Well the move from San Diego to Poulsbo, Washington is complete. Well not exactly complete, lots of boxes to be emptied and organization to be done. But we’re here and we’re settling in and loving the weather. Hard to beat a Northwest summer.
Anyway, I haven’t had a chance to post any updates to my wife’s thyroid cancer. Berndog, Shu and KEJ, thanks for your recent thoughts. We just got our cable/internet service hooked up and have been too busy at work to spend any time on ST. Anyway, all is going well. The surgery went very well and the incision looks awesome. With a t-shirt on you would never even know, with a lower-cut shirt you have to be looking for it. The final pathology report did reveal a papillary carcinoma (aka cancer), that’s the bad news, good news was clear margins and no evidence of spread. We talked with the endocrinologist, and he could not have been more positive about this. He said that the radioactive iodine treatment will absolutely take care of this and even went as far as to say that her risk of death from this is “zero”. So, collective sigh of relief on our part. Right now we are waiting to get hooked up with care here at Naval Hospital Bremerton and then get referred to the Madigan Army Medical Center for the iodine treatment.
She’s still signed up for the Reebok Women’s race on the 11th in Federal Way. We had thoughts of her doing the race, just slogging through it, just to prove a point. It was going to be her first race post-pregnancy anyway, and now with the cancer, it would be an even more inspiring event. But we are now having second thoughts, as she has not run a lick for several months and has not swum a lap in almost a year. We did sneak in a casual coffee ride on the Sunday before her surgery, she wanted to do one last ride up the San Diego coast to the Pannikin prior to her surgery. At any rate, I think she’s going to request a medical rain check and go after it next year.
So things are looking good for us. I can’t thank all of you enough for your thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, and stories of inspiration and hope. It really means a lot to us and shows what high caliber people you all really are. That’s the primary reason we stay involved in this sport, that and we enjoy punishing ourselves.
Warmest Regards,
Dan & Amy Hollingsworth
