Cancer Update I

Well, here's the beginning of your cancer update series (nobody stuck with the Lost posts so I figured we needed a new series). It's possible that only hobbes will find the technical details interesting but I'll give some of them to you anyways. I met with the surgeon today who seems like the most amazing specialist in history. I have the utmost confidence in this guy to do the surgery. As I've said before, he does 3 thyroidectomies every day so he's got a little experience. He went to school at Washington Univ. in St. Louis and worked with the guy who discovered the MEN2A gene mutation in the late 1990's. I think he even eats thyroids for breakfast. Here's what I've learned so far:

My cells in the endocrine tissues of my body do not reproduce correctly. This endangers some key hormone-producing parts of my body with cancer. Those such as my dad's family who have the MEN2A mutation (which is rare) have a 99% chance of thyroid cancer and a 50% chance of having it in the adrenal gland. There's a couple other problem areas, including the parathyroid glands. I have 3 identifiable nodules in my thyroid gland approximately 4.5-6.3 mm in size. My MRI on my adrenal gland(s) came back abnormal but inconclusive. This doesn't really fare well considering "abnormal" with MEN2A is almost always bad news. The surgeon is inclined to think that it is likely I have a pheochromocytoma (a tumor) on one of my adrenal glands, which would mean I'll have to get that removed as well. I'm having 2 more tests in the next couple of weeks followed by another visit to the surgeon to determine more.

Basically I didn't receive great news today except for the fact that there are no significant signs yet of abnormalities in the lymph nodes in my neck. The scary news to me about the thyroidectomy is the high percentage of risk in terms of my vocal chord nerves being affected during surgery. There's a 10 to 20% chance I could lose my voice for 6 months to a year. It wouldn't be completely gone but it would sound like I was whispering instead of talking. The good thing is there's only a 1% chance of losing my voice permanently...which of course doesn't set my mind at ease at all but positives are positives. Another long-term positive is that medical research is making headway with potential chemotherapy for this cancer but that will be sometime in the future. Well there's lots of other interesting things going on inside of me but I'll spare you the details.

In other matters, I am working on the MLK Post. Stay tuned...