Back home

Jenny was discharged this morning and we got home around noon.  Next couple days will probably be pretty low key here.  Naps, French Open, books, etc.

I was able to see her wound (?) for the first time earlier today -- yesterday it was bandaged up -- and it's very noticeably right now, to the extent that she is wary of scaring people who don't know what's going on.  As it heals it'll turn into a scar and then fade over time.

Surgery Update #1

Our surgeon, Dr. Boyle, says that everything went as planned today and that the surgery was successful.

We went into the hospital around 10am and Jenny went through pre-op for a couple hours, meeting nurses and attendants and signing forms.  Around noon she moved to the operating room (the OR if you're in the know).  Surgery took roughly 3.5 hours but it wasn't until around 5:00 that she had recovered sufficiently to see anybody.

Recovering from the general anesthesia hasn't been easy thus far.  Jenny felt nauseous a few times even though she's only had a couple nibbles of Saltines over the past 24 hours.  The doctors ramped up the meds to fix it and that makes her sleepy.  She's been fortunate in that pain has been mild so that's less of an issue.  Another thing that turned out well is her voice -- sometimes people that get her surgery struggle to speak for a few days but she is already talking clearly.  Tonight she'll sleep in the recovery room and hopefully will wake up tomorrow morning feeling much better (and very hungry).

Becky and Mike took the kids today, which was a big help because it enabled me to just hang out near the hospital.  They made the mistake of ordering only a singe pizza for dinner though.  The kids demolished it, leaving them with only a single slice each.  Lesson learned, Rowan and Lucy can eat!

Tomorrow I'll swing by the hospital in the morning and see how Jenny is doing.  The plan is for her to come home around 9 or 10am.  My last chore before bedtime is to get the French Open set up on TiVo so she can watch tomorrow.  She or I will post an update tomorrow.

Surgery countdown

One week to go until surgery (June 5)! I had a great low-key weekend hanging out with new and old neighbors, not going anywhere. Got to show Rowan high-level women's ultimate on TV (college nationals was streaming live on espn.com!). Nate's uncle Rich is here visiting for the week and helping fix up our house. Main project is making the workbench space in the cellar more usable--I can't wait!

Other things going on recently:

• I've been doing some tinkering stuff with Rowan's kindergarten class...low-temp hot glues guns, hand drills, sanding, screwdriving, etc. Mostly I just set them free to make whatever they want out the bits and pieces I bring in, but I'm thinking of doing a more structured project before the end of the year (which is fast approaching!). I'd like to let them use a hammer for something... Any suggestions? I usually have 5 kids at a time, for 30 or 40 minutes.
• I got some Montessori math beads and have been introducing the kids to them. Rowan loves counting by tens, and Lucy's making good progress on ordering 1-9.
• My new favorite song (Rowan learned it at school): The Water Cycle Song. She also came home singing 'Country Roads' -- love it!
• Lucy started drawing faces and bodies...next step: arms and legs.
• I successfully replaced the screen on my iphone after a bad drop on the sidewalk. All taken apart, the phone was in like 25 parts (including the screws)...it was awesome.
• It's Nate's last week at DoJ -- Georgetown, here we come!

Finally some good news

CT scan results are in: no evidence of metastases to the lungs. Hooray! CT scan isn't as conclusive as the scans they'll do with the radioactive iodine, so it's not for sure, but it's definitely nice to finally get some good news.

Nate's birthday is Saturday...his major plan is to distribute the huge pile of mulch in front of our house around and about. Should be fun. :)

Met with the surgeon today

Jenny and I went into Georgetown today to meet with Dr. Lisa Boyle, the head of the surgery department there and also an accomplished thyroid surgeon. We arrived 30 minutes early and (amazingly) got put right through to see the nurse practitioner and Dr. Boyle. Our interactions were friendly and positive. No real new information to report except that we now have a date for surgery scheduled:

*June 5*

Jenny will spend a night in the hospital and probably take a week off work. Still working on the details there. But we're really happy with the timing, both because acting is psychologically easier than waiting and because Jenny should be recovered from surgery by the time summer rolls around. Dr. Boyle says there is a lot of flexibility in the timing of the radioactive iodine treatment so we have increased confidence that this won't disrupt summer vacation plans.

After meeting with Dr. Boyle we strolled through the Georgetown campus and then headed home, where Jenny's cousin-in-law Lindsey was covering for us with the kids. We ate dinner on the patio and chatted as the kids ran around inside and outside the house. Good times.

the bad, the ugly, and the good

The situation

The lymph node ultrasound 2 weeks ago revealed abnormal nodules, and Dr. Wexler (the new endocrinologist) wanted me to have them biopsied before splitting open my whole neck. Today was my lymph node biopsy (procedure was a fine needle aspiration, just like the thyroid biopsy a month ago).

Bad news

Abnormal nodules in my lymph nodes were confirmed malignant, and now my neck is sore from the procedure. Last biopsy left me sore for like 10 days...I'm hoping this one won't be as long.

Gory details about my unpleasant afternoon

I didn't get into the procedure room at Washington Hospital Center until 1 hour 15 minutes after my appointment time, including like 20 minutes half-dressed in a 2x2 foot changing room, and then was left in the procedure room for another 10 or 15 minutes by myself after initial preparation (waiting for pathologist apparently). While waiting I encountered not one, but two bloody pieces of gauze on the floor, in different parts of the building (I think both dropped by the same guy). And this place was in the basement, so no cell reception, leaving me unable to coordinate help picking up kids from school/bus now that I was going to be late. Procedure itself went fine. The radiologist (the one sticking me with the needle) kept saying, 'beautiful! isn't this beautiful?' and made the tech take more ultrasound pictures (and maybe even a movie??) of my neck with needle inserted. She seemed quite pleased with her needle-inserting prowess. It didn't feel particularly beautiful to me.

Having my appointment go so late (3pm) meant not only that I was later than I expected getting out, but also that I was now in rush hour traffic trying to get out of DC, and I didn't really know where I was going. Lucy's preschool has after-care, and they've been really understanding and flexible about keeping her even though it's not something we normally do, so I wasn't worried about her. But it took a while to get in touch with Andrea to make sure she could get Rowan from the bus, so that added to the stress. AND like 30 minutes (and 1.5 miles) after I left the hospital the ultrasound tech called to say I was going to need to come back next week because they needed another sample from me(!!!). I couldn't believe it. At some point, close to 4pm, I realized I was beyond late and traffic wasn't moving and I happened to be close to Nate's work. So I called him and picked him up. This was fabulous because it meant: #1 I didn't have to drive anymore (it hurt to turn my head right, not so safe), and #2 now we could take I-66 (HOV).

Anyway, after we finally got home I talked to Dr. Wexler and he confirmed that both tumors they biopsied tested positive for thyroid cancer. The call I got from the tech was because they forgot to do the needle rinse (extra test for cancer in case looking at slides was inconclusive), but turns out the slides were conclusive, so at least I don't have to go back again Monday. I do need CT scan at some point to see if it's spread to lungs too, but it's not urgent, and I can do that at Virginia Hospital Center (MUCH more convenient). NOTE: even if it has spread to lungs, it's still thyroid cancer, not lung cancer. Prognosis would be worse if it's spread to lungs, but I'm told it's still very treatable. My neck scar is going to be wicked though--I think it'll go nearly from my left ear all the way across the front of my throat. Rowan is going to flip out.

First impression of radiology facility at WHC: Not so good.

Good news

I have an appointment to see highly-recommended surgeon Lisa Boyle next Thursday, so at least I don't have to wait so long for the next step. She recently moved into an administrative position at Georgetown Univ. Hospital (she used to be a Washington Hospital Center), so I don't know if that means it'll be hard to make it into her now-reduced surgery schedule, but I should find out next week.

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. :)