I just spoke with my doctor as I was leaving work today and there is great news on my biopsy. He said there were no signs of cancer! Woo Hoooo!!! Its just a really big benign tumor. He even said it had pathology consistent with a nodular goiter. What the heck??? I thought that was only in people in developing countries. Anyway, we are all very happy over here at the DeWires and consider ourselves really fortunate.
This means I have surgery coming up to remove the tumor and half the thyroid, and that's all. Since the tumor presents no danger to me in the immediate future, we are now figuring out when to have it removed. As we figure out what's going to happen and when, I'll write some blogs, but I just wanted to get word out that other than having this big mysterious lump growing on my neck I am completely normal and healthy.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Still waiting
Hello all. Still waiting to find out what's growing in my neck. Right now I'm awaiting the results of a biopsy I had done last Thursday by a neck cancer specialist at Thomas Jefferson University. I also had a flex laryngoscopy, and that was no fun. A tube up the nose and into the larynx; I was gagging like crazy. And the biopsy itself hurt like hell too. No anesthesia, just a big needle right into my neck, twice. Going through the skin and muscle wasn't too bad, but the second they hit the tumor I almost shot through the roof. Anyway, it was a success, as they said they got enough material to be able to tell me something once the histology comes back, so now we wait.
Talking with the doctor was reassuring though. He said that he had no reason to suspect either of the two "bad" types of thyroid cancer. So, that leaves either a benign result, or one of the two easier-to-deal-with types of thyroid cancer. Either way, I am headed in for surgery in the next couple weeks to take the tumor and half or all of my thyroid. After that, I might get a radio-ioidine dose (if its cancer), and then I should be all set.
I tried running twice this weekend, but I think my heart, or rather my mind, just isn't in it. No telling how the 10 miler will go this weekend. Its been bumped up to an A race for me, since in all likelihood I am out of IM CDA. I'll give it a go, but I am thinking I might pull up and try to find Becca after 4 or 5 miles.
I'll be sure to post once I find out the results. Thanks again to everybody for checking in on us!
Talking with the doctor was reassuring though. He said that he had no reason to suspect either of the two "bad" types of thyroid cancer. So, that leaves either a benign result, or one of the two easier-to-deal-with types of thyroid cancer. Either way, I am headed in for surgery in the next couple weeks to take the tumor and half or all of my thyroid. After that, I might get a radio-ioidine dose (if its cancer), and then I should be all set.
I tried running twice this weekend, but I think my heart, or rather my mind, just isn't in it. No telling how the 10 miler will go this weekend. Its been bumped up to an A race for me, since in all likelihood I am out of IM CDA. I'll give it a go, but I am thinking I might pull up and try to find Becca after 4 or 5 miles.
I'll be sure to post once I find out the results. Thanks again to everybody for checking in on us!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
An Update on My Lump
As you may have read in "Gotta Get Right", I saw a doctor two weeks ago for a routine checkup. I had a bad cold that day, so she took a look at my lymph nodes, and surprisingly she found a lump on my thyroid. She referred me to a radiologist for an ultrasound to find out things like the position and size of this lump, as well as whether or not it had a fluid center like a cyst, or a solid center like a tumor. Another piece of information the ultrasound would yield was if the tumor had its own blood supply. My doctor couldn't believe I wasn't having trouble swallowing or breathing because of the size of the mass. I told her I was pretty oblivious I guess. I think being a triathlete also contributed, as we are pretty used to dealing with discomfort. But ever since she pointed it out to me, my lump began to hurt, and I can feel it when I swallow, or lay a certain way to go to sleep. I couldn't help but think about this, one of my favorite movie quotes:
The Plan:
On Friday, my doctor and I came up with a plan of attack. See, because its so large and is causing compression in my neck, it has to come out whether its benign or cancer. The only choice to make is if to take the entire thyroid with it or not, and as far as I understand this has to do with the histology showing cancer. So, I am getting an aspiration biopsy next week, either Monday or Thursday at Thomas Jefferson by an ENT specialist. Typically this has to be performed under ultrasound guidance, but the earliest I could be seen for that was May 7th, and we decided my mass is so large and I am so skinny they could hit it from across the room with a needle, making the u/s unnecessary. I should get some pathology that day, and a full report the day after. If it turns out to be cancer, I will go see one of the best head and neck cancer doctors in the world at Fox Chase, thanks to a connection my CEO had there (thanks so much!!!). If its benign, I get an appointment, perhaps with the same ENT to get the lump, and at least part, if not all, of my thyroid removed.
One uplifting bit of information I got was from my extended family. It turns out my cousin had a pretty large benign thyroid mass, and had her thyroid removed last year at age 41, and is doing great on Synthroid. And my grandmother had two masses incidentally discovered during a CT scan in the 1980s. One was lemon sized, the other grapefruit sized, the latter growing down into her sternum. She also had a total thyroidectomy and has been on Synthroid almost 30 years now. So, given this family history, maybe its just a natural DeWire thing to have these giant thryoid tumors removed as you approach mid-life?? Given the good longevity genetics of the DeWire genes (I have several great grandmas, aunt, uncles, etc who are 90+, and one that made it to 102), I will take the good with the bad.
So, since this is a triathlon blog, I suppose I should post an update on what this all means for my racing season. Obviously, triathlon is way down the priority list right now. As of Thursday night, after having a great 90min run with my old NC tri pal Kit Phillips though Umstead Park that morning, I have suspended my training plan for IM CDA. I am fighting off another cold, and have felt generally lousy for a while now, and my main objective is to get heathly first. I am still planning on attending the race in Idaho, and if I am healthy enough and not recovering from surgery, I still may race; with the new goal being to enjoy the day and finish smiling, rather than press myself to a new PR. In the immediate future I have a 10 miler scheduled, and I am not sure what to do about that. I'd really like to run it, and I can't imagine anything will happen tumor-wise by then except the biospy. They say throid tumors grow slow, sometimes over 10 years, so there's no question I have already done an Ironman or two with this thing in me, so 10 miles probably won't hurt me. We shall see how I feel going into next weekend.
Hearing you might have cancer is, of course, news nobody want to hear. But Becca and I feel very fortunate for everything the past couple weeks. We are lucky I had a cold the day I saw the doctor, lucky she decided to give me a quick exam, and lucky she found the mass. And we are lucky things are not worse, as they always can be. We're really lucky there's still a good chance I don't have cancer, and even if I do, its a pretty simple one to treat. I wanted to say thanks to everybody who called or emailed and expressed their concern and support and sent positive vibes our way. I was really impressed on Becca's blog how many of her readers, who have no idea who I am, still sent warm wishes. I've decided to chronicle the events to come on my blog, mostly as a therapeutic means and a personal diary, so I'll keep updates on here as I have them.
So, I was pretty nervous all week waiting for the ultrasound. When I had it done last Wednesday, I asked the technician if she could tell me anything about it as she was performing it, but she said she wasn't allowed. At the end, I asked her if she was able to tell me if she found the lump, and she said "Oh yeah." Not exactly great news, but at least I would get an answer. One funny thing is that I got really freaked out during the procedure because I could kind of see the screen, and I saw a big white mass (my thyroid) and a big black circle right next to it. When she flipped it to the doppler mode for checking blood flow, the black spot lit up like crazy. I broke out in a sweat. When I got back to my computer at work I google image searched "thyroid ultrasound" and it turns out all I was looking at was my carotid artery! I decided to stop playing amateur doctor and wait for the report.
I got the report on the ultrasound while on NC for business on Thursday. I knew it wasn't great news since my doctor and left a message on my VM that she needed to speak with me, and no other details. When she called back, here's what she said: There is a single 4.5cm solid tumor on the left lobe of my thyroid. This is roughly the size of a walnut. It does not have cystic components, its solid throughout. It does have its own blood supply, and it doesn't have calcifications. The doctor told me that she was ready to move forward with a fine needle aspiration biopsy to see if it was thyroid cancer. I knew going into the ultrasound that 95% of thyroid nodules are benign. But, a lot of those nodules are found incidentally while doing an ultrasound on the neck for other purposes. Mine was found because it was jumping out of my neck at the doctor. And from some reading I did I knew that given the size of the tumor, coupled the facts that I am male and its a solitary mass, the likelihood was always more than the typical 95% benign. I asked her what she thought, and she seemed to indicate, in her best "bedside manner" type of language that cancer was a likely outcome. But she also told me about how 85-90% of thryoid cancers are entirely curable, and its not a bad treatment regimen. Just a surgury to remove the thyroid, and then a few weeks later a possible radioiodine treatment in the hospital. It was still tough news to take, and it was tough telling my folks about it. Becca was great; really, really supportive and made me feel better about the whole situation.
I got the report on the ultrasound while on NC for business on Thursday. I knew it wasn't great news since my doctor and left a message on my VM that she needed to speak with me, and no other details. When she called back, here's what she said: There is a single 4.5cm solid tumor on the left lobe of my thyroid. This is roughly the size of a walnut. It does not have cystic components, its solid throughout. It does have its own blood supply, and it doesn't have calcifications. The doctor told me that she was ready to move forward with a fine needle aspiration biopsy to see if it was thyroid cancer. I knew going into the ultrasound that 95% of thyroid nodules are benign. But, a lot of those nodules are found incidentally while doing an ultrasound on the neck for other purposes. Mine was found because it was jumping out of my neck at the doctor. And from some reading I did I knew that given the size of the tumor, coupled the facts that I am male and its a solitary mass, the likelihood was always more than the typical 95% benign. I asked her what she thought, and she seemed to indicate, in her best "bedside manner" type of language that cancer was a likely outcome. But she also told me about how 85-90% of thryoid cancers are entirely curable, and its not a bad treatment regimen. Just a surgury to remove the thyroid, and then a few weeks later a possible radioiodine treatment in the hospital. It was still tough news to take, and it was tough telling my folks about it. Becca was great; really, really supportive and made me feel better about the whole situation.
Here's a picture of the lump, you can see it when I swallow:
On Friday, my doctor and I came up with a plan of attack. See, because its so large and is causing compression in my neck, it has to come out whether its benign or cancer. The only choice to make is if to take the entire thyroid with it or not, and as far as I understand this has to do with the histology showing cancer. So, I am getting an aspiration biopsy next week, either Monday or Thursday at Thomas Jefferson by an ENT specialist. Typically this has to be performed under ultrasound guidance, but the earliest I could be seen for that was May 7th, and we decided my mass is so large and I am so skinny they could hit it from across the room with a needle, making the u/s unnecessary. I should get some pathology that day, and a full report the day after. If it turns out to be cancer, I will go see one of the best head and neck cancer doctors in the world at Fox Chase, thanks to a connection my CEO had there (thanks so much!!!). If its benign, I get an appointment, perhaps with the same ENT to get the lump, and at least part, if not all, of my thyroid removed.
One uplifting bit of information I got was from my extended family. It turns out my cousin had a pretty large benign thyroid mass, and had her thyroid removed last year at age 41, and is doing great on Synthroid. And my grandmother had two masses incidentally discovered during a CT scan in the 1980s. One was lemon sized, the other grapefruit sized, the latter growing down into her sternum. She also had a total thyroidectomy and has been on Synthroid almost 30 years now. So, given this family history, maybe its just a natural DeWire thing to have these giant thryoid tumors removed as you approach mid-life?? Given the good longevity genetics of the DeWire genes (I have several great grandmas, aunt, uncles, etc who are 90+, and one that made it to 102), I will take the good with the bad.
So, since this is a triathlon blog, I suppose I should post an update on what this all means for my racing season. Obviously, triathlon is way down the priority list right now. As of Thursday night, after having a great 90min run with my old NC tri pal Kit Phillips though Umstead Park that morning, I have suspended my training plan for IM CDA. I am fighting off another cold, and have felt generally lousy for a while now, and my main objective is to get heathly first. I am still planning on attending the race in Idaho, and if I am healthy enough and not recovering from surgery, I still may race; with the new goal being to enjoy the day and finish smiling, rather than press myself to a new PR. In the immediate future I have a 10 miler scheduled, and I am not sure what to do about that. I'd really like to run it, and I can't imagine anything will happen tumor-wise by then except the biospy. They say throid tumors grow slow, sometimes over 10 years, so there's no question I have already done an Ironman or two with this thing in me, so 10 miles probably won't hurt me. We shall see how I feel going into next weekend.
Hearing you might have cancer is, of course, news nobody want to hear. But Becca and I feel very fortunate for everything the past couple weeks. We are lucky I had a cold the day I saw the doctor, lucky she decided to give me a quick exam, and lucky she found the mass. And we are lucky things are not worse, as they always can be. We're really lucky there's still a good chance I don't have cancer, and even if I do, its a pretty simple one to treat. I wanted to say thanks to everybody who called or emailed and expressed their concern and support and sent positive vibes our way. I was really impressed on Becca's blog how many of her readers, who have no idea who I am, still sent warm wishes. I've decided to chronicle the events to come on my blog, mostly as a therapeutic means and a personal diary, so I'll keep updates on here as I have them.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Gotta Get Right
I've been AWOL on the blog lately. The reason being that my health has been a mess, and of course my training has suffered considerably. Well, I am finally feeling better, at least well enough to tell the world about it. This season seems like it had a slow start, and then right when it was time to put the gas on and crank up the volume, my health crumbled to pieces in a "death from a thousand cuts" sort of way. Every time I turn around something else has me out of commission, missing a workout, or a few days of them.
The first thing that started to go haywire with my health was my mysterious chest pain (see old blog post about this). Running to and from work in PA was absolutely great for about a week or two, then the pain settled in, and got progressively worse as weeks went on. My training log is filled with entries about having to walk on my runs, and how bad it hurt. About two weeks ago, I was running home and it hurt so bad I swore off ever running again. I wasn't able to find a pattern as to why it was happening, and though it seems to be subsiding now, I am still left at a loss. It's GERD-related to be sure, but what is causing the GERD I don't know. There were no major changes in my diet or lifestyle that could be blamed.
So, I decided to shift my focus from running to biking, since I don't get the chest pain while biking. I began bike commuting, which is awesome when the weather cooperates. And that weekend I scheduled a 4 hour ride with Becca. Then, the day before the ride I got hit with a nasty chest cold. I was hellbent on riding since I have missed so much training this year, so I went anyway, and it hurt. When we got home I had lost my voice, and had a 102 fever and laid on the couch under blankets in a NyQuil coma the rest of the night.
The cold roughed me up pretty good all last week. So, I scheduled an appointment to see a doctor. I figured I was ready to get a new doctor in PA anyway, I was sick as a dog, and I could always use another (maybe the 5th?) opinion on the chest pain. The doctor was great, and to stop my GERD she put me on a Nexium regimen that could kill a horse. It cleared up my GERD in a few days. She also took a listen to my lungs and predicted (correctly) that my chest cold would be gone in a few days. But then, while she was examining my neck she found a large mass on my thyroid gland. It's too early to know anything concrete about it, other than its a lump and it doesn't produce hormone (my thyroid panel was fine). But still, it scared me pretty bad for a few days. I wrote a blog about it, but then decided not to post it. I am going for an ultrasound to find out more tomorrow, and perhaps a biopsy to follow. Now that I have learned more about it, I am not as scared.
But even this screwed up my training for a few days since while I was waiting for my thyroid panel to come back I was not supposed to train. See, if I had hyperthroidism, heart failure is a common condition. And given the chest pain I have been having we decided it was a good idea to find out first. So, after a few days we found out my thyroid hormone levels are fine, and I was cleared to train again.
At last, a good training weekend...but it was Easter and we were headed to CT. No matter, I will run a bunch while I'm there, and bike when we get home Sunday. Well, Saturday it absolutely poured in CT. I ran an hour of hill repeats and got soaked to the bone, it was a miserable run. But, the good news was that I felt great otherwise. As lousy as I have been feeling lately, this was a great sign. Then Sunday, we got home in time for another run. Besides having my legs being sore as crap from the hill repeats and then sitting in the car for 5 hours, it was a lovely long run through our new town with Becca and the baby jogger.
When we got home from the run, I saw Becca eating her protein recovery drink. She's been such a machine lately, she must be doing something right, so I decided to have some. This was against my better judgment since I've gotten mild hives from whey in the past, but not too serious, so I downed a scoop of the stuff. Twenty minutes later I have two fat lips, my mouth is numb, and my entire trunk is covered in giant hives. I guess I am really allergic to whey (and soy, what the heck am I supposed to eat for protein besides the Outback Steakhouse???) So, its off to CVS for benedryl. I took two, so again I was out of commission for a workout. Becca ground out two or three hours on the computrainer while I dozed off.
So, what does all this mean? It means I "gotta get right." My GERD is finally on the right track, so the chest pain is subsiding. I am 95% over my cold. I'll stay away from whey. And I'll learn more about my lumpy neck this week. It's time to get it all right, then ask my body to do some serious work. I have scheduled big hours this week, so we will see how it goes. It's now or never for IM CDA.
The first thing that started to go haywire with my health was my mysterious chest pain (see old blog post about this). Running to and from work in PA was absolutely great for about a week or two, then the pain settled in, and got progressively worse as weeks went on. My training log is filled with entries about having to walk on my runs, and how bad it hurt. About two weeks ago, I was running home and it hurt so bad I swore off ever running again. I wasn't able to find a pattern as to why it was happening, and though it seems to be subsiding now, I am still left at a loss. It's GERD-related to be sure, but what is causing the GERD I don't know. There were no major changes in my diet or lifestyle that could be blamed.
So, I decided to shift my focus from running to biking, since I don't get the chest pain while biking. I began bike commuting, which is awesome when the weather cooperates. And that weekend I scheduled a 4 hour ride with Becca. Then, the day before the ride I got hit with a nasty chest cold. I was hellbent on riding since I have missed so much training this year, so I went anyway, and it hurt. When we got home I had lost my voice, and had a 102 fever and laid on the couch under blankets in a NyQuil coma the rest of the night.
The cold roughed me up pretty good all last week. So, I scheduled an appointment to see a doctor. I figured I was ready to get a new doctor in PA anyway, I was sick as a dog, and I could always use another (maybe the 5th?) opinion on the chest pain. The doctor was great, and to stop my GERD she put me on a Nexium regimen that could kill a horse. It cleared up my GERD in a few days. She also took a listen to my lungs and predicted (correctly) that my chest cold would be gone in a few days. But then, while she was examining my neck she found a large mass on my thyroid gland. It's too early to know anything concrete about it, other than its a lump and it doesn't produce hormone (my thyroid panel was fine). But still, it scared me pretty bad for a few days. I wrote a blog about it, but then decided not to post it. I am going for an ultrasound to find out more tomorrow, and perhaps a biopsy to follow. Now that I have learned more about it, I am not as scared.
But even this screwed up my training for a few days since while I was waiting for my thyroid panel to come back I was not supposed to train. See, if I had hyperthroidism, heart failure is a common condition. And given the chest pain I have been having we decided it was a good idea to find out first. So, after a few days we found out my thyroid hormone levels are fine, and I was cleared to train again.
At last, a good training weekend...but it was Easter and we were headed to CT. No matter, I will run a bunch while I'm there, and bike when we get home Sunday. Well, Saturday it absolutely poured in CT. I ran an hour of hill repeats and got soaked to the bone, it was a miserable run. But, the good news was that I felt great otherwise. As lousy as I have been feeling lately, this was a great sign. Then Sunday, we got home in time for another run. Besides having my legs being sore as crap from the hill repeats and then sitting in the car for 5 hours, it was a lovely long run through our new town with Becca and the baby jogger.
When we got home from the run, I saw Becca eating her protein recovery drink. She's been such a machine lately, she must be doing something right, so I decided to have some. This was against my better judgment since I've gotten mild hives from whey in the past, but not too serious, so I downed a scoop of the stuff. Twenty minutes later I have two fat lips, my mouth is numb, and my entire trunk is covered in giant hives. I guess I am really allergic to whey (and soy, what the heck am I supposed to eat for protein besides the Outback Steakhouse???) So, its off to CVS for benedryl. I took two, so again I was out of commission for a workout. Becca ground out two or three hours on the computrainer while I dozed off.
So, what does all this mean? It means I "gotta get right." My GERD is finally on the right track, so the chest pain is subsiding. I am 95% over my cold. I'll stay away from whey. And I'll learn more about my lumpy neck this week. It's time to get it all right, then ask my body to do some serious work. I have scheduled big hours this week, so we will see how it goes. It's now or never for IM CDA.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
