My Scotty

PICTURES: 4 1/2 weeks after surgery.

Scott's doing great. The boys and I took off for two and a half weeks two weeks after his surgery. The first week and a half I was gone wasn't his favorite, but he survived. His parents were in town and fed him several times, grandparents had him over for dinner and he was able to really REST. However just as I left town, he ran out of his fancy pain killers and wasn't enjoying the less than sufficient over the counter meds...Until speaking with the doctor and the doctor told him he shouldn't have this pain, that all those nerves had been cut, thus, there shouldn't be pain...(that may do for the surface skin nerves, but I say what about all the insides that were moved around and scraped and invaded for 10 HOURS!). ANYHOW, essentially the doctor told Scott he had "Phantom Neck Pain." Much like an amputee victim who wants to scratch a leg that has been removed, Scott was feeling pain in an area that couldn't feel pain, supposedly! Alrighty then! So the doctor suggested prescribing Anti-depressants that would trick his brain into believing that nothing hurt, but those drugs would take TWO MORE WEEKS before tricking his brain! Well Scott wasn't thrilled with that solution, so he just kept with the over the counter stuff. Luckily a few days later, he started feeling much better. The last week I was gone he was "feeling himself again!" He looks great, stands up taller, can turn his neck (somewhat), overall, seems more like my Scott. His scar looks fabulous and it's only been one month. Oddly, he still has a little tingling in his left fingers (after doctor investigation we found out the anesthesiologist suggests it is due to nerve compression from anesthesia). Lovely. We met with our Nuclear Doctor (doctor who treats with radiation) today. She wants to wait until October to ensure that all the iodine from a CT Scan in May is entirely out of his system. In addition, she is NOT putting him on a strict no iodine diet prior to the Radioiodine(I-131). Nor does he have to trash everything he touches! The radiation he will have is safe and not long time damaging to him at all. She (doc) does recommend that he avoid shell fish and sushi until after his treatments...so no temptations people!
What an ordeal for our little family. We are so grateful for our many blessings and tender mercies since Scott's diagnosis. We know we are so lucky as many people experience far worse health problems. I cannot begin to express how thankful I am that he's going to be just fine! We need him in so many ways. It's a good thing that doctors and friends immediately assured us that Thyroid cancer was so curable because I have cannot and have not really entertained any thoughts of him not being okay. Just can't go there. Don't get me wrong. It's been a little scary and the C-word isn't pleasant. I was anxious to get the lung scans back to make sure it hadn't gotten to his lungs since he's had a known tumor at least three years. While there were risks of surgery that we would have rather not experienced (permanent voice damage or permanent shoulder injury or no taste) any and all of them were preferable to letting that cancer hurt him. Surgery is over and he's got a voice, can taste and his arms just have a bit of nerve damage...but should get better over time. The doctor assured us today she has treated patients with much more cancer and they are cancer free. That being said, Scott certainly had a lot of cancer and she'll give him a big dose to zap it all to ensure its outta there! So to sum it all up, we are blessed. I love Scott and am so grateful for how this has turned out! I can't imagine life without him and now I don't have to!

"We're going on a Bear Hunt....Going to catch a BIG ONE!"

"We're not scared,
what a beautiful day!"

The scariest thing happened last week! My husband and his dad went on a hike in the mountains to scout out the perfect spot for deer hunting in October. All of a sudden, a HUGE bear came running towards them from their left. Scott was the closest, his dad was in front a few paces. He heard the pounding of the ground as the bear got closer. Quickly, he turned to see the bear raise his front paws to get Scott. Just as the bear got Scott, his dad shot at the bear with a shotgun to scare him off (They were hoping to see a few ducks to hunt on a lake they were hiking to). It worked, the bear cowered, but as most of the pellets hit the bear, one got Scott right near his collar bone. The bear got him good, a huge gash on the neck. Thankfully they weren't far from their truck and were able to get to a hospital quickly. No evidence of the bear, they had to get to the hospital! Here's the proof on Scott's neck:


Oh, just kidding! We had to create a wild story to go with the a gnarley scar Scott's going to have! In reality, this is the first post on my blog about Scott's Thyroid Cancer. I have been avoiding the topic - and really we had too many other fun things going on lately to distract us from the subject anyhow. The subtitle on my blog says,
"The latest and greatest about our happy little family." Scott didn't think this was the greatest and didn't want to publicize it to the world. Honestly, he didn't like talking about it at all for a while...probably still the case, though quite unavoidable now. However, not many people check this anyhow, it's really for personal satisfaction, my family journal. I heard of a company that prints a book from blogs. Someday when I get around to printing...I'm going to have a great record of my family! And everyone who does check this knows about the c-word already, and if you happen to check this and haven't heard, sorry. (And if you haven't heard...Thyroid Cancer is nearly 100 percent curable! Makes the C-word a little more tolerable in our case.) It is however the latest thing happening in our lives. So we met with the surgeon on June 12 and had surgery on July 12. Our surgeon actually wanted surgery just a few weeks after that first appointment, but it didn't work out on his end and the operating room schedules. Anyhow, so we went in last Thursday for a 6 hour surgery that ended up being 10 hours! HELLLO!! Thankfully, I had asked him to have nurses update me throughout the surgery(after asking if that happens only in the movies). Everytime the phone in the waiting room rang, I leapt from my chair. They were great about giving me updates. At 11:45, the first update was that his voice box and right shoulder nerves were able to be saved. This was a great blessing as the doctor was worried about these two nerves in particular. There were cancer lymph nodes just too close to where those nerves are supposed to be, in fact, he suggested that cancer could have grown around a nerve. In that event he asked Scott to choose if he'd prefer to have him cut the nerve, thus getting the cancer out, or leave cancer inside his body, hoping that Radioactive Iodine (a pill treatment specifically for Thyroid Cancer - they call it the magic pill of medicine) would get rid of the remaining parts. Neither is a choice we/he wanted to make! So after hanging up the phone, Scott's mom and I had a good little cry, making his grandpa a little nervous as he didn't hear me relay the operating room's message. Then we assured him that the tears were tears of relief for saved nerves! There were two following updates from the OR that things were still going great, nerves were still intact, but that it was going to take longer. The surgeon was great, precise and we are thankful for his skills!

Scott's doing well now...after three nights in the hospital, three or four blood tests a day (massively sore hands from so many sticks), many pillows to hold up his sore, swollen and tingly arms(an unexpected side effect of the first pre-anesthesia medicine). He's been ultra uncomfortable and unable to help himself through this discomfort as he couldn't move his arms without inflicting more pain on himself. Every day is easier. The first few nights were near torture with barely an hour or two of sleep. We did underestimate surgery aftermath. We expected pain, followed by pain medication that would wipe out the pain entirely. I figured we'd read some books, watch some movies and be careful around his neck while we waited for everything to heal. Here we are 4 days later and we haven't read any of the books or watched any of the movies yet! "Clue" is first up on our agenda...tonight.

My only experience with hospitals or severe pain is with the birth of my two boys. Not sure how to compare the pain of labor (For me it's unimaginably painful! But I also opt for an epidural that does wipe out the pain.) with massive incision from a 10 hour surgery. I do know however, that after I left the hospital, I had a cute little baby to take home that was mine forever! I started thinking this way, then realized something! HELLO! He's not bringing a new life into the world through all of this ordeal, but he is surely saving his own life and he brought home a tall, dark and handsome man home to me for forever! I do think after experiencing both...and it's been a while since I had a newborn, but I definitly think he was harder to care for those first 48 hours. At least my babies would sleep!

In real life, Scott didn't look this greasy. I couldn't figure out why the pictures kept looking like that. These pictures were taken just about 24 hours later and I thought he looked great. They hadn't cleaned the incision before I took the first two pictures. The wound looks really good now. You can see that the skin is healing and sealing together. We are profoundly grateful for Scott's parents as they took care of the boys for the three days Scott was in the hospital. That was a bit unexpected as we didn't expect that Scott wouldn't be able to use his arms, thus making everything near impossible. I ended up staying with him the whole time as he needed me! I was so thankful I could be with him during that time that he needed me and I didn't have to worry about the boys.