I have always been in tune with my body and noticed something wasn’t right. After getting labs done, they found hyperthyroidism which quickly turned to Graves’ Disease. I found this out while I was pregnant and going to college full-time. My labs had something strange in them that made me feel that something was not right. I asked doctors and specialists to give me an ultrasound, but they pushed back.
Finally, I was able to get an ultrasound, and this is where they found a nodule in my thyroid. I asked the doctors to do a biopsy because the research I had done matched the cancer studies in many research papers. Doctors told me it was in my head that I had cancer, and told me to wait. I looked around for a doctor to get me a biopsy and finally had one scheduled. After one botched biopsy and one successful biopsy they found thyroid cancer. It was small but the cancer was growing quicker than normal. The doctors told me, “thyroid cancer is the best cancer to get,” “It’s the easy cancer.” I never have and never will agree with those statements because no cancer is the best cancer, or easy cancer.
I wanted to take my chances of having a normal thyroid function with a partial thyroidectomy but doctors pushed me to have a total. I had a gut feeling not to have a total but this was the first time I had agreed with the doctors. I had a total thyroidectomy to remove the cancer. During the thyroidectomy there were mistakes that were made and the surgery was botched (on the side that I wanted to keep). I woke up with two paralyzed vocal nerves. I did not realize that vocal nerves controlled so much. It was like breathing from a coffee straw, I was unable to drink, breathe from my nose, unable to eat, and had limited vocals. I was in the ICU for days, including Christmas day. I was away from my two young children and I had days where I would break down and cry. I had always thought that my body was weaker than my grit, but through this traumatic time I had found that my body was so strong.
I was scheduled to have surgery to open up my airway like a puppet to breathe and swallow, and a feeding tube was scheduled to be placed through my nose because I hadn’t eaten for five days. I pushed through and used a sponge dropper to drink fluids, I asked for chicken broth and used that same dropper to feed myself. I researched movements to help get my neck movement back and vocal nerves jumpstarted. The surgeon kept telling me he did not have hope that I would regain motion on the left side vocal nerve. I kept pushing to get my body back to the way it used to be. Some days I wanted to give up but my body pushed me to keep trying, other days I went on like a warrior fighting, and there were many days I broke down and cried.
Today, two days before my birthday I was told that my left nerve is waking up and has movement, and the right nerve is stronger. The ENT and Speech Pathologist guestimate that by 3-9 months I will be just as I was prior to surgery. I am still going through treatments (it has only been a few weeks since my surgery) but I know the future is bright. The cancer that was removed was a rare mix that caused it to grow rapidly. I am cancer free and will be monitored for the next year to make sure I stay cancer free.
The advice I would give to anyone would be this: Do your own research, be your own advocate, don’t back down, acknowledge your gut feelings, and know that your body will keep fighting even when you feel weak. When I had my thyroid removed I felt like I lost a friend, like a death of a loved one. It is normal to feel this way and I found ways of coping with that feeling. I am an artist and painting the thyroid that was removed was my way of coping.
I used to feel like, “why did this happen to me,” but now I feel very lucky for catching the cancer when I did because it did not have a chance to spread. I hope to help others know that they are not alone in their fight. Be kind to your body, and allow it to heal, don’t rush the process, and understand that everyone heals at their own rates and everyone’s body is different.