My Game Plan

Aren’t those flowers beautiful that my friend sent me to school the other day?

I can’t thank you all enough for the love and encouragement you have shown me so far in my cancer journey. Everything is getting “real” the closer we are getting to my surgery date.

Here is a quick update:

I met with Dr. Morgan, the ENT who will be doing my surgery, on Monday, January 15.

He looked over my ultrasound and biopsy results and said we are very lucky that we caught this so early because in his opinion my thyroid nodule would have never been one that seemed suspicious.

I told him about my tumor markers being high and family history of thyroid cancer and praised Dr. Sheikh on how thorough he was with following through on everything. I’m so thankful for this!

Dr. Morgan told us the only way to treat thyroid cancer is with surgery. He was very optimistic that I will have an “easy” time with surgery given my age and no other health issues.

He is going to do a total thyroidectomy and also take some surrounding lymph nodes to test for cancer. He is going to do everything he can to save my parathyroids.

Dr. Morgan will test my parathyroids during surgery and if my calcium levels are at a good level he said he would feel comfortable letting me go home that evening after surgery and not stay the night! We are praying this is the case.

Yesterday, I went for pre-op. My surgery is set for Tuesday, February 6.

I have to be at the hospital by 9:30 a.m. Surgery will be at 11:30 a.m. It is usually around an hour long surgery.

Pathology from the surgery will determine my next steps. Dr. Morgan said since 2018 they don’t make thyroid cancer patients take the iodine radiation pills if possible because those chemicals are so harmful to the body. We are paying this is the case as well that I don’t have to have radiation.

The waiting has been hard. Mentally I have struggled with knowing I have cancer. If I dwell on it too long I get super sad.

But I always go back to knowing I am fighting a battle that God has already won.

I am not sure how long I will be out of commission after my surgery. Dr. Morgan said he would feel comfortable letting me decide when I wanted to go back to work. I am Tim Helms’ daughter and pretty stubborn and don’t like to listen to doctors very well.

I told my school I hope to be back by the following Monday, but that might be too ambitious. I do know for 3 weeks I can’t lift or do anything strenuous.

My family has been amazing through all this.

My coworkers have been amazing.

My friends have been amazing.

Knowing I am so loved and prayed for touches me daily. It helps tremendously knowing I’m not alone.

My game face is on and I am ready to BEAT cancer!

Thank you for your continued prayers.