Stacy's Profile Page

Biography

This is my first time on a blog, so I hope I am doing this right. I wish I would’ve discovered this blog 8 months ago.

I was diagnosed 8 months ago and still can’t believe that I have cancer. My cancer was discovered by my nurse practitioner, Emily. She has been my practitioner for the last five years. Last May I had an appointment with her for a check up. At the check up I told her that I was tired and that I was not myself. She did a full physical including blood work. She called me and told me everything came back normal. My thyroid levels were in normal range. Not low normal or high normal range, but dead center normal range. I made another appointment with her about a week later. She walked into the office and I just started crying. I told her I know that something is wrong with me. We went over my symptoms again. She felt my neck again. There was nothing there. She then went the extra step and ordered an ultra sound of my thyroid for that day. It was at that time they discovered that I had 6 nodules, 3 were suspicious looking. I was then sent to have a biopsy done (not a fun procedure). The biopsy came back positive for papillary thyroid cancer. The hospital I went to ( Cedars-Sinai) did a mapping of my lymph nodes. There were several that they were concerned about. They gave me a choice of doing another biopsy on the lymph nodes or going ahead with the surgery and they could test the lymph nodes then. I went ahead with the surgery. When they biopsied a few of the lymph nodes they tested positive. They ended up removing 26 lymph nodes. Out of the 26 lymph nodes 16 of them contained cancer. This type of cancer is a slow growing cancer. I had to have had the cancer for a year or two for it to have spread to that many lymph nodes. In August I did the Radioactive Iodine treatment. It was a very lonely 3 days.

At the present day I am still not in the clear. My scans came back good, but my blood work is not good. We are still working out the exact combination of medication. There are good days and bad days. It is a daily struggle to be the positive person I was eight months ago. There is not a day that goes by where I am not grateful for my husband (my strength), my son (my courage), my friendships (encouragement) and my faith.

Cancer Symptoms

My only symptom was being tired and just not feeling like myself.

Surgery Description, Dates & Side Effects

Surgery was close to 6 hours. They removed the thyroid and 26 lymph nodes on the right side of my neck. The surgery was June of 2011. The recovery was not as bad as I thought is was going to be. I spent 2 nights in the hospital. The one big negative was that I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia.

Radiation or Proton Therapy Description, Dates & Side Effects

Eight weeks after surgery I had to go in for a Radioactive iodine treatment. The hardest part of this was being away from my family for a week. In regards to side effects, I had some sores in my mouth and an upset stomach for a few weeks.

Hormone Therapy Description, Dates & Side Effects

I take 150 mcg of Synthroid 6 days a week and on the 7th day I take a total of 300 mcg . My doctor has had to change my dose 4 times since my surgery. It is a very long process. When we are to low I am tired, moody, depressed and I gain weight. When it is to high I have headaches, trouble sleeping, heart palpitations and anxiety.

Comments:

Stay strong! I’m in Cali, too.

Posted on May 4, 2012 at 8:10:19 PM by Private User

Praying for you, Staysea! LOL Welcome to the family! Keep your eyes fixed above and He will take care of ALL your concerns. God bless.

Lisa D

Posted on February 5, 2012 at 1:44:02 PM by Paul Daigrepont

Praying for you, Staysea! You keep looking upward and He will take care of all your concerns. I am here for you. I love California…I went for the first time in Dec of 2010! Had a blast!

Posted on February 5, 2012 at 1:41:19 PM by Paul Daigrepont

Praying for you, Staysea! You keep looking upward and He will take care of all your concerns. I am here for you. I love California…I went for the first time in Dec of 2010! Had a blast!

Posted on February 5, 2012 at 1:40:47 PM by Paul Daigrepont

Praying for you, Staysea! You keep looking upward and He will take care of all your concerns. I am here for you. I love California…I went for the first time in Dec of 2010! Had a blast!

Posted on February 5, 2012 at 1:40:27 PM by Paul Daigrepont

Praying for you, Staysea! You keep looking upward and He will take care of all your concerns. I am here for you. I love California…I went for the first time in Dec of 2010! Had a blast!

Posted on February 5, 2012 at 1:39:53 PM by Paul Daigrepont