The Big 'C'

This past month my mind has been a mess. Last month, during my thoracic and cervical spine MRI (oh, the joys of MS), they discovered some lesions on my thyroid. My doctor ordered a follow-up scan to see what was going on. They discovered I had quite a four nodules on my thyroid and referred me to a specialist.

Of course, I had to wait a month for the appointment with the specialist. I could have driven about thirty miles to another office and been seen earlier, but I didn't have the time. So, I waited . . . and stressed out. I kept cycling through all sorts of thoughts. I did some research and learned that thyroid cancer is easily treatable, so I did feel a bit better. I also learned that the majority of the population has nodules on their thryoid gland.  I just didn't like the idea of having MS and potentially cancer.

It came time for my appointment on Friday and I was a nervous wreck. I hoped for the best, but I was nervous. You see, cancer is a member of my family. My grandfather had mouth cancer when he was younger and he died from brain cancer. My grandmother and aunt have both had breast cancer, and my aunt also had ovarian cancer. I am very familiar with the effects it can have on people. I have always expected to get the big 'C' diagnosis at some point in my life, but I didn't want to have it right now.

Getting back to my doctor's appointment. I sat down and answered the nurse's questions and then the doctor came in. He asked me some questions and then proceeded to check my throat with this ridiculously long tool that had a mirror on the end. Yeah, it sucked!  Then he squeezed my neck trying to find the nodules that appeared in my scans. After all of this, he sat back down and told me the news. He said he didn't think I was dealing with cancer at this point, but wanted to keep an eye on the nodules. The doctor mentioned that when they see nodules less than a centimeter in length they don't treat them. He is going to use my results at this point as a baseline to compare future scans to.

After over-stressing about all of this it was resolved in fifteen minutes. I left the doctor's office feeling like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. I was in such a good mood I stopped by the local bakery and purchased some 'celebration cookies' for me and my guys (cookies make everything awesome). Not just any cookies either. I picked the ones called Monster Cookies which were basically cookies sandwiched on a thick layer of buttercream icing (oh yes I did).

When I got home, the four of us ate our diabetes-inducing cookies and celebrated. We've been handed a lot in this past year and we are stronger and closer to each other after everything is said and done. I'm interested in hearing how you have overcome obstacles and become closer as a family or maybe even just a better person. Please, email me with your stories at womaninthemancave@yahoo.com.  

Thanks for reading.

Take care,
NB