Today Katy, my parents and I went to the pre-op appointment to meet the surgeon and confirm tomorrow's surgery. It was a LONG appointment! Since this is a teaching hospital, Katy was first examined by a second-year student accompanied by a resident. The student ask a lot of questions and then felt Katy's neck, the resident made a couple suggestions to the student, and then they both left to consult with the surgeon. A few minutes later the surgeon and the two others came back in to confirm and clarify.
The major details: The surgeon felt that a total thyroid removal was the best plan given the size of the tumor, and also decided that all the surrounding lymphoids should be removed as well. The lateral lymph glads will stay unless he sees something to make him decide otherwise once he gets in there. There is a chance he will remove the parathyroid glands, which regulate calcium levels, but that's not the plan. The total surgery time should run 2-3 hours. Katy will check in tomorrow at 9:15 am for her 11:15 am (3:15 am in Tassie) surgery, so we should have an update tomorrow evening! As long as her calcium levels are normal she will be released tomorrow evening, otherwise she will have to spend the night while they get the levels back to normal.
The surgeon reassured us that she has only a 1 in 100 chance of permanent voice damage, but there is a slight chance that her voice will change. Apparently the mechanisms of voice are not well enough understood to predict how her voice might change, if it does, but possibilities would include changes to her pitch, volume, or overall control. Hopefully none of this will happen, but we won't know for a while. After surgery her voice will most likely be hoarse and she will continue to feel like it gets tired easily, but she should be able to build it back up no problem!
Katy (and the rest of us) appreciate all the healing thoughts you can send us tomorrow and will keep you updated as soon as we know anything!
No comments:
Post a Comment