As part of the pre-surgery protocol for removing my tumor I was told that I would need to do a cleansing process, like you do before a colonoscopy. I was scheduled for surgery on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14th so I “prepped” on the 13th and had nothing to eat or drink after midnight. The surgery was scheduled for 2:00pm.

When I arrived at 12:30pm, I was brought into the pre-op area where several nurses and doctors came in and talked to me about my medications and my medical history. One of the first nurses I met had accessed my port and hung a saline bag for my short stay in pre-op. My family was there (Jeff, my son Mathew and my sister Dawn). They kept me company and we joked about the wait and how much I wanted an egg salad sandwich when I could eat again. At 1:30pm the Anesthesiologist came by to go through his questions for me and when he turned to my blood results taken in January he looked at me and said, “tell me about this thyroid being elevated.”

I said I wasn’t aware of my thyroid being elevated but I do take thyroid medication due to hypothyroidism and my General Physician had bumped up the medication in mid December because I was low. He asked why I hadn’t taken another blood test to see if the bump in medication was enough or too much? I said it was because my cancer marker went up and I guess I was more focused on that instead of remembering to check my thyroid. I asked if it was a problem. He said yes. If they did the surgery I might have a thyroid storm. I had never heard of that before but he explained that I could have a heart attack or stroke.

He led me to think we weren’t going to have the surgery that day and I was pretty thirsty and hungry at that point. It was now 2:00pm and the Endocrinology Department was called down to weigh in on the issue. They gave me the sniff test which is to see if I had any outward signs of a high thyroid. Shaking hands, fast heart rate, flushed. I had none of these and know what they are because I have had a hyper thyroid in the past.

The three doctors met after the exam and came back to tell me my surgery would not happen that day. I immediately asked Mathew to run up to the cafeteria and grab me a big egg salad sandwich on wheat with plenty of lettuce. My head was pounding (massive headache) and when I turned to look at my saline bag, none of the fluid had drained from it into me, so my headache was from dehydration. I called a nurse and asked for as much juice as they could muster.

Jeff’s cell phone buzzed and he put it to his ear. He then looked at me and said, “no egg salad left. How about a Rueben?” I said “no. I don’t like Ruebens. Do they have chicken salad?” The request was relayed to Matt. The answer was “no. They don’t have much left at this hour of the day.” I said, “just get me something made with chicken or turkey, and please hurry.”

I drank three containers of cranberry juice and consumed a plain chicken patty on a small hamburger roll within 2 minutes of Matt showing up back in pre-op. Needless to say I was the only patient left there. My surgeon had come in three times to apologize for all of the delays and the Endocrinology Department ordered a full thyroid panel for my next surgery date, the following Tues. Feb. 18th at 2:00pm (of course). And the best part of all was that I would need to do another clean out/prep!