Thankful **Updated**

As most of our four (or five) faithful blog readers know, I had surgery on my thyroid last Friday. The week before school began, my doctor noticed a lump on my thyroid, so I went to a surgeon the following week for what I thought was to be a biopsy. After being in his office for only about five minutes (in which he referred to my "lump" as a "TUMOR" several times), he told me that, due to how quickly the lump appeared & my family history with thyroid problems, he recommended not doing a biopsy, but instead scheduling surgery as soon as possible. At this point, I don't really remember what happened, but there were a *lot* of tears. The surgeon kindly asked me why I was crying (as if I ever need a reason), to which I somehow replied (through gasps of air from all the tears) that finding out you have to take a week off of school for surgery (on the first day of school, nonetheless!) while you are trying to do fertility treatments is just *slightly* overwhelming!

So, after a day of praying and talking with family & friends, Dave and I decided that, yes, it would be best to have this taken care of, so we scheduled surgery for Friday the 5th. I have never had surgery (or even stitches!) before, so I was very nervous leading up to Friday. But, I was amazed at how peaceful I felt once I got to the hospital...we are so thankful for the many precious friends & family who were praying for us!

Since finding out I had to have surgery, my biggest fear had been that my voice would be damaged in surgery, even though Dr. Lorimer reassured me that laryngeal nerve damage is very rare. I was far more scared about losing my ability to sing than finding out that the lump was cancerous....so, there was MUCH rejoicing in the recovery room when, first, I realized I could still hum, and, then, when my family came in to tell me that my lump was benign!

After a somewhat-eventful night in the hospital, we came home on Saturday afternoon. My mom, who is truly the nurse extradordinaire, has been amazing. When I thanked her (once again) for all her help, she actually said, "This has been fun!" I must also give a huge shout-out to Dave who has been so wonderful taking care of me...he is an expert at changing my dressings, and he even watched "High School Musical 2" with me last night! (A bonus to this whole ordeal is that Dave is working in town this week, which means he is home every night!!)

We are also thankful for our amazing friends who are bringing us dinner every night this week! Wow!--this is by far the most home-cooked meals we have eaten in a very long time! :) Both Dave & I have been absolutely overwhelmed by how many friends and family have cared for us so much these past few days, and we are truly thankful!

**Wednesday morning update**--We just got back from the doctor, where I had my stitches removed. The surgeon shared the pathologist report with us, which showed that I had a smaller lump (next to the large one that they originally found) which was cancerous! He said it was "serendipity" (which we know is truly a miracle) that essentially the larger, benign lump led us to the smaller, cancerous one. (It was removed in surgery, as it was on the left side.) We are even more thankful that we had the surgery done...for if we had just had a biopsy of the larger lump done, it would have come back as benign, and we would have never known that there was a cancerous lump right next to it! Wow!!--we were truly in shock at God's goodness as we left the doctor's office today...what a mighty God we serve!!