Rob's Surgery

A couple of months ago we went out to dinner with some friends, and Rob noticed he was having trouble swallowing afterwards. He said it felt like something got caught in his throat and he was trying to swallow past it. The next day while he was shaving he noticed a "lump" on the right side of his throat. We kept an eye on it for about a week, and when it didn't go away, we made an appointment for the doctor to get it checked out. Well, the doctor said it looked like his thyroid, and scheduled him for blood work and an ultrasound. When he got the results back he called us and said he wanted Rob to go see a specialist. So the next week we met Dr. Porteus. He took one look at the ultrasound and said, "yeah, we need to schedule a date for surgery." According to him, even if the tumor was benign, it was large enough that it could start causing problems, and it was best to just get it out. So here is Rob getting ready for surgery to remove the right half of his thyroid (5:30 am)Last look at his clean, undamaged neck...

We had to do some major coordinating so I could be with Rob and wait to find out the results. Many many thanks to our friends the Looslis for helping us with our kids!!

Here's Rob after surgery - he still looks a little out of it, doesn't he?

Yep, those are staples. Rob had to spend the night in the hospital, but he probably would have gotten more rest at home! His roomate was very loud, and very annoying.

Rob's surgery was on a Thursday, so he came home on Friday. He was feeling well enough by the next Thursday to go back to work, and that Friday he got his staples out. By then they had become very itchy, and irritated, and sore. He said he immediately felt relief when the took them out, except for the bad news. The doctor said his tumor had multiple pockets of cancer within it, so he will have to do the whole procedure over again to remove the other half of his thyroid! This was a real surprise for us since the initial pathology report while Rob was in surgery said it was benign - otherwise they could have removed the other half at the same time. Very frusterating! The doctor wanted him to get all healed up before he cut him open again, so we meet with him on November 21 to schedule the surgery, hopefully the first week of December.