Thyroid Cancer,my Personal Journey

This year i was diagnosed with thyroid cancer,and all i could think about was whether the Insurance company was going to pay. This all started in February 2009 when i noticed a knot in my neck,I immediately called my husband and told him. He told me to make an appointment with our doctor that day,so I did. He set me up for an ultrasound of my neck and 2 days later I got the results,I had nodules on my thyroid,an enlarged thyroid and a enlarged lymph gland. My doctor immediately sent me to a Endocrinologist who turned out to be a quack so i made an appointment to go see another Endocrinologist.

I was so nervous went i went in for the appointment,He came in and examined my neck and told me I would need a biopsy. I was sent to a surgeon for the biopsy that day,but when i saw him he told me it would be useless to do a biopsy since the whole thyroid would have to come out anyway. The surgeon set my surgery up for that week. I was a nervous wreck when i went into surgery.

I awoke approximately 1 hour after surgery so sick,and the surgical nurse had no sympathy at all. She threatened me and told me that if i wanted to see my husband i better stop throwing up,next thing i remember was being taken to my room,i was so thirsty and the nurse wouldn't even allow me to have ice chips. I was in so much pain after surgery but pain medicine wasn't helping,I had a 4 inch incision across the base of my neck and it felt like someone had a rope around my neck pulling it tight. I soon realized that anything i tried to drink i would choke on and still do to this day. Its been 6 months after surgery and I have lost my singing voice,my voice is still monotone,my right vocal cord is paralyzed and my left is swollen and floppy.

On March 29th 2009, I learned the biopsy results from my surgeon,I was told I had micro papillary cancer of the thyroid. I also had a enlarged parathyroid and a enlarged lymph gland. I was also diagnosed with De Quervain's Thyroiditis. My Endocrinologist kept me off thyroid meds for 6 weeks and and at the end of the 6 weeks my Thyroid level was 150, I was ready to get my test and get the radiation treatment over with,and right after the test which were still showing more thyroid tissue,my Endocrinologist changed his mind and decided not to do the radiation treatment. Here, my thyroid level was up to 150,my body was doing weird things,I couldn't even think straight. He put me on a 100 mcg's of Synthroid and sent me home.

It was months before i started feeling halfway decent. October 29th I am off to an appointment with a neurologist due to more problems cropping up after my thyroid was taken out. I have polyneuropathy,I am in pain most of the time especially when I get up to walk. maybe one day I'll be back to normal.

Through all of this,I think the thing that hurt the most was losing my trucking career,I have been a truck driver since August 2006 and seen all of the U.S. and Canada and Mexico.

As to my point about the insurance i was left holding 30,000 dollars in medical bills i couldn't pay,because the insurance company considers it pre-existing because i had gone to the doctor 3 days before i got insurance. There wasn't even a diagnosis yet and yet they were claiming pre-existing. Today,as i listen to President Obama and the healthcare issue,it makes me sick. All Obama has to do is put a stop to the insurance companies and their pre-existing laws and high prices and high deductibles and everyone would be able to get health insurance. Where is the compassion from our own President?