It's Thyroid Time

Okay.  It's been awhile.  Time to get back into the groove and start my therapy.  Just when we were getting back to our normal life.  But who gets to define normal?  Forgive the following, as I'm a bit rusty.

Previously on IGC:

Jennifer had just gotten rid of that pesky deadbeat carcinoma squatting on her tongue.  Unfortunately, in the separation proceedings, she had to give up some of her tongue and her lymph nodes (Texas is a community property state).  However, Jennifer, in her resilience was able to make use of some neighboring property to rebuild and restore the tongue to almost original quality.  Last season ended with the discovery that Jennifer had uncovered more squatters in her lymph nodes.  They've been tracked to the thyroid.

The doctors discovered Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma in three of Jennifer's lymph nodes, but decided to wait until September to allow Jennifer to heal from her tracheostomy before they re-evaluate and potentially take corrective action.  September is here.  This week.  Today, as a matter of fact.

Today's episode is brought to you by Jennifer's thyroid.  It's a butterfly-shaped gland that wraps around the windpipe (see cool image in the link below).  It produces hormones that regulate your heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and weight (NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Thyroid_gland.jpg

We met with the surgeon today.  We realized the "potential" to perform a thyroidectomy just became "we will" do a thyroidectomy when we were approached by a couple of residents to participate in a some studies involving frozen samples and live cell strings (stem cells) taken from the cancerous tissue.  Oh yeah.  We're part of that debate.  :-)

I digress.  The surgeon came in and described how he will excise the tracheostomy scar and make a longer incision along the neckline.  I guess the surgery is occurring.  Good thing Jennifer was accepting of it.  I was still holding out for a decision to wait and observe.  Oh well, at least well get this over with.  Jennifer will go through a radiation treatment about six weeks later.

He showed us some pictures while describing the surgery.  Lo and behold, there's another nerve he's got to watch out for.  The Recurrent Laryngeal Nerve runs down the esophagus, by the thyroid gland, into the chest, the back up between the thyroid and the trachea (hence "recurrent").  If this gets traumatized, her vocal cords could be affected.  Geez. Pesky nerves.  So necessary, but always in the way.  Looking at the picture linked above, I'm more worried about the proximity of the carotid artery.  Hope that surgeon has some steady hands.

He answered a few questions, but deferred to an endocrinologist for the specifics we had around the hormone effects or necessities post surgery and with radiation.  We should meet the endocrinologist during recovery.  Talk about living an adventure.

In a nutshell:
Wednesday, we have the ultrasound (hopefully no abnormalities in the left behind lymph nodes), meet the ana anesti anesthesiologist, and go through the pre-op check in.  Thursday is T-day.  Stay overnight and checkout Friday (hopefully).  Saturday is the A&M vs Arkansas game.  This will be Jake's first game.  AND, BEFORE ANYBODY GETS ALL WORKED UP ABOUT ME NOT TAKING CARE OF MY WIFE......your just jealous.  No. Really, I received clearance from the Boss to go ahead.  We will have that base covered....I think.  Just gotta find someone who will clean the drain tubes on Saturday --- Roto-Rooter has 24 hour service, doesn't it?

Finally, I ask that everyone keep Jennifer in their prayers again as she goes through this ordeal.