Update on Pam

I really haven't been as diligent in keeping up with this as I should have, so I'm just going to skip to now.

I am on the way to work (on Trax) after Pam's radiation treatment. They gave her 100 (whatever the unit is, I can't remember) dosage of radioactive Iodine, a pretty standard dosage. The doctor that spoke with us was actually very optimistic about how things were looking. She said the surgeon did a very good job of removing the thyroid tissue, that there was very little remaining. She told us that in reality the surgery cured Pam, the radiation was just a little bit of cleanup - just a precaution. She also painted a more optimistic picture about Pam's radiation levels and duration - she said Pam would really be fine after 72 hours to be around people. Realistically, if she did not sleep in the same bed with anyone and used her own bathroom, she could really be around people after 24 hours. Even if Pam were to be around people immediately and constantly for the next three days, the level of radiation someone else would receive would only be about equivalent of getting a chest x-ray. That took a lot of stress off Pam - she's really been worried about the effect she will have on others.

We are going to see if Pam can shorten her hotel stay to come home Thursday instead of Friday. The way she put it, two days is like a vacation, three days starts to get depressing. Pam is staying at a hotel here in Salt Lake, not too far from where I work, so I can get her anything she might need pretty much anytime. Pam needs to do the standard things like stay away from people for the most part, flush the toilet twice (and go often), etc. but the doctor was not concerned about her bedding being laundered along with others. Pam was going to ask them to launder her bedding separately but the doctor said not to even worry about it. There really shouldn't be any side effects to the treatment - perhaps a little nausea, maybe some soreness in the salivary glands, but it shouldn't be to bad. I think the hardest thing she'll face will be boredom in the hotel, so it'll be a good thing if she can come home a day earlier.

The doctor told us that Pam was right on the border of being a low-risk or a standard risk. Given the size of the nodules found, she would be a low-risk (.7 cm and .35 cm). However, because some of the suspect tissue extended to the positive margin, or close to the area of surgical removal, that would move her more to a standard risk, because there would be a small chance that cancerous tissue had extended beyond the thyroid.

Some other really great news was that she can go off the low iodine diet by lunch Wednesday. I am going to bring her one of her favorite things ever for lunch Wednesday to celebrate - a sweet pork salad from Costa Vida. She is DEFINITELY looking forward to that. Not knowing when she'd be off the diet and how long she'd have to stay in the hotel for sure, she packed plenty of iodine-free food that she won't need now. She was very encouraged by finding out she was at such a low risk of affecting anyone else and could actually come home sooner.

The doctor recommended that she drink lots of water to flush her system, and chew lots of gum or sour candy to keep saliva moving. On the way out of the hospital I stopped at the gift shop to get her some gum and sour candy and was going to leave it in the car for her (I drove her to the hospital, then she was going to keep the car and drive to the hotel and have me take Trax back to work). It took so little time for her to get the treatment (she just drinks some water with the radioactive Iodine in it) that by the time I was done in the gift shop we actually met in the hall on our way out. That was kind of weird. We walked on opposite sides of the hall. When we had to part ways I handed her the gum and candy and couldn't help but sneak a very quick kiss on the forehead.

Pam is able to start on Thyroid hormone pills tomorrow. We hadn't gotten the prescription for that yet so Pam is going to have her doctor call that in and I will take it to her tomorrow morning. Pam was also encouraged when the doctor stated that she would be more or less back to normal energy levels within a week or week and a half. After that there would be fluctuations as everything kind of evens out and her body adjusts, but she should at least expect to have her energy and metabolism at near normal within a week and a half. The doctor told me that I would then have my wife back. The kind of made me wonder - where did she go? Pam has handled this whole thing wonderfully since the surgery, I've thought. Sure she's been a little tired and has had muscle fatigue and just moved a little slower in general, but it's not like she was a completely different person. But both Pam and I are very excited for her to get her energy back.

We have wonderful family, friends and neighbors that have helped in major ways that have taken so many burdens from us. Bringing meals, watching kids, arranging (and even funding...Thanks Matt!!!) hotel stays, picking up and dropping off kids at school/dance/scouts, raking our leaves, making special bread or other food for Pam, taking over church assignments, helping remodel our bedroom, getting Pam movies and books to watch in the hotel, the list goes on and on, and I know I am probably forgetting a lot. I don't believe I (or our family for that matter) have ever been recipients of so much service. It is a real testimony to me of service in action, of the power of community. It's reminded me that this is what the gospel is all about - serving others. Sometimes I get too caught up in just going to all my meetings, doing my duty, doing all the things I feel like I am supposed to do as an active member of the church, getting caught up in the administration of it all, and forget what it truly is all about. I know that all those that have rendered service in our behalf have done it with a true spirit of Christ-like love - no strings attached, no expectation of anything in return, just a true motivation to make life easier for us. Having said that, I do fully expect and hope to be able to return so much of the service; partly, I admit, because of a little guilt and the fact that I feel in debt to people, but also just so that I can help make others burdens lighter as our burdens have been made lighter. So to all those reading this that have helped our family, a great big sincere Thank You!

There have been so many others that have wanted to help, and either because of distance, or because I'm just not good at communicating what we need, or because we have already had so many of our needs met, they did not get an opportunity to help perhaps as much as they would have liked. But we have felt their prayers in our behalf, and that has truly been appreciated.