Thoughts and prayers sent to you and your family! Sounds like your daughter has a great family supporting her through this and a great attitude. A positive outlook can make all the difference in getting through / dealing with any kind of illness. Best of luck!!!
Latest biopsy results show NO CANCER!!! Happier than anyone could imagine, but now we're not sure what we're dealing with... Gonna take it one day at a time and keep up on it. Really appreciate the support here!
Wonderful news. I will lift up thanks! Please know that my prayers and best wishes will continue until an answer and positive resolution occur!
Sorry for the lateness of this response. We've been doing everything we could to figure out what exactly is going on with my daughter's thyroid. We eventually ended up changing doctors to get a second opinion and found out through a new ultrasound that she had another nodule on the left side of her thyroid that grew in about six months. Our new doctor was fantastic, double checked the original nodule on the right side and felt that it had actually mostly gone away or just wasn't as much of a concern. It took a lot of time for our original doctors to finally get the original biopsy to the new doc and when he had his pathologist check it out, determined it to have a 100% chance of being cancerous. The concern, then, was the second nodule that had grown dramatically and he gave my daughter the option of continuing the wait and see option of ultrasounds, biopsies, and checkups vs a thyroidectomy. She chose to have her thyroid removed. My wife and I feel that this is probably the best decision as well. The cancerous cells along with a new nodule with an unknown cause is just too alarming to let it keep going, despite papillary thyroid cancer being pretty easy to treat even if the cancer metastasises to other parts of her body... We don't have an exact date as we need to speak with the surgeon(s) that will be performing the surgery, but thoughts, prayers, and well wishes are once again greatly appreciated.
Thank you for filling us in. I am sorry the news was not more positive but you seem to have a good plan in place. I will continue to pray for the surgeon's skill and your daughter's quick and complete recovery.
Thanks. We're just glad we finally have some answers so we know what we're fighting. Like I said previously, Kendra's a tough girl. Despite everything she's been going through, she still has maintained a 3.75 GPA, worked a summer job at a daycare center, volunteered in the community and just generally kept a positive attitude! So proud of the strong young woman she is turning into in front of my eyes!
Surgery scheduled for Wednesday, October 8. Will be staying up in Denver Tuesday night through Thursday afternoon... I'll keep y'all updated!
Are they planning on removing the entire thyroid, a portion, and/or just the tumors? Whatever it is, you have my prayers and best wishes for all of you.
Removing the whole thing. Since there are the tumors on both sides, doc thought it advisable to go that route... Funny thing is that we went with a new doctor because the old doctor had recommended removing the right lobe and then backed out of that... Thankfully he did since the left lobe also grew a nodule so only one surgery instead of two...
Oh man sorry to hear about this. I hope they get it out of there. I think the thyroid is the most treatable kind of cancer but hope they can treat it. God bless you guys and I will be praying.
About 14 hours from Kendra's surgery and I'm starting to get a little nervous. I'm sure all is going to go very well, but knowing my baby girl is going to be unconscious for 3+ hours while doctors are working on her just doesn't feel right. I definitely appreciate all the continuing good thoughts and prayers.
Whatever time they gave you, add an hour to an hour and a half. Doctors typically talk about surgeries thinking about their time in the theater. They forget about prep, post, and even sometimes recovery. The last could take 90 minutes or more. Keep reading online, walk around, get a book, go to the chapel, or whatever. Just let yourself veg until the doctor comes out and then expect another wait until you can see her. You all remain in my prayers.
Finished the surgery. All went well, but central lymph nodes did not look normal, so those got removed as well. She's still in recovery, probably be about thirty minutes before we can go back and see her.
Good news. You now will have a 24-72 hour wait while they do a biopsy on the tissues involved. That will determine the post-operative protocols regarding radiation, chemo, substitute medication, and so on. The prayers will be ongoing. Thankfully this part is done.
Finally heading home. Poor girl broke down a few hours ago after yet another doctor came in to check on her with no mention of discharging her... She's definitely overly tired and ready to be in her home surroundings for some good rest!
No one "rests" in a hospital. Glad she is home and hopefully recovering from the surgery itself. Continued blessings to all of you.
Got a call early this morning from Kendra's surgeon, but weren't home to get the call. Called back, but, of course, he's in surgery. My wife sent an email to Kendra's endocrinologist in the hopes that he had gotten the results back. He had, but was in a meeting in the Netherlands, but still took the time to give us the information. Right lobe was definitely cancerous, tumor was only about pea-sized and thankfully had not metastasized. Her lymph nodes were clean, as was the left nodule, though the left showed some signs of being precancerous. Next up, more appointments to make certain her medication is where it needs to be and keep her healthy!
The clear lymph nodes are huge! You will need to discover whether the doctors think a prophylactic regimen of radiation is called for. Otherwise, just getting the thyroid replacement meds will take a little while to get balanced but that is a well understood protocol and should work easily. Best wishes and blessings to you and your family.
Just had her follow up with the surgeon. Took some blood to test her calcium levels to make sure there was no permanent damage to the parathyroid... Incision is healing very well. She's gaining more motion in her neck and she seems to be sleeping better... Her endocrinologist wants to see her mid December to check on her... Very proud of how she's been handling this!