Friday, June 18, 2010

Biopsy Results

Well as some of you know Russell has been diagnosed with Graves Disease (hyperthyroidism). He was diagnosed because he has a racing pulse, has lost 35 pounds in the last few months without even trying, he has been tired, nauseous, dizzy, and a bunch of other things. The treatment for this disease is to take a pill of radioactive iodine which in turn goes in and kills the thyroid and then he would have to be on medication for the rest of his life. Well when he went in to the radiologist to get scanned to see if he was a candidate for this procedure they found a nodule and told him that they could not do the radiation until he had a biopsy to make sure it wasn't cancerous. We went in for the biopsy and the Dr. said that there was less than a 5% chance that it would be cancerous. That was last Friday and she said she would get back to us Monday or Tuesday to let us know what the results were. Well this morning (Thurs.) She called to let me know that they discovered something that they weren't expecting.....Cancer. She said that he has Papillary Carcinoma which is the most common of the Thyroid Cancers and has been researched to find that people who get it between age 20-40 have a less than 1% mortality rate so it is the best one to have. I am still seriously worried. So for now we have to wait until the medication he is on regulates he Thyroid and then he will have surgery to remove the Thyroid and the nodules and then after the surgery he will be having radioactive iodine treatments to make sure to kill any remaining cancer cells.
Please keep him in your prayers!