Josh's update

Hi all,

I thought I’d give you an update on how Sherri is doing. She is feeling better every week with some rough days and some better days. She’s on a low hormone dose until she does the radioactive iodine and that is really affecting her energy levels. I’m back at work full time, but I haven’t actually had a week where I didn’t take time off yet since her surgery. She is able to take care of the children while I’m at work but doesn’t have a whole lot of energy for much else and I often end up getting in to work late and leaving early to help with things. We are able to do the necessary things to keep afloat and a lot of the other things can wait.

Thank you to all that have helped in any way during this hard time.

On Sunday Sherri went to sacrament meeting, (http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/sacrament-meeting) for the first time since her surgery. There was a musical number where our neighbors sang as a family. That was hard for Sherri because it hit her that she’ll probably not be able to do that with her family. She has expressed her (left recurrent laryngeal) nerve having been cut is definitely the hardest thing she is dealing with right now. It’s especially frustrating sometimes for both of us because it’s so rare (about 1 in 200). The doctor said he’s only cut one other RLN nerve before and that was 15 years ago. Nerve damage occurs more frequently (5% to 15%) but much of the damage being temporary. About 2-3% end up with permanent nerve damage with some fraction of that having complete Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis (UVFP).

The speech therapist says Sherri has done extremely well and is very surprised by how well she can talk. She still has to concentrate very hard to swallow so she doesn’t aspirate her food or drink. She has exercises to strengthen her voice. I took her out on a date on Saturday night and we went to a sushi place at 7 but it was too loud for her to speak over the noise so we left and came back at 9 when it was quiet.

Sherri is having labs drawn today to determine whether there are chemical indications of significant tumor mass remaining. She’ll have an ultrasound on her neck to look for tumors on Friday. If those tests indicate she does not have a lot of cancer mass in her body, they will put her on a low iodine diet and stop her thyroid medication for two weeks. This will probably cause her to feel tired and unwell to some degree and may affect her reaction times enough to prohibit her from driving. After the 2 weeks (probably a week after Thanksgiving), she will get a dose of radioactive iodine (RAI) to target and destroy any remaining thyroid (cancer) tissue in her body.

If the tests this week indicate she has substantial cancer tissue remaining, they will send her back for additional operations to remove it before she has RAI treatment. This obviously would introduce additional risks.  In fact, when the cancer was found in 3 of 5 lymph nodes, the surgeon considered a possible follow up surgery to remove more lymph nodes but after consulting colleagues he decided that the risk to the remaining functional RLN nerve was too great. If the other nerve is damaged, she would need a tracheotomy in order to breathe. While the risk of permanent damage to that remaining nerve is small (2-3%), it is still significant.

Naturally, we are hoping and praying for no more surgery and that RAI treatment takes care of the cancer for good. Sherri will be isolated for about 4 days while she is radioactive. RAI often affects taste and sometimes causes painful inflammation in salivary glands for weeks to months.

Sometime after reviewing the lab results and ultrasound and perhaps even after the RAI treatment, the endocrinologist will give Sherri a final cancer staging. It will be stage I or II. They have already ruled out stage III and IV cancer. We will let you know what we find out.

Thank you for your prayers and support!