thywarrior2013and2025

Green Slime Toppers on my PAIR Eyewear Quinns

HALLOWEEN? Halloween you say?? WHAT?? Well for those of you who get the heebie jeebies when people celebrate holidays early then STOP READING now! You see, Fall and Halloween are my favorite holidays. They make me happy… pumpkins, fall leaves, fall colors, zombies, werewolves, etc., etc.… So I decided that with my emotions so out of whack lately that I am going to enter my HAPPY PLACE. Hence from now moving forward I am wearing all my favorite clothes and accessories! In fact as you might have seen from my class pictures I have decorated for Fall amongst the school mascot stuff. I am sneaky that way. Fall color trees, Fall figurines out, the scent is fall. In fact it looks like I will even get my favorite Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino before any surgery! Now to keep things in perspective I am also doing Thyroid Cancer (ThyCa) colors (pink/blue/purple) as I find it emotionally strengthening to wear my WARRIOR colors at certain times. Which leads me to my next topic…

BIOPSY. As I suspected after hearing that I had three suspiciously enlarged lymph nodes on the left side of my neck, we are heading to another biopsy before any surgery. This coming Friday 8/22/25 mid-morning I will go into the hospital Nuclear Medicine surgery unit. Yeah, sort of weird name yet it seems anything to do with thyroid cancer has NUCLEAR in it. Which since your world implodes with cancer diagnosis this makes sense in a way. Yet I digress.

Biopsy. The word alone makes me scared. Not simply because it might come back that I have cancer on the left side of my neck as well as the right but also because of the procedure itself. “A Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) biopsy for suspicious enlarged lymph nodes in the neck is a minimally invasive procedure that involves inserting a thin needle into the node to collect a sample of cells for analysis. It’s often guided by ultrasound to ensure accurate needle placement. The collected sample is then examined under a microscope to determine if the cells are benign, malignant, or require further testing.” (from Bay Area Endocrinology Associates) 

Here is the procedure from my viewpoint-

1. I am taken into the Nuclear Medicine surgery unit, given a bed, and a gown is placed over my top. I have learned over the years of many scans and tests that the best top is a bandeau as this leaves my neck and shoulders free. This way a gown is simply placed over my clothes and I do not have to disrobe. Then I wait, alone, scared.
2. When the time is right they wheel me into the surgery room and explain the procedure. The room is kept very cold for the comfort of the Drs all gowned up. Yet the cold seems appropriate to my mood. The room is full of equipment and next to where they wheel me is a tray with carefully laid out long thin metal needles.
3. When they are ready they use ultrasound to give me shots to numb my neck as much as they can. It dulls the jabbing yet be prepared to feel some of the jabs a bit as the numbing can only go so far in. The shots are in my opinion the most painful part as the needle insertion and the stinging of the meds is quite painful. To be honest tears usually fall down my face at this point.
4. After I am numb they will use the needles to jab into each suspicious lymph node. Now keep in mind that it is not like a shot. No, they insert it and basically ‘plunge’ it up and down gathering a sample. For best results they will do this 6-8 times for EACH suspicious lymph node. Why? They need to ensure they get samples from all over and around it in order to make an accurate determination of possible cancer.
5. When it is all over I get wheeled back to the main room to calm down. At this point Charlie is allowed to come in and sit with me. When I am deemed ready I get discharged.

Sounds scary, right? Well it is yet it is a necessary and vital surgery for accurate diagnosis. If you are facing this in the future simply know that even though it is scary you will be all right. As I have fibromyalgia and am on blood thinners the after effects are a bit more pronounced. Last time this summer after one lymph node biopsy my neck swelled, was tender to touch, I could not turn my head easily, and my skin turned a pretty black and blue shade in the small needle area. This time? Let’s just say I am glad it is on a Friday so I will have time to rest before work. I am expecting it all to be quite amplified including the pain as it is three spots. 

SILVER LINING? If I bruise 3x more than last time then my neck will look AMAZING with my Halloween themed clothes on Monday!! To be honest though, I scheduled a day to write reports as I will still be in some degree of pain and I will not be physically up for a day of speech sessions all day. I will be dreaming of my 1st Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino on Tuesday which is my day off work!!