Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Well I emailed Dr. G (the kids' surgeon) and asked him about the kids' parathyroid being removed. He emailed me back and this is what he said...

"Sorry for the misunderstanding. The goal of the surgery is to remove all the thyroid gland. Sometimes to achieve this, we need to shave some of the parathyroid gland off thyroid gland. As a result, the pathologist may see parathyroid tissue in the specimen. That usually tells us that we have removed enough of the thyoid. I know that we had parathyroid tissue left in both Lachelle and Bret at the time that we finished the operation. However, sometimes manipulation of the parathyroids leave a temporary period of hypoparathyroidism (needing calcium)."

So in other words, both kids still have all their parathyroids they just had some of the tissue shaved off in order to get all of the thyroid tissue because if we had left ANY of the thyroid tissue the medullary cancer could come back later on. This news I'm okay with.

Big B has been put on Calcitrol now which I guess is a Vitamin D type supplement to help his body absorb calcium better in hopes of helping his HOPEFULLY temporary hypoparathyroid problem. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Big B's scar is healing well and all the steristrips have come off. Personally I think he pulled some off but he says he didn't sooooooooo... Sis's strips are still on and I've been trying to wet them so they loosen up some. Her voice now sounds like a frog on helium. It would be funny if it wasn't so serious. I just hope in the end she gets her voice back because this is just so hard. Both kids are also on the Tums/calcium until their next bloodwork which in in May.

As for my surgery, with the way things are going I don't know if I'm going to have it done in May. So much is going on here at home and with my body/meds that I'm just not feeling comfortable with it. A part of me says just get it done so we can go on with things but another part of me is scared just how screwed up I'm going to be after all this. We already can't get my steriods where they are suppose to be without me getting sick and feeling like hell. Do I really want to add another medication in the mix? On top of that, another medication that if it's not working right has some of the same side effects that my steriods have so I may not even know when things are going back.

I just wish I'd wake up from this nightmare. I don't want to play anymore. I want a real life back and I just want all this MEN2a and cancer BS to end.

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