Surgery update
Jan. 8th, 2009 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sereneMet with the endocrinologist yesterday, who besides the fact that she's about twelve years old and terminally patronizing, appears to be on the ball and to care about my thoughts about my own treatment.
(Minor glitch, possibly nothing: She highly recommended Dr. G. as the surgeon, and then today, the Head and Neck Surgery Department called and gave me an appointment for tomorrow at 4:00. Just now, I looked and saw that it's with Dr. H., a whole different surgeon. I wrote to the endocrinologist and asked her opinion on the second guy. I mean, she was so complimentary about Dr. G. that I hate to switch if it's a bad idea.)
Anyway, I have an appointment at 4 tomorrow, and will probably get a surgery date then. The plan is to take out the rest of my thyroid and a conservative number of lymph nodes (rather than going crazy in there), then biopsy the tumor and lymph nodes and decide then whether or not the radioactive-iodine treatment is advised/necessary. [Edit: if it is, it would be a couple months later, after I've healed from surgery and gone without my thyroid pills for a while.] I was happy when the endocrinologist said that if there's no cancer, she wouldn't recommend it, but if there's any at all, she's planning to strongly encourage it. That feels like a boundary I can get behind.
More when I know it.
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 04:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 04:38 am (UTC)Last time, I was out for a few hours and stayed overnight. Not sure how Kaiser handles it, but I'll ask tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 04:56 am (UTC)Go Serene!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 04:59 am (UTC)Our Family Kaiser
Date: 2009-01-09 05:07 am (UTC)It sounds like a good conservative plan. Do I really need to say this "anything, anything at all that you need, ask, okay?"
*hugs*
no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:10 am (UTC)Re: Our Family Kaiser
Date: 2009-01-09 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:50 am (UTC)I suspect the endocrinologist's praise of Dr. G. was a kind of pep talk, to be repeated with only slight variations for Dr. H. Patients who are told their surgeons are top of the line probably do better than those who hear something like "You'll have Dr. G., but don't worry, this is so simple not even that old drunk could screw it up."
My limited secondhand experience with Kaiser's surgeons has been quite good. Also, judging from my wife's experience, cancer treatment is mostly a matter of protocols and probabilities. For a given set of signs and symptoms protocol dictates certain therapies which appear to have worked well in most similar cases, and for a big outfit like Kaiser that's pretty much the whole story, so to some extent it doesn't matter who the surgeon is as long as s/he's reasonably competent -- the protocol will dictate what's to be done and the surgeon's main concern will be to do it neatly.
Regarding general versus local anesthesia -- my opinion's not worth much, but my wife felt afterwards that she would have done better (been less nauseated afterwards) with local. She chose general, which the surgeon had recommended because no one knew for certain how much would have to be cut out; if it turned out to be more than anticipated, using local anesthetic would involve annoying and possibly painful delay. As it turned out, a local probably would have been better, but there was no way to know that in advance. YMMV; just don't sweat the decision too much; there are advantages and disadvantages either way. My wife felt like hell for about twelve hours afterward, but then -- in the blink of an eye -- felt fine again.
Good luck!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 06:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 06:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 07:07 am (UTC)*hug*
no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 07:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 07:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-09 10:27 pm (UTC)I almost laughed, but decided that it might make her cry - she was so clearly hiding behind a false mask of bravado and didn't want to admit she didn't know.
I asked the doctor when she wasn't in the room later.
Aren't people interesting?
Anyways, best wishes for the surgery. *hugs*
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Date: 2009-01-09 11:31 pm (UTC)Please let me know if I can do anything to help.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-10 06:58 am (UTC)I'd add "Fuck Cancer" there too, except I hope you have a lot of awesome loving fucking and it has nothing to do with cancer.
Fuckity
Date: 2009-01-10 05:26 pm (UTC)