Wiping the Slate Clean

Friday, I had a follow-up appointment with a new endocrinologist. She works closely with my surgeon, which is why I switched to her. She’s great! Asher and I both really like her a lot. Once again, I feel like I am being given the best treatment. She went over the pathology results in detail. Basically the cancer was in the left side of my thyroid and had moved up the thyroid cavity, but it hadn't spread outside the thyroid!! My surgeon had taken 11 lymph nodes out and they all tested negative for cancer. Now I just have to do a relatively small radioiodine treatment to wipe the slate clean. So essentially, this means NO MORE THYROID CANCER!!

So, here’s the treatment process that I’ll be going through. Monday, Nov.9th, I will stop taking my thyroid medicine, and will be off it for 3 weeks. Since 3 days without thyroid hormone makes me feel crazy, it certainly won’t be fun to go 3 weeks without it. On December 4th, I start treatment, where I’ll be taking a radioiodine pill that will kill any remaining thyroid cells. Since I’ll be radioactive with this treatment, I’ll have very limited contact with adults, and no contact with children, for about a week. So, if you have any good suggestions for TV shows or books, please let me know.

We’re trying to figure out where the kids are going during all this. We’re planning to go to Dallas to spend Thanksgiving with Asher’s family, and it looks like we’ll leave the kids there during my treatment.

After the treatment, they will do a couple scans. There’s a body scan to see if cancer is anywhere else (which they are sure it’s not…. this is just precautionary). And there’s another scan to make sure they got all the thyroid cells. I still have a 15% chance of cancer coming back sometime in my life, but we are going to have faith that it doesn’t!

The last couple of days have been so great! I have had so much joy and hope! I haven’t felt this in a loooong time. I really do have a wonderful family and community. My recovery has been a little rough as I’ve felt pretty nauseous, but I’ve had sooo much help! My parents were here for the first week. Asher has had this last week off from work to help out. We have had a meal brought to us almost every day and have meals scheduled for the next two weeks! I’ve had so many friends dropping by to spend time with me and/or the kids. Not to mention all the prayers and encouraging messages!! I feel so blessed and grateful to be fighting this with so many people who love me. Thank you all so much!

LOTS OF LOVE,

Missy

Pathology Results

God is Good! Thank you for all the prayers! The pathology test came back negative. The cancer has NOT spread to my lymph nodes! The kind of cancer the test showed is papillary which is the most common and most treatable kind. So, the outcome of all this looks like it will be a good one, but the journey isn't over.

I will still have to do the radioiodine therapy to kill any cancer cells that might be in the tissue. I will also have to have a body scan done to see if it has spread anywhere else in my body. I see an endocrinologist on Friday to find out when I have to get all this done. I will have to be in the hospital in isolation for a few days because I'll be radioactive. Then I will have to be away from my kids a few more days. I'm dreading all this more than anything. Prior to the treatment I will have to be off my medication for at least two weeks. I've been on this medication, synthroid, my whole life and when I am off of it for more than a few days I feel like I'm going crazy. I become extremely fatigued, have awful headaches, have a hard time concentrating, and become pretty depressed. So being off of my medication for two weeks scares me.

My recovery so far has been pretty rough. The first few days my throat was pretty sore, but it feels MUCH better now. I still have to be careful about talking because my vocal cords are pretty weak. The worse part right now is being nauseous all the time, aching, having headaches, and really dizzy. My surgeon thinks its from the calcium deficiency.

Feeling this way and knowing what the next several weeks are going to be like makes me pretty depressed. I really hope I'm not stuck in the hospital or in bed over Thanksgiving. More than anything right now I want to go to Dallas and see our family like we planned. I just don't know at this point if I'm going to be able to do that. I guess we'll find out on Friday.

Even though I'm going through a rough patch right now, I still feel extremely blessed. God has showered me with so much love through my friends and family. For that I am forever thankful.

Surgery Update

OK, so a more thorough update... *(This is Asher, Missy's husband, posting this...)

Surgery is over and afterwards, we spoke with the surgeon. She removed Missy’s thyroid gland and a couple of lymph nodes. Initial pathology verified 100% (vs 95% from the biopsy) that it was thyroid cancer. We will not know until Friday the results of the complete path report which will identify the exact type of cancer: they suspect it may be a more aggressive case than normal. The pathology test on the removed lymph nodes will identify if the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, which would indicate the possibility of whether the cancer has spread to other parts of the body; however, it does not necessarily rule it out. Missy will have to go back into the hospital in about a month to get a radioiodine treatment and a body scan. The body scan will verify if there has been any spread or not. We had hoped that we would find out that there was no spread, but it looks like we still have to wait. Because of the fact that thyroid cancer is a slow growing type, there is optimism that if it has indeed spread, it should still be very much treatable.

Thankfully, Missy's vocal chords sound undamaged. Also, our doctor is a champ: we couldn't be happier with her. We are happy that Missy's scar is very small (maybe 4-5" long along the base of her neck, just about where a t-shirt comes up to. We are so thankful to have family and friends here helping out, and Gaia and Presley seem unphased by what's going on.

It seems that the difficult part is over with (at least in terms of what is difficult for the doctors). The next month or so will be difficult for Missy. She'll need to soon be off her thyroid medication, and in a month, will do the scan and radioiodine treatment, which will basically mean she's radioactive for a few days, so no one can get near her, and it will leave her feeling pretty "puny," in the words of the doctor. Hopefully, that will be all that is required, but it's very much a "wait & see" kinda thing...

I'm reminded of CS Lewis, and his words, "It's not that we are doubting that God has the best in store for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."

Please continue your prayers and support of Missy. Her biggest blessing lately, and really a huge source of strength, is kind words and gestures from friends. You all have no idea how much mileage we get out of every little facebook comment, email, phone call, or visit. Thank you!

We love you,

Asher

Ready. Set. Go.

Well, it’s time. I need my prayer warriors! I go in tomorrow morning to Baptist hospital at 10:30am for the surgery and to find out the extent of the cancer. There is still a 5% chance that it’s benign. We are praying for that! The surgeon wasn’t very hopeful about that 5%, but our God is bigger than cancer and therefore I’m hopeful.

The last month has been an emotional rollercoaster. I’ve been surrounded with so many friends and family lifting me up through prayer and encouragement that it’s hard not to stay positive. However, the enemy has done all he can to bring me down with dark thoughts and doubts. My biggest fear through all this was abandoning my family. What if the Lord decided to take me home early? I pretty much told Him that I didn’t want to go home to Him, that my life on earth was better than that. Of course, that goes against what I really believe. The real story there is that I feared leaving my family with no one to take care of them. I need to be the one to take care of everyone. Wednesday, our church and Gaia’s school, St. Bartholomew’s, held a prayer service for me where Father Jerry and Rev. Dixon anointed me with oil. During that time I realized that I was only partially trusting God. I know whatever happens with this cancer that God is going to take care of me. However, I didn’t trust Him in taking care of my family. He spoke to me during this service and for the first time I was at complete peace knowing that whatever happens tomorrow, next year, 10 years from now, my family is in His hands. He will love them and protect them better than I could ever dream of. So now I feel like I’m ready for tomorrow. God is in control. I’m set. Go.