THYROID

Here are the percentages:

5% chance of being cancer

10% chance of being suspicious

90% chance of being benign

My results?

SUSPICIOUS

This means the cell growth looks abnormal on the slide. They can't for sure call it malignant or benign. Now that the cells look the way they are, my chances of it being cancerous just went from 5% to 20%. The combination of my thyroid being symptomatic and suspicious means I'll be having surgery. The Dr. recommends only taking the right side of my thyroid for now to hopefully prevent me from needing a lifetime of medication. There is a 20% chance that I will end up needing it after taking the right side. (won't know until about 4 weeks post-surgery)When I am in surgery, the surgeons will do a quick send out of my right lobe to see if they see any sign of cancer...if they do, they'll actually take out the rest of my thyroid which means definite medication. If it looks okay, they'll close me up and call it good. The official pathology report wouldn't come back for a few days and if it ends up showing cancer, that would mean more surgery to take the rest of my thyroid out. If I end up keeping my left side, I just need to get blood work every so often to make sure my thyroid is functioning. So there you have it, lots of end result possibilities.

DID YOU GET ALL THAT???

On a lighter note, during our Family Home Evening...we talked to the kids about my upcoming surgery and how as an outcome of that surgery I'll end up having a scar across my throat like Grampy. Kaleb pipes up and says,

"Woman! Your whole body is one big scar!"

(love that kid)