dimensions

This afternoon I went to my 3-week follow-up with the surgeon. He was pleased with my progress. He also says that I'm probably not allergic to neosporin or the scar cream, and the redness was probably due to my body's natural healing responses (neutrophils and lymphocytes to the scene!).

It was a great to hear a good report.

He also gave me copies of the surgical pathology reports and the operative report. Obviously the path came back as thyroid cancer; that one wasn't a surprise. My tumor, which was located on the right half of my thyroid gland, measured 1.8 x 1.2 x 1.0 cm, and was described as hard-gritty, solid, gray-white nodule. The left half of my gland was benign.

But to my surprise there's also information about a lymph node that was taken during the surgery. Funny, methinks, since they said they told me they didn't take any lymph nodes.... The path came back with thyroid, lymphoid, and parathyroid tissue, benign for cancer.

Did I say parathyroid? As in -- they told me they "visualized all four parathyroid glands". Riiight... and now we know why the ants went marching over my face, neck, and arms. Noted.

Next, the long and short of the gruesome details: Instead of a pretty pink and soft thyroid gland, mine was hard and black in color. Not a good sign. Also the central part of the gland that connects the left and right lobes was very thin. This is why they took the thyroid in pieces instead of as a whole.

That last bit leads me to believe that my thyroid gland was on a short clock. I'm fortunate that we figured out it was cancer before it went totally kaput, which would force ermergency procedures and surgeries. That would've made me a total basketcase.

To recap: Cancer. Black. Hard. Bumpy. Bad. Gone.

And we'll prove it's gone on May 17th with the scan. Keep those prayers and good vibes aimed this way. We're not through the woods yet.