How it all began

In 1993 I had a sore throat.  The doctor on call asked me "Has anyone ever told you that you have a generous thyroid?"  I said "No.  What's a thryoid?"  She referred me to a doctor who had expertise in infections disease (I now know this is crazy).  He said to add iodized salt to my diet and eat more fish from the sea and to come back in six months.  Six months later I returned and my thyroid was still "generous."  He referred me to an Endocrinologist who did all the right things, but didn't follow up properly.  This new Endo ordered a neck ultrasound.  That led to a needle biopsy of my lower left thyroid lobe where there was a lump...a lump I could see and feel now that I knew what I was looking for.  "Benign and stable" was the news from the Endo.  He was wrong.  He failed to mention that the upper right lobe of my thyroid showed an "undefinable area; suggest follow-up testing." 
And life went on.  Work was busy.  We were busy working out some infertility issues and settled on adopting.  I'd go in to see the Endo and he'd tell me things were benign and stable.  Sometimes he'd order another needle biopsy.  Always benign and stable.  Always wrong.
In 1995 a cyst popped up on my neck - upper right side where that undefined area was...the one I didn't know about.  The surgeon drained it and sent the fluid in for testing.  Benign.  But wrong.  The cyst refilled in one day.  Now the Endo changed his tune.  "I think we should remove your thyroid.  These cysts often mask a cancer."  Where was that "C" word coming from?  All my needle biopsies were clean!  But alas, he knew of the undefined area on the ultrasound...which he probably discovered when he bothered to read it now that I had a cyst in that same area.  But I didn't know all this.  I learned all this when I pulled my records and took them to a new Endo for a second opinion.
In walks Dr. Catherine Weideman.  She looked at my neck.  She measured the lumps with her scale that she had in her pocket...like the ones the engineers carry around...metric of course.  She said "this has grown too much in a short period of time.  I want to do another needle biopsy.  I agreed and said I'd schedule it with my surgeon.  She said "no, I'm doing it."  And I said "yes m'am" because that's the way she was - she spoke solidly and like she had a plan. 
The needle biopsy she did led to a cancer diagnosis.  A cancer mis-diagnosis.  We headed into surgery - March 19th, 1996.  We were going to remove the cancer found on the lower left lobe.  What the surgeon found was cancer in the upper  right lobe!   That undefinable area - was cancer all along...for three years it sat there doing what cancer does - spreading.  It invaded the lymph nodes in my neck.  So at least I had the total thyroidectomy and neck dissection behind me.
I healed for about two months then started to withdraw from Synthroid to prepare for scanning and treatment with radioactive iodine.  The diet gave me something to focus on - something to control in an "out of control" time.  I swallowed 10 millicures of radioactive iodine and was scanned on June 7th.  The cancer had spread all over my neck - up high and down low.  I never saw the scan - and I'm glad I didn't.  On June 10th, 1996 I swallowed 150 millicures of radioactive iodine.  It actually was dosed that way but degraded to about 137 millicuries by the time I swallowed it.  I was isolated for four days.
When I went home, I noticed a lump under my jaw on the upper right - where the cancer was.  The doctor suspected it was a swollen saliva gland.  It was not.  On August 16th I had additional neck dissection done - and I was beginning to feel like a frog from high school biology with all this dissection going on.
Since then scans have been clean and Tg undetectagle...with some ups and downs along the way.