bavin's Journey with Papillary Carcinoma, Thyroid Cancer
- 1 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 2 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 3 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 4 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 5 Celebration Icon Celebration
- 6 Procedure or Surgery Icon Procedure or Surgery
- 7 Celebration Icon Celebration
- 8 Oh No Icon Oh No
- 9 Decision Point Icon Decision Point
- 10 Celebration Icon Celebration
- 11 Radiation Icon Radiation
Survivor: Thyroid Cancer > Papillary Carcinoma
Patient Info: Finished active treatment less than 5 years ago, Diagnosed: almost 14 years ago, Female, Age: 28, Stage I
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Experience Icon Descriptions
Procedure: Drag this icon to show a procedure.
Radiation: Drag this icon to show a specific radiation therapy experience.
Drug Therapy: Drag this icon to show a specific drug therapy experience.
Clinical Trial: Drag this icon to show a clinical trial experience.
Side Effect: Drag this icon to show experience with a specific side effect.
Oh No: Drag this icon to show when something bad happened (e.g., cancer’s back, lost job).
Celebration: Drag this icon to show when something good happened (e.g., last treatment, hair is back).
Loss: Drag this icon to show a time of loss (e.g., lost hair, lost loved one).
Decision Point: Drag this icon to show a time when you had to make a tough decision.
Other Care: Draft this icon to show a time when you needed other care (e.g., hospice, psychotherapy).
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Misdiagnosed
Oh No
I completely lost my voice for an unknown reason at the time. My primary physician suggested many different reasons:laryngitis, asthma, a cold, and allergies. But after numerous tests nothing was explained.
Diagnosed
Oh No
I was happy to be finally diagnosed with thyroid cancer and have a reason for my voice loss. But for a girl going into high school, hearing the words you have cancer can be tough. Having cancer wasn't in my plans
Surgery
Procedure or Surgery
I underwent a total thyroidectomy removing the entire thyroid along with a partial lymph node dissection of 19 lymph nodes that were found to be cancerous. I was in a little pain but not too terribly. The surgeon did a wonderful job with my scar as well. I had a tube in my neck for about two weeks after.
Problem from Surgery
Oh No
They were not able to salvage the nerve going to my vocal cord that was laden with the tumor. As a result I learned my vocal cord was permanently paralyzed and that I might not be able to speak regularly again.
Finished treatment
Celebration
I then finished my treatment with scans that showed the cancer was gone!
Surgery
Procedure or Surgery
I then underwent thyroplasty to implant an object to help my paralyzed vocal cord so that I could speak normally again. It was an overnight surgery that besides opening up my neck again was not bad at all.
Breakthrough
Celebration
I now had my voice back and cancer free!
Chronic Pain
Oh No
Starting two years after everything had finished I started having bad chronic pain in my neck associated with scarring from radiation and nerves around where I had surgery.
Medicine/Care
Decision Point
With different types of muscle relaxers, nerve shots, narcotics, and depressants all to tryt o help the pain, I had to decide how I was going to manage the pain. With a lot of the medicine I could not function at school. I decided to go off all the medicine, I use a TNS unit now to control the pain, and control my stress level to help the pain.
Anniversary
Celebration
I celebrated five years from being diagnosed a few months ago, and excited that I could come through. I now live a healthy normal life, in college and very involved in thyroid cancer awareness! I still struggle with chronic pain but it is a small price to pay for everything. I'm blessed!
Internal radiation
Radiation
I then had radioactive iodine to remove the rest of the cancer. Besides having to be isolated from everyone and not touch anything, it was painless and not a problem.