What's Going on with Chance

In November, a doctor noticed a lump on Chance's thyroid. The doctor believed it was a cyst, but wanted an ultrasound just to make sure. The ultrasound showed that it was not a cyst, so we took him in for a biopsy a couple of weeks ago. The biopsy came back abnormal.

Ordinarily, the next step would have been to consult with an endocrinologist and then have the lump removed immediately for further testing. We did get in to see the endocrinologist last week, but the pediatric surgeon is gone for the holidays until the 5th.

We tentatively have a surgery date set for the 8th; that may be moved up to the 6th if the surgeon gives the okay whenever his nurse can get a hold of him. When he has the surgery, they will take out the left side of the thyroid (where the lump is). Then they will do a quick biopsy right then to see if the nodule is benign or cancerous. If it is benign, they will close him up, and that will be that. If it is cancerous, they will remove the rest of the thyroid, and we'll go from there.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to fill in everyone personally. We just started telling most people in the last week. Before that, it was only immediate family. I think we were just waiting for some definite answers first, but have yet to receive them. So now that word is getting out, updating via blog seems the simplest way to keep everybody posted at once. Thank you to everyone who has called and e-mailed with your best wishes and your prayers. We appreciate it so much.