Less than one year after my first surgery, June 7, 2017 I went in for surgery number 2. Starting in about January or February, I had a nodule just above my right collarbone that has been starting to bother me. When I first notices it, it wasn’t so bad yet. I could definitely feel t just with running my finger across my collarbone. Through the months it started growing bigger and bigger. In March I went for another PET/CT and an ultrasound like I had mentioned before already. In the ultrasound that node was bigger than on the PET scan, but during my discussion with Dr. W. I asked him if it was possible to please have this removed as it was starting to get quite painful. Painful to the point where sometimes even wearing a bra was a little too much.

Finding a doctor

Dr. W. got into contact with Dr. S. to see what he would think about doing another surgery, especially so soon after my first one and very close to the original surgery site. Well, I believe that there was quite a bit of miscommunication going on at that point, because Dr. S. refused to do the surgery. However he thought I was asking for something completely different. If I understood the conversation that happened between the doctors correctly, Dr. S. was under the impression I was asking them to remove ALL of the little tumors and the little remnant of thyroid left after the first surgery. That surgery would be a massive one though. That would mean cracking open my chest which would have a tremendous amount of possible side effects. Such as again a possible tracheostomy (permanent breathing tube in the neck), being put on bypass during surgery and much more. There is a very good chance that that wouldn’t even work. In the long run I might not be able to get around getting a surgery that is somewhat similar to that what Dr. S. had thought of, but for now the tumours on my sternum are quite small and not bothersome at all. The only spot that I wanted to get done was my collarbone. So after I finally got my point across to all the doctors, I got an appointment to go see Dr. M.. He was also in my first surgery and knows my case.

When I went to see him, he was very forward in what he thinks I should be doing. He mentioned that he has been doing some studying of the tumor tissue and some of the drugs that are available for cancer treatments, especially the ones for my type of tumor. He mentioned that he is not able to make treatment decisions based on the results of that testing, because the testing is not approved for that kind of treatment. Basically its experimental, but could maybe one day help make decisions when the time comes to start medications. I met with him on a Thursday and as we were discussing surgery date option, he was like “Oh yea, we will do next Wednesday”. I was a bit shocked that it would be that fast, especially because it was the Wednesday before Jeff and I were flying out to Ontario to meet with Dr. K.. I asked him if it would be ok to be flying that soon after surgery, which he saw no issue with, however I was still hoping there would be another date chosen. Just a few hours later Dr. M.’s nurse called me to confirm my surgery appointment for June 7, 2017.

Surgery

The whole prep for surgery part, was a bit weird this time around, or better say not existent. I got a phone call one week before surgery confirming that I would have surgery, however I would have to call the day before to see what time it was actually slated for. That was all the prep that I was given. No pre surgery appointment, no blood work, nothing. Jeff, my mom and myself got to the hospital for 8:30. I got all checked in and was sent up to the Surgery Day ward, where people get prepped for surgery and then wait for the porters to come and bring you to the Operating Room. I got my very first Heparin injection here as well. I have given many Heparin and Enoxaparin injections as a nurse, but man when you get one yourself is when you realize how painful those things really can be. I still have the bruise from it 2 weeks later. I found out that my actual surgery time was not until 10:50, so after they had me all prepped, we just sat there. Around 10 the porter finally came to take me down. The surgery was being performed in the same hospital as where I work. The operating room is actually even on the same floor as my unit. When we turned towards the Operating Suites, one of my coworkers was walking towards us. She recognized me, which sometimes is a bit difficult when you only know what someone looks like in scrubs :), and wished me luck in my surgery.

Jeff and my mom were able to stay with me in the operating room prep area until they took me in. I think my mom was more nervous than me. When you are in this area, usually the surgeon, anesthesiologist and one of the nurse that will be in the room, come to talk to you. The surgeon is super quick, this is what we are doing, done. Nurse, asked you every thing that you have already answered many times that day, such as “What are we doing today? Do you have any allergies? When was the last time you ate?”. This time the anesthesiologist was the most important for me. Since I was so incredibly nauseous last time around, that I wanted them to give me something before I even got out of the sedation. Around 10:40 I was finally wheeled into the operating theatre. Once I was on the table and strapped down, Dr. M. came in and discussed the surgery with me one more time. First thing he said was “You can probably go home later on today”. Well that was news to me and after the last surgery I was slightly weary about that. I told him I would see how I felt after and decide then. He did another ultrasound to see the nodule more clearer and then asked me “How do you feel about scars?”. Well, a year ago, I probably would have said “Please make it as small as possible”, now though my approach is a bit different. If you can get the cancer out, go for it! I don’t care about how big the scar is. Obviously it would be nice for it to be small, but my priorities have somewhat changed maybe. Before they put me under Dr. M. explained to me that they would probably be able to use the same scar as the first time, but that depending on how difficult it is, he may have to extend it. He also said something about the node being attached to quite a bit of structures, so he was hopeful that he could remove it, however couldn’t promise it. So off I went to ‘sleep’ not knowing if this would actually work.

When I woke up, I was still in the operating room, on my left side, with a wicked headache and slightly nauseous. I was rolled into recovery and was greeted by a very lovely nurse. She got me some Toradol for my headache super fast and that was taken care of. Once that medication was in, the nausea started getting stronger and stronger. I turned to the nurse and asked her if they had a kidney basin, just in case. Apparently they don’t carry those in the Recovery Room or maybe just not that day :). Again though, my nurse was right on top of it and had the Gravol in faster than I could readjust in the bed. Somehow the fact that I work in the hospital had spread, so when the nurse called up to the unit to give report, she made a point to let the nurse on the other end know that about 3-4 times!! She hung up and turned to and said “you’re getting a private room” :). As the porter came to get me, the nurse told her that she had to go with me and the porter to drop me off at the unit, because I had to have an Emergency Tracheostomy tray at my bedside anywhere I went. When I heard that I my heart dropped a little. However when I thought of the fact that they were gonna send me home that day still, I assumed it was just a precaution that was probably never gonna be needed.

When I was wheeled into my room, I had a nurse and a health aid in the room with me. They were the absolute best ever, let me tell you. They were so sweet. One of them asked me my age and when I told her I was 26, she stopped, looked at me and was like “WHAT?? You look like you are 17”. They were also very shocked about the fact that I was so young and have cancer. As they were getting me settled in they kept asking questions, like where in the hospital I was working and such. One of them mentioned that she makes sure that when ‘family’ comes onto their unit, she makes sure that they are treated well, including getting a private room and making sure that I am super comfortable. I asked for some ice chips, cause that usually works really well for me to make me feel better. This time though… not so much. I couldn’t even open my mouth wide enough to put a spoon with an ice chip in my mouth, my jaw hurt that much. Later when I was talking to my mom we figured I probably was clenching my jaw through the entire surgery quite a bit. Luckily over the next couple hours it got better and better. About 2 or 3 hours after I got into the room the resident that was in my surgery, stopped by to inform me, that they got the node that I had been wanting to get out, but weren’t able to get the other smaller nodes that are a little deeper. They are still pretty small but apparently they are attached to some of the vessels and tendons. When they went in they discovered that if they were to try to take those out, there was a chance they wouldn’t be able to get them, but would be doing quite a bit of damage in that area. I am already struggling with nerve damage from my first surgery in my shoulder, so I am happy they didn’t just go digging and potentially do more damage. They were also able to use my old scar without having to cut anymore. He told me again that I was more than welcome to go home anytime. I told him I am feeling fine but that the local anaesthetic they put in before the surgery was over, had not worn off yet, so I wanted to wait and make sure I was not in excruciating pain once that was out of my system. If I still felt fine after a couple hours, I told him I would ask the nurses to discharge me.

When Jeff came to the hospital he brought me some food and my clothes. After getting some food in my belly and my clothes on, Jeff and I went for a walk to the Healing Gardens. When we got there, the co-worker that had seen me being wheeled into the OR was sitting there in her break. As we were sitting there enjoying the sun, Jeff turned to me “You sure you don’t want to go home?”. The freezing had worn off and I did feel great, so we thought we would stop by my unit and then make our way to the nurses and ask them to discharge me. That’s what we did, walked through my unit and had some good conversations. I miss work. I miss the people, I miss the patients, some might think me crazy but I miss the hustle and bustle and the adrenaline rush you get when you are saving a life. I mss all of that. So I can’t wait to get back to that. Lets hope I will get to sometime this summer or latest in the Fall. Back on the unit, I mentioned to the nurses that I think I am good enough that I would like to go home. So in comes my nurse with the charge nurse, who explains to me that me leaving makes life so much easier for them since they had to take a new admission from the ICU. As soon as they said they were okay with me leaving, Jeff grabbed all of our stuff and headed off to get the car. Discharge was super fast. No prescription, nothing just a see Dr. M. in 4 weeks and leave the Steri strips on for 14 days. Take some Advil or Tylenol if you are in pain. On the way home we stopped at my parents home for dinner and I was back on my couch less than 12 hours after leaving the house to even head for surgery.

Recovery

Sleeping was actually pretty comfortable. I have one of those large square European pillows that I just put on my bed below my pillow which makes it really nicely elevated. Well, as amazing as I was feeling the first day, the next morning, was not to great. I woke up feeling incredibly stiff. I couldn’t even talk, it hurt so much. Jeff had to basically pull me out of bed, because I lifting up my head by myself was not happening at all. Clearing my throat vibrated through my entire body. To sum up that day, I moved from the bed to the couch and stayed there for most of the day. Any movements required my whole body, for example lifting my head required my hand behind my neck and using all of those muscles to lift. So head, arms, abs everything. I had some T3’s from my last surgery which together with some muscle relaxants, made the day bearable. In the evening my mom came over to help my muscles relax a bit more by giving me a light massage. It quite amazing how much something simple like that can help. Waking up the next morning was soooo much better and it has been getting better every single day since then. There were days where I didn’t take any painkillers because I wasn’t in that much pain until I started moving, or I would start feeling funny like my heart started racing and such. You know being a nurse you look for these things in your patients, but sometimes to see the those signs and symptoms in yourself is a bit more tricky. Until you take your own heart beat and its at like 113 beats per minute, completely resting on the couch, realize you haven’t taken any pain meds in 12 hours. It was definitely time to take some. Just 30 minutes later, I felt so much better. Heart rate was down to the 90s, the crazy racing was gone and I was feeling much better overall. Its amazing what a little medications can do.

3 days after my surgery I woke up with some swelling and redness just under my incision. I ended up going to a bridal shower that morning which was a very nice change from being at home the past few days. The next day the swelling was a little bit more pronounce, and so was the redness. I didn’t make it to church that Sunday, it seemed that being out and about the day before, might have been a little bit too much. My parents came to pick me up for lunch and then went to a medical clinic with my mom afterwards. Jeff and I have found this medicenter in a Walmart that is just amazingly fast. I literally was in and out of the clinic in under 15 minutes with my prescription for antibiotics in hand. After just 2 days of meds, the swelling and redness were gone. Thank the Lord.

I had started Callinv Dr. M. office 2 days after my surgery to schedule my follow up appointment. When I then got the infection and went on the meds I felt like I should call them again and let them know about this change. As well as make sure that they didn’t want me to come in earlier for a follow up or if they wanted me to change to a different antibiotic. On my third call I started being a little bit more direct, mentioning that this was my third time calling and I hadn’t heard from them. Well, that finally got them to answer me. However, definitely not in the nicest way. It was partially the tone she used as well as what she said. First thing she said when I answered, before even asking anything, was “you know I don’t see him everyday sweetie so I don’t have an answer”. That took me back a bit. You would assume that there would be a standing protocol for post op infections. As in, patients calls with these symptoms, you give them these meds and these answers. After I explained to her what they had put me on and me asking if that will be ok, all she said was that should be fine. When I asked about how it would work about scheduling the appointment for the follow up, if they would call me, she said “since I have you on the phone I’ll just make one. We have more important things to do you know”. She gave me an appointment in July 5th, which is the week our church is hosting our annual vacation bible school. I am a group leader this year so I am scheduled to be there every day which would interfere with the appointment. When I asked what the next one would be, it was another 2 weeks or so. I got someone to cover for me and so my follow up will be July 5th.

Since then

I have to say my scar look amazing. They did an incredible job. The steri strips started coming off piece by piece as they should, my mom was cutting them off as it loosened. 11 days after surgery I just took it all off because it was bothering me more than it was covering or helping me. When it finally came off, I was so surprised how greasy it looked. I send Jeff the picture underneath right after asking him “did they even cut?”  It is so neatly done. I am able to do just do everything. I basically did a spring cleaning already since surgery. My mom is planning on doing a garage sale, so I’ve gone trough all the stuff I would like to sell. I have a few things that I haven’t used in years, so I figured it’s time to get rid of them. Maybe someone else can make use of it 🙂

Last week I had another PET scan but have no results yet. I am planning on calling Dr. W. about the results of that and the blood work I had done. I will keep you all updated about those results. I also have another appointment on Monday with a Neurologist. I have to go to see one because I want to get a nerve conduction study done on that spinal accessory muscle nerve that was damaged during the first surgery. My physio has recommended that because we want to see if the nerve is coming back at all or if I just have to learn how to live my life and do my job not using that certain muscle. It will just make a treatment plan easier to establish and a plan on when I can come back to work.

Today Jeff and I made a road trip down to Canmore for another wedding!! I am so excited. It’s always nice to watch a friend get married. I will share some pictures later. For now… have a good night and thank you so much for all the prayers on my surgery journey and recovery. It has been an amazing time.