Dear YLF,

First of all, I need to thank you all so much for your support throughout these past difficult 6 months. Finally, it seems that there might be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Today is one week from my thyroid surgery, and I am recovering pretty well. The surgery was less painful and difficult than the tonsil one. I will be seeing my surgeon on Monday for a check-up. I have spoken with my endocrinologist earlier today and we are working on scheduling the radioactive iodine treatment for mid-April. She has actually told me that for thyroid cancers such as mine (relatively small, appears not to have spread anywhere) they would normally not even give iodine, but since I have already had a different neck cancer it is better to take extra precautions. I couldn't agree more.

I have also had a third cancer scare, but luckily this one turned out to be a false alarm. I have had a PET scan done two days before the surgery to check the status of my neck, and while the neck looked fine, the doctors noticed a pretty high ( in malignant range) activity in an ovarian cyst that was discovered a couple of months ago. Needless to say, everybody was terrified about the possibility of the third cancer, not to mention that ovarian tends to be very aggressive and dangerous. And I learned this the day before the surgery! Anyway, I had an ultrasound yesterday and just got the results which showed that the cyst is almost completely gone! I can not even begin to describe just how relieved I feel.

So, starting Tuesday I will be going back to work. It will be quite strange, as I have worked only 6-7 weeks in the last 6 months! I am hoping to slowly start exercising, posting here on YLF, as I need some positive distractions, and various other small things. I need to rebuild my life slowly piece by piece after this horrible double cancer nightmare which hopefully ends with the April treatment,