A Different Kind of Summer

For the second year in a row, we have spent the summer going to Dr. appointments and recovering from surgery.

I don't lie very well so when I have something that I should tell someone but don't want to, I just end up avoiding them.  Which is exactly why I haven't updated in the last two months.

A few days after my last update, Wayne and I were walking around a home improvement store when he started having chest pains with pain in his left shoulder and arm, then he got dizzy and sweaty.  We immediately started walking toward the door.  We happened to be in Iowa City and just 10 minutes away from one of the best hospitals in the area.  So after a brief discussion, we decided to get some aspirin and go to the Emergency Room. 

Have you ever wondered what the magic words are to get you to the front of the line in a packed E.R. waiting room?  Apparently "my 38 year old husband who had kidney cancer last year is having chest pains going into his left arm", works really well...or maybe it was the tears...not sure.

The nitro seemed to work to relieve the pain, then it came back, then went away again.  The blood tests came back fine, but it was determined that he would stay overnight and have some further tests in the morning.  They finally admitted him at about 3:30a, this post is going to be pretty long so I won't even get into his crazy roommate who called his daughter at 3a so he could talk to his dog...his.dog.at.three.in.the.morning. 

We decided that we wouldn't tell anyone until we knew what was going on.  We would later take a lot of heat for that decision, but it was the right one for us and we stand by it.

Did I mention that I was sick?  At one point the E.R. nurse looked at me and said "Are you okay?  You don't look so good."  I told her that I was just sick and went to the Dr. that day but didn't have time to fill the prescription yet.

At about 8:30a, my Dr. called and told me that they had made the appt. with the ear, nose, throat specialist at 12:45 that day.  I about cried, I'd had a sore throat and swollen lymph nodes for 6 weeks. The antibiotics worked for a while then it got worse again, but that day was just not a good day.  I talked to Wayne he was doing very well, but really needed some rest.  So we decided that I would leave to let the dogs out, get cleaned up and go to the E.N.T.

Wayne texted me at 12:35 to tell me that they were taking him for the stress test and we would know in a few hours if there was a blockage or if he'd had a heart attack.

Twenty minutes later, the Dr. was examining me when he found something while pressing at the base of my neck.  I said "that's sore, that's really sore actually."  He told me that it was my thyroid and that there was a nodule on it.  He said that a lot of people have thyroid nodules and the vast majority of them are benign, but we should do some tests just to make sure.  He also said that it appears that I have chronic tonsilitis and that my tonsils will probably need to be removed at some point but the nodule takes priority at this point.

I literally walked out of the office looked up at the sky and said aloud "Seriously?  We haven't been through enough?"

I scheduled the Fine Needle Aspiration (a.k.a. biopsy) and ultrasound for two days later.  I made a decision at that point that I would not tell anyone about the nodule, but I would try not to lie either.  I told everyone that I had the F.N.A., but the only ones who knew it was a biopsy were the people who had been through it.  I didn't even tell Wayne about the nodule.  My thinking was that if it was benign he won't ever have to know, and if it was malignant then I'd have cancer, how mad could he be at me?

When I got to the hospital, we found out that he did not have a heart attack or a blockage.  The pain was most likely caused by the left ventricle being slightly enlarged.  He was released and we went home.

A week after the F.N.A. I went back to get the results.  I had done a lot of research over the week and had a list of questions ready for if it had been benign or malignant.  I felt I was prepared for anything he told me.  I however was not prepared for him to say that it was still inconclusive.  It was a follicular neoplasm, which basically means that they could biopsy it 100 times and it would still be inconclusive.  It was either a follicular adenoma or follicular thyroid cancer.  The only way to know for sure would be to remove it.  He suggested that the best course of treatment would be to remove the right lobe of my thyroid.  If it was cancer, he would go back a couple weeks later and remove the whole thyroid.  Then 6 weeks after that I would have to have radioactive iodine treatment.  And oh yeah, I would still need to have a tonsillectomy at some point.   I scheduled the lobectomy for August 9th (about 2 1/2 weeks later).

My first thought when he told me was "Oh crap, now I have to tell Wayne".  Let's just say, he was not happy.  That's an understatement, he was angry.  I told him that I found out about the nodule at the very minute that he was undergoing a test to find out if he had a heart attack.  I apologized for excluding him, but I stand by my decision.  He eventually got over his anger.

Wayne tried to convince me to tell my parents, but I insisted on not worrying them unless I had to.  Actually he told me that I would go to Hell if I didn't tell my Mom.  I took my chances.

It is five weeks after surgery and I'm doing really well.  There has not been a lot of pain, but I was surprised how it affected everything I did.  I didn't expect to not be able to lift anything or push a shopping cart or walk Lola on a leash.  He was able to remove just the lump, so I am not on thyroid meds. 

We found out a few weeks ago that it is benign...Thank God.  I just told my parents last week about the lump, they were not mad and understood why we kept it to ourselves.

I still have a sore throat and a fever at least once a week.  I've opted to wait to have the tonsillectomy until after my brother's wedding in October.  I'm not looking forward to it, I've heard that the recovery is pretty rough for adults.

Hopefully, I'll be able to write about fun vacations and other fun things next summer!

I have so much to tell you, so please check back.