SHARE

My Story...

My name is Hattie, and I am 22 years old. I have papillary thyroid cancer with follicular variance.

In Feb/March of 2007 I started having some pain in my back. It started only when I was sitting and then when I would get up and walk around it would get better. I kept telling myself it was a pinched nerve or something that would get better. I finally brought myself to go to the doc in April, where I was told that I had a strained muscle and they gave me muscle relaxers and sent me on my way. Those did nothing, so I went back to the doctor in June where they told me that it was a torn muscle that had healed back too tight, and I needed to stretch it back out, so he gave me stretches to do (along with more muscle relaxers, and vicodin to help me sleep at night) and I went on my way. I had also been going to a chiropractor, which was not really doing much either. I had an x ray done, which showed some "mild degeneration of my spine" but they attributed it to minor arthritis (I was only 21). Then in July I started losing sensation in my feet, and it slowly worked its way up my legs over the next month. My dr. said it was like carpel tunnel, but in my legs. He was not ready to do an MRI yet, I have no idea why? I thought maybe it was side effects from the meds he had me on. I did go and see my family’s doctor who said I needed an MRI, as did the orthopedic doctor I went to see (he treated my broken arm as a child and knows my family). I started having pain in my left side, and went to the ER where they did another x-ray and told me that I was constipated from the meds, and that was where the pain in my side was from. A few days later I was not any better, so I went back to the ER (I could hardly walk at this point) where they did a CT scan. This just happened to be the same day I was scheduled to have my MRI, because it took a few days to get the insurance approval. I had actually tried to have one done a few days prior, but it was at a location over and hour from my house, and after ten minutes in the car I made my husband go back home because I was in so much pain. The CT scan showed a large tumor on my spine, so they quickly rushed me to another hospital where they wanted to operate that night (thank God that did not happen). We got connected with a doctor at Georgetown University Hospital in DC who is an excellent neurosurgeon, and he agreed to take my case, so I was helicoptored there that night. They were able to control the swelling with steroids, which bought them some time to do a biopsy and a procedure to help cut off the blood supply to the tumor. A few days later they removed the tumor in a nine hour surgery, along with two and a half of my vertebrae (I have a metal contraption called a Telescopic Plate Spacer (TPS) replacing them now). The surgeon said that the tumor had turned my vertebrae to mush, and I could have taken a bad step and my spine could have collapsed. This really scared me since I had just been at the beach a few weeks earlier, not to mention I had been seeing a chiropractor all summer. I know there had to have been divine intervention, God must have had his hand holding up my spine. When the pathology finally came back they realized it was thyroid cancer, so three weeks later they removed my thyroid. In Oct. 07 I had Radioactive Iodine (I-131) treatment, and in the post therapy scan they noticed a point of concern in my lung. They watched it over the next few months and realized that it was growing (and my thyrogloublin levels were increasing) so it was removed at the end of Feb ’08. They were concerned that because of its location in my lung they may have to remove my whole left lung, but due to the Grace of God it came right out. The doctor said the tumor was the size of a plumb. The outside of it was dead from the RAI treatment, but it was just too large for that treatment to take care of on its own. I was told I would be in the hospital for 5 days and I was out two days after surgery. So I have undergone three surgeries in the past 8 months resulting in 4 scars (one right down my spine, one across my back, one on my neck, and one under my left armpit) along with two chest tube scars. I had a full body scan the day before surgery and they did not find any new mets thank God. They are still watching the places it has already been but there are no spots we don’t know about so that is good news. I am not just attending doctors appointments and checkups. I will most likely have another RAI treatment this summer. I am so glad I found this group and have other people to talk to about this. I know they say that if you had to pick which cancer to have, this would be the one you would want to pick, but it is still scary to know that there is any cancer in your body.

I look forward to reading other people's stories, and I am more than happy to answer any question that you have for me about my disease and care.

Take Care

Hattie