Georgetown and second opinion

So obviously the cancer has been the big news recently, but we have other recent news that Nate didn't share in his last post: June 1 he starts a new job, as a professor (of economics) at Georgetown's business school. We're excited about the move. He's been continuing his research while at DoJ, and this spring he taught an evening class (on pricing) at Georgetown, so the transition shouldn't be too tough. Aside from having to switch insurance in the middle of this thyroid stuff, the timing's pretty great...he'll have a really flexible schedule this summer.

This past Friday I met with another endocrinologist, Dr. Wexler, at Washington Hospital Center. Nate came with me to the appointment. WHC was something like a 30 minute drive with no traffic, plus it took a good while to get from car into the right building, and then some time wandering around the giant building trying to find the office. So not too convenient. But anyway, I'm really glad we saw this guy...he's energetic, smart, and sees a lot of thyroid cancer patients. He didn't tell us anything surprising or particularly different, but he does want me to have the highly suspicious lymph nodes biopsied just to make sure they're malignant. If they are (and they most likely are) I'll probably have a CT scan to see if there's evidence of spread to the lungs. If the lymph nodes miraculously turn out ok I may be able to get away with a less extreme surgery. That biopsy will be next Friday. Also he sent notes to a couple of good surgeons to try to get me into their schedules. I already have an appointment with another surgeon (highly recommended by my other endocrinologist and Dr. Wexler) on May 21, which feels like a long way away, but I guess it could be worse. Once I actually meet with a surgeon it'll probably be another 2-4 weeks until surgery. Then another 6 before radiation/isolation.

We've been planning two big trips for the summer, one to Amherst, MA, and Barnard, VT in early July, and one to CA at the very end of July, and it seems like depending on the timing of things one or both of those trips might be squashed. But also possible they can both still happen...just waiting to see for now.

Thanks for all the well-wishes. We're feeling very loved. :)