the you know let's say i didn't even have any symptoms at all started back in july july of last year i went for an ngo screening which is a screening where they check your caro arteries and check for aortic aneurism and your blood flow rate because one of the hospitals was running a test you know pay fifty dollars and we'll tell you whether or not you have any blockages or issues i thought that was a great idea why because of you and what happened to you and how we still don't even know why it happened to you and how i expected it was yeah and then our friend robin as well she had you know an unexpected issue and they found a problem with her and everybody young and i'm like wait a second i better go find out what's going on and so i went and they said well your blood flow is fine everything is great but did you know you have a really big nodule and it's all right and i said no and they said well it's pretty big and you better go get it checked so there you go to the criminologist i did they recommended i would go to an endocrinologist and of course that's a specialist so long wait right so i call and i couldn't get in until the end of august and then i went to her and she said ok she did a swallow test ok and she said she could feel it now might she could feel not so well she felt yes she felt that now i couldn't feel it at all but when i did the swallowing test she said you could feel it right away well so then she sent me for blood work and was it painful no not at first but by the time i was going for surgery it was getting bigger and so then it was becoming painful ok so i have blood work done and i had an ultrasound done and they saw it on the ultrasound and i got back the report and i knew just from the report that it was not not good right and then the blood work i got back before i went to her back to her to when i saw that that was not good because she did some cancer markers and some other things and i knew that i was going to be facing a problem so i did my research got ready where did you go for your treatment well my first my testing and everything i did it princeton at the university of princeton that's where once they got back those tests they said i had to have a biopsy and i was like why we already know that this is a problem and they said well to be one hundred percent sure you better go get it done so i went and got the biopsy done and then that's what i met with her and she said ok you have cancer she wanted me to go to a doctor in philadelphia  and i didn't want to go to her because i had already done all my research and i knew i wanted to go to guide sloan kettering right in new york you know i was like one of the best he could do the smallest incision do all this stuff and i said well that's where i want to go so that's where i went yeah so i went to new york to some caring to see dr ganley ok and he was great and he said ok we got to do some more tests so they did a test and they have to do a special ultrasound where they do mapping to check your lymph nodes ok and by the time i was coming home on the train he was already calling to tell me that i had in the middle of nodes wow yeah i was shocked by that i was prepared for all the other stuff yeah but i wasn't expecting that right so they did see it on the ultrasound in a lymph node over here which meant i was going to have to have a much more extensive surgery right so  then you were scheduled for surgery where was that to go so he says ok we have to do surgery you have to have your thyroid removed and a neck dissection ok and then he scheduled me for i actually had surgery the day before thanksgiving and it was going to be a six hour surgery right and it was and right before i got ready for the surgery decided he wanted an emergency cat scan central location and then on the right side ok and at a forty nine lives known six of them had cancer so so that should be to be done with that way with surgery i'm done yeah yeah and i have a scar i don't know you can't really see it it's healing very very well it's been months out now and it actually went from here to here but this side is pretty much all healed up or ready see you can see it there and it's healing good it's kind of in the fold of my neck the muscle i have a lot of problems with the muscles because they have to actually pull the muscle to the side and have somebody hold it while they  goes down your arm and down to the back of your shoulder so i can lift my arm right after surgery well and i was in a lot of pain more in my shoulder and my back then in my neck right and he said i'm sorry i told you that was going to happen so they were going to send me to physical therapy but i didn't i said let me do the exercises and we'll see what happens so my voice to seven some problem still with that it comes and it goes right on damp days or cold days  go home it's great everything's fine i go for my follow up visit in a week and he's like you're doing great i can't believe it and sure enough three days after that hoop i was like a water balloon it was it's just kept filling  filling in filling it wasn't draining it couldn't figure out i guess but all the lymph nodes removed were going oh yeah and it was bad so i had to run back into new york and he had stick a big needle in it in the extreme all the fluid it was a lot and then he said ok it might fill up again yeah and then a couple days later it started filling up again and i sent another picture i was nervous and then the morning i was going back in to see am i woke up it was gone so i went in and i just said check it anyway he was like  gets gone we don't have to drain it again and right yes yeah and so that's been it no more complications that's good but my calcium levels because he had to remove my two parathyroid so that they regulate your calcium in your body so yeah i am on calcium pills right now and cams twice a day ok because it's just a mess so i stay there for now know keep checking my levels and ok that going to be something you going to take for the rest of your life the calcium supplements i hope not ok but i do have to take the hormone supplement now for the rest of my life ok as i don't have a thyroid right so that's synthroid that's what they put me on originally yeah and that's a synthetic drug and i've come to learn because i've been paying attention to the thyroid cancer survivor you know support groups on facebook and all over the place and you get a lot of helpful information yeah and people who are complaining and saying they felt awful because the synthroid does not help all of the symptoms that you get so yeah your thyroid produces five hormones right and synthroid only replaces one so what are you supposed to but the other four suffer they don't care the other symptoms are intolerance to heat or cold extreme  fatigue insomnia ok and body aches and pains and hair falling out they don't care about that because they fix the other one which controls your heart rate and your breathing and the majority of your metabolism so as long as they fix that one they figure well oh well who cares right so natural so i worried hormone supplements are the alternative doctors don't offer it might act or didn't even say gee if you have a problem with synthroid we can always go to something else just tell me anything i just wasn't feeling good in i heard from these people that's an option so i got in touch and said hey can i try this because i'm not feeling good and they said sure sure i don't like don't know how you feel but about it and ask you are going to tell me right now but there are people who say that they can't get their doctors to prescribe the natural thyroid supplement they won't they don't believe in it they think it's too hard to monitor the levels it comes from pigs actually they take disintegrated thyroids of pigs put it into a tablet and that's how you get the replacement ok so i feel bad for the it's so far i just started it so they said it takes two to three weeks to kind of build up in your system to really notice a difference but i already noticed that i'm sleeping better through the night i'm not waking up every two hours so and so so far that's good so i'm about that and if anybody out there has thyroid problems you should ask your doctor about the natural supplement because not only you can take it even if you have overactive underactive thyroid it's not just for people who have had cancer right  and insurance make you pay a little bit more because it's one of those tear three drugs you know you know yeah but who cares it's not that much more it's natural and i know that i'm getting all of the right hormones back in my body so yes i'm fingers crossed it keeps making me feel better and better and the extreme fatigue that i'm having which is i'm really struggling with will get better hold of the take to recover how will we out of work to they gave me six weeks out of work just for the surgery and i took the six weeks and honestly i could have used a couple more because i'd just gone back to work now and to feel still so tired and drained and go back and try to work seventy nine hours is hard yeah well you still try to get your new medications especially that with no sleep it's not right it's not fun i've not been a happy person in the last week  is the calcium regulator i still have to take the vitamin d that i was always taking but now i have to take it for reasons for the calcium thomas right and now the i'm on armor the natural thyroid instead of the synthroid but other than that supposedly that will probably be all i need for right now ok is there anything further that you're going to do as far as treatment goes yes unfortunately i need radioactive iodine treatments so february i'm gearing up for that people say oh i know somebody who had it done earlier you know so and so in the eighty's in the ninety's had it done and it was very different from what i understand then that it now now or at least the way sloan is doing it it's a process and so i have a week where i have to do a low i diet to get my body ready to suck up the radioactive iodine has no soul like nothing first day i have to go and get an injection it says by region injection and it actually preps your body it starts to stop the thyroid from functioning anough so that it you know the radio any tissue that's in any cyber a tissue doesn't you know respond to the medication and it will be prepared to suck up the radioactive iodine because you take that for the they say if there's any stray cells still around or if there was any a couple hours until i'm right at safe levels of radiation to be released right and then i go home glowing in the dark right and then i stay by myself for two days in a room by myself and my own bathroom and ri could borrow you know have a geiger counter at home you didn't take it with you from the hospital no i actually get one everybody can come see me where they're geiger counter and when it starts beeping they get oh you're on got around and then the following monday i have to go back again for a scan and they scan me to see if anything lights up hopefully nothing does right then that would mean it works unless and then i get six months of a break and then i go back again for follow up if for some reason something lights up then i have to take a little bit of a break do the diet again do the whole process again and do it again so what's your follow up routine going to be like after that well they tell me six months have to go for follow  up ultrasound right and bloodwork they also say sometimes at least the first one they may do a scan just to see if anything lights up it's like a special fire rate scan where you get dye and see if anything like it's up right  and then every six months for the first year and then if i clear with no incidents or problems then two three four and five those i could go once a year hold ok but i'll go for blood work much more often because they have to regulate my levels right now the funny part was with me i used to always have my thyroid tested and my bloodwork would always come back and say my thyroid was fine right but clearly it wasn't right even when i was getting ready to go  for surgery my bloodwork still said that my regular thyroid levels were normal and then doctor said unfortunately some people are not sensitive to that test and i must be one of them you're one of the two percent yeah i wanted to join you and do something challenge and i was because he said we know your tirade isn't working you have a huge tumor in it and you have thyroid cancer in your lymph nodes there's no reason your bloodwork should be normal right but it was great so so i have to now have all these different panels done so they can really figure out what's going on because if i don't it's going to tell everybody that i'm fine right when i might not be right so that's i mean it's good to know because i never knew that i didn't know that there were people that it really didn't work for  think a blood test is a blood test right going to tell you but not everybody not every test is one hundred percent right oblon i guess and you are the exception to most medical roles like exactly they still have no clue what happened you know the medical miracle over here exactly where they were in the groups or organizations who were like web sites that you went to that have two or more during your diagnosis and treatment yes  the well the sloan kettering itself once i knew i was going there they have an unbelievable resource section you go in there and you just put down that your thyroid cancer patient and they explain everything in sections from here's your diagnosis here's what kind of thyroid cancer you have here is the types of surgery you'll have they break it down for this is how long i'll be in the hospital how long they're going to recover they even have an entire section on the radioactive iodine treatment so i could understand what i'm supposed to eat what i'm not supposed to eat how long the whole process will be how many hours i have to be there each day it's very informative so that was a great there's the thyroid cancer association right fantastic information there the thyroid cancer survivor network right there on social media they're on facebook and they have a website and again just seeing some of the people and getting tips and information from other patients was probably more informative than any of the doctors or people i spoke to so it's always good to talk to someone else has been through your is very idea it's surprising what you find out and i've already you know i thought i was pretty well educated i mean we do what we do and you think you know a lot but it's amazing how much you don't now and then when you go through it yourself everything changes and everything's different and yeah you learn a lot women and they don't know exactly why this is happening and will cause they don't people keep asking me wall how did you get thyroid cancer or you know do you know why it happened to you and the answer is no i asked my doctors even and they said there is a family connection there's a genetic connection to thyroid cancer you know to people in your family so they made sure that i told my sister who does take the right medication to make sure she gets checked even if she needs that ultrasound to check for nodules but you know otherwise they think it's environmental they say that it could possibly be from radiation exposure from cell phones microwave say they have no idea things that are in different beauty products could be and i actually found a bunch of medical literature even that talked about the epstein barr virus and i had had that many years ago and  they said that you know and untreated virus sometimes can lay dormant in your body and attack certain like the thyroid the maybe that's what happened i have no idea i don't know that i'll ever know you're never medical i'm only yes but i'm very thankful that i went for that angio screen test because when you look at that to your sister the end you know screen to see if yes i have her thyroid checked to yes and no i told her and she's gone back to her doctor soon and she's getting checked yeah because you never know now yeah but if i didn't go for that test because of you and because a robin i don't know when they would have found it might have been exactly a much longer time you know you would have been go with will schools like you know picks up and there are different so yeah i'm just very thankful for that and that i found it when i did because god only knows and you know it's a big scar it was a very extensive surgery but it could have been worse and so you know radioactive iodine won't be fine but again it could be worse i'm not going for know months of chemo or you know anything like that and so i'm very thankful for that and i'm grateful for that yeah and it is a shame because it's amazing the numbers are increasing every every year yeah they're saying well we have better imaging and tests like the angio screen are finding thyroid cancer faster and people  predispose you to getting it other than the family history of having diarrhea cancer they say radiation exposure so if you were a childhood cancer patient and you received any kind of radiation that you could get  later on in your life but other than that they just said you radiation exposure in general or they don't know so they really recommend you get a neck check they call it and they said make sure your doctors really feel yeah your thyroid in your neck and if you have any wampus or develop should if they don't you have to make sure that you get that done because it's better to catch it sooner than later yeah that's true all right well they're telling us we need to wrap up our osiris show ok well it was fine so is there anything else you'd like to tell everybody before we wrap it up i would i would like to say definitely make sure that you get a neck check find out your family history if you have tirade cancer make sure that your doctors know that and make sure that you get the right screening yeah and if you get a cancer diagnosis no matter what kind it is it's going to be tough and it's difficult but  move first yes where you're trying to first matters and if you're prepared with your knowledge and your information that really helps you in my research and finding the best doctors and finding out what other patients did and what i needed to do really helped me so far and i plan to continue that and you just have to be tough and never give up and you know you've got to just dig in and know that you've got to tackle whatever it's going to be razor injury treatments and you'll get past it eventually right yeah there's always a light at the end of the tunnel yeah sometimes it's really far away my left there yeah so that's that's all i want to say never give up ok and