Valronica Scales survived thyroid cancer | radioactive iodine | radiation external beam surgery
- Bruce Morton
- Aug 27, 2020
- 23 min read
DESCRIPTION
On this episode of the @CancerInterviews podcast, we will hear how Valronica Scales survived thyroid cancer. Her journey began when she experienced extreme weight gain, which she soon learned was tied to swollen lymph nodes, five of them, the size of golf balls. After a fine needle aspiration of the lymph nodes, she learned by telephone she had that at age 30, she had papillary thyroid cancer. Surgery removed 99 lymph nodes, 33 of which were cancerous. Initially, she was treated with radioactive iodine. When that was ineffective, she underwent radiation external beam therapy, which was painful, but led to survivorship.
Valronica Scales of College Park, Maryland was leading a healthy lifestyle, but in 2015, noticed that in a year’s time, she had gained about 40 pounds. This was especially noticeable because she is 5’2”. When she was visiting her sister, who was a health care professional, she was told the weight was because of outsiezed lymph nodes in her neck. There were five in all, the size of golf balls, plainly visible. After seeing her primary care physician, she was referred to an endocrinologist, who conducted a fine needle aspiration. Her neck was numbed, did three aspirations with a large needle and pulled out tissue. Results from subsequent tests showed Valronica had papillary thyroid cancer.
Valronica’s diagnosis did not a tall cell variant, which is a very aggressive type of variant, but did have a hobnail feature, a unique type of feature in terms of the cancerous cells.
Her subsequent, eight-hour surgery called for the removal of her entire thyroid. In so doing, 99 lymph nodes were removed, 33 of which were cancerous. After the surgery, her doctor opted to put Valronica on radioactive iodine, but she turned out to be radioactive iodine resistant. The next option was to undergo radiation external beam surgery, 31 treatments in all. Though they were quite painful, and resulted in the loss of 40 pounds because she could not eat normally, on New Year’s Eve 2015, she had completed her cancer treatment. However, her journey was not over.
Because her radiation treatment extended from her neck to her shoulders to her chest, swallowing was extremely difficult. She went on a very specific, fat-heavy diet to help gain back the weight lost during treatment.
Post-treatment, Valronica Scales tired easily, but still returned to work on a part-time basis. Her mother drove her to work so she could maintain a schedule that included radiation treatment some mornings. She was eventually able to consume carbs and her beloved seafood, but another complication developed when she learned she lymphedema, when fluid that would normally be pulled away by lymph nodes suddenly has nowhere to go. This condition was eventually controlled through medication.
Valronica Scales is optimistic about her future. She is back at work on a full time basis, and has very close to a normal social life. Valronica focuses on controlling the things she can control, namely her diet, her health and stress level. By way of advice, if diagnosed with thyroid cancer, follow your care plan and take an active interest in your journey.
Additional Resources:
Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association (ThyCa)
TRANSCRIPT
Bruce Morton…Greetings, and welcome to the @CancerInterviews podcast. I’m your host, Bruce Morton, and on this segment, we will hear from Valronica Scales of College Park, Maryland. She was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer and survived. It was a journey with numerous steps, which we are going to hear about. We hope you will find her story to be informative and inspirational. So, now let’s get to it, and Valronica, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Valronica Scales: Thank you, Bruce, and I am very happy to be here with you today.
BM: And we’re happy to have you. Valronica, we want to start off the way we always do. We want to know a little bit about you, where you are from, what you do for a living, what you like to do with your free time, that sort of thing.
VS: Awesome. Well, I am Valronica Scales. I am originally from what I consider to be the great state of North Carolina. I was born in Boise, Idaho, but moved to North Carolina when I was less than one year old. I have a twin sister and an older brother and was raised by a mother in a single family, and that’s where I am from. Since then, I have been bouncing around the country, between North Carolina, St. Louis, Chicago and I have landed in College Park, Maryland, because of my career. My career is in higher education, and I am the Director of Resident Life at the University of Maryland, and I have been involved in resident life since I was a sophomore in college, since I was 19 years old, only taking one year off to work at a charter school, so education is my life. I am also a full time doctoral student, seeking my degree in adult and higher education, and in my free time, which I don’t have much of, I am trying to bring our students back safely during the COVID-19 era and trying to finish my degree virtually, I like to cook, like to explore outside, I like to ride my bike, I have a road bike, and I really enjoy Netflix and following new movies, plus spending time on my couch with my miniature schnauzer is a part of what I do now to relax and unwind.
BM: Okay, so, Chicago, St. Louis, College Park. Which did you like the best?
VS: Chicago. It was the first city I really lived in outside of North Carolina. I felt like I grew up there, and I feel like I got to understand the world on my own terms in Chicago, and you can’t beat driving by Lake Michigan every day, so the city life, the downtown life is where I lived and I loved it, and I have a lot of good friends there, who are basically my second family away from home.
BM: And cooking. Any kind of cuisine that you like?
VS: Yeah, I love Asian cuisine. I love cooking beef and noodles and different meals with fried rice and sesame, fresh veggies, chicken and pork and shrimp.
BM: Now let’s examine the part of your life that existed before you were diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. In terms of health, was everything fine?
VS: For the most part. I was really active, I have a road bike, I was working out and I was doing a lot of exercising, and I would have a little puppy I would walk every morning before I go to work, and I was pretty healthy. I do try to watch what I eat, but like everyone else I have a pizza or a burger every now and then, but I was pretty healthy. Then I realized in 2015 that I was gaining a lot of weight, and I gained about 40 pounds in a year, but nothing had really changed in my routine. I was eating really small food portions, but I was continually gaining weight, and 40 pounds for me at 5’2” is a lot. I am really short, petite, and for me, that was an alarm that something is wrong, and I need to figure out what it is.
BM: So, at that point, when did you see a health care professional?
VS: For six months, I had been seeing different doctors. I had been to urgent care, I been to my primary care doctor. Urgent care on three or four occasions had said I had some kind of infection and prescribed antibiotics to treat it. And finally, in July of 2015, I was at home in North Carolina for my mom’s birthday. I looked at my sister who is very well-versed in health care, she has taken a lot of classes, being a certified nurse’s assistant, and said to her, “Look at my neck. I think my tonsils are swollen. She said, “Valronica, those are not tonsils, those are your lymph nodes, and they look like they are going to pop.” I didn’t know that. I just thought it was tonsil and it was really poking out of my neck. She said, “When you get back to St. Louis, go see your primary care doctor,” so that’s what I did. That was in August 2015.
BM: So, did you go from there to a specialist?
VS: Yes. First, I went to my primary care doctor, and said something is wrong. I have gained 40 pounds in a year, I have got this lymph node issue, too. So, he did this exam, and said I have five golf ball-sized lymph nodes on both sides of my neck, and he has to get me into see a specialist, an endocrinologist. He suggested his buddy at Washington University in St. Louis, he thought his buddy would be the perfect person, and gave me his phone number. I called to schedule an appointment, and they told me they couldn’t get me until October. So, I called my primary call physician and told them I wouldn’t be able to get in until October, and he said he would call them. My PCP texted his friend, telling him I have five golf ball-sized lymph nodes on both sides of my neck, and that I really need to be seen. So, they called me and said they had one slot available, and it’s at 10:00 a.m. August 26, which happened to be moving day in resident life at Wash U, so they asked if I wanted it, and of course, I said yes. So, I told my boss I have to leave campus at 9:30 to get to this appointment, it’s moving day for the students, so I have been at work since 6:00 a.m. I head on over, I get to the appointment, he puts the scope on his head and his nurse, her name was Luisa, and they said, “Oh, it just looks like some kind of infection,” and I thought if it is just an infection, then we are good to go. That’s what urgent care had told me, that’s what other folks had said, but the nurse said we should do an FNA, a fine needle aspiration, just to be on the safe side. So, on that day, moving day, they come in with this large needle, they numb up my neck, did three aspirations and pulled out tissue to test it. I then went back to work because it’s moving day and I had to work twelve hours that day, I had a bandage on my neck. As soon as I got back to campus, everyone is asking me what’s going on, and I said it is just a test the doctors are running, and I take it off and go about my day. A week later, I was at work and my phone kept ringing. I finally answered it, and it wasn’t the nurse, it was the endocrinologist calling to say he had my test results. He said it turns out I have papillary thyroid carcinoma, and we need to get to scheduled to come in, so that we can get surgery scheduled and an ultrasound. I was in the middle of work. I was unloading a van for our sophomore welcome back barbecue with Ethan, my co-advisor. We’re unloading and he says, “Val, are you okay?” I told him, “That was my doctor, and they just told me I have cancer.” He said, “You need to go home, I’m sorry, this sucks, but you should go home.” I said, “What am I going to do at home? We have a barbecue tonight for 2,000 students that I am in charge of. I still have to do this.” Later I was going to lunch with my friend, Tamara, and I told her about my diagnosis. That’s when it hit me and I started crying, and we both started crying in her car. She told me I needed to call my mom, and I tried to figure out what this means for me as a 30-year-old. I will never forget that day.
BM: It was positive that you had a very important person with you, but were Tamara and others, providers of emotional assistance in the next couple days?
VS: Tamara was great emotional assistance, my mom, and my doctor who said this type of cancer has a great survival rate, so just know we are in your corner. A colleague, Laura Clark, was a breast cancer survivor, and she was very helpful in helping me navigate what I needed to do on the day of the surgery, and another colleague, Rhonda Kiley, a thyroid cancer survivor as well, were super helpful. Those were people I could connect with, physically. Outside of that, my mom, my sister, my brother, my entire family, honestly, were of great emotional support, but it didn’t hit me that this was going to be a journey before the surgery. I honestly thought, it’s thyroid cancer, people survive thyroid cancer, I’ll take a pill every day, I’ll have the surgery and I’ll do my radioactive iodine and everything will be okay. Little did I know what was going to follow the surgery and what they would find.
BM: Now, Valronica, before we go any farther, there is more than one type of thyroid cancer. Papillary thyroid cancer, what does that mean? What is affected?
VS: Yeah, so papillary thyroid cancer is a single type of thyroid carcinoma. There is anaplastic and a few others. When they rank papillary thyroid cancer, they say it is the most common thyroid cancer and of thyroid cancers, it has the highest rate of survival; but with papillary thyroid cancer, you can also have different features that also go along with it, so you can have a tall cell variant, which is an aggressive type of variant that can coincide with your papillary thyroid cancer, or you can have what I have, which is a hobnail feature, which is a unique type of feature in terms of the cells. So, most people who have papillary thyroid cancer have some complications when it comes to memory. The thyroid controls so many things that you don’t think about. It controls your body temperature, it controls a lot of your mental stamina, it controls how you sleep. I didn’t even know the thyroid was really a thing or what the function was until I had to have it taken out of my body.
BM: I have to ask you this because everybody’s cancer journey is different and each type of cancer is different, and some types of cancer give the patient options in terms of treatment, and others don’t. Where treatment was concerned, did you have options?
VS: I didn’t have too many options. My surgery happened in October 2015. I had just come back from a wedding in Hilton Head, South Carolina, my best friend had just gotten married. They knew I had cancer and knew I couldn’t stay the full time, so I came back, my family had already flown back to St. Louis. I had to be at the hospital at 6:30 a.m. for the procedure, and they said your surgery will last three to four hours. My surgery ended up lasting eight hours. So, I actually had a lot of cancer in my body, which is why my options were limited. They took my entire thyroid out and it was full of tumors. They took out 99 lymph nodes on both sides of my neck, 33 of which were cancerous. Then I had cancer that was going into my chest and cancer that was going into my back. When people see thyroid scars, they are usually, like in the front of my neck, but scars were so big, they cut far back in my neck, almost under my chin, so people couldn’t see the scars when I smile, but as soon as I turn my neck, you can see the scar a little bit because there were so many lymph nodes they had to remove. I was supposed to be in the hospital for three or four days, but I was in an entire week. I almost went into a coma because they had to pull out my parathyroids, then re-implant them, so I was taking a lot of drugs in the hospital to get me back to normal and so I wouldn’t go into a coma. My mom from North Carolina stayed with me the entire time. I really wasn’t expecting to be there that long, so my brother who had flown in from North Carolina had to leave why I was still in the hospital because his flight left before I was discharged. It broke my heart. Anyway, it was in the hospital that they told me that my cancer was aggressive, and they asked my mom if I had been exposed to radiation as a child because the amount of cancer in my body in my neck and chest area was Chernobyl-like. I told them I was not exposed to any radiation. I have a twin sister, I have a brother and everyone in my family is super healthy, and somehow, I got this cancer that was plaguing my body, and so that is what led to my treatment options. Anyway, they sent me to a radiologist, and they decided to give me radioactive iodine, which is very common for thyroid cancer patients to take. It helps them to see if cancer is still in your body. So, they give radioactive iodine medication, and give you a warning card that tells people I am radioactive, then you come back for your scan. Turns out, though, that I am radioactive iodine resistant. So, when they did the scan, they first told me the cancer was gone. Then they said that couldn’t be right, so then they scheduled a PET scan, and the PET scan was a glucose drip, and revealed the cancer was still there. That’s when the radiologist said we really only have one option here and it is radiation treatment, and for the first time since this journey began, I was angry. I was under the impression I would have the surgery, I would recover, that I would have the radioactive iodine, then I go back to work, and then I have a normal life afterwards. So here we are at the end of October, I have gone through all of my scans, and on October 31, the nurse says I need radiation external beam therapy. I think that’s when my cancer journey began before that, it was just normal. Nobody would say it’s normal to feel that way, but I experienced going into a hospital every day to the cancer ward for 31 treatments, and it was excruciating. I went every day, from late November through New Year’s Eve, 2015. During that journey, I thought I was going to die. There is no nice way to put that. Because my radiation was through my neck, I lost 40 pounds, because I couldn’t eat normally. I had a very special diet. My mom was told if I didn’t starting taking in fats, if I didn’t start drinking protein shakes like Ensure, I would have to go on a feeding tube because I wasn’t getting enough nutrients. That’s when my mom started fixing lots of soups with extra butter and fat in it, scrambled eggs, oatmeal and soft foods I could swallow, drinks with extra thickener so I could actually drink it halfway through my treatment. The radiation made my throat raw as it would hurt to swallow water because it was so thin, and because the radiation was from my chin to the middle of my chest to my shoulders, I lost all of my skin in that area, and I couldn’t talk for three or four weeks. So, I lost my voice, my singing voice, I lost my ability to eat bread or carbs in any form, couldn’t have hot liquids, they would burn my throat. But I made it to December 31st, and when I did, it was a glorious day, one in which I was extremely weak, but extremely proud that I had made it through that part of my journey, and that my family was there with me. My mom essentially moved from North Carolina to St. Louis and lived with me from October through February.
BM: We have heard a lot about what you couldn’t eat. It sounds like during that time you weren’t very active. Were you confined to the bed or sofa, that sort of thing?
VS: No, I was actually working, so I had gone back to work. I try to keep things moving. I actually went back to work part time. I had a schedule, so I would do my radiation treatments in the morning and because I couldn’t drive after that, my mom would drop me off at work and I would work four or five hours a day and she’d pick me up and I’d go home. I did that for the first part of my radiation treatment until Week Four, and that’s when I went back home because radiation is no joke, it is very hard on the body and so I went back on medical leave and just did my treatments and tried to keep my energy up. But for the most part, I was back at work. My friends, I was hangin’ out with my friends, which was nice, but the last part of the radiation was the worst part because my body started to break down a little bit. So, I was home, I was able to walk my dog a little bit short distances, but I wasn’t able to drive, my mom drove me to and from my appointments.
BM: So, when did you feel like you had the upper hand, like you had turned the corner a little bit because you were able to go to work, you could hang with your friends, but it sounds like there was only so much you could do. When did you feel like you could do more activities?
VS: It took a while to recover after the last treatment. I would say in February 2016 I was starting to feel a little bit more like myself. I had sought out a therapist and I was seeing her weekly to help me cope with my new life. There is no way to hide a burnt neck and a chest, especially in the wintertime, so I wore a lot of big scarves, scarves that wouldn’t cling to my skin. I would say in early February I felt much better and I was able to eat. I remember my birthday, February eighth and my mom took me out to have some seafood. I could eat proteins and I could eat salads, and we had Happy Hour at one of my favorite seafood places in St. Louis. So that is kind of when things took a turn for the better. It took about a month for me to recover and in February, I started feeling better and having more energy and I traveled to Florida for work. But that is also when I learned I have lymphedema. That’s when you have lymph nodes removed and the fluid has nowhere else to go so it sits in the area that would normally be pulled away by the lymph nodes. So, in February, I learned I had lymphedema. When I flew to Florida, my neck felt so hot, and it ballooned up. I called my doctor and he said he had taken out 99 lymph nodes. You’re going to have to get a facelift thing for when you fly back. It compresses the fluids. I got the compression sleeve for my face and wore it when I flew, put a scarf on because it covered the top of my head and my chin and then it compresses your neck. It is a funny contraption, but it works. That’s when I learned this is a lifelong journey, this is not something I am going to not think about. I take my medication daily, and February is when I learned I am going to have to manage this.
BM: Would you say lymphedema was the toughest part of your cancer journey?
VS: No, not the toughest part. I actually had to go through physical therapy in addition to the lymphedema because they cut so high on my neck, some of the muscles in my shoulders needed to be re-worked. So, I went to physical therapy for six months after my surgery and after my radiation, and I had massage care in my neck, because the radiation created striated muscles, which were really tight and really tense. So I went to physical therapy until like July of 2016, twice a week, to work out the muscles and restore my range of motion. I could only turn my neck to the right just a little bit because of the radiation, so I had to get a lot of help. The lymphedema was not the hardest part, it was physicality of re-learning how to work my upper body again.
BM: Mentally, how challenging was that, knowing you are battling the recovery process almost every day?
VS: Mentally it was a challenge and that’s why I started seeing a therapist. I was crying a lot, and my mom said she didn’t know how to help me, but she was the one who found the therapist I have been seeing since 2016. She told me I had had a lot happen to me in a very short time, and I had to learn how to cope with it. Coping with it and finding the positivity in things and finding what brings me joy was the most important because it is easier to focus on the things that are so negative and going wrong in your life, but you know, I am still here. You know, I didn’t have to go on a feeding tube. I had insurance that allowed me to take time off from work. So, I chose to focus on the positive things that could help me be successful in the journey, instead of the negative things. Were there things that I lost? Yes. I lost a relationship during that period. Between the cancer and my recovery, it just didn’t work out. There were a lot of losses during that period, but the positive part for me was really figuring out what is my purpose here, and how can I take this journey and change it for the better. And I have to say, if it wasn’t for ThyCa, the Thyroid Cancer Association, I would have been feeling like I was by myself. My mom found ThyCa during my radiation treatments, and I couldn’t talk at the meetings, my mom had to talk for me, and ever since the first time I went, I became an active member, and have been since then.
BM: If you would, tell us a bit about ThyCa, what it’s about and what it does.
VS: It was founded around the year 2000 by Gary Bloom, and it supports thyroid cancer survivors, all thyroid cancer survivors. There is an international conference each year. I volunteered with them in 2018 at the conference in Chicago. We also meet monthly in different parts of the country. The group is really important. They talk about diet, about going for your treatments. There are endocrinologists and surgeons with ThyCa, so anytime we have a question, and you are relocating, ThyCa knows where the best doctors can be found. That’s how I found my doctor in Baltimore, and the ThyCa people are some of the best people I have ever met.
BM: I tell ya, some years have gone by since your procedure, but you look like the picture of health. In any way are you less than 100 percent?
VS: Yes. I have had some recurrences already. My surgeon said he did his fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. They are the best people, and they can help you. He called in a favor and I was able to see the doctors that trained him. So, we drove up to Rochester, Minnesota, my family, they took one look and said my surgery in St. Louis was very well done, but I still had cancer and it was under my collarbone. They said it was in an area my surgeon could not have seen, so they did what they called ethanol alcohol ablation. They called it a therapy, but it’s not therapy. It hurts. So, I went back later that summer for the treatment. They take ethanol alcohol and injecting directly into the cancer cells. What it does is, it shrinks the cancer cells. They did tell me that I was not another candidate for another surgery because of my previous radiation and the striative muscles in my neck. They said if they were to do another surgery, your healing time would take double what it took the first time, and we just don’t feel comfortable doing that. That was in 2016. Since then, I have had numerous bouts with my health. I had my appendix taken out because I had a cancerous tumor there. I have had some other issues when it comes to my lungs. Sometimes I will breath a bit heavy because I have 30 or 40 metastases, or ‘mets’, in my lungs, just hangin’ out down there, and there is nothing we can do about that. I was working with a pulmonologist in Chicago, who suggested I have two types of inhalers in case I lose my breath or it’s too hot. I rarely use those, and I have really practiced trying to stay healthy, exercising, yoga, meditation, so that I can keep my stress level down. I mean, who knows how I got this cancer? Who knows if my yoga and meditation will help to keep my stress levels down? No one knows, but I see my doctors every six months, I go in for bloodwork, and my latest tests results look great. So even though I have these ‘mets’ in my lungs, as long as I take my medications daily, I have a really good prognosis. That’s what I look forward to every day. I know what I need to do to stay healthy. I have to think about what can I control. Those are my diet, my health, my stress level and those are the things I can control. I unfortunately cannot control these lung ‘mets’. I cannot control if I get another tumor. When I am with my doctors, I ask very direct questions so I can understand what the prognosis is.
BM: Valronica, you have certainly been through a lot. I think I know the answer to this yes/no question, but I will ask, anyway. In terms of your health, are you optimistic about the future?
VS: I am very optimistic about the future. My cancer diagnosis does not define who I am, but it is a big part of who I am. When I am dating, I say right out that I am a cancer survivor, and what that means for me. I think the future is so bright, and as long I control what I can control and I am in touch with my doctors, they can help me better understand what medications I can take control this, I feel good about it. So, I am optimistic, and I look forward to a long future.
BM: Valronica, we start off our interviews the same way, and pretty much end the same way. I would like you to visualize your speaking to a person who has been freshly diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. If there is one overarching thing you could tell them, what would it be?
VS: My thought would be, make sure you are talking with your doctors and your care providers about what is it that you need. Ask doctors about a care plan and that you are active in your care. I say that because many times hospitals and doctors, they have one way of treating patients, and we are all individual patients. That’s really important for everyone to hear because if you take an active interest in your own journey, it will be better for you in the long run. And if you are diagnosed, contact ThyCa. It is full of people who have been living this journey for over 40 years. Two of my mentors, Gary Bloom and Theresa Wickerham, are 20-to-40-year survivors of thyroid cancer. They lead the organization and are full of wealth and knowledge for all people that are going through this. Join our organization, come to one of our conferences and reach out to others who are going through this. You don’t have to go through it alone. And because the thyroid manages so many things in your body, including your emotions, make sure you are seeking out professional help and that you are talking with someone. Because something you may be feeling, you are not going to be alone, but that mental fog and that weight gain, it’s normal if you have thyroid, and again, just know that you are not alone.
BM: That is the message we at Cancer Interviews try to send out to everyone who watches and listens to our interviews. Before we wrap up, is there a web address for ThyCa?
VS: Sure. It’s just ThyCa.org, and you will get to the Thyroid Cancer Association. It’s a great association. I have been a part of it since 2015. I don’t think I would be where I am today without this organization.
BM: Wonderful. Valronica, thank you so much for being with us on this segment, thank you for sharing your compelling story, and it should be inspirational when someone sees your level of optimism. Again, thank you so much.
VS: Thank you, Bruce, and I am grateful you asked me on.
BM: Thanks, Valronica, and remember on Cancer Interviews, it is a group effort. Everybody we hear from, in a sense, they are here for you by way of the stories they tell, and here at Cancer Interviews, we are here for you also, we just want to remind you, T-E-A-M, Together Everyone Achieves More, so until next time, take care, and we’ll see you do down the road.
Support Groups…
Thyroid Cancer Survivors Association
ThyCa.org, whose mission statement is:
· To Educate, so we and our families understand our disease.
· To Participate, so others learn from our experience.
· To Communicate, so we and our health care professionals better understand each other’s needs.
· To Support Research, for a future free of thyroid cancer.
SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Valronica Scales, Papillary Thyroid Survivor – College Park, Maryland, USA
Valronica Scales of College Park, Maryland has survived thyroid cancer, but hers was a difficult journey.
She noticed a lump in her neck, and her sister, a certified nursing aide, said Valronica had swollen lymph nodes. After three fine needle aspirations, tissue was removed, and she was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer. An eight-hour surgical procedure resulted in the removal of 99 lymph nodes, 33 of which were cancerous.
However, a subsequent PET scan revealed the surgery failed to remove all the cancer in her body. Valronica then underwent another procedure, radiation external beam surgery. She lost 40 pounds, lost her voice, but eventually recovered. Not long after that, though, she was diagnosed with lymphedema, tied to the trapped fluid left behind by the removal of her 99 lymph nodes. From that, she recovered as well.
Valronica continued to work during her cancer journey, and while not quite physically 100 percent, she has returned to something resembling a normal life.
Additional Resources:
Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association
Time Stamps:
06:42 Sister discovered Valronica had swollen lymph nodes in her neck.
10:14 Diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer.
16:33 Explains Papillary Thyroid Cancer.
18:31 Not many treatment options.
25:40 Valronica’s diet during treatment.
28:30 Continued working during treatment.
31:42 Valronica learned she had lymphedema concerning 99 lymph nodes.
40:41 Valronica says she is not quite 100 percent.
KEYWORDS: (tags)
thyroid cancer
swollen lymph nodes
fine needle aspiration
papillary thyroid carcinoma
anaplastic
tall cell variant
radiation treatment
striated muscles
radioactive iodine
radiation external beam surgery
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