The Big Ugly “C”

I told myself I was going to blog more this year because I love going back and reading the memories. Even though this is not the topic I want to blog about, I do want to document my cancer journey and share it with you all. Blogging is therapeutic to me and I hope I can help someone that might have to go through the same thing. 

For those of you that don’t know, last Tuesday on January 9, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. 

I truly believe it is a God thing that they even found the cancer and today I want to share that story with you. 

In March I started having extreme pain in my shoulder and down my left arm. It was a numbing/tingling pain. Being the middle school volleyball coach at the time, I thought I had probably done something to it when I was down-balling/hitting to the girls or something. 

I figured if I let my assistant start hitting at the girls and took a few days off of using my arm it would get better. It actually got worse and even got to the point that I couldn’t use my left arm because of it being numb. I made an appointment with my regular doctor and she set up an appointment for an MRI on my shoulder and some blood work.

My blood work came back that I was extremely low on vitamin B12 and D but everything else looked great. My doctor said that being low on B12 can cause the nerves to tingle and this was why my arm was tingling and going numb. She scheduled me to get a series of B12 shots for the next few weeks. I also took a strong vitamin D prescription pill. 

This made the world of difference in my shoulder and I didn’t have any more tingling or numbness! It was an instant relief and I was so thankful! 

I had the MRI done on the same day as my blood work and I knew the results would come back fine because the B12 shots helped me so much! When we finally did get the MRI results back everything with my shoulder came back perfect.

BUT, the MRI did find a 1.4 cm nodule on my left thyroid. The results said this is something I should look into since it was greater than 1 cm.

Dr. Yarbrough wanted me to get more blood work done specifically for my thyroid and she also wanted me to get an ultrasound done on my thyroid just so we had that on file moving forward. 

Well, life got busy and the end of the school year craziness and moving and going on vacation led to me waiting until June to get all of this done. My ultrasound did in fact show a nodule on my thyroid~ it actually showed 2 thyroid nodules. The left thyroid nodule measured 1.3 cm and the other one measured 0.9 cm. 

When I got the blood work results back from the doctor all of my numbers looked great except for my TPO antibodies. This is your Thyroid Peroxidase number. On a woman my age (39) the normal range for TPO is 0-34. My TPO number didn’t even register as a number and just came back as greater than 600!

My doctor said there is obviously something going on in my thyroid and referred me to an endocrinologist, Dr. Sheikh, in Cape. Well, once again life got busy and I didn’t get a chance to call them for an appointment until towards the end of July. Anyone else get busy with life and forget to make appointments, or is that just me? 

Anyways, since I was in the process of switching school districts and insurances I had to wait until my new insurance went into effect and the first appointment they could get me in to see Dr. Sheikh wasn’t until November 30. I took the appointment and they also put me on the cancellation list and I hoped they would be able to get me in sooner.

They weren’t able to get me in any sooner so on November 30, I took a half a day off school and went up to see Dr. Sheikh. Dr. Sheikh was extremely knowledgeable and thorough with his examination. I explained to him what led me to find the nodule on my neck and about my extremely high TPO number.

He went through a series of questions about other symptoms I might be having. Thankfully, throughout this whole process I have felt GREAT and not any different at all! 

Dr. Sheikh explained to me that it is extremely common for people to have thyroid nodules. Most nodules are less than a centimeter in size and nothing to worry about. He then told me that most nodules that are bigger than 1 cm have to be watched closer because they become suspicious. He also stated that most are benign and only about 5% of nodules greater than 1 cm are cancer. 

He suggested that since my nodule was almost 1.5 cm in size, my TPO number was greater than 600 and there was family history of thyroid cancer (my mom had it in 2010) he would feel best if we went ahead and had a biopsy done so we knew what we were dealing with. 

Dr. Sheikh also wanted very targeted blood work done that day, so I waited to get my blood work done and then went straight back to school after my appointment. Again, I wasn’t too worried about anything because I felt so good! 

My new round of blood work came back sometime that next week around December 5. Dr. Sheikh tested ALL the things and some things I had never heard of: APTT, Protime-INR, TSH, Free T4, Vitamin D, PTH Intact, Comprehensive Metabolic Panel, etc.

Everything except my crazy TPO number came back PERFECT and in the normal range. My TPO number did come back as greater than 600 again. UGH!

It was a few days later that Dr. Sheikh called me himself one day after school. I thought this was weird, but he said there was one test on the blood work that had just came back that day and he wanted to tell me about it. It was my thyroglobulin tumor marker numbers and they both came back high. 

He told me not to worry too much about it yet because those TPO antibodies could be throwing these numbers way off. But he did know that when I read the report in MyChart it will use the word cancer in the readings because of these high tumor markers and he wanted me to understand what it all meant. He encouraged me to make sure I followed up with the radiology department to get the biopsy scheduled ASAP. 

I called radiology the next day at school and we all know that insurance is SLOW and doesn’t get in a hurry for anything. Insurance had still not approved my biopsy but they would put an urgent note on my file and hoped they would get back with me within the week. 

Finally, the day school got out for Christmas break I learned that I would have my biopsy done on Friday, January 5. I tried to get them to move it up sooner as this was the day I had to report back to school from Christmas break and I didn’t want to miss another half day. But, this is the fastest they could get me in so I took it. 

I had to have a driver with me for my biopsy so Chris took off work that day (they were already back to school) and was able to take me. I was the very last patient of the day that Friday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. 

The radiologist that had to do it really questioned why we were doing a biopsy in the first place. He said he didn’t usually biopsy nodules under 1.5 cm in size and mine didn’t look suspicious to him from the ultrasound. I said, “Well, Dr. Sheikh wants it done because my tumor markers are high and there is family history of thyroid cancer, so you will be doing the biopsy”. I don’t like when people make you feel stupid or question you getting something done when another doctor put the orders in for the biopsy??!?! I wasn’t rude to the radiologist and nurse but I also told them there was no way I would just volunteer myself to get this done without a doctor wanting it done.

They numbed me really good (OUCH), but after that I just felt a lot of pressure and tugging on my neck. They have to do the biopsy with an ultrasound needle so there are a lot of people working on you at one time. They took 6 samples from my nodule! I was super swollen and sore afterwards, but Chris took me to eat a nice supper at Texas Roadhouse. When the numbing medicine wore off my neck felt achy and heavy. I went to bed early that night and slept well thankfully! 

Dr. Sheikh called last Tuesday and explained to me that the biopsy did show it was papillary thyroid cancer. It’s very treatable and hopefully contained in my thyroid. But hearing the word “cancer” is scary no matter what! 

I believe I was in shock when I told my family and close friends. The next day at school I told my staff and again tried to be brave and was in shock of the news.

Thursday and Friday I think the reality of everything sank in and I was extremely sad those days. 

I have had a lot of emotions since my diagnosis. 

I hate my girls have to see me go through this. They have been through so much loss and heartache in the last 6 years and I hate adding one more thing for them to have to deal with.

I had a pity party and it’s natural to question why do all these bad things keep happening to me? I try to do good ALL the time and why do bad things happen to good people?

I hate I am having to go through this my first year as a principal. I finally feel like I’m in a great groove at school and it’s not fair to my staff members and students that I am going to be out of commission for a while. 

Even though I might question it, even though I am scared and nervous, God is in control of my life and this is not a surprise to Him. I trust Him through everything and have an unexplainable peace that I will be fine through this whole process.

I am tough, I can handle it, and this will just be another testimony that I can share of what I’ve overcome. I will continue to stand firm on God’s promises and see the goodness of Him in my life, even through cancer.

I have been overwhelmed with everyone’s encouragement and prayers. I have had many people reach out and it helps so much to know I am not alone in this. One of my friends drew this prayer for me and it touched my heart so much that I had to share it.  

Like I said earlier, it is definitely a God thing that an MRI for shoulder pain and arm numbness lead them to finding this nodule and cancer. Because I have been feeling so good I truly believe it would’ve been a lot later this would’ve all been found if I didn’t have that MRI done on my shoulder.  

Today is my appointment with the ENT, Dr. Morgan, to set up surgery and get a game plan. Once I know the next steps, I will put my game face on and beat this stupid cancer!

Thanks for reading and mostly thanks for your prayers.

P.S. Even if you feel fine, follow up with your doctor’s orders and make the appointment to get things checked out!