Who needs a thyroid anyways?

So the last month has been pretty crazy. I'll start this post with a little background info. About a year and a half ago I had a friend at the hospital who was doing ultrasound school and wanted to practice scanning on me. She was scanning my kidneys and abdomen then scanned my thyroid. I was interested to see this one because my mom and grandma have both had problems with theirs. My friend found a nodule on the right side of my thyroid but I wasn't too worried about it. It was pretty small and its so common to see nodules on thyroids and its rare that they turn out to be anything scary. Fast forward to about a month ago...I went home for my cousins wedding and to spend some time with my family. My cousin happened to be marrying the son of my doctor (Dr Tatton) that I went to growing up. I haven't seen him for years and as my parents and I were talking to him the fact that I had a nodule on my thyroid came up. He felt my neck and then ran out to his car to write me a prescription for a scan to check it out. He had his daughter who is a nurse set up an appointment with Dr Beus for me. I still wasn't worried but figured if he and his daughter had been nice enough to do all of that it would be good to check it out. After a few procedures and tests they told me that the nodule was Papillary Carcinoma a.k.a cancer. That's never something you want to hear but knowing that my mom and so many others had been through this made me not panic as much as I maybe would have otherwise. The good thing about thyroid cancer is it's easily treatable and I can live a completely normal life. The worst part of it is having surgery to remove my thyroid and having to take medication for the rest of my life. Last Wednesday I had surgery and had to stay at the hospital for two nights to be monitored. My calcium levels were up and down a bit but finally on Friday I was able to go home. Brady was so great and stayed at the hospital with me watching movies, feeding me and helping me with whatever I needed. I'm sure he was bored out of his mind but i'm so grateful for such a loving, supportive husband. My parents also drove up and were there when I got out of surgery. Brady's parents and some friends that I work with at the hospital came to visit and bring flowers. Through this whole thing I have felt so blessed to have amazing friends and family who have been encouraging and supportive and just been there for me. Thanks for all the flowers, treats, food, phone calls, texts etc. etc. The first few days were rough and i'm still not completely healed but each day gets better. I'm grateful for a great doctor and hospital staff who were very good to me. I am glad however to not be a pin cushion for blood tests anymore and to not have my vitals checked in the middle of the night (I know its a part of the job but not fun). One of the best experiences from this was being able to have my wonderful husband and my dad and all of my brothers together at the same time to give me a blessing. It was such an amazing experience to have them all surround me with love and all worthy to use their priesthood power to help me in a time of need. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for all my blessings and for helping me through this.

This is right before surgery. Brady said I had to make an angry face since I had to get surgery

After surgery...looking so hot