I made it out of my home this evening for the first time since returning from the hospital Wednesday afternoon to have dinner with my father and stepmother, who live very conveniently just a block away.

My father asked me if I would like a glass of wine, which didn't strike me as unusual since he's taken to asking me that since I started having dinner with him and my stepmother from time to time after moving down from New Jersey last July. It always makes me feel rather grown-up.

Once I was well-situated with a tall glass of Zinfandel (my favorite) with ice (for my raw, post-operative throat), Dad told me the results of the pathology of the part of my thyroid that was removed Tuesday. I had authorized my doctor to share my information with him, and Dad also knows the rest of my medical team because he has worked for the hospital's parent university's medical school for nearly 30 years.

He told me that I have multifocal papillary thyroid carcinoma and also Hashimoto's disease.

The good news is that the carcinoma is encapsulated, or, as my father put it, the margins are good, so it has not metastasized, thank God. That means that my doctor expects that both it and the Hashimoto's disease will be completely cured with the removal of the remainder of my thyroid (which I will need to have done within the coming months — the date has not yet been set), and with my receiving radioactive iodine therapy afterwards. The iodine therapy takes just a few days or so, and a friend who's had it told me he felt no ill effects. As I am, thankfully, otherwise healthy, the doctor says that my prognosis is excellent.

I wrote earlier that I believed my father made the best decision he could under the circumstances when he OK'd the removal of just part of my thyroid rather than the whole thing. Given the information that was available to him at the time, my opinion still stands.

I have some thoughts I would like to write about this news, including how thankful I am for the ways that the circumstances of my life have come together to make me ideally situated to get the best treatment. However, I have been overexerting myself with conversations as well as late-night blogging, neither of which are good for recovery, so I will leave that entry for sometime this weekend.

Please know that, even though this is a very stressful experience, I feel very blessed amid the stress. Compared to others who undergo illness, my circumstances could not be better. I am getting the best possible medical treatment; I live near family members who take wonderful care of me (and I have other relatives who pray for me and otherwise show their love and concern), and my friends have touched me deeply with their affection and willingness to be there for me. Also, I have learned through my blog that many more people pray for me, and, as I wrote earlier, I have already been blessed with graces through your prayers. My thanks go out to you again.

Labels: thyroidectomy