Wednesday, September 14, 2005

To goiter or not to goiter

: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to have thyroid surgery in January
Or to take arms against a sea of pathologies,
And by opposing end them? To sing: to act;
No more; and by theater to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream:

Sorry, feeling a little dramatic. I saw the thyroid surgeon today. Looks like surgery will be the 1st or 2nd week of January. After taking an extensive history, of which the chief resident was quite impressed, the doc came in. Basically he said that there is always going to be a chance that by taking out this other goiter (which has reached epic sizes and is displacing my trachea to the right about an inch), that my left vocal cord could become paralyzed as well. Thing is, the complications from two paralyzed vocal cords are not just that I won't sing again. The vocal cord movement also is key in respiration and if they were to become stuck closed, I could aspirate and not breathe. I would have to have a tracheotomy Seen and described here for the rest of my life. I would also have to use a speech making device (whatever the hell they are called).

Can one smoke pot through a tracheotomy? Kidding, sort of.

This surgeon, who does all the thyroid surgeries at my hospital, and sounds like he has a lot more experience than the last dufus who fucked up my right vocal cord, said that he thinks that he can do the surgery and there will be no ill effects. Everyone knock on wood please. He would have to leave the portion of my thyroid gland that attaches to the laryngeal nerve (the one that innervates the vocal cords) in tact. This means that there would be a "chance" of that piece of thyroid growing into what this monster in my neck currently is.

Needless to say, I'm scanning the akashic records to see if I can sense where all this neck karma is coming from. Maybe I beheaded people in a past life? Not sure.

Lately, I've been chanting and doing a lot of mental and emotional work about my neck. All I can do is continue to do what I have been doing, change thought patterns, stay focused and intent on creating health. The rest is up to the universe.

4 comments:

the beige one said...

I'll also chant for the general success of this surgery...

Stine said...

thank you J.

Missuz J said...

WHAT?

OK. I suck at praying and chanting. However, I will send all the positive energy that I can muster to you and your neck.

Damn

Stine said...

Thanks B.