UPDATE: Please Pray For My Mom

[Eeyores Butterfly]

On July 8th my mom has to have her thyroid removed. She has had problems with it pretty much my entire life, lots of goiters, etc. When she went to get her thyroid medication removed her doctor noticed a new goiter. She had to have an ultrasound and biopsy and they have decided the thyroid has to go. During some bloodwork, the tests for atypical cells came back inconclusive. Naturally we are a little concerned about cancer, but when I first talked to her it sounded like she wasn't too worried about the test. It seemed like these results normally don't mean anything by the way she was talking.

It wasn't until tonight that I realized how worried she really is. There's a chance that she may have had her tonsil irradiated when she was very little and that has since been linked to thyroid cancer. She did say that thyroid cancer is very treatable, so that at least makes us feel a little better, but obviously we don't want her to have cancer. The other problem is that she has already had one surgery and the previous incision is going to complicate things a bit.

Please keep her in prayers.

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

I will pray for your mother Eeyores Butterfly. My mom just had open-heart surgery so I know what you are facing emotions-wise. Hopefully they will get all the atypical cells during surgery. Try not to worry. She'll be in good hands.

 

[Sheree Bobbins]

I found a "Thyroid" thread for you:
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1274073

 

[JessicaR]

Prayers for your Mom. I hope she has an easy surgery and recovery.

I had a total thyroidectomy. I had myself worked up and expected much worse than what I actually encountered.
The most useful advice I can offer is to make sure her surgeon is skilled, experienced, and performs thyroid surgery on a regular basis. I can't stress this enough.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Thanks! I'm not too worried. I just have this "feeling" that it isn't cancer. I don't know why, but I do. We'll know one way or another on July 8th. She does have to stay overnight because of risk factors, but it sounds fairly routine and there will be two surgeons. It helps that it's in the hospital where she works and she knows the surgeons and the nurses, etc. She also asked the daughter of one of the top oncologists in our area (who has since retired) who her dad would recommend. We are trying to find out if she takes our insurance just so we can be prepared. My mom will not go to the person most people do because he has no concept of sterile procedure. That's just mindboggling for any doctor, but an oncologist especially. She said he also just seems to be very clueless for the field he has chosen.

That's the nice thing about her working in a hospital. We know who the good doctors are and we can fight for them. It also just eases some of the worry because you know you are getting the best. She is also on good terms with the pathology department and has already talked to them.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Well, the surgery is over. What was supposed to be a 2 hour surgery was closer to 4. We were starting to get worried. It turns out that they could not see most of her thyroid because it was hiding beneath her collar bone. It actually went under the collar bone and was starting to infilitrate her breast! He said it was the size of a child's football. In 34 years, it was the biggest one he had ever seen.

Normally this is an outpatient surgery. They already planned to keep her overnight because of previous surgery, now they might have to keep her longer because of how extensive it was. It was pushing on her windpipe and vocal cords. She has sleep apnea, and he says this might have contributed to it. He also said they had a lot of trouble intubating her because of how much it was pushing on her windpipe! We are very lucky they did surgery now and not later.

All things considered, the surgery went well. She lost very little blood. They are unsure of her vocal codes because of how close it was- she was very hoarse after surgery. They alsoh ave to monitor her because of the issues with it pressing on her windpipe and how difficult it was to intubate her. They also need to make sure that too much fluid doesn't get into the area.

Although it was big, it did not look cancerous to him, but of course pathology still has to dissect it and go over every mm. The one thing that scared me is that I noticed on her tray table they had a "trach tray". I hope that doesn't mean they are expecting problems with her breathing.

Hopefully she will be out tomorrow and her recovery will go smoothly. Please continue to pray.

 

[honugirl]

I'll keep you guys in my thoughts. Hang in there. I'm sure everything is going to be fine.

 

[java]

hoping that she has good health coming and a quick recovery.

 

[minkydog]

All things considered, the surgery went well. She lost very little blood. They are unsure of her vocal codes because of how close it was- she was very hoarse after surgery. They alsoh ave to monitor her because of the issues with it pressing on her windpipe and how difficult it was to intubate her. They also need to make sure that too much fluid doesn't get into the area.

Although it was big, it did not look cancerous to him, but of course pathology still has to dissect it and go over every mm. The one thing that scared me is that I noticed on her tray table they had a "trach tray". I hope that doesn't mean they are expecting problems with her breathing.

Hopefully she will be out tomorrow and her recovery will go smoothly. Please continue to pray.

It sounds like things went well. Don't be too concerned about the trach tray; that's standard procedure for persons who are staying overnight post-thyroid surgery, just there in case of trouble. My mother had a nodule which did turn out to be cancerous, so they had to go back in a week later to remove the rest of her thyroid. Because she had been operated on so recently her doctor agreed that she needed to be monitored overnight. I was not unhappy with that decision--it took her forever to wake up and she was very hoarse. The hoarseness eventually went away. Her scar is barely visible now. And other than the fact that she must take thyroid meds for the rest of her life, she is doing very well.

 

[browneyes106]

I will pray for your mom's recovery.

 

[4nana]

Eeyores Butterfly, sending healing prayers for a positive outcome and speedy recovery for your dear Mom. Godspeed

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Prayers for your moms speedy recovery.

I had mine out too and the tumor was pressing on my trachae and vocal chords too. I can breathe and swallow much easier now as I am sure your mom will notice n a while. The voice is taking a while however.

I know she is blessed having a very caring person like you that is there for her.

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Thanks! She actually went home at noon today. They called me this morning before work and she sounded a million times better already. I'm kind of surprised because when theyh called, they weren't sure that with how big it was she would be able to go home today.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Good news, Jessi. Continued prayers and good wishes for your mom. That is great.