Restarting the blog

Jenny and I are restarting this blog after a lengthy hiatus -- our main objective, unfortunately, is to make it easier to disseminate information about her cancer and treatment, and how the family is coping.

Two weeks ago Jenny was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. Her primary care physician noticed a lump in her neck during a routine visit, referred her to get a ultrasound, then a biopsy which confirmed things. If you had to pick a cancer, papillary thyroid cancer might be it. It is relatively slow growing and, because thyroid cells (and thyroid cancer cells) are among the only cells in the body that ingest iodine, often they can be isolated and destroyed by ingesting radioactive iodine. Survival rates among women in their 20s and 30s (a main demographic that develops PTC) are very high. Treatment typically involves surgery to remove the thyroid and any surrounding lymph nodes to which the cancer has spread, followed by radioactive iodine treatment to kill remaining cells. Synthetic hormones then have to be taken forever, via pill I think, to replace the functionality of the thyroid.

None of the treatments are pleasant or easy. Jenny's surgery will be more involved than some because we have confirmed that the cancer has indeed spread to lymph nodes in her neck, including to one lymph node that is a couple inches away. Hopefully we can limit/avoid infection and the scar ends up not being too big a deal. Leading into the radioactive iodine treatment Jenny needs to go on a low-iodine diet (so the surviving thyroid cells are really hungry for that iodine), which is hard to pull off because a ton of our food has iodine in it. Then the treatment hits and Jenny becomes radioactive for a few days. Have to put some thought into how we can keep her isolated, especially from the kids, but also not just sitting looking at the walls. The synthetic hormones can be a drag but hopefully we get lucky and are able to get the doses calibrated quickly enough.

This has been scary for both of us. On my side of the family, both of my maternal grandparents died of cancer, my mom's generation (the first round of Grandpa and Grandma Hammer's improvements) has dealt with it, cancer also killed an uncle, my dad's brother-in-law... so it's personal for me. As for Jenny, there is plenty of history on her side of the family too and, well, she's the one that has it this time. One of our concerns right now is a small, persistent cough that Jenny had this winter. Has the cancer spread into her lungs? Probably we won't know until after surgery sometime but man it's hard not to stress about it.

The kids are aware that Jenny has something in her throat that shouldn't be there. Rowan was initially shocked and concerned when Jenny explained that doctors would have to cut it out, but she now seems to have internalized things for the most part. (Quick kid aside, yesterday evening I threw the frisbee with Rowan for 30 minutes at her prompting... it was bliss, the first time she has really expressed interest, and we both walked away happy. She threw with Jenny this evening, Lucy was the fetcher on the many errant throws.)

Jenny is a voracious reader and has turned her attention to learning about what we are up against... she knows far more than me about the details but I am trying to keep up to the extent possible. We have been helped in this by Paul Kaplowitz, a friend through his son Josh, and a pediatric endocrinologist, who loaned us his book on thyroid cancer and recommended a couple doctors at the Washington Hospital Center. We've also benefited from the expressed love and support of our friends and family, who have called us, left messages when we didn't pick up, sent cards, texted. Thank you, it means a lot to Jenny and to me. Our ability to get through the day-to-day remains pretty good but there definitely will be some times coming up where it will be a challenge.

The next steps for us: Jenny hopefully will have an opportunity to discuss on Monday or Tuesday the results of her lymph node mapping with her endocrinologist. On Friday, we have an appointment with another endocrinologist to get a second pair of eyes on things. My parents are coming up from Richmond to help with that appointment. On Saturday, Melissa, Chris, and baby Nicholas are visiting en route to New Jersey from Savannah -- which we're thrilled about because we don't see enough of them as it is.

Jenny and I will try to keep the blog updated as we learn more.