Puzzles and Pathology

The last couple days have been filled with puzzles, roaming around town, and eating. I’ve been doing the treadmill for 20 min each day and my PT exercises.

Something different hurts the most each day., which has been interesting to see how things shift. I’m still managing with Tylenol and the medical Marijuana: then an occasional codeine of I let things go to long.

So far the most difficult things to deal with are the shortness of breath, the ‘tightness’ of the incision (I still can’t look up) just general soreness from the surgery (I still can’t sleep on my side) and the nerve damage in my lip (i have to consciously move it to chew). Overall though, not too shabby. Getting better everyday.

I got the pathology report the other day, though it’s not that exciting or helpful in determining prognosis:

They removed the thyroid and 112 lymph nodes. The thyroid and 48 of the lymph nodes had cancer. All the same:

Papillary thyroid carcinoma

Apparently this is ‘a lot of disease;’ as everyone keeps saying that.

Also interesting is that t get still consider it stage 1. But with thyroid cancer, the only factor is age.

Age less than 55 = stage 1 disease

Over 55 = stage 2-4.

This makes no sense to me, but nothing through this experience really has, so I’m not going to worry about it.

My brain has been all over the map lately. From body image issues and wondering if I’ll get fat without a thyroid to concerns about the incision and whether I’ll ever be able to wear a swimsuit comfortably again. Then I get pissed that I’m thinking about vain cultural bullshit. Sigh. The cycles of the brain.

We’re pretty ready to get home, but also not looking forward to the travel day. Also not looking forward to being cold again. There’s a limited number of clothes that I can be in comfortably and the cooler weather is going to require more layers, which aren’t very comfortable right now. I foresee much time under my heating blanket! But we’re excited to get back to our cozy light decorated home since we put up the tree and such before we left. Hopefully it will be a nice distraction.

My friend Dayna came out for the weekend (harbinger of the puzzle) so that’s been fun! She leaves Monday and then we’re here till Tuesday. Our flight is at 430pm pst so we’re planning to leave at noon after checkout and just try to get there and navigate all the things with as much as time as we need since Jeremy will be wielding all the bags. Hopefully it’s smooth!