Joined The Group Yesterday :-)

March 16, 2003

Hi, my name is Michele and I just joined this online support group

yesterday. I'm a twenty-year-old female, and my family is having

some problems dealing with the situation . . . I'M having problems

dealing with it ;-)

I had an enlared right thyroid lobe, and after two biopsies which

both came up clean, it was still decided that I should have it

surgically removed. After my surgery (this December), the frozen

sectioning of the lobe found that I had a four centimeter malignant

tumor within my six centimeter right thyroid gland. It was entirely

encapsulated according to the pathologist, so it didn't look like it

had spread. According to one doctor, it was " of academic interest "

that I had two false negatives. Great. I ALWAYS wanted to be " of

academic interest " . (<--Please note the strong use of sarcasm. ;-))

Right now, I have three doctors who have different opinions as to

what my treatment should be. One (my surgeon) believes that I am

completely cured and all I need is a check up every few months. The

other two (another surgeon and an endocrynologist) believe that they

should go back in, take out my left lobe, and then start me on

radioactive iodine treatment.

I've never really made any huge decisions before. I mean, come on,

I'm TWENTY. Most people don't even consider me grown up. And my

family is NOT helping. For example, when I told my mother that I was

scared, she informed me that I didn't " have one of the serious

cancers. " I know that I am truly extremely lucky and I know that

she's scared and that's why she said it, but she's also distancing

herself when I really need her. Also, I've told only one friend (her

mother has cancer and just finished chemotherapy) because I think

that the majority of them would not know how to handle any of this.

Right now, I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to do.

I'm not sure what I'm expecting out of this message. I guess part of

me just wants to spill my guts a bit and maybe get some feedback on

what other people have decided to do with their own treatment and

dealing with their family and fears.

Ok, at this point, this is just an annoyingly long message, so I'll

stop. If you read this, thank you for just sharing my experience

with me. And good luck to all of you with everything!

Michele

phantasy44@...

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