I don't want to go on about something I haven't a clue about, but I do know, like Cheryl, several people who have had, and survived thyroid cancer, and my impression has always been, again like Cheryl, that it is "do-able". I've been thinking abut you today, and hoping you're able to have some peace of mind, some down-time from the awful stress of it all. We all know what it's like - bloody awful. Hang in there, dear. Linda X

Sorry to hear of another cancer. There have been two increases in HNC, while others went down, and that is HPV related oropharyngeal, and Thyroid Cancer, especially the last in men, for unknown reasons. I hope your team comes up with an acceptable plan to eradicate this. Good luck.

Hello guys,

Thank you for all the kind posts, it is much appreciated. My life has become a complete mess in the past couple of weeks, and today it just got worse.

Thyroid cancer is indeed very treatable. My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow,2/27. The doctors were very clear that this is not a recurrence of my SCC, but an independent cancer. They call it papillary, it is the most common type of thyroid cancer, with very good prognosis if discovered early. They will remove my complete thyroid tomorrow, put me on thyroid replacement hormone and most likely give me the radioactive iodine pill some time after the surgery.

There are two extra complications. One, they did an ultrasound of the neck to look at the possible lymph node involvement so they know if they need to do another neck dissection as well. The ultrasound has shown one suspicious node, very small (5mm), to small to evaluate based on the ultrasound, too small to do FNA on, and according to my surgeon, even too small to remove it during tomorrow's surgery. So I guess we will just follow it which makes me very nervous. The node is interestingly in level IV on the left side ( my tonsil cancer was on the left, thyroid is on the right), so if it turns out to be malignant, we even will not know which cancer it came from unless we can biopsy it. Very stressful.

To make the matters worse, yesterday I had PET/CT and CT scans as three month checkup of the SCC after rads ended. The good news were that, other than the known thyroid cancer, there were no other uptakes in the neck. The bad news were that an ovarian cyst discovered in October last year showed some uptake. Yes, I might have an independent cancer #3, this time ovarian. I need to have some followup ultrasounds as one can not do simple biopsy on the ovary and it is very difficult to diagnose it without very invasive surgical procedures that pretty much constitute the removal of the whole ovary. Needless to say, I am really at the end of just how much I can take. I know it is not cancer till the biopsy confirms it is, but so far every suspicious thing turned out to be cancer. Urgh...

Ambra
glad to hear from you but I wish you did not have such complicated news! I guess it's back to one step at a time. Hope that the thyroid surgery goes well. Please keep us updated.
Maria

Oh my gosh....I cannot believe all of this. Good luck tomorrow. At least that will be done. Then I guess it is one step at a time. Keep us updated as things progress.
Will be thinking about you,
Kathy

Oh Ambra...breaks my heart to hear of all these complications. I so wish you didn't have to deal with all this. Like you know, it will be rough, yet doable, I pray you stay stong! I think of you all the time and so wish we lived closer.
Praying for all the best outcomes. Please keep us posted when you are up to it. As you can see we all care about you. xo

Hello Ambra, gosh this is a lot for you to be dealing with. As the others have said, take it 1 day at a time . That way it is manageable. Good luck with tomorrow's surgery, I'm sure it will go well.
Update us when you can.
Tammy

Ambra, I'm sorry all this is happening to you all at once. As already mentioned, take one step at a time, and good luck with your surgery tomorrow. All the best.

Hi Ambra,

Thank you for updating us. Unfortunately, your new is so disappointing. At this point, I think all you can do is focus on one thing at a time and work through each one. You are young and your body is able to recover well so please keep your head up and hopes high. Look at Paul and others who have been through so much yet they are still here typing away.

Try not to look back nor too much forward, just take it one day/one treatment at a time.

Praying for the best for you, Don

Ambra - So sorry for all you've had to deal with, but try to stay focused on all the positives others have pointed out for you. Hope your surgery went well and more positives come your way soon. Please let us know how you are doing whenever you can. Lots of prayers and hugs going your way!