignant (cancerous) and if it did, she would take out my whole thyroid right there in surgery.

While we were in Montana over the Christmas break, my grandpa showed me where he had the exact same procedure done when he was younger~a growth on the right side of his thyroid, they removed that half and he has been perfect since. Thyroid issues are very hereditary, so I felt confident it was the same for me. We scheduled the surgery for January 11, a few days after we returned home from Christmas holiday in Montana. Danielle (Hyrums mom) was going to be in Dallas, so we arranged with her to come over to help with the kids after surgery.

Friday, January 11 I went into surgery to have the right half of my thyroid removed. Dr. Ronaghan made about a two inch horizontal incision at the base of my neck. Everything went great, she said there were no complications and everything looked good as far as they could see, and they just removed the right side. She said she would call me with the full pathology report on Tuesday or Wednesday. I spent that night in the hospital, and went home on Saturday. For the next few days, I pretty much slept, took pain pills, and stayed in bed. Each day I felt a little better. On Wednesday, I was feeling really good and wanted to get out of the house. So, Danielle and I ran some errands and found some killer deals at Target and I was feeling even better. =) (I try to tell Hyrum that bargain highs really are real!)
As we were driving to pick up the kids from school, Dr. Ronaghan called my cell phone.

She asked how I was feeling and said she wanted to go over my pathology report with me. She said the large nodule on my thyroid was benign and I started saying, yay! and then she said but... and my stomach absolutely sank. She said some smaller nodes around it were malignant and that I had stage 1 papillary thyroid cancer. We needed to go back in and remove the rest of the thyroid and some of the lymph nodes around it. She went on to assure me that we caught it very early, for someone my age the cure rate was almost 100%, it would be okay, etc. She wanted to meet with me and Hyrum the next day in her office to go over everything. The rest of that day is just a blur filled with lots of emotions, googling on the internet, tears, and prayers and figuring out how this was all going to work out.

Danielle, (my angel mother in law) worked it out so that she could stay another week while we went back in. My mom was willing to fly down (and many others of you offered too~and I know you would too, bless your hearts!) but we thought we may need to have her for later when we do the radioactive iodine treatments. We met with Dr. Ronaghan and she said she would squeeze me in whenever I wanted to do it, so I said let's do it tomorrow (Friday)and just get it over with.

Thursday night was a mad rush of trying to get stocked up on groceries, frozen meals, diapers, etc for the next month, trying to spend time with the kids, talking on the phone with everyone and thanking them for their faith and prayers and preparing for another surgery.

Friday morning was really nice and slow, I took the kids to school, played trains with Logan, rocked Spencer for an extra long time, and caught up on some emails. We went to the hospital at 11 a.m. and waited and waited and waited. I was just grateful to my surgeon for squeezing me in, so I knew it wouldn't be an ideal time. Finally, at 4 p.m. she came bounding in with all of her enthusiasm and asked if I was ready to roll. I said good-bye to Hyrum and the last thing I remember was the lights in the operating room fading out.

This was a more delicate surgery because she was removing more and thus, had to maneuver around more nerves. She made it clear that one of the risks of this surgery was that my voice could be permanently damaged, so right when I woke up she had me talk. I couldn't at first because of the anesthetic, but finally something came whispering out and they all laughed and said that was very good to hear. I don't remember what I said...but oh well.

I was in the hospital Friday night and Saturday night and came home this morning. It was SO good to come home to my kids and my bed. My kids have so much energy! It was kind of a shock coming from boring, quiet hospital to nonstop action here, but I love being around them and Danielle often sends me to my bedroom to get rest. My incision is a little bit larger (about 3 inches) and a little more tender this time, but I'm already feeling pretty good and really easing out of the pain meds.

So, that's the story! I feel absolutely, incredibly blessed with how it happened and when it happened. Heavenly Father is watching out for us, and this little trial really is miniscule when you look at what others are asked to go through. I know God loves us and is completely aware of what we're going through. He gives our family continuous comfort and strength throughout all of this and I am just eternally grateful. Our insurance is amazing, we had to pay $100 copay for each hospital stay and the rest is covered 100%. Thanks so much to all of you too for all of the prayers, thoughts and faith you have sent my way. I truly felt them in the hospital in those quiet moments when I had time to reflect on my blessings and the miracle of life. Heavenly Father does have a purpose for all of us and He will show us what He would have us do if we give Him the chance. I'm thinking that maybe he just needed to knock me down so that I would just listen for a minute (like I'm always telling my kids)

So, we're all good and my radioactive iodine treatment should be in a few weeks to completely wipe out any remaining cancer cells.

I'll post some pictures soon. I have LOTS of time on my hands this week of just sitting, so I'll be doing lots of blogging. :)