My Experience With Thyroid Cancer

After I had the ultrasound, I waited to hear from my primary care doctor about what was next. I went on a roadtrip with girlfriends to Southern California and I got a lot of news during that trip. A receptionist from an endocrinologist's office called me and asked to set up an appointment. No one had ever told me why I would need to make an appointment...no one had told me anything about the ultrasound. At this point in my life, I was so so busy and I wasn't going to clear my schedule for something if it wasn't serious. I was working six days per week so I could fit my classes in too. The next bit is just a bunch of awkward phone calls with receptionists and utter lack of communication. My primary care doctor's receptionist actually set up a phone appointment so we could talk, but my doctor never called me. Don't know why. I have not heard from him since. This is all going on during my vacation, by the way. Finally, an endocrinologist called to talk to me abou...

It's hard writing this stuff. It's therapeutic, and that doesn't always feel warm and fuzzy. I had an ultrasound scheduled for the first week in February 2012. When I made the appointment, I couldn't get one any sooner than four weeks out, which I thought was a while. Let me go back, though. My Grandad, my Dad's dad, wasn't in good health stemming from some stomach ulcers and surgery he'd had in November and December. It was sad. My Dad and I visited him on Christmas Day 2011 and it was so emotional for me. He died on January 5. The funeral was on January 14, and it was good timing because my brother Ryan would be visiting from North Carolina. I had oral surgery (four wisdom teeth were removed) the day before the funeral. That had been previously scheduled and I was about to start another semester of college, so I decided to keep the oral surgery date and attend the funeral in Fremont. Fortunately, Johnny drove the two-hour drive to the funeral and back ...

Well hi, welcome to my blog. It didn't occur to me until recently that I may want to look back on this experience I'm having and be able to remember what happened and what it felt like. I was at work one day in December 2011 and in the bathroom mirror, I saw a lump on my neck. I was immediately pretty freaked out. I took a break right then and there to call Kaiser and have an appointment with my primary care doctor. Part of me didn't want to read too much into it or get too worried, but there was a small voice in me, wondering if this was a serious thing. Boy, I didn't know what lay ahead for me. I saw my primary care doctor and he agreed that there was something there. I remember him standing behind me and feeling both sides of my neck. He said my neck had some tension. He had me do an exercise  where I stuck my tongue out and he put a lot of pressure on a part of the back of my neck. It made my back crack. He actually said, "Wow, I can't believe that. It ...