"This is a before shot --- RT is obviously "right" but I don't recall what SP is.. oops .. IP is the pap cancer nodule in the center of my 'roid, and N is 'nerve'."
"I think he's lifted the middle of the thyroid in preparation for taking it out."
"The right lobe had an "adenoma" that he said had a cyst in it but when they drained it, it was just fluid. I guess it was a good sized cyst, by the looks of the little ruler. I just knew it was a lumpy bumpy big ol' thyroid I had for years and years!"
"Just like the 'after' shot I already sent; the nerves tied off at one side and the scarred remnant of what was left. That's my windpipe and voice box! And I had some numbness left over around the site and very little pain afterward, and no trouble talking."
"This I think is the left lobe, as labeled, with the papillary cancer highlighted and a measurement. Pretty ugly, huh?"
"This one is the "after" shot, once the thyroid was removed. (Note, the metal clamps pulling back my neck skin.) The stapled lines off to the right are nerves. They have to be real careful of those. You can see where they have labeled "Rt. remnant" where they left some tissue for the parathyroids to live on until RAI kills it off. Then where do the paras go??? I don't know... The black stuff up above, and whatever patchy stuff up there, is where they had to cauterize what pap cancer they found trying to wind around my voice box."
"This is the RIGHT lobe laying out all drained out of the cyst it had in it."
