My Unquiet Brain...

That's how I feel. The thoughts are never ending now. One day things are normal, the next you are told you have cancer, and then nothing is the same. After having my thyroid surgery I feel horrible. I know the meds are still being monitored so I can find the "right dose", in the mean time I feel sad, and tired all the time. My days are filled with appointment after appointment (for the past 10 business days I have had 9 appointments and 7 that that relate to my current health (or lack of). I wasn't able to attend my family reunion this year and have had to "flake out" on several commitments because all this came up. Of course people understand, but it still upsets me.

I am a planner. I deal with things by planning ahead. That has been taken away from me for the time being. As have many other things. All I can do is live one day at a time (sounds cheesy, but it's true) I can't even plan a week ahead anymore. My friends and family are totally great about it, but I am not. I will be missing Austin's first days of school this year (will be in the hospital still). I will be missing Halloween with them too due to radiation.

The closer I get to my second surgery the more scared I am. This one is more scary and I am more scared. I put a smile on my face and deal with it, but the reality is I am tired of it. I wish it was over, I hate having to tell myself to cheer up and put on a brave face. The fact is I am mad, actually I am furious that this has happened and that it happened to me. It's making life hard, it's making me feel like a bad parent, I am not up to doing as much as before. I am lucky to get out for a walk with Ruari- she by the way has changed so much in these last 6 weeks. I can't help but find happiness in her and Austin too. He has grown up, been forced to step up and help when he should be hanging out with his friends for the summer, he's here helping me so Chris doesn't have to miss any more time from work than needed. After looking at the schedule of past and upcoming procedures he will have taken at minimum 4 weeks, not counting appointments that I need him to be at with me. I feel like I am putting his job in jeopardy.

Basically I feel like my life is on hold while I do my best to keep fighting to have a life at all.

People keep asking me if I am worried about dying and I throw facts at them well the number look fairly good for me... but I try not to think about the real possibility of dying, because let's face it I could get hit by a truck tomorrow. Everyone is going to die but I prefer not to think about it. Even when my mind goes there I post it more like what if I don't live. I can't say "what if I die?" .. (oh damn, I went and did it....) Even if my conscious mind rarely strays there, my subconscious mind is happy to do it for me. The other night I had this amazing dream. It was like a 3rd party dream, I was observing my life in a way. It was Ruari's wedding day and I was sitting in the room looking at her getting ready and talking about being proud of her. She kept saying thanks for everything Mom, and I was proud. I felt that feeling... Then my hubby Chris comes to the door and he tells us that it's time to go like as in walk down the isle) I get up to go to Ruari and I mumble some things to her then Chris says your delaying her Becky. I turn around to walk to Chris and it wasn't even me.... Chris says to Ruari I wish your mom was here to see you! and kisses her. The whole time I thought it was me i nthe dream because although I couldn't see myself I could hear my voice, and she kept saying mom. I woke up really upset realizing that I can't escape the thoughts that Life would still go on, and that while I would want that for my family, I also want it to be me at her wedding and NOT some chick named Becky... (sorry to any Becky's out there!) If I want it to be me I had better do everything I can to fight it. So now that I have put this out there I am going to stay committed to being positive. Telling myself I WILL live...and actually believe it..

2 days, 14 hours, 38 minutes and 16 until surgery #2

Thanks for letting me unload my thoughts. I actually feel a little bit better.

My scar

I was too chicken to post the gross ones from right after surgery but here is the scar from my Total Thyroidectomy at one month post-op. I took this today

I was expecting it to be horrible and in fact it's quite perfect, and is healing ver nicely. Once it fades I think it will be unnoticable to most people, as it sits perfectly in my natural crease.

Bad news

This week I had a pretty bad blow with some news from my Dr's. It seems the cancer has spread. They know it is in my lymphatic system on the right side, but a recent ultrasound shows it may also have moved to the left side. They have once again scheduled me for a rush surgery. The surgery is less than 2 weeks away. Aug 28th. THis week I have a pretty invasive biopsy appt. I will be having a bunch of lymph nodes biopsied so the surgeon can have a better idea of what she's dealing with. I have some blood work being done to see how my body is handling missing a thyroid, and a CT scan to get better images of everything.

I was also scheduled for radiation on Oct 23rd. With the cancer being in my lymph nodes it's become manadatory that I do it. I will be in the hospital for 4-6 days (depending on how quickly my body can get rid of the radiation- most people are only 4 days). Once I have been discharged I have to stay anywhere but my own home. The slight bit of leftover radiation in my body poses a risk to my kids, mostly my daughter, Ruari as her organs are still developing and the radiation can cause problems.

It will likely be Mid December before they can do a full body scan to see if it has spread elsewhere.

I really thought this would be much easier and much faster but now I understand why cancer is so horrible...

My heart is breaking for my son because he has had a pretty lousy summer and now I will be in the hospital the last weekend before school and his first few days. I can't believe I will miss this day. I have always been with him on the first day of school to make a special breakfast and drive him to school.

I really hate this...

New name

I need a name change for this blog, not that anyone's reading. For me Might Be Cancer isn't the case anymore, and when I was think about what to rename my blog one thing resonates in my mind. The number of people who told me that Thyroid Cancer is "the good kind" sickens me. Even good friends and family members have slapped me in the face with that comment.

I am glad no ones reading this blog there would be a lot of hurt feeling for being called on using that stupid phrase. It's NOT the good kind so fuck off.... (pardon me for that but I get very very angry, it's my hot button issue)

So now my new name is: It's Not the Good Kind.