![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hel_anaI saw my surgeon for the post-surgery checkup and path report discussion. I'm happy with the incision and how it's healing, and I'm ok with what the path report says.
Sure, it would've been ideal to hear "oops.. guess we didn't need to take that out" but I didn't expect it to happen.
And so, without further ado, the Pathology Report Final Diagnosis
Thyroid gland, total thyroidectomy: Encapsulated partially cystic papillary thyroid carcinoma with focal oncocytic cellular changes. No evidence of malignancy in 12 identified lymph nodes.
Hashimoto's thyroiditus
Unremarkable thymus
Small focus of parathyroid parenchyma within the thymus
It was a 1.5cm tumour inside a 2.5cm "partly cystic well curcumscribed lesion". It was encapsulated, which means that it's totally surrounded by a capsule. It was also confined to the thyroid, with no evidence of vascular or lymphatic invasion. The twelve lymph nodes they took out were all benign. The report also says that no metastatic carcinoma was present.
This is good.
I'm really, really lucky.
I came out of the surgery with almost no effect on my voice - what there is is limited to my singing voice, and it's getting better every day. The idea of not being able to speak was what I feared most going in. As Ross can tell you, that's not an issue.
I came out with my parathyroids functioning reasonably well. How well remains to be determined in the next week as I stop taking the 3 grams of calcium a day I've been on.
And what cancer existed is gone, from every indication. I still have to go through the RAI, to kill off any existing thyroid cells. But largely, that's so we can be sure in the years to come that it doesn't come back.
Thank you to everyone who sent positive thoughts my way in the last while. Wish me luck as I move into the next phase.
However, I point out that I still have not seen any sign of my GloWorm. I don't wanna glow alone!
Sure, it would've been ideal to hear "oops.. guess we didn't need to take that out" but I didn't expect it to happen.
And so, without further ado, the Pathology Report Final Diagnosis
Thyroid gland, total thyroidectomy: Encapsulated partially cystic papillary thyroid carcinoma with focal oncocytic cellular changes. No evidence of malignancy in 12 identified lymph nodes.
Hashimoto's thyroiditus
Unremarkable thymus
Small focus of parathyroid parenchyma within the thymus
It was a 1.5cm tumour inside a 2.5cm "partly cystic well curcumscribed lesion". It was encapsulated, which means that it's totally surrounded by a capsule. It was also confined to the thyroid, with no evidence of vascular or lymphatic invasion. The twelve lymph nodes they took out were all benign. The report also says that no metastatic carcinoma was present.
This is good.
I'm really, really lucky.
I came out of the surgery with almost no effect on my voice - what there is is limited to my singing voice, and it's getting better every day. The idea of not being able to speak was what I feared most going in. As Ross can tell you, that's not an issue.
I came out with my parathyroids functioning reasonably well. How well remains to be determined in the next week as I stop taking the 3 grams of calcium a day I've been on.
And what cancer existed is gone, from every indication. I still have to go through the RAI, to kill off any existing thyroid cells. But largely, that's so we can be sure in the years to come that it doesn't come back.
Thank you to everyone who sent positive thoughts my way in the last while. Wish me luck as I move into the next phase.
However, I point out that I still have not seen any sign of my GloWorm. I don't wanna glow alone!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 12:58 am (UTC)Glad you are doing well.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 08:39 am (UTC)I'm using a stick of 100% cocoa butter, alternating with a cocoa butter/vitamin e cream. My grandma, who nursed head trauma and plastic surgery patients in WWII, swears by the cocoa butter.. she saw it do amazing things for her patients who used it religiously.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 09:10 am (UTC)no subject
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 08:42 am (UTC)I had visions of having to go into my visa interview at the Montreal Consulate with a little chalkboard around my neck.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 08:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 09:01 am (UTC)All they gave me was demerol, and by the time I left the hospital, I was down to extra strength tylonol.
Vicodin wasn't even on the menu. (morphine was, but I do exceedingly poorly with codine, and I didn't feel like testing out morphine)
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 09:41 am (UTC)I got off light. Once I got home, I was taking a mix of tylanol and ibuprophen that my mom recommends (they give it to the new mothers in the unit she works on), mixed in with some muscle relaxant. And I was off that after about 6 days.
The worst pain I had was neck and shoulder, from the hyperextension during the surgery.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 07:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-06 08:42 am (UTC)