Tomorrow - Surgery #2

In 12 hours I will be in surgery to remove the rest of my thyroid. I feel a mixture of anxiety and also excitement. Not that I am super excited to have surgery but I am super excited that this phase is almost behind me. I have a feeling that my laryngeal nerve will make it through unscathed this time around but if it is damaged, I know that it will get better. I wish I could figure out a way to load my voice recordings to make this a complete record of this experience but I don't know how to do it. My surgeon told me that I am a good candidate for the RAI/Radioactive Iodine treatment so when I see my Endocrinologist next week, I will find out what he thinks. If he says that I should do it, I want to get it done as soon as possible. My surgeon also told me that UCSF tests Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma for the BRAF V600E Mutation and I tested positive for this. She said that they have been testing people with this kind of cancer for that gene and that the majority of people (approximately 80%) test positive for the gene and that they are trying to figure out what this means and how they can act on this information. Another thing she said was that in Japan, they are doing a study with people who have this kind of cancer and rather than operating, they are just watching the patients to see what happens. She said that the medical community is very interested in seeing what they learn. One final piece of information that I found very interesting is a Q&A about Thyroid Cancer in the New York Times from an Endocrinologist from Sloan Kettering. For some reason, I can't insert a link to the Q&A but I recommend googling: Ask an Expert About Thyroid Cancer with Dr. R. Michael Tuttle, an endocrinologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. It was published in October 2010. OK, it's time for a bath and then off to sleep. Or to try to sleep.