I went to the thyroid surgeons today as you know. Came home not feeling well. He had to spray stuff into my nose and throat so he could slide a camera down to my voice box from my nose. That stuff, plus the medication that i took for the anxiety and all the collected information I received regarding what's going on made me very nauseous. Then I had to drive up to the hospital that I had my CAT Csans done and pick up the images and reports for both surgeons to review (they want to review the chest lymph nodes in the film). The surgeon I saw today is going to call the thoracic surgeon and organize the plan. The plan thus far (as explained to me by this surgeon) is that he will go in through a 6" slice in the fold of my neck and remove the thyroid and lymph nodes in my neck and send them off to the lab for testing (this will decipher how much radioactive treatment I will need after the surgery). He explained the risks of damaging my parathyroid glands (if damaged I would be on high dosages of calcium for the rest of my life..not that bad) and the nerves in my neck that control your voice, swallowing and breathing. He also explained the risk of coming out with a tracheotomy if the nerves are torn or cut which can happen (niiiiiice
). He then said after the removal of the thyroid and lymph nodes in my neck, the thoracic surgeon would then go through his opening and down behind my breast bone to collect some lymph nodes from my chest for the biopsy. If there are any complications from that (say the surgeon can get to the nodes, or he does get to them and they come back from the lab and show cancer) my chest would need to be cut open, but is hoping it won't be the case.
So, as it stands right now, this surgeon wants to do this asap, so he's calling the thoracic today. I will see the thoracic on Thursday and will most likely he will tell me (after speaking with the surgeon I saw today) what day I'm going in.
Needless to say, I am a nervous wreck and not thinking very well. So please excuse me for any typos or if something doesn't make any sense. I just want this to be done and over and everything good again.
Thanks everybody for all your prayers, well wishes and support. They really do help. And I truly appreciate you all.