3 weeks after hospital release

October 1, 2014

1:15pm I had a 2 week follow up appointment with my surgeon, Dr. Richard Lee.  We talked about my injuries and then about my thyroid, which he seems to be really concerned about. He told me to massage my entire face 20 times a day, that we need to get rid of the swelling.  Face massage should start at 4 weeks and go sometimes as long as 4 months.  My left nostril is healing, swollen, and still has stitches in it, and it is deviated.  That we would probably be doing surgery on my nose sometime in December.  He wants me to change from plain Vaseline to a Eurcerin ointment for my face.  That my headaches should go away at 4 weeks, but could last up to 4 months. That the nerve to the left of my nose, above my mouth may take up to a year to improve. My face has improved again during the last week: I can feel my whole bottom lip - although a lot of it is tingly.  At least it is not just numb.  My teeth have stopped hurting.  The scabs have done a lot of healing. And most importantly, for the first 3 weeks I felt constantly as if a truck had just hit me in the face, and that has gone away.

Dr. Lee said he thought we should do surgery on my thyroid, to do a partial removal and get rid of the lumps.  I said nothing, so he decided the best thing to do was MRI with dye next Monday.  I need to go in a couple hours early to get blood tests done.

So the story with my thyroid is:  During the CT scan on the day of my accident on September 5th they saw a large lump on my thyroid.  A FNA biopsy was scheduled for Saturday morning.

Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy. Nodules are often biopsied to make sure no cancer is present. FNA biopsy helps to distinguish between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. During the procedure, your doctor inserts a very thin needle in the nodule and removes a sample of cells. Often, your doctor will use ultrasound to help guide the placement of the needle. The samples are then sent to a laboratory and analyzed under a microscope.

Dr. Richard Lee suggested surgery because there is more than one lump:

Surgery. Occasionally, a nodule that's clearly benign may require surgery. Surgery is also considered for people with large multinodular goiters. Nodules diagnosed as indeterminate or suspicious by a biopsy also need surgical removal, so they can be examined for signs of cancer.

Amber’s suggestions: Get a 2^nd opinion from Dr. Vance (and Mark had already said he wanted me to get a second opinon).  Get copies from EIRMC from my first biopsy on Sept. 6^th.  Call to schedule a biopsy to occur at the same time as the MRI next Monday.  All this really worries me.