Final Results Are In....

Benign.

Good News So Far

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update today. We have been over at the hospital for most of the day and left the laptop here in the hotel room.

Chance did really really well. He was very calm going into surgery. They gave him a sedative to relax him, and then I held him on my lap while they wheeled him back to the operating room. I left when he was completely out.

The surgery went smoothly and fairly quickly. When he was done, the surgeon met with us and said that it looked to him like the nodules were benign. The final biopsy results will be back tomorrow afternoon, but the surgeon said he was very optimistic that they will concur with him.

Chance was a little upset when he came out of surgery. He was a little uncomfortable and somewhat disoriented, so that is completely understandable. He wanted the IV out of his hand and was ready to get dressed and go.

There are a couple of nice playrooms at the hospital, and by this evening, he was up playing. He is eating very well, and doesn't seem to be in much pain. Jesse is staying with him tonight. He should be discharged tomorrow.

Surgery Tomorrow

We met with the surgeon today. He scheduled Chance for his first surgery of the day. We will go in at six in the morning. Luckily, we are right across the street from the hospital, so we don't even have to load up in the car.

The surgeon said he should have a pretty good idea whether it is cancerous or not when he gets in there. He will remove the left half of the thyroid, the isthmus, and all the nodules. If he sees evidence of cancer, he will remove the rest of the thyroid and possibly lymph nodes right then. Otherwise, they will take some samples at that time and will have definitive results in about 24 hours.


I will update as I can tomorrow.

Off to Minnesota

Chance's surgery is this week, on Wednesday. We are leaving tomorrow, just as soon as Jesse finishes his chores. We have an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday, so I will try to update on Tuesday night with more details about the surgery.

We are heading out to Minnesota with so much more optimism this time. None of us, least of all Chance, is looking forward to the surgery, but we are very much looking forward to being done with this. Hopefully, this will be the end of it.

Thank you once again for the thoughts and prayers you all are sending our way. Thank you for taking care of our animals (Dena!). Thank you for the gifts. Thank you for being such wonderful friends and family to us. Thank you.

Six and Four

The Birthday Kids

The Birthday Cake
(I know - it's lovely, huh? They thought it was awesome, though.)

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday
Chance James and Jolie Bean



And one more
of all three,
for the grandmas:

New Surgery Date...Again

I called the surgeon's secretary today to tell her we would like to have the surgery done on Feb 13th, but that day had already been taken. There is an opening on the 25th, so I scheduled that. At this point, I hate to say anything is definite; it seems details continually keep changing on us. For now, though, we'll plan on the 25th.

At least he'll get to be home on his birthday!

*Edited to add that we have a pre-surgery consult with the surgeon on the 24th, so we will be leaving here on the 23rd.

The Rest of the Story

Holy cow, this has been a crazy couple of months. We went from thinking Chance just had a cyst to it suddenly being an abnormal tumor to him almost definitely having cancer. Now we are back to where we were a month ago, right after we heard the biopsy came back abnormal and not knowing whether the nodule was malignant or benign.

We saw the endocrinologist at Mayo on Monday. He did not even hesitate to call this cancer. I asked if there weren't still a chance that it was not, and he was pretty discouraging. Based on the ultrasound report from Sioux Falls showing enlarged lymph nodes, he said it is cancer, no doubt in his mind. For him, it was just a matter of planning a course of treatment. He ordered a new set of bloodwork and a new ultrasound since they hadn't received anything from Sioux Falls or Pierre. (Apparently, you are supposed to bring those things with you. We had no idea. I guess we know for next time???)

Anyway, we went in on Tuesday to see the surgeon. He told us the lymph nodes were normal on this new ultrasound. He wanted a Mayo pathologist to look at the slides from Pierre to make sure those were read correctly. The Mayo pathologist concurred with the original report, agreeing that this is a follicular neoplasm. Because of the nature of a follicular nodule, the tissue surrounding it must be tested to know if it is cancerous or benign. So surgery is still needed. The left side of the thyroid will come out, along with the lump and the surrounding area will be tested.

We have been told all along that if this is cancer, thyroid cancer is slow-moving. That is why there is a lack of urgency for the doctors. Of course, we would have had the thing out a month ago if it were up to us, but I understand the need to gather all information possible since we do have the time.

So the surgery is tentatively scheduled for February 13th. Chance's and Jolie's birthday is the 15th, and we hate to have him in the hospital or recovering from surgery on his birthday. If we don't do it on the 13th, though, we have to wait until March because of the surgeon's schedule. We just want this over with, so we'll take the earliest possible date we can get. We'll just have to celebrate the birthdays early or late. Or both. Hopefully when we get back, we'll have some good news to celebrate, too.

For now, we're back to our normal routine for a month or so. I wish we had our answer now, but at least we have a great deal more hope for a positive outcome than we did when we left for Minnesota last week. Thank you again for everything you all have done. I'll update if I learn anything more.