Update

Hello, all! It’s November—sheesh! It took me till March to remember to write 2011 (instead of 2010)—how does it fly so quickly? The good news is that my favorite holiday is this month. I LOVE Thanksgiving. I love the food and the colors and the smells. Mostly I love gathering with family to give thanks. I love you all very much, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving month.


A bit of news at our house:

A couple of weeks ago I had a physical. While I was there the doctor thought that my thyroid felt enlarged, so he sent me for an ultrasound. The ultrasound detected a cyst on the right side of my thyroid and two nodules on the left side of my thyroid. Spencer and I met with our family doc yesterday. The cyst is just some fluid, and they are not worried about that at all. But the two masses need to be checked.

The doctor is sending me to see an endocrinologist (I hope to hear from them in the next few days to get things scheduled). I will have to have a dye test, which will help them determine if these nodules are “hot” – meaning they secrete a substance and can become malignant – or “cold”. They will also do a needle biopsy of both masses.

Our doctor said that the chances of finding anything malignant in the thyroid are less than my chances of getting hit by a bus. Do I have to choose one of those?  Anyway, he said that even if there were malignant cells in my thyroid, they tend to be so slow-growing that it’s rarely a problem. In fact, he said, “I’d have this looked at within the next 3 to 6 months.” I am unwilling to wait, of course, but it is comforting that this is not a “We-have-to-move-quickly” type of scenario.

So we are calm, and we are just going to take each step as it comes. We are hopeful and prayerful that this will be much ado about nothing, but mortality happens. In the meantime, I would really appreciate your prayers as we move forward.

In other news, Briana’s mission papers were officially submitted this past weekend, so we hope to get a mission call within the next couple of weeks. She is having her call sent to her home in Far Away Logan, so we won’t be having a big letter-opening ceremony; but we will let you know the details when the call comes.

We love you all very much and pray that all is well in your homes!