Hello all,
I'm on the home stretch this week for my one year AN surgery anniversary. This Saturday will be exactly one year since I closed my eyes and put my trust in two amazing surgeons at House...Dr. Friedman and Dr. Schwartz. On April 27, 2012, after a long ten hour translab surgery, I woke up ready to begin my healing process. I walked out of the hospital three days later feeling like I had conquered the world. Boy was I in for a surprise. For those of you who know of me, you'll most likely remember my various posts throughout the year. I often checked in to give an upbeat report of my progress post op. In all my posts, I stayed on topic and simply reported the hurdles I have over come since my AN surgery.
However, I left out an important unrelated battle I was fighting as my body tried to heal from my AN surgery. I'll be brief here. One week after my AN surgery, I ended up in ICU for five days. They thought I was bleeding from my surgery, but it turned out I was in a hypercalcemia crisis. I don't remember much from that week and was told I was pretty sick. Turns out that my parathyroids had tumors on them (adenoids), so I needed to have them removed. I was too weak from surgery, so I had to wait a few months. In June, I had two adenoids and two parathyroids removed. The surgeon also removed a 2 cm nodule from my thyroid. Unfortunately, that came back cancerous.
I didn't find out about the cancer until a week later during my follow up. I never even expected to hear that I now had papillary carcinoma (2-3 rd stage) and I'd need another surgery. I would also be having my thyroid removed. I had dropped a lot of weight and was down to 153 lbs after my firt surgery. So I healed from my first neck surgery and brain surgery. I slowly returned to the gym and even took up bike riding. I started to gain weight and got a lot of my strength back, but I wasn't 100%. In Oct, I had a thyroidectomy and the cancer did not spread into my lymph nodes. YAY! So there was some hope. Actually, this was excellent news.
I just finished my radiation treatment last month and have been told that I'm now cancer free! I had my MRI scan a few months ago and there is no sign of the AN growing back. I just got a call from DR. Friedman last week and was told to get an MRI in two years. I have made a full come back after one year from my AN surgery. I really can't complain at all. I have SSD and some tinnitus. All my other post op symptoms have cleared up. I feel great!
As for my total health, I'm fit and have gained thirty pounds since my AN surgery. I go to the gym every day and lift weights just like i did before my surgery. I swim, SCUBA dive, just rode 75 miles on my bike, and hiked up Half Dome on my six month anniversary. I beat cancer, adenoids and a brain tumor. So after one year of fighting a few battles, I'm happy to say that life is back to being good again.
It's good to be reading updates on people who were having their surgeries about the same time I did last year. Good to hear from Clarice who often drops me a note to say hello. She's a good friend and very caring person. Well that's my one year report. I've managed to maintain a postivie attitude the entire year despite all the set backs. Attitude is definitely going to help you over come a lot of what AN will bring your way. Good luck to all of you who are just learning about your AN. And good luck to all of you in various stages of treatment.
It's great to be alive! I'll be celebrating my one year anniversary this Saturday in Texas with some of America's finest heros.
Take care.
Dave Cruz
