Monday, January 21, 2008, Darrell went back to the surgeon (Dr. Fernandez) to remove his stitches. Darrell was feeling good, but still no voice above a whisper. We asked the nurse, before seeing the doctor, if the pathology report was available, and she looked up on the computer and there wasn't anything recorded. We were a little anxious just to know. We were really hoping that it would not be cancerous and just wanted to speed up the process to find out.
After the surgeon removed the stitches, which was real easy to remove and not painful, and he said the incision was healing well, he sat down and told us he had "a bit of bad news". He said that the pathologist had just called him and given him an oral report of what the pathology report said. He said the written version would be available to us later that week. He said that the left lobe of Darrell's thyroid was cancerous and the type of cancer was papillary carcinoma. He said that he had removed all of it in the thyroid. He said that if you had to have cancer, this was the best kind to get (I'm not sure that there is such an "animal" as good cancer). He said that even not knowing the entire pathology report, he would recommend that Darrell have the right side of his thyroid to be removed so that it wouldn't spread. He also said reiterated that he had not "nicked" the nerve to the vocal chords and felt that his voice would come back, even though it might not be as soon as expected. That was the scariest moment of my life. I looked at Darrell sitting there in the chair and we made eye contact and he just shook his head. After the doctor left just for a moment, we just held hands agreed that it would all work out, that God would take care of it all. Dr. Fernandez recommended that Darrell go see an ENT about the vocal chord problem and then after that was settled, discuss the 2nd surgery. He referred him to Dr. LaFrentz, an ENT right across the street from Crestwood Hospital. He was set up to see him on January 30th, then come back to Dr. Fernandez to discuss the 2nd surgery. Dr. Fernandez again told us that it was a cancer that if you had to have cancer, this was the better kind.
We tried not to "cry" on the way home, and we started making plans of telling the family. When we got home, Darell gathered the boys together and told them he had cancer and that he would have to have a 2nd surgery. This was something that you never want to have to tell your children. They both gasped and cried and it was a somber atmosphere for a little while. We prayed a couple of times during the conversation and just reassured them that Darrell was getting the best care, but he was under the care of the "ultimate" healer and that we were putting this in God's hands, and that he would take care of it all.
We called most of Darrell's family and my family that day. Let me rephrase that--"I" called. Darrell's voice is still a whisper, and no one could hear him on the phone. It was hard telling them, especially Amy. I wanted to climb through the phone lines and hug her and let her know that her Dad was going to be all right. When we called Darrell's Mom and my Mom, being the prayer warriors that they are, they both piped in and said that we served a God who could heal and if anyone knew about healing, it was us. They said to just remember what happened to Matt (Matt was healed as a baby--wasn't supposed to live, but God healed him--he's now a big, healthy almost-20-year-old young man). It's great to know that you have Mothers who will step in and pray for you and let you cry over the phone and reassure you that everything will be allright--that God is in control.
Both Darrell's family and my family have been there with us throughout all of this. Every time we find out something, we have a chain of who to call. After telling the boys what's going on, we call Amy, then Darrell's Mom, the my Mom, then all Darrell's brothers and sisters and my sister. It gets confusing what we've said. As most of you know, I was a classroom teacher for several years and I taught the same class about 5 times. Those poor people in the last couple of classes always heard me say, "Have I already told you this?" That's how we feel when we're telling our family and friends about what's happening with Darrell. Please be patient with us if we repeat ourselves, we try to remember what we've said. This blog will help so much so that you can come here and check to see if you've gotten the full story, or if you got the "last person" abbreviated version.
~Vickey
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