Support for Dominick Pulizzi
The Phelan’s have been a huge part of our small town and the surrounding area for a very long time. Katie Phelan and her family are going through one of the worst times of their lives. Dominick has been diagnosed with Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Cancer, he’s had surgery to remove a tumor and facing a lifetime of treatments. Helping financially is just a small way to help.
Words from Katie,
Sometime at the end of February beginning of March Dominick noticed a small lump on the left side of his neck. It was small and didn't really bother him. He had just been getting over a sore throat from the weather changing and I thought it might just be from that. He didn't meantion it again and seemed to be okay. He is extremely active and was lifting weights so I wasn't sure if he pulled a muscle. Fast forward to April 3rd, Gabi sent me a message at work telling me that his neck was huge and he was in pain. As soon as I got home from work I called him downstairs from his room and I could see what looked like he had a golf ball under his skin. I immediatly told him to get his shoes we were going to get it looked at in the ER. We went over to Geisinger in Danville and they took us right in and in a short time the nurses, doctors, and other medical staff were in the room asking us a bunch of questions. The doctor explained he wanted to run some tests. Within minutes there was a tech at his bedside taking his blood then as soon as that was done he went for an x-ray. Before he came back the next tech was at the door looking for him to get an ultrasound. They made us feel like he was the only one in that emergency room that night. I have never in my life had an emergency room visit happen in such a short time. After all his tests were complete though the time stood still..... we waited and we waited. Then finally I saw nurses looking in our room with smiles that made my mother senses nervous. The doctor came in and shut the door behind him, he touched my shoulder and said, "Hey mom do you mind if I sit down so we can talk". As you can imagine I knew this wasn't going to be good news. Dominick sat up in the bed and right away asked, "Do I have cancer.... is this cancer?" He was calm and spoke to us with such kindness. He told us he wasn't saying it was cancer but he wasn't saying it wasn't. He explained he needed us to go see a specialist who would order more testing but at that moment Dominick was okay to go home medically. He explained there was a lump showing on the tests but that his bloodwork all looked good so that was reassuring.
April 5th, we had a follow up with his PCP as a routine after ER visit. She agreed with the ER doctors that he needed to be seen at Otolaryngology/ENT. There was nothing else the PCP could do at this point but she reassured us as did the ER doctor that he was okay to go home until we knew more.
April 9th, Our first visit with the specialist at Geisinger. She had all the imaging and bloodwork. She wanted to discuss removing the lump but she wanted more testing just to get better images and also biopsies to know what exactly we were dealing with. We left with appointments for further testing and follow ups.
April 16th, we went for his MRI. This was almost 2 hours. They did it with and without contrast. We went for 915pm and didn't get home until after midnight. That was the longest testing he's had.
April 21st, we met back up with the specialist at Otolaryngology/ENT to get results from the MRI. We did a scope to check his airway in the office. His airway was open and fine at this visit but we didn't want the mass to continue to grow and risk it affecting his airway. She then wanted to order biopsies to make sure we weren't missing anything.April 26th, we went to interventional radiology at Geisinger. He was prepped and taken in for biopsies. They also drained off over 10ml's of fluid from the mass at that time which made it stick out much less. He was in some discomfort but went back to school that day so he wouldn't miss track practice.
May 4th, we had talked to the doctors office and told them his pain was increasing and they asked us to bring Dominick over to the ER. One of the residents was going to meet us there and drain his mass again to relief some of the pressure. Once there they decided to try antibiotics instead of draining as we were planning to remove the mass and if it was going to just continue to fill up we didn't want to have to keep cutting into him and taking the risk of causing an infection. I agreed 100%
May 13th, we meet with another doctor in the same Otolaryngology/ENT department who was more qualified to perform the surgery he needed. This was his current doctors choice. I respected her decision and we couldn't have been in better hands from any of them really. Through this whole process they had all been so caring and amazing. All the tests cam eback bengin, this was just a mass that needed removed.June 14th, the day of his surgery. We had to be to Geisinger at 8 am. He has a friend who's mother I had never met but she had spoken to me through text prior. She actually was in his surgery and was there for him when I couldn't be. I can never repay this women or express how grateful my family is to know she was there taking care of him like no one else could be. She came in before they took him for surgery and it gave me so much peace knowing she was with him. After, surgery he was admitted to the hospital. His surgery went great, they were able to remove the whole mass, he had a drain coming out the left side of his neck. He was in pain which was expected. The doctor told me he had to stretch muscle to get that mass out and he would be sore. Dominick having muscles was no surprise to me... this kid is all muscle from soccer and track. He was pretty uncomfortable and didn't sleep well that night at all. He was on medication that wasn't really working for his pain.June 15th, doctors did their rounds in the morning and we were hoping he may go home later in the day depending on how he was feeling. He wasn't eating much but he was drinking. He did eventually eat small amounts of soft foods through the day. Around 3-4pm there were three doctors that came into the room with Dominick and I. The doctor told me during his surgery he noticed something after the mass was taken out and he send it off to pathology with the mass. I'm not sure what made him see it, or what made him decided to send it off but we are forever grateful he did. He explained this was nothing he even thought of or crossed his mind when he removed it but the results came back in and him and his staff were all shocked. Cancer.... you hear people tell you when they heard the news they didn't hear anything else and I'm going to tell you thats exactly how it happened. He said the word "cancer" and my heart sunk, i felt like someoone had just taken the floor out from under my feet, I sat there nodding at him and responding but honestly I have no idea what was said after that. I felt tears running down my face... I have never felt so scared and helpless in my life. More tests were ordered...we went right away for CT scan with and without contrast. Then phone calls I didn't know how to even begin were made, family came to the hospital so I could let me sister, mom, dad, and Gabi know. Tons of tears were shed and continue daily.June 17th, we had the drain removed from his neck. This was the weirded thing to watch and more painful than imagined for him to go through. After that we went for ultrasounds of his entire neck and throat. Everything came back confirming he has metastatic papillary thyroid cancer and it shows on lymph nodes as well. He will be needing more surgery and on medication for the rest of his life. He will do a radio iodine after which I'm not 100% sure all that entails but what I have been told he will not be allowed near people especially his sister once he takes it for awhile.
Through all of this he continued to do sports and go to school. He is the strongest person I know. He has the most ridiculously high tolerance for pain which scares me sometimes. He had an angel with him that I'm thankful everyday for. He is not a "feel bad for me" kind of kid and didn't want people to know right away. He wanted to just plan the surgery and get it taken care of. This is cancer, but it isn't the worst kind. Hopefully we found it sooner than most people and he will go through a lot but in the end he will beat this. He is using humor to deal and he has told his friends as I have let family know.