Tuesday, June 30, 2009



TIME IS A SORT OF RIVER OF PASSING EVENTS, AND STRONG IS ITS CURRENT; NO SOONER IS A THING BROUGHT TO SIGHT THAN IT IS SWEPT BY AND ANOTHER TAKES ITS PLACE, AND THIS TOO WILL BE SWEPT AWAY.

MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATION iv.43

Last week I had a total thyroidectomy. It has taken me almost a whole week to get my energy back to almost normal but I am walking 2 miles every morning again (albeit slower than normal) and don't feel like I need to take a nap every couple of hours.

Today I saw my surgeon for my post-op appointment and it was an appointment filled with emotions as he told me that they found two nodules that had papillary carcinoma but that the good news was that they were very small, that they were removed, and that the cure rate for papillary carcinoma is about 98%. If you are going to get a cancer this might be the one you would pick. And, one of the "cures" was surgical removal. Done! I never wanted it but I am trying to "go with the flow" and look for the silver lining. Because I KNOW that there is a silver lining. In fact he said that because of their small size he would not even recommend that I do anything more as far as a follow-up treatment but that he would leave that up to my Endocrinologist and me to decide what course of action to take (or not). And so, life goes on.

My thoughts today are like the quote above: thoughts come to mind but are quickly swept away by another and another. I sunk in my chair when I heard the "C" word in his office but then I heard his voice telling me that we did exactly what we SHOULD have done: WE TOOK IT OUT! Now, that sounded GOOD. It was GONE. I feel relieved about that news. So, I received some bad news and some good news, in that order. It could have been the opposite way around.

4 comments:

  1. Oh wow. Though that's very frightening to hear, it sounds like your doctor did indeed set you on the correct course of action.

    I may have already suggested the book Anticancer: A New Way of Life, but if I didn't I highly recommend it. If you do a search on my blog for it you'll find a video from the author and my own little review (and the NY Times review I think). Anyway, the book prompted me to add several new things to my diet (without going completely overboard). One of which was a daily square of dark chocolate - I'm not arguing with that advice!

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  2. Wow.
    I love hearing your thought process on this, but sorry you even had to go through it. Great photo and quote too. It does sound like good news trumped the bad news. Hang in there.

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  3. This quote was EXACTLY what I needed to read and it will be a PERFECT reminder throughout today....thank you for the blessing.

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  4. Thank you all SO much for all your kind words! I am feeling SO much better today. My spirits are up, my energy level is up, I feel happy and excited and re-born really. All of your words and photos just contribute to this feeling of well-being more than you will ever know. Thank you again so VERY much! T

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