Pregnancy Complications and Thyroid

By the way, there is a brand new publication out regarding "Pregnancy Complications and Deficits in Infant and Child Intellectual Development Are Focus of New ATA Statement and Discussion at Symposium on Thyroid Health in Pregnant Women" (click on the title of this post to read it).

Anyhow, that is about it for now. I am trying to stay focused on this baby. I pray for her safety through all of this chaos my body has gone through recently and during my entire pregnancy.

Why I don't trust any Doctor Anymore...

As mentioned, I ended up with a respiratory infection of some kind while I was in the hospital after surgery. Nobody in there would treat me for it, they kept dismissing it as side effects of my surgery so I had to wait until after I was released to go to a clinic and get some antibiotics. WHAT A JOKE! In general I am feeling much better after 10 days of amoxicillin for the upper respiratory issue. That really made healing worse for me since I was constantly coughing (painful) and badly congested making it hard to breathe at times. I haven't had problems getting around or doing things around the house at all. I just get tired easily. Probably a combination of pregnancy, surgery recovery and thyroid meds!

My incision area is healing nicely, I have been putting vitamin E on it and it looks pretty good. Doc told me to buy Mederma for scarring, I prefer natural stuff and can't afford non-prescription medicine right now anyway. He gave me a sample, and I do mean it was one measly little sample...wooohooo.

I left a message for my radiation oncologist to ask if, based on path reports post surgery etc, would he want me to do the RAI earlier rather than waiting say 6 months or so? I am not really happy right now and trying to determine how to deal with this. In reply he had his assistant call and find out what kind of meds I am taking, and when I am having blood tests and then had her tell me that he just wants me to wait until after the baby is born before he will determine my treatment protocol. I tried diligently to explain to the assistant that I am 500 miles away from family and help, and does he really want me to make decisions post-partum with a newborn in hand....?? etc... she says, “yes just make an appt to see him after your baby is born”. I am feeling very aggravated by this. I told her I need to make plans well in advance to get someone up here to help me, if he wants me to have treatment 3 weeks after birth, that won't be enough time. She didn't seem very sympathetic. I feel like a sheet in the wind somedays. just blown back and forth.

I am now reading medical journals, publications and textbooks so I better understand all about thyroid cancer and treatments. I figure if I don't educate myself on this, how will I know if my doctors are doing what is best for me? I find it hard to just "trust" all of them now... knowing that this cancer has grown in me for years undiagnosed by several doctors who told me, "go home, you are fine". hahahaha. the path report post surgery also diagnosed me with chronic thyroiditis, Hashimoto's. How about that? none of those doctors noticed that either!

Surgical Pathology Report

I saw the surgeon for follow-up the other day. Prior to my visit I had received, per my request to the hospital, my entire surgical record and all lab reports from the surgery weekend. Among that was the pathology report from the tissue they removed from my neck. I had papillary thyroid cancer tumors on both sides of the thyroid, not just the right where the large nodule was. In addition, the doctor sampled (removed) six enlarged lymph nodes which looked suspicious. The discouraging thing to read was that all six of the six nodes had metastasized cancer in them! What does this mean? Realistically it means the chance of the cancer coming back is higher than if it had been localized just to the thyroid gland. It also means there may be more of the cancer cells in my body. I knew this might be a possibility going into the whole deal, based on the size of the palpable tumor and the length of time it took to grow.

An interesting note was that the path report states I had "Patchy Mild Chronic Thyroiditis". My doc says this is also known as "Hashimoto's Thyroiditis" which is caused by a reaction of the immune system against the thyroid gland & may rarely be associated with other endocrine disorders caused by the immune system. It's likely I had this for many years, undiagnosed, and ultimately I ended up with cancer.Doctor says we are on the same plan so far: wait until the baby is born and then I will have the iodine uptake test to find if there are "markers" elsewhere in my remaining lymph nodes or body. They usually do a whole body scan. I will definitely need to have the I-131 radioactive iodine treatment to kill any cancerous cells that might be in my body. I will continue to take the Synthroid thyroid meds as suppression therapy for the rest of my life. Regular screening and blood tests will also be in my future forever!

NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE SAYS, I CONSIDER MYSELF A CANCER SURVIVOR!

Recovering from Thyroidectomy

Well - you can see the photo as evidence of the surgery (click on the title of this post). It is healing quite well and only hurts a little now. The worst part is the congestion and cough I am still fighting after 12 days! I get tired easily, my heart races sometimes and that's about the worst of it. When I go out places the first thing people notice is my prego-belly and the next thing they do is look up to see the neck incision, it's funny to watch the looks on their faces as they try to figure out what happened to me?

Home from the Hospital

I AM BACK HOME NOW!! Thanks to all of you for your prayers and thoughts, they really work. I (we) went through surgery fine on Friday, took about 2 hours and they monitored me afterward in labor & delivery for an hour or so to make sure baby is ok. She has continued to have a strong heartbeat through the whole ordeal. They let me stay for observation until Sunday, I came home Sunday afternoon - relieved to rest in my own bed and to finally have a nice warm bath. I have about a 3" incision at the base of my neck w/stitches & covered in tape. Now we wait for pathology reports to determine follow-up treatments. I have to keep this short for now, tired....

Surgery on April 16th

My surgery is scheduled for FRIDAY APRIL 16th at 11:15AM (I will be 22 weeks pregnant). Thank you so much for the prayers and words of wisdom! I was feeling down, with my chin in the dirt there, for the first few days and I quickly snapped out of it. I had to say to myself - "ok girl, it's time to take charge and change what you can about this situation" (the way that I deal with it). So I did and it has made a world of difference. That and my faith in God, I am in good hands and whatever will be is what is intended for my life. I am ok with that. I feel very confident about this being the best decision for me and the baby. This way I can recover from surgery, get on thyroid meds, have the baby in a few months, recover from c-section and then have the RAI treatment.... one thing at a time. It is such a joy to be pregnant and carrying this baby, I totally love it. It is one thing I can focus on in even my worst moments and feel an abundance of love and joy. I am blessed!I will probably be in there for at least two days to recover. Since the surgery is on my neck/throat area I will be asked not to talk much (oh-my) & it is possible that I might have temporary paralysis of vocal cords which would certainly eliminate the possibility of talking! Please don't expect to hear from me personally but Rick will do his best to keep everyone updated.

Pregnancy & Cancer Research... continued

Some have asked me why I am having surgery now. Yes, I could wait. However I have an instinctive feeling that it is best to take care of this right away. Just like I instinctively insisted on the biopsy which gave me the diagnosis, that was another case where I was told I could "wait". Now I am glad that I didn't! I found a helpful webpage called www.pregnantwithcancer.org which has been very helpful to me and comforted me in my decision. They have connected me with a thyroid cancer survivor who was diagnosed during her pregnancy.

Pregnancy & Cancer Research

My research has led me to Dr. Elyce Cardonick of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ. Since 1996 she has been involved in the study & care of pregnant women diagnosed with cancer. I think she will be very helpful to me in understanding what I am going through and what I can expect. I spoke with her and she reassured me that surgery – especially the type I will have which does not involve the abdominal area – is very safe during the second trimester. She has only encountered one other woman pregnant with thyroid cancer in her study, breast cancer by far is the most common diagnosis in her experience.