Partial...er...Total Thyroidectomy

Surgery day was...weird.  And looooooooooooooooooong. I was told to check in at 8:30, so naturally, I was there at 8:15. I also hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 6:00 the night before. Then as luck would have it, they weren't ready to take me back to surgery until around 2:00, so I got to spend most of my day in what I called the surgery "holding cell" longing for a double cheeseburger, tots, and a milkshake from Sonic. I was hangry, people. HANGRY.  

Keep in mind, my only two previous hospital experiences were on the 5th floor maternity wing where everything was so quiet and calm...and private. There was definitely nothing private about this part of the hospital.  Loud talkers in the waiting room, people scarfing down their McDonald's IN FRONT OF other hangry people who hadn't eaten in hours, hearing Betty's entire medical history on the other side of the curtain.  It prompted me to take this selfie at about half-past-crazy:

When the surgeon finally came back to talk to me about the plan for the day, I was ready to get it all over with. He talked about the plan to only remove the right side of my thyroid, which I was prepared for. What I was NOT prepared for was for him to say that he would only be taking the right side since I had a hot nodule. SAY WHAT?!?!?! All this time I've been thinking I have this cold nodule that is more likely to be cancerous, and now the surgeon is telling me I have a hot nodule?  He could clearly see the confusion on our faces, so he pulled up the report and read it aloud: "You have a nodule on the right thyroid gland which is producing excess hormones."  So, yep.  That sounds like a hot nodule to me! I have no idea where the confusion about the type of nodule came from - If I was told incorrectly, or if I heard it wrong, or if it was just too much information for me to process at first and I was just making up my own stories.  Whatever the reason, this was the best case scenario because it is extremely rare for a hot nodule to be cancerous. Hooray! 

I was wheeled back and prepped for surgery...and took a good 2-3 hour nap.

When I woke up, they took me to my semi-private room where I would be staying the night (my roomie affectionately called it our suite at the Hilton). Curtis was there to meet me and fill me in on what the surgeon had told him.  During surgery, the doctor removed the right half as we had discussed. After removing it, it was sent to pathology to be examined further. Because the doctor was so confident that there were no malignancies in my nodule, especially with it being hot, he was preparing to stitch me back up and get me ready for recovery.  It was at that time that the lab called back with the surprising results that they had found cancer. The folks in pathology were even so surprised that they got a 2nd opinion on it to make sure. So, the doctor went back in to remove the rest of my thyroid. 

I am so, SO thankful that they found the cancer right away while I was still there in that operating room. I am thankful for the surgeon, the nurses, and those beautiful people in the lab who caught it immediately so that I could get it taken care of right then and there.