So I thought I’d write a little update on my thyroid cancer treatment. I had surgery 9 days ago. The doctors decided I needed a right side neck dissection as well as the thyroidectomy. For the neck dissection, they basically removed everything in my neck that isn’t needed. They don’t just go in and individually remove questionable lymph nodes (which is what I originally thought). They diligently preserve muscles and nerves, but remove a “sac” if you will of tissue that contains fat, lymph nodes, and who knows what else. The surgery took 7.5 hours, leaves me with an 8 inch incision running from behind my ear, down almost to my collar bone and across the front for the thyroid.
I came home on Thursday, two days after the surgery. Friday, my husband drove me around town to run some errands and take care of a few things. Saturday, I got out for a couple hours to watch my son’s Upward Basketball game. But the past couple of days have been tough. I’m exhausted, emotional, having pain unrelated to my surgery, and I know I’m grouchy. I’m on a low-iodine diet to prepare my body for the radioactive iodine pill I will take in a couple of weeks so my appetite is off. The foods I can eat are so limited and nothing ever sounds appealing.
Radiation is tentatively schedule to start Feb. 8th – one week with a radioactive iodine pill. I wil be isolated completely for the first 72 hours, then limited cotact for the next 4 days. But the good news is once I start the radiation, I’ll be able to start my thyroid hormone replacement, too. Everything should start to feel like normal again shortly after that.
That’s all for now. Haven’t gotten off the couch yet today so I think I’ll go make some coffee…one thing I can have on my diet.
