On a serious note.

Early in my pregnancy, before I even told anyone I was pregnant, I discovered I had hyperthyroid levels. It was found in the whole blood screening that was ordered during my first midwife appointment. It was recommended that I go to a perinatalogist since she was concerned what my hormone levels would do to my unborn child. But they were too busy and didn't have an opening for an appointment for months so I instead was sent to an endocrinologist. He wasn't worried at first when he saw me. He said pregnancy can sometimes throw off hormone levels a little, and mine weren't too far off. Then he felt my thyroid and felt a growth. He was surprised, he didn't expect to find that. He brought in a little ultrasound machine and measured my growth. He recommended a needle biopsy to check for cancer.

So a week later I went down to the hospital. There I laid on a table while a tech guided my doctor with an ultrasound to put needles in the middle of the growth so he could draw out some samples. It was an uncomfortable procedure, but not bad enough that I needed painkiller. It felt like getting several shots in my neck all at once.

The biopsy came back unclear. He couldn't say if I didn't or did have cancer from the results. To get more answers I would need a full biopsy by completely removing the whole growth. But he didn't think it was pressing enough to push for further action during my pregnancy. I was so happy to go back to just visiting my midwife and preparing to meet my new baby.

A couple of weeks after my baby was born I met with my doctor again. I was hoping that I could push the surgery back a year until after I finished nursing. My doctor was really uncomfortable with waiting that long. I talked him into letting me wait until by baby was three months old.

My saint of a sister and her husband volunteered to spend their Christmas with us since my surgery was scheduled just a couple of days before Christmas. We had some fun playing and exploring in NM before my surgery date.

The surgery went well. We didn't have to wait long in the waiting room. The nurses and doctors all explained things well and answered our questions. I didn't get nauseous from the anesthesia, so that's wonderful. After the surgery I was really out of it, but the preliminary results from pathology looked like I was in the clear.

We had a great Christmas. I got to feeling good again really quick. It was about four days after my surgery and I was feeling basically back to normal outside of some localized discomfort. I never really needed much pain killers.

At my post-op appointment I met with the surgeon who gave me the full pathology report. It turned out that there was a small area that was malignant. I did, in fact have thyroid cancer. But it was already gone, they took the whole thing out during the surgery. She didn't seem to think that I'd need any further action beyond periodical monitoring to make sure it didn't grow back.

I'm feeling really blessed that my brush with cancer has been relatively minor. If I hadn't been pregnant it's not likely that I would have found the growth on my thyroid. I could barely tell it was there after it was pointed out to me. I really doubt that the perinatalogist would have found it either, since their specialty is concerning babies and not thyroids. I feel so blessed to have been in the care of such great medical doctors who gave me sound advice, even when I didn't want it.

This is me the day after the surgery, the orange tint to my skin was an antiseptic they instructed me to leave on for a couple of days. Now my scar is just a faint pink line that most people hardly notice.

From 2009_12_23