Thyroid Cancer : Part One

First of all, I hate that this story has multiple parts. I wish it was one and done but that's not how this works. It's honestly not how life works either, is it? I prefer to plow through the pain but God wants me to learn and walk slowly with Him through my cancer journey. Switching gears and walking this in a way that is the complete opposite of how I usually do things is difficult.

Lots of people have sent me messages with questions about all the things in my life right now: how to help, what type of cancer do I have, am I getting chemo, do I have friends out here in our new town of Charlotte, did I have any symptoms before this, how am I feeling, etc. I know that everyone means well but, honestly, it's exhausting just getting up in the morning at this point. I thought a nice way to answer everyone's questions while maintaining my sanity would be to write a blog post.

About 8 months ago, I started to feel very weak physically.

I don't know how to explain it except the fact that I was ALWAYS exhausted. I remember telling Andrew that I felt like my body was disintegrating. Unintentional weight loss and a sore throat that wouldn't go away were a couple odd things at first. My ears were also very leaky (such a weird feeling) and I couldn't keep much food in. I never felt full no matter how much I ate and things were just off with my body.

I attributed all of these symptoms to the stress of life.

In a span of 8 months, we experienced a tragic death in the family, my 30th birthday, a family vacation to Disneyland (road-tripping with 3 kids from Colorado to California and back isn't for the faint of heart), broken relationships, ER scares with the kids, finding out we were moving to North Carolina, a miscarriage, selling a house, buying a house from out-of-state, and the stressors of Andrew's final year of medical school. When I write all of that out, it's a little unbelievable. That's the backstory.

About a month ago, I was lying on the floor with Wesley playing airplane.

For those of you with kids, you know what I'm talking about. I was on my back and Wesley's chest was on my feet. Flying and zooming through the air, Wesley suddenly said "What is that, Mama?" I thought he was talking about a zit or some left over food on my face. He insisted, "Mama, what is that on your neck!?" Andrew was home and came over to take a look at it. After examining the lump on my neck out for about 10 seconds, he said I needed to get that checked out by a doctor before we moved...in 3 weeks.

I don't know about you...but I'm terrible about going to the doctor.

However, because I've been growing a baby or nursing for the last 5 1/2 years, I've gone to the OB regularly. I didn't think it was necessary to have a primary care physician (PCP). When I tried to make an appointment with local family medicine practices, I didn't have much luck. They either wouldn't take my insurance, weren't taking new patients, or couldn't get me in for at least a month. (Kicking myself for not having a PCP but God worked it all out).

I resorted to calling Dispatch Health, a mobile Urgent Care service that comes to YOU. When they showed up at our house, they weren't able to do anything beyond a simple examination of my neck. However, they called over 5 different practices and spent almost an hour on the phone, begging them to see me on my behalf. Dispatch Health's advocacy got me an appointment a week later. HUGE miracle.

A week later, I went to my appointment and told them everything about my medical history and what symptoms I had been experiencing.

On paper, I was healthy.

The doctor came in, examined me, told me I probably had a thyroid issue. He wanted to get bloodwork done to sort it all out. A lot of my weird symptoms could be explained by a thyroid that was a little off and just needed some medication. I got my blood drawn that day as well as an ultrasound of my thyroid to rule out cancer. He thought that was only a small possibility because I was so healthy, but still wanted it done.

At my ultrasound appointment later that day, the tech was very chipper. I asked her if she could tell me anything about my lump and she was very kind and bubbly, saying that she'd let me know what she saw. About 5 minutes into the exam, her demeanor changed completely. I asked her what she saw and she responded "Your doctor will let you know when they review the results. Have a great weekend."

I told Andrew that night that I had a bad feeling about things.

When my bloodwork came back perfect the next morning, we knew something was wrong. Hours later, I got a call from my doctor saying, "I need to sit down with you and your husband as soon as possible." When Andrew got off work later that day, we went in to the doctor's office together and I was told I had thyroid cancer. That mass that Wesley found? A cancerous tumor inside my thyroid. The cancer has also spread to the lymph nodes in my neck.

My doctor said I would need a biopsy of the mass in my neck, surgery, and likely medical therapy afterward.

He had spoken with the surgeons at the University of Colorado earlier in the day who recommended surgery within a month but also that all of my workup and treatment occur within the same hospital system. That was complicated by the fact that we were moving to North Carolina in less than 10 days. After some discussion, we decided to have all my treatment in Charlotte.

Andrew started organizing things right away by contacting his residency program to find me the best head and neck oncology surgeon in Charlotte. We loaded our truck up, Andrew graduated, and we moved to North Carolina. There's never a good time to find out you have cancer... but this was REALLY bad timing.

Since moving here, we've met the surgeon and come up with a treatment plan. We've also had tons of meals delivered to us from complete strangers (thank you, Alex), had a Go Fund Me account setup for us (thank you, Caitlin), had shirts made to support my journey (thank you, Kerra), and the craziest acts of kindness and love shown to us. We already feel like we have a small community here and we know God is going to take care of us in this season as He always does.

Andrew starts residency on June 17th, my parents fly in to help with the boys on June 18th, and my surgery is June 19th. My surgery will be about 6 hours and I'll be in the hospital for 3-4 days. If all goes well, I'll recover at home for 3-4 weeks. After that, a lot of things are still up in the air. We don't know how quickly I will actually recover or what complications I will have. We do know that I will likely need at least one course of radioactive iodine treatment weeks after surgery. Still a lot ahead.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, love, support, meals and phone calls. Thank you for also watching the kids, buying my #nicolecrushescancer shirts, financial help, and genuinely caring about our family during this time. We are so very grateful.