Thyroid Update & Happy Earth Day

Happy Monday everyone,

This morning before work I went to have my post surgery follow-up. I arrived and waited in the waiting room for a few minutes (during this time I obsessively watched the puffer fish swim back and forth...it was very memorizing). My name was called by the nurse and I went back to the exam room.

In came the nurse practitioner. She is great and I enjoy her personality and she makes you feel like a long lost friend, in short she is awesome. She asked me question about pain, fatigue, and look at the wound and said it looked great. However not all the news was good. She told me that the biopsy results came back and the 1.1 cm nodule that was on the left lobe of my thyroid was in deed cancerous.

The cancer is called papillary thyroid cancer and it is the most common thyroid cancer. It is most common in women (this must be a result of growing up with only sisters...I knew having a brother would have been beneficial). It is also the predominant cancer type in children with thyroid cancer, and in patients with thyroid cancer who have had previous radiation to the head and neck. This makes sense because I have had radiation to the chest on two different occasions.

So that is the update. I guess you could say I have a case of the Mondays. I have now been told I have cancer 4 different times and now my first cancer diagnosis (Ewing Sarcoma) will not have to go through life all alone. It will have a friend to keep in company!

I wanted to thank everyone for your positive vibes, thoughts, and prayers for me over the last week. It means a lot and I felt all the positive energy. Thanks to everyone who sent me words of encouragement through phone calls, visits, texts, and Facebook messages (especially Chad and Ian).

Lastly, Happy Earth Day to you All!

Also here is my thyroid surgery/cancer theme song...just wanted to share it again! It can also be your I have a case of the Mondays theme song...because You'll be Okay!

I will finally shed that 16.4 grams I have been trying to lose (average weight for a thyroid gland)

It has been a long long time since I have updated everyone on my battle with cancer (November 16^th to be exact). A lot has happened since that beautiful fall day. I have had ups and downs. In fact, the drug I started taking last October has been working! When I went for my routine 3-month scans over Christmas break I had a CAT Scan. The cancer in my chest/diaphragm had decreased in size (not a lot, but just like technology smaller is better).

However, during the CAT Scan of my chest the radiologist accidentally included my throat in the field being scanned. This in itself is no big deal (I mean come on I have been radiated more than the Hulk: see below), however after analysis a nodule on my thyroid was discovered. My doctor suspected that it was just a growth due to my thyroid overworking (once I began my new drug in August I became very lethargic and exhausted. It was discovered that my thyroid levels were out of whack). This made perfect sense.

Nevertheless with my cancer history the most amazing BEST doctor (Dr. Schiff) wanted to have a biopsy done on the growth. After a carousel of new ENT doctors and multiple biopsies and test (I was stabbed in the neck 6 times with rather large needles and to get material from the growth they jab the needle back and forth…it is one of my favorite feeling in the world…it brings me as much happiness as seeing my mother doing her world famous flat foot dance), the results came back and the genetic make-up of the nodule is 77% suspicious (of cancer). What does this mean? (Hint to keep reading).

This means that I will be having surgery lucky #13

(For some reason right after I wrote this line images of the movie Watcher in the Woods popped into my head….NERAK!!!! YouTube it if you haven’t seen it. It caused 5-7 year old Dave to have many nightmares).

My thyroid is to be removed. The surgery is scheduled for this Tuesday the 16^th of April. They will be removing my entire thyroid and I will be on thyroid medication for the duration of my life. I have had many surgeries of different magnitudes and evasiveness, so I am not nervous to go under the knife once again. In fact I oddly enjoy the anesthesia, I try to fight it see how long I can last until my next memory is walking up in the recovery room.

The main difference with this surgery is that it will be my first surgery in Utah. I will see if their anesthesia is weaker than California’s (hopefully it is not regulated like the alcohol content of beer in Utah….this would make the surgery not as HIGH a memory...sorry for the horrible pun...but not really).

I am writing this to update everyone on my cancerous journey and I will update after the surgery (once I am no longer high from morphine).

Lastly, I wanted to share the theme song for surgery #13! So listen to it for me on Tuesday as you give positive thoughts/vibes/prayers my way!

Thyroid Removal Theme Song   (Please listen) It is by the band A GREAT BIG WORLD! (They also write my theme song for life)

A Decade Since...

Today is a very significant day for me.

One this day TEN YEARS AGO I was told that I HAVE CANCER.

I remember this day as if it was yesterday. I was in a small hospital examination room and in walked some new doctor I had never met. Her name was Dr. Schiff and after a short introduction she relayed the news. You would think that a relationship with another person who shares this kind of horrible news shortly after meeting them would not progress into an amazing relationship.

However, that is exactly what has happened. On this day ten years ago I met the awesome, wonderful, and best doctor in the world. In the decade since we had that wonderful introduction I have put her through a lot. I am not the best patient in the world. I make a lot of decisions that give her stress, but I am thankful for her caring, loving, and mother-like approach she has with me and my cancer treatment.

The few weeks preceding this day I have done A LOT of soul searching and pondered a lot on the past decade of my life. That without Dr Schiff would most likely would not have happened.

In the Last Decade I have:

-Graduated from High School
-Survived a 1.71 G.P.A. during my first year at college
-Served a 2-year Mission for my church
-Had a academic paper accepted to a national conference
-Graduated from College with a B.A. in Communications
-Been a Best Man at a Friends Wedding
-Had Emergency heart surgery
- Made life long friends
- CouchSurfed numerous times at complete strangers houses
- Kissed a girl in a bar
- Bungee jumped off the highest indoor bungee jump
- Won a dance contest at a summer camp
-Traveled to eat amazing food
- Been to many concerts: Imagine Dragons, Fun., Head and the Heart, Sleigh Bells, and others
-Groomsmen in another friends wedding
-Attend my Grandfather's funeral of whom I was named after
-Been interviewed by the Seany Foundation to promote awareness for childhood cancer
-Been 94.1 Radio station in San Diego's kid of the week
-Drove 4 hours for a hamburger
- went skydiving
- Interviewed for a documentary about life after cancer
-Took a Road trip from Utah to Washington D.C.
-Had 10 surgeries
-Been to Australia, Canada, 26 states, Fiji
- Worked for the Make-A-Wish Foundation
-Been to 13 baseball stadiums
- Front Page Story written about me in the Daily Universe
- Attend the 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede
- 10 years of holidays and memories with my family
- Started a Masters program
- Been constipated many times
- Slept at Mark Madsen's house

I have been blessed with a lot of amazing experiences in my life since October 16, 2002. And after this time of reflection and self mediating I have come to the realization that most of these amazing opportunities would not have come to pass had it not been for having cancer.

Yes, I have cancer and it is an intergal part of my day-to-day life; however, it does not define me as a person. That being said I am glad that I have cancer. It has molded me into the person I am today by effecting my personality and outlook on life.

Although sometime it sucks being stuck at home sick and depleted of stamina to go about day-to-day activities ..I would not trade not having cancer for anything.

So, I raise my glass and toast the amazing Dr. Schiff, Cancer, and living each day positively. Here is to another 10 years of school, traveling, eating, treatments, surgeries, and constipated nights.

Cancer cannot take away your will to live...Only you can!

Here is a motto I live by: What is the point of extending life if you are not going to live it!