Stupid Thyroid Cancer

This is my new blog. If you have or had thyroid cancer, I hope I can offer tips and support through my own experiences.  As a survivor of thyroid cancer, I found through my experience there is very little information that didn't freak me out or make me feel like I was gonna die.  So, as a 33 year old, follicular thyroid cancer survivor of 2.5 years, here is a positive spin on my stupid thyroid cancer!

What happened?
My son Ronan turned 1 year old in June of '07. Now, I love my son, but that year was so hard and is a complete blur.  I have exhausted, depressed, a mess.
I worked full time and had a 1 year old active boy. I could barely get my self out of bed every day.  Normal? Sure! Until I went to my favorite doctor, Dr. Kara Kassay, cried my eyes out and she told me "something is wrong, this is not normal!" Thank you god for Dr. Kassay, she saved me.

Instead of telling me "you have a one year old and work full time, of course you're tired. Take more vitamins.", She said we'd do some tests. She asked me if my neck had swelled up, if I thought it looked normal. I had no idea.  Hello ultrasound and blood tests!

Blood tests showed I was hypothyroid, no wonder I was tired! This causes sleeplessness, general fatique, weight gain, depression, dry skin as well as other symptoms.  I got started on Synthroid right away. 
Then I had the ultrasound at St. Vincent. I had a lump and needed a biopsy.

Scheduled biopsy, ugh, not fun.

Basically they numb you up, take a needle and jam it into the lump a few times.

Waited and waited for results, finally the doctor called on my birthday right before my birthday massage!

"It's a type of lump we need to remove right away. We can't tell if it's cancer or not, so let's get it out." Enter panic. Great.  I start doing hundreds of web searches, trying to research something I know nothing about. Causing massive fear and confusion. Note to self, call doctor instead of searching the web. The people in these chat rooms are much worse off than I am!

Now it's Nov. 5 2007, and I'm going into surgery. They removed the lump in the center of my thyroid. Basically there is a 3% chance it's cancer. Two days later I get the call "it's follicular thyroid cancer, you need to have your entire thyroid removed on Monday". Enter panic again. Brain overwhelmed by fear, depression, cancer??  I'm only 31!  I have a baby, husband, family.
Enter loving friends and family.  There was a strong outpouring of love and support, while I continued to assure everyone that I was fine. But inside I was a mess. I was far from okay. I have never felt so scared and I didn't show anyone just how fearful I was.  Why did I feel like I had to reassure everyone I would be okay?  I became the supporter rather than the supported.  Didn't want people to worry.

Went back into surgery to remove whole thyroid and felt like I had been run over by a car afterwards.

I was in the hospital for 5 days. Fought low calcium levels, stomach pain and nausea for 4 weeks, maybe longer?

Turns out I had hashimoto's auto immune disorder and my thyroid was totally inflammed. My parathyroid glands, responsible for calcium metabolism, were removed as well because the thyroid had engulfed them.

Went through hell trying to figure out why I felt so gross, nauseaus, sick, tired, and couldn't sleep. Every day was an experiment.

Taking supplemental calcium was making me sick, so take Magnesium, try Tums, take sleeping pills, take melatonin, take this, take that. How do people manage so much medication and supplements?!

Finally confirmed I needed the parathyroid meds and felt better within a few days. This took a month to figure out! What the?

6 months later I felt good. Not yet fantastic or even close to myself, but good, functioning.