It's back

Dear Friends,

This afternoon I got a call from my doctor. He told me that the biopsy confirmed I do, in fact, have papillary thyroid cancer. This is the same cancer I had two years ago. At that time, I had my thyroid removed and underwent radiation therapy. I was told that if you’re going to have cancer, thyroid is the kind to get — it’s the most easily treated of all the cancers. But when they removed it last time, they said it was in everything they touched — parathyroid, skeletal muscles, and lymph nodes. The doctor called it “massive and extensive.” This time it has appeared in a lymph node, so the sooner I get it out, the better.

Now it’s back, and I’ll be starting treatment again as quickly as I can arrange it. The doctors still want to run some tests before surgery. I’m hoping to have it done the second week of November, but there’s a lot to do before then. Sometime this week, I hope to meet with my surgeon.

After the surgery comes the radiation treatment. This isn’t the kind most people think of — there’s no pain, though sometimes a little burning sensation. They simply give you a pill of radioactive iodine, then have you leave as quickly as possible because you’re now “smoking hot.” The misery comes in the weeks before and months after treatment. Before you can have it, you must be starved for thyroid.

Thyroid is the substance that makes your metabolism work, and without it you simply run down — to death. Last time, by the time I had my treatment, I could barely pick up my legs to walk, and it took six to nine months before I got my energy back.

In the meantime, I’m going to do my best to keep a good attitude, although it’s a lot scarier this time around without Linda. Please remember how important your special person is — and show them.

I’ll keep you all up to date.

Thanks,
Your friend,
Odell

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