The Plan...Well, Sort Of

I finally had my appointment on Thursday with the ENT surgeon (aka Dr. Best).  I was feeling great about him being my surgeon after several recommendations from patients and reading every journal article of his research (sometimes PubMed access only feeds my neuroticism).  He was even featured in an MD News article that was on the home page of our intranet site at work on Wednesday.  All signs (big flashing signs) were pointing to "yes" for him to be the surgeon of choice.

Besides the fact that Dr. Best is (you guessed it) the best at what he does, he is also my kind of person...a serial optimist.  He was very straight-forward and matter-of-fact in our conversation, and he said that he approaches everything as a best-case scenario.  I like it.

(Side note: When I arrived for my appointment they checked my vital signs, heart rate 128 and BP 138/87...anxious much?  I think so.  It was laughable.  The nurse said, "You know that nurses make the worst patients because we know too much going into the appointment."  Agreed.)

So here's the plan...

The surgery is scheduled for September 12th.  It will be performed as an outpatient procedure, and if all goes as planned, I will be home snug in my bed by late afternoon.  The plan is to perform a right thyroid lobectomy.  Cryo-pathology will be performed in the OR, and if the architecture confirms malignancy, they will remove the other half while I am still in the OR.  I went ahead and signed consents for everything they could possibly need to do while they are in there.  Since Dr. Best uses minimally-invasive techniques, I am looking at only a 2.5-3 cm scar and a much quicker recovery.  I should even be back to work in 2 weeks or less.  Once again, I like it.  So, I call it a "sort of" plan because so much of it will be a "game time" decision.

When discussing possible side-effects, Dr. Best explained that a temporary loss of voice was normal and that I may not be able to speak above a whisper for up to two weeks.  I told him that my husband and kids might like that.

So that's the plan!

-K