God is Still Good, Even When Life Throws Curve Balls

Life has been CRAZY!  Last week, Jamie, Collier and I (Noah was in school) went to UAB for my post-op appointment with my otolaryngologist, Dr. Peters. At that appointment, he didn't waste any time and told me that after the nodule had been sent off to the lab following my surgery, they found a 2 cm section of papillary carcinoma.  So it's official, I was diagnosed with cancer. While thyroid cancer is a 'good' kind of cancer: very treatable and non-life threatening, it's still a scary thing to be told you have cancer at 31 years old.  My surgeon already had scheduled my next surgery to have the left side of my thyroid removed, for the following week, Friday 2/1. Which also happened to be when we were supposed to move into our rental house. We came home that evening, bumped our moving plans up by a week and spent the next 3 days moving out of our home into the rental house.  I had just been told I had cancer, was going to have another surgery within 3 weeks from having my first one (and was still recovering from the first one), and now we were having to quickly move out of our house.  Stressed and overwhelmed doesn't even describe what we were feeling. Thankfully, we had so many friends show up to help because they knew what a bind we were in.  God always provides! Saturday afternoon, we had friends deep cleaning the new house, boxing our remaining items up, moving the boxes, and even helping with unboxing and putting things away.  The whole day I was reminded of the bible verse, Exodus 17:12, "When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset." I was so overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted and these friends were Aaron and Hur for me.  I was in awe of the love and support we received at a moment's notice. And it didn't stop there.

The entire week, my best friends arranged meals for us and sent us gifts, flowers, and cupcakes.  I was completely blown away! I'm so grateful for their love and thoughtfulness when life has been so crazy and very overwhelming.  I truly thank God for placing these ladies in my life.  We were able to get somewhat settled into the rental house, we closed on our 'old' house this past Monday, and have started the process of building all this past week.  I never thought I'd be so happy to see stakes in the ground and a bulldozer on our lot!  While we are very lucky to have been able to move into a 3 bedroom rental house, it's tight living quarters so I'm very eager to get our new home built as quickly as possible!  The living room has been overtaken with boxes & furniture stacked floor to ceiling... it's going to be a long 6 months! :)  I have to pray each morning for patience and a positive attitude and keep my eye on the prize... that this is temporary and in the end, we will have a brand new home!

Thursday afternoon, we checked Noah out of school and arranged for Jamie's mom to keep the boys until my mom got off work so that we could head on down to Birmingham for my upcoming surgery.  We decided it would be best for the boys and my parents to just stay at home this time, so it was just the two of us.  Jamie surprised me by booking a hotel room (instead of us just staying with my aunt in B'ham) and had dinner reservations at one of our favorite restaurants, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.  We had a nice, relaxing evening together, which was just what we both needed.  My surgery was scheduled for 8am the next morning, which meant I had to be at the hospital by 5:30am (and up at 3:45am).  Unfortuntately, Jamie's grandmother, who is 91 years old and hasn't been doing well for the past 6 weeks, passed away around 1am that morning.  We weren't expected her to make it through the weekend, but it was still upsetting for the family.  I'm not sure Mamaw had a mean bone in her body.  She was such a sweet lady and will be greatly missed! 

That morning went the same as it did 3 weeks prior and I was immediately taken to a pre-op room where I was prepped for surgery.  I told my nurse about all the trouble past nurses have had with getting my IV in and she said a little prayer before trying.  She gave me a shot of lidocaine to numb the area on my hand and she got the IV in on the very first try! It was by far the easiest, least painful IV I've ever had!  I despise IV's and they hurt SO bad, mainly because nurses always blow my veins and have to stick me over and over, so it was a pleasant surprise for it to be so easy.  She was great! And you can never go wrong with prayer and a little lidocaine!  After an hour of them getting me ready, Jamie was able to join me in my room, where we had to wait a little longer, since I was Dr. Peters 2nd surgery of the morning.  They also gave me a anti-nausea patch behind my ear, since I was so nauseated last time.   When it was my time, they wheeled me back into the OR and gave me some kind of gas, anesthesia in my IV and I was out.  Next thing I knew, I was waking up in Recovery and feeling much better than I did the first time.  I could actually speak and I wasn't nauseous.  Last time, I was so out of it, that I couldn't talk... it was weird, I was thinking things, like how I wanted my eye glasses, but couldn't get my brain to tell my voice/mouth to say anything.  This time, I was much clearer and able to talk with the nurse, however, my pain level was much higher, I guess because I wasn't so out of it, I was much more aware of the pain!  After an hour in recovery and 30- 45 minutes in my private post-op room, I was released to head home.

I've felt better overall, in the sense that I haven't felt as out of it, weak and groggy as last time, however, the pain in my throat/neck/incision has been worse.  And the pain meds aren't easing it up that much.  The first night, I had a hard time falling asleep because I was hurting so bad.  However, I'm hoping it'll be better in the days to come.  I'm just glad to have these surgeries behind me.  All that I have left to do to treat the cancer is a radioactive iodine radiation treatment.  I will probably get to do it here in Florence and will have to be hospitalized for a couple of days, then will be in seclusion until the radiation is out of my system.  There's lots of 'rules' like I have to remain at least 6ft away from the kids, 3ft away from adults, can't prepare anyone's food, can't touch anything that others will be touching, can't use the same restroom as others, have to wash my clothes seperately from others, etc.  The one that upset me the most was that I can't get pregnant for at least a year... and I'm not even ready for another baby, but being told by a doctor that I can't was upsetting to me (although I'm sure Jamie might of felt a tad bit of relief that it gives him another year before I approach that topic)!  It'll be a weeklong process and not easy since I can't be around anyone but in the grand scheme of things, it could always be much worse.  I'm just very thankful that I don't have to do any chemo or intense radiation. I guess I could say that while the timing of surgery and moving in the same week was very overwhelming, I've just had a peace about the whole cancer thing.  I know that God's taking care of me and there's no point in worrying or stressing too much over something I have little/no control over.  I'm blessed to be surrounded by family and friends that love me & my family and are doing whatever they can to help out while I go through this.  I also know that I'm able to deal with this much better because of the things that I've dealt with in the past few years.  When I compare this to my child having surgery on his skull and being injured during delivery or to my dad being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, thyroid cancer just seems really small, and almost insignificant in comparison.
    

Get Well Cards from Noah's sweet classmates... they colored the inside of each one. Precious! 

 

 Surgery #2... Get that thyroid out of me! 

(my nose and eyes are all red from a bad allergy attack!)