Surgery Update

Today I met with my surgeon, Dr. R (his name is way to hard to spell, so from now on, he's Dr. R)  He didn't seem overly concerned about my thyroid which was somewhat comforting, and we ended up scheduling my surgery for July 3 for the thyroid and growths to be removed.  I should only have to stay one or two nights in the hospital, then have a series of follow up appointments, and after a month I'm cleared to leave the country for Africa - woo hoo!!!

My appointment was less stressful than my biopsy, though I did have a mirror down my throat to a depth that I'm convinced no mirror should go. I would have paid extra for the ultrasound machine, but unfortunately, that wasn't an option.  On that note,  I have to say that Dr. R was somewhat prickly in his doctor-patient ways, but his scheduling nurse, Laurie, was wonderful.  The surgeon had told me he thought his soonest opening would be sometime in August, which was no good considering that would push my leave date for Africa out to September, but when I explained my situation to Laurie with eyes brimming with tears, she searched and found there is an opening on July 3 which is 4-6 weeks earlier than I was supposed to be able to get in.  So I'm hoping to be in Africa by early August, but keep praying all the changes, plans, etc. will work out.

That's all for now.  I've spent the last hour writing and deleting this final paragraph/final thoughts - none of which seem to be developed enough to share yet, so I guess that's it.  Thanks for your support and prayers.

-Kristen