it's "only" thyroid cancer

FayeONeal said:

It's "Only" Thyroid Cancer...That was then, THIS is NOW!!
I first heard that phrase in June 2008 when they removed my goiter and left lobe of my thyroid; the last thing the surgeon said was "I don't think you have anything to worry about." A week later, while removing my stitches, he says "by the way, you do have Cancer", but it's nothing to worry about...it's the easiest Cancer to cure. OK...I went with that, then went home and cried. A month later, July 18th, he removed the rest of my thyroid and a couple of lymph nodes, again he says "nothing to worry about"...ok, i'm skeptical, but hopeful. A week afterward, again with the stitches, and he says "they found more cancer on the other lobe...and it's a different kind." So, I ask him what "Stage"...he looks at me funny and say "we don't really stage thyroid cancer because it's easy to cure". Ok, I go home, do some research on the "kinds" I have, diffentiated papillary/follicular varient...and start thinking about getting ready for my RAI treatment, which is supposed to make everything ok.

Then, August 5th, I go to the hospital with "unrelated" side pain...a biopsy was done and that easy to cure papillary/follicular thyroid cancer was in my right rib and had been there over 8 months causing me pain...no one had a clue!! At first, I was told it was the dreated "Anaplastic" type of thyroid cancer in my rib...all the Dr's started running around, made me an appointment with the Cancer Center in Columbus Ohio, (it was 12:30) and told me to be in Columbus at 3:00!! Now, Columbus is 1-1/2 hours away on a good traffic day from where my hospital is....still "not a big deal"?? I don't think so.

So, I go to the Cancer Center, they set me up for 15 focused radiation treatments (which I have 6 left), sent me back home and said they'd order all the tissue samples and take another look at them. Now, being told that you have "Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer" is a fairly scary thing to me and my whole family....who are all computer research nerds anyway...after a day or so everyone was pretty ready to start making "final preparations"...including me.

So, through the depression, the multitude of pain meds, depression meds, anxiety meds, I went for 10 days for my daily radiation treatments for something that's "not a big deal". Then they send me back to Columbus for a re-check. My Oncologist there (very renowned) says, we re-examined the pathology and found that the initial findings differed from what our pathologists found in that your original tumor in the thyroid was 4cm (not 1cm), there were 3 small tumors in the right lobe, nothing in the lymph nodes (all 2 of them that He removed)...but she could tell that the cancer had spread into the lymphatic system and the blood system simply because it had metastasized to my rib bone. The rib cancer had been growing for a lot longer than 8 months...that's just when it broke through the bone and began rubbing against the nerves to cause the pain. She then tells me "you're a difficult Stage IV, with probably more tumors in more bones, a CT scan showed multiple nodules in both lungs that she also believes are related to the thyroid cancer (but my cardio-pulmonary specialist keeps emphatically reassuring me that thyroid cancer cannot spread to my lungs...ok, where did he get his degree??)...so that little thyroid cancer that "isn't a big deal" and is so easily curable...don't you believe it!! This is going to be one long difficult journey for me to overcome and survive (not my words, her's). And by the way, she says...there are more and more cases of the "easy" thyroid cancers i.e. papillary or follicular "mutating" into the dreaded "Anaplastic" type. I don't want to scare anyone...but in my on-going case, these are the facts. My motto would to never take any diagnosis of cancer lightly or believe that it can be "easily cured". Good luck to you all.