Good-bye Thyroid

I got a noticed from my online patient chart.  The pathology report was posted there for the left lobe of my thyroid.  It came back negative for malignancy.

HOORAY!!

I was pretty sure it wouldn't have any cancer in it.

The report also noted how huge it was and that it has some strange coloring or spots or something.  In terms of size, an entire normal thyroid is usually a little smaller than my left lobe was.  Jealous?  Size envy?  Don't be.  Just like women, smaller is better.  You could say I had an obese thyroid.

The weird coloring/spots makes me SO GLAD I had the thing taken out.

The fact that I will NEVER have to worry about if the cancer will come back in the left lobe is amazing.  I could not be happier with my decision to have the second surgery.  I know there will be some tough stuff ahead still.  The low-iodine diet looks to be 30-ish days of eating less than a vegan.  The anxiety that comes with the full-body scan isn't going to be pretty.  But at the very least, I won't have to go have ultrasounds done every 6 months and worry that it has come back on the other side.  This way, they can do a simple blood test to see if it has popped up somewhere in my body.  And this way, I will have full-body scans done annually (I think) to make sure it isn't anywhere else.

Besides... I think my thyroid was holding me back.  The gigantic gland was pushing me down, blocking my potential.  I feel liberated.

In other neck news, the skin glue has come off and now I am wearing some lovely clear plastic bandages given to me by my dermatologist.  I put it on last night and it wrinkled up over night.  Now it looks like this:

It is quite a wonderful look, if I do say so myself.  I am supposed to wear these for three weeks and then switch to "flesh" colored tape.  Not sure whose flesh it is supposed to resemble, but I am pretty sure my pasty-whiteness would more closely match white tape.  I think it actually draws more attention to my neck than the scar does, but it is supposed to help the skin lie flat so I will give it a shot.

For all of you with actual functioning, non-cancerous, normal-sized thyroids... I doubt your thyroid is holding back your life.  Lucky ducks.