Nothing to Lose

Well folks, it's official. Your bartender has medullary thyroid cancer at 30 years of age. I had the ultrasound on my thyroid on Wednesday morning which revealed 2 lumps in my thyroid. Two out of the three areas of concern were abnormal. My calcium levels were normal but my calcitonin levels were abnormal (at 176...the normal is 0 to 15). I know I'm speaking gibberish here but basically the gene mutation thing I got goin' on is screwing up stuff in my body. My thyroid is definitely shot. The next question is whether my adrenal gland(s) have gotta go too. I had an MRI this morning on my abdomen and so once I meet with my surgeon on Tuesday morning, I should know more details about what will be involved. Due to the fact that I already have the cancer, I will likely have to have some lymph nodes removed in my neck as well. Here's the lowdown:

Bad news: I gotta have my thyroid removed and potentially my adrenal gland(s) as well. I will have to be monitored about twice a year for the rest of my life and realistically have at least a couple more surgeries along the way. I will also have to take synthetic hormones each day from here on out.

Good news: I'm alive...and it looks like this cancer is relatively compatible with a normal life span as long as I keep it monitored and take care of business. So I may be a mutant gene producer but I'm still alive...so I got that goin for me...which is nice.

So yeah, the upshot is I'm alive but I might lose various parts of my body along the way. The funny thing is that I'm almost more relieved about the fact I just finished school than the fact I have cancer. I just finished the roughest semester of school I've ever had in my life...literally...so it feels great to be finished. During the past 8 days, I've averaged 2-3 hours of sleep each night and I've seen the sun come up 7 of those 8 days. Needless to say, I'm relieved it's finished. The ironic thing is I've somehow managed to be more motivated about what I'm studying in the process. That has a lot to do with my studies on Martin Luther King, Jr. On that note, I can assure you that there will be an upcoming post (Ethics Part 2) on King. You won't want to miss it, I assure you...

On that note, I will leave you to have a drink on the house. Your bartender is going to get a long night of rest and also spend some time with the lady and friends over the weekend. You folks in Indiana will be seeing me in late May. If anyone wants to come down and visit over the summer and maybe see a concert or something, hit me up. I got your lodging and food covered. The fun thing about hanging out with cancerous people is they get kind of crazy cuz they got nothing to lose...ok maybe I've been crazy for a while but at least now I have a reason, right? Yes indeed...

Cheers my friends.