When a Loved One is Diagnosed with Thymoma: a Wife's Story Part 1

In September of 2009, my husband, Morgan woke up with chest pain and decided to pay a visit to our local emergency room. Morgan had complained of chest pain in the past, but considering his age I assumed that it was probably nothing serious.

I took our two young daughters to school and then met him at the hospital. By the time I arrived at the hospital, a physician's assistant examined him and ordered x-rays of his chest. Those x-rays revealed a large mass in his upper chest cavity. We were informed that the mass appeared to be an extremely enlarged thymus gland or a mass around the thymus gland. Surgery would need to be performed through the chest cavity in order to remove the mass. This was not the news any thirty year old man (or his wife) would expect to hear.

My husband had appeared healthy the day before and was now a hospital patient. Morgan was scheduled for surgery three days later. Like many whose loved ones have been struck with disease, I felt it was my duty to find out every bit of information I could about the thymus. I needed to become an expert on a gland I had never even heard of.

I found out that the thymus is a gland that is meant to grow and then shrink. Around puberty the thymus quits growing and actually starts to shrink. When researching information about this gland, the word -thymoma - appears almost everywhere. No one at the hospital had mentioned this strange word. I got a sinking feeling as my medical vocabulary was being forced to expand. Thymoma is the name of a cancer that effects the thymus.

Thymoma was now in the back of my head as my husband prepared for surgery. I would not concern myself with any cancer that Morgan had not been diagnosed with. I had many other things to worry about. My husband had a very nice cardiac surgeon by the name of Dr. Nabil E. Mnayarji. Prior to surgery, Dr. Mnayarji discussed his plans for the operation. He warned me then that the amount of time in surgery could vary depending on if this mass had attached to another organ.

After over four hours of surgery Dr. Mnayarji appeared in the waiting room with good news. My husbands surgery had been successful. His mass had not attached to anything else. However, Dr. Mnayarji was amazed by the size of this tumor. I personally think he may have also been a little impressed by his own work - and so was I!

I thought this was all the good news I needed! My husband would recover in the intensive care unit for five days. On the sixth day he was moved into a traditional hospital room. It was this sixth day after surgery that three doctors came to visit. It was also this sixth day that I found out that it is never a good thing with your family doctor walks in with two oncologists.

Sources: www.cancer.gov
www.uhhg.org