The Diagnosis

Approximately 3 years ago (November-December 2007) I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

I had gone to a new general practice physician just for a basic check up and as she was checking me over she commented that I had a really large thyroid - especially for my body size.  She indicated that she was concerned so she sent me to get blood drawn to check thyroid hormone levels and to get an ultrasound.

A couple weeks later I found that I did in fact have a lump (thyroid nodule) and next was to get a biopsy to check for cancer cells.  Up until that moment I really didn't have much thought about the process that I was following.  However during the fine needle aspiration (FNA) the physician started telling me how his wife recently was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and had a thyroidectomy.  This thought about having an organ removed had not previously occurred to me... I was a young (27 yrs old), very healthy young lady!  I was not the "type" of person who should be diagnosed with cancer.  My thoughts were going crazy during the FNA - which by the way - when people say the FNA is an easy, non-invasive, doesn't even hurt procedure... HA!  The FNA hurt like heck!  I felt as if the guy stabbed me in the throat (ok that is literally what happened but I didn't realize it would hurt so bad!).  After he was done he said good luck and that the results would be in soon and they would call me.

So I left.

At that point I was a walking zombie.  The notion of having cancer and having to have surgery had never even occurred to me.  I walked out of the facility with my SO and didn't say a word.  As soon as we got into the car I started bawling.  I think this surprised my SO because I'm typically a strong-bull type.  But this whole procedure was finally starting to become a little too real.  Prior to this the most invasive procedures I had experienced was oral surgery for wisdom teeth extraction and a broken arm.  Not very big on the invasive-procedures scale!  So to actually potentially have cancer and have to have an organ removed was a whole new territory that I had never even considered.

Later in the week I got the diagnosis: papillary carcinoma.

From this point I became an advocate.  At the time I was a research scientist - therefore I did was any research scientist would do.  I searched high and low for ANY information about thyroid cancer.  I was not going down without a fight.  And the next couple of posts will describe how I chose my particular treatment and therapy procedures.

Freakin' cancer... turns your life upside down... but also makes you stronger.