My Thyroid Cancer Surgery
Who am I
My name is Angela! I am a wife, a stay at home mom to my 5 precious kiddos, I homeschool my kids and take care of our home every day and my familys needs. I love my family and still feel that I am truly blessed!
(My husband and I)
The beginning of all this...
About a month after having our 5th child (who was born this past March)
(His smile alone makes the hardest days better)
I started noticing my energy taking a dive. I was just tired all the time, and definitely not "just having a baby" tired. Before all this I could do everything I had to do during the day and stay up late if needed and out of the blue I just could not physically push myself anymore. Instead of being up till 1am or sometimes later, I was beyond exhausted as early as 3pm. Thinking I just burned myself out I tried to keep going. I continued to clean, cook, homeschool and take care of my family as best as I could. I very quickly started experiencing extreme fatigue, shortness of breath constantly and pretty intense vertigo. (which is scary when youre alone taking care of little kiddos all around the clock) I noticed some palpitations in my heart, pain everywhere, severe weakness and other symptoms that werent adding up. I finally decided to get to my doctor. (as moms we always put ourselves off).
Trying to piece the symptoms together...
Many tests started happening, stress tests, heart monitors, ekgs, lab work. My echo cardio showed some leaky heart valves but nothing severe enough for treatment. The labwork showed my thyroid levels a little low which is what we thought was causing all these symptoms. My doctor ordered an ultrasound to rule out it being enlarged. The ultrasound revealed a nodule. I then had to have an appointment out of town to see an ENT. That appointment seemed reassuring as I was told I probably had a 5% chance it would be cancerous.
I am apparently that 5%. I went for a Fine Needle Aspiration biopsy. I was reassured the whole time there was nothing to worry about it would more than likely show everything is ok. I got the call about a week later with the news that the biopsy results were suspicious and that Papillary Cancer was definitely present. Any other types of cancer would be determined during my thyroidectomy. They will have to send sections to pathology during surgery. Some of my lymph nodes looked suspicious in my high resolution ultrasound as well and more than likely will be removed also. No other information can be given until I get this surgery done and they see whats going on inside. After the surgery I will have to have radioactive iodine for sure. Chemo or any other treatments will be determined afterwards.
Surgery Date and Insurance Expiration...
My thyroidectomy is scheduled for June 9th. Unfortunately this is all really bad timing. My insurance that I had during pregnancy ended as of May 31st. We tried to purchase an insurance plan for regular insurance (the pregnancy one I had was specifically for being pregnant and a short time postpartum that just expired) Well every single insurance place we tried had plans that started July 1st. We tried them all and because it was already June 1st it automatically would not start till the following month. So yes, starting July 1st we should be able to be insured.
Exercising humility and reaching out for help....
The surgery cannot be delayed at all. Not even till July. Therefore, this surgery will be completely out of pocket. Honestly, with how large of a family we have and my husband being our source of income, we just cannot do this without help. The hospital I need to go to and all the offices for follow ups and treatments are over an hour away from where we live. There will be many, many trips back to back. We are not ones to reach out for help. We are responsible and do everything we can on our own to take care of our family, in good seasons and in tough seasons. But this is something out of our control that is humbling us to reach out, realize and accept we cannot do this alone. Thankfully my in laws will be able to help during the surgery and hospital stay to watch our children. Thankfully my husband will still be able to work during that time and not have to be home to take care of the kids.
How much will this help us?
Any help would be such a relief of this financial burden. Right now we are just trying to adjust to what is going on and realizing this is just a season. There are some changes we need to make and things we have to figure out. The baby needs to be switched to formula, purchasing all our homeschool curriculums has come to a halt until we figure what we can realistically afford to spend. We dont know how bad this huge bill will affect our finances in the future. We don't know what to expect from this fund as we have never done this before or ever looked into what it is. We don't know whether we will have a couple hundred given to help out or a couple thousand. One thing I do know is God always provides. Especially when it seems impossible!
Where will each and every donation go?
We know the surgery, the costs of the hospital stay for however long, pathology, anesthisia, the operating room, the pharmacy and meds they will give me during my stay at the hospital will rack up to a number much larger than what I put down. Each and every donation- big or small, will be going to medical expenses and immediate treatment. If there happened to be anything over the amount I put down, it would be used for the following : to help with fuel for all the back and forth trips, follow up appointments, tests and loss of income if my husband had to take off work for the days his parents could not watch the kids. Any amount would be such a blessing to our family that we would be forever greatful for! There is not an amount too small, every little bit will help. Thank you so much in advance for whatever you are able to give! I hope to one day pay it forward and pass on the same kindness and generosity as I receive! Thank you and God Bless!
