Sorry folks, no birds today. I have other things on my mind.
I didn’t expect to get biopsy results on the large “nodule” and the right lobe of my thyroid gland that were removed four days ago until midweek but my surgeon called late yesterday morning with the very good news.
Benign!
That single word from my surgeon means that I should be completely done with this unpleasant episode in my life. No further surgery and no radioactive iodine to kill the rest of my thyroid and any cancer cells should be necessary. I’ll see my surgeon and/or my family doctor one more time to check the incision site and decide if thyroxin therapy is necessary and that should be it.
My relief is palpable, for reasons that go way beyond what many readers are aware of.
Nuclear reactors line the riverbank at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in January 1960. The N Reactor is in the foreground, with the twin KE and KW Reactors in the immediate background. The historic B Reactor, the world’s first plutonium production reactor, is visible in the distance. Image in public domain.
In the late 40’s and early 50’s (I was born in 1947) we were living on our northwest Montana family farm so we were “downwinders” from the Hanford Project in eastern Washington State. The Hanford Site produced plutonium for America’s early nuclear arsenal (including the Manhattan Project) and the process of separating plutonium released radioactive isotopes into the air, particularly iodine-131, which were carried east by the prevailing winds to northwest Montana.
I-131 settled on the grass, was ingested by cows and incorporated into their milk. Families in that part of Montana were told to avoid drinking local milk (we had a milk cow) and children were sternly instructed to never, ever eat snow, a favorite pastime of young kids our age.
As a young woman my younger sister Mona developed thyroid cancer and two other primary and unrelated cancers later in life. After 20+ years Mona’s thyroid cancer spread to a lobe of her right lung which had to be removed. That surgery and related surgeries resulted in the loss of vocal cords, nerve damage and physical disfigurement. Mona eventually also developed unrelated ovarian cancer and lung cancer and the latter took her life.
So yes, I’ve been worried. I think I literally melted into my chair when I heard that beautiful word from Dr. Preciado – “Benign”.
I will say that I’m still struggling a little from surgery recovery and often feel like I’ve been run over by that proverbial freight train. I’m surprised that this recovery is more challenging than recovery from back surgery just over a year ago.
I guess it’s just going to take time so don’t be surprised or alarmed if I take a day or two off from Feathered Photography in the near future.
Hopefully this is the last you’ll have to read, and the last I’ll have to write, about my health challenges. I’m sick of even thinking about it.
Ron
Running slightly behind, as usual, but did want to express the relief and happiness I felt over your excellent news. I hope you’re back to normal soon. So far, the most maddening thing about aging to me is the extended recovery time from pretty much any disruption.
Great news Ron! This is cause for celebration. Perhaps a worthy way would be to now move forward with getting that new gear to replace your 7dII!
I’m thinking seriously about it, Frank.
Best wishes Ron! I can feel your sense of relief to get positive results.
I am so happy to hear your good news. Too many of us have been affected in similar ways. I can imagine your relief and wish you a complete recovery. Don’t worry about your fans. We will wait indefinitely while cheering you on.
Wonderful news. Take it easy for a while. We will wait for you to get yo ur strength back. Best news in a while. Just relax and take it easy.
Phew!
Whew! Fantastic News! Given your family medical history, you have been doubly blessed! I grew up in Midland, Michigan, home of Dow Chemical……PCBs in the river that ran thru the middle of town & flooded every Spring, Greenpeace trespassing on company property, Vietnam War protests against manufacture of napalm………… what a toxic world we humans have developed! So glad you have survived it! Enjoy many more years of birding & photography!
Had a “cold nodule” on my thyroid diagnosed many years ago in the “nuclear department of our local hosp. After sweating bullets, found out it was benign…
Wobbled out if the hosp. on rubber legs and have been taking synthroid ever since…This was probably before you were even born!!! (Not sure if youbshoukd take it if you are pregnant or planning to be pregnant)….
So glad to hear it was benign! Take whatever time you need – your fans aren’t going anywhere!
Oh, Ron…I’m so relieved to hear that the growth was benign. We will miss your posts but you will be in our thoughts, as you always are. I really don’t know if there has been a day that I haven’t thought of you, your beautiful images and your generous spirit.
That is fantastic news! I am so happy for you! Do take it easy for a while, I always say, patients need to be patient. I work in healthcare here in CT.
Excellent news, Ron, Whew! Happy for you!
Thank you Ron for the update, and very happy to hear the good news. Sorry to hear about your sister.
Good news, all the best.
Stephen
I’d be glad to sub some of my blurry iPhone photos when you need a day off, but your followers would abandon ship like a hot potato (OK, so my writing ain’t so good, either).
Seriously though, a very poignant post. So happy to hear your results. It’s certainly understandable how your sister’s suffering weighed on your mind.
Oh , that’s wonderful news ! Hope you have many more years of photography and stories ! Thank you for your past photos and stories , they are constant source of information and beauty !
Wooooo-Hoooo!!!!
Ron, I’m so glad for the good news for you.
I have a former colleague who also lived down-wind from Hanford. He had thyroid cancer, which he beat, though it affected his voice, making it a little challenging in his teaching, but then he came down with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which really challenged him. Thank God he beat that too, and is now retired and living in Western Washington, not without some other physical challenges, but overall, doing well.
Certainly wishing you the very best, and looking forward to your pictures in the near future.
What a scare! So glad the cloud has lifted.
Watching a Harrier hunt low over a marsh with that tilting, lilting flight brings to mind one word: “Buoyant”.
Thinking that may be what you’re feeling today.
Rest. Recuperate.
We’re not going anywhere.
The threat of cancer is life changing. I am so happy for you that you can put that worry aside. I, too, had that happen to me, 20 years ago with a very bad stage of ovarian cancer diagnosed. Thanks to a wonderful physician, I’m still here, able to enjoy your posts and my life. Enjoy!
Hurrah, I raise a toast, the Chateauneuf du Pape (It’s medicinal, you know), in your direction. A votre sante, Ron.
In re the Hanford site, yours is one of the few personal stories I have read. Here in California, due to the calamitous events in nuclear power plants around the earth, and the siting of one of our more notorious plants, Diablo Canyon, on an active fault on the ocean, the law is that no new nuclear facilities can be built without a safe waste disposal plan. It is not possible to create a safe nuclear waste disposal plan and the cost of nuclear power is vastly greater than the cost of any other power source, including the externalities.
Hurrah for you, once again.
WONDERFUL.
Very, very wonderful.
Take as much time as you need.
Thank you so much for all the kind comments, everyone. Each and every one is deeply appreciated.
Had a “cold nodule” on my thyroid diagnosed many years ago in the “nuclear department of our local hosp. After sweating bullets, found out it was benign…
Wobbled out if the hosp. on rubber legs and have been taking synthroid ever since…This was probably before you were even born!!! (Not sure if youbshoukd take pit if you are pregnant or planning to be pregnant)….
Great news and wishing you a speedy recovery, Ron! I too remember when the downwinder scare was very real. Hope to spot your HARRIER truck at Farmington Bay in the next few days.
Thank you, we could all use some GOOD news today. Now get back to work ;-o
Such a beautiful word to hear…benign.
Thank you Dr. Perfect❗️
Take care of yourself. We’ll all be waiting when you’re up & running 😁
Held my breath until I got to the word benign. I’m so happy and relieved for you!!!
Please rest and take care of yourself. ❤️❤️❤️
Congratulations! That singular word, benign, made your day and ours, too. You get a few days off to rest and recover, but then we all expect to see lots of bird photos and read the anecdotes associated with them. Here’s to health!
Wonderful news, Ron! Take all the time you need- we can always visit your amazing archives when we need a dose of FP!
Self-care is everything! Go do something just for you. Glad the news is good.
Great news, Ron!!!
Fantastic news!
Wonderful news! Remember, healing is more important than adding another blog entry. As someone mentioned above, we will be here when you feel like making new posts.
Great news Ron, I can only imagine how anxious you were to hear the results and to be overwhelmed with the relief of the great news. Rest up well, you deserve it.
Yeah!!!! Now heal. Don’t feel bound to blogging. We’ll still be here when you get back.
What a relief! It’s possible that some of the recovery time will be due to the stress you have been under.
I am being consumed bit by bit by skin cancer, melanoma and basil cells as a result of all the sun damage from lying on the beach long before SPF was heard of. That’s what growing up in Southern California will due to you! But I loved to go to the beach and to this day I miss the sound of waves crashing on the beach. I have found a video on the internet of that sound and it is so soothing!
I wish you all the luck in the world with your health challenges, Pat!
🐋🦈🌊🍀🍀🍀
Benign! is just the best of words!
Take all the time you need. Don’t rush things.
I ‘m sure you know we always be here.
That’s great news Ron.
That is fantastic news we are so happy for you, Ron!
Oh boy… it’s an emotional journey as well as a physical one… am taking world geography and we started studying Russia yesterday; so many nuclear contamination sites that were unknown until the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s… 😣 I was a child of 11/12 in 1986 and living in Germany during the Chernobyl accident and aftermath
I’m so thrilled to hear of your “good” biopsy, and so saddened by the story of
your sister’s suffering. Those of us who are native to southern Utah, eastern
Nevada, and northern Arizona–“Downwinders” of the Nevada test site, are
always just waiting for that shoe to drop. It’s amazing to me that so many in
the rest of the US have never heard of the price the western states paid ( for
several generations ) to bring WWII to an end . I wish a speedy return to
full energy for you– on the wings of birds !
I’m very happy for you!
Great news! Rest well my friend!
Uncle Ron. This is incredible news!! I’m so relieved. Thank you for sharing the info about the plutonium site. My mom did mention it one time but never in such detail. Happy healing.
So glad for you. Take it easy and rest. Physical trauma is not all you experienced.
Benign is a wonderful word. I know exactly how you are feeling. I went through this same thing back in 2014, when I had a partial thyroidectomy. While waiting and wondering about the big C, all I could think was “Fernald” as I had spent a dozen years of youth living very near there, including many summers at scout camp just over the hill from the facility. Fernald was superfund site similar to Hanford, in the ’80s we found out they had sort of lost track of TONS of radioactive material. Knowing my toxic roots I got pretty anxious about the biopsy results. Like yours me results came back fine. I can sure relate to your experience.
Wow, our experiences are very similar, Linda. So glad you had good news too!
Ah, Ron, So glad to hear this news and terrifying back story…Helas, what a world we humans continue to defile. I so appreciate your appreciation and sharing of the beautiful birds and reminders of our great fortune to be in the universe.
Wonderful for you your family and all your blog family.
I understand your worry and share our joy.
Diana
Happy for you Ron! Stay healthy as you bring so much joy to so many of us with your wonderful photographs!
Ron – take as much time as you need. We can certainly live without Feathered Photography while you rest and recuperate. I often read about the “Downwinders” here in North Central Arizona. One of my younger brothers served five years on the USS Enterprise as a Nuclear water treatment specialist. When he left the Navy he went to Temple Univ. in Philly and got a degree in journalism. Then went to work for the Allentown PA Morning Call. When the 3 Mile Island incident broke the paper sent him to cover it. The first time the authorities came out to speak to the press to gave their status of the situation he stood up and told them that what they were saying was not possible. They of course tried to debate him, but failed. He then became the go-to guy for all the reporters until more knowledgeable experts arrived from the NRC. This episode is written up in a book about 3 Mile Island. A year or so later the NRC hired him and he became their publicity director for the eleven western states until he retired a few years back.
Yes! Great that the surgeon promptly let you know the great news that the results were negative! 🙂 You’d mentioned being a downwinder from Hanford and that has been on my mind a bit. Don’t know if you mentioned Mona before other than she’s passed. Will Joe being a Korea era “Atomic Vet” that stuff is front of mind even tho he’s been “lucky” that way. Guessing that area is a bit more “touchy” to work on and hard not to “move” things there. Take easy!
Judy, that Hanford Site brings up conflicting emotions in me. On the one hand it was almost certainly responsible for Mona’s thyroid cancer and perhaps her other cancers too.
On the other hand, in the summer of 1945 my Dad was on Okinawa waiting to invade Japan. If Truman hadn’t dropped Fat Man and Little Boy on Japan my Dad very likely wouldn’t have survived the invasion and none of us 3 kids would even have been born. And those bombs were produced using plutonium from Hanford.
Like I said, conflicting emotions…
Believe me, I “get it”………like so many things there is no clear black/white….
Great news! Wishing you a speedy recovery. My 54 year old daughter had thyroid cancer when she was 23 and is doing fine. I know how frightening this can be. Take some time off and let yourself heal. Although we followers love your blog, your health is more important. We’ll still be around when you’ve healed.
Great news, my friend.
We are all greatly relieved and looking forward to you feeling good enough to be up and about… and possibly bringing us some more birds. Take a rest for a week or two. Shorter nights, warmer temps and oncoming spring are bringing more of our birds to our backyards to ease our wait.
Very grateful to read this. The title did not do it justice. I was apprehensive to read the post because of it, but Whew!
I live in Calgary, AB now, but I’m originally from Seattle, and my Dad piloted landing crafts with tanks from his naval ship to the shores of Nagasaki, but he never spoke of it. We never even knew until he passed away, so I understand your conflicting emotions. So very sorry about your sister. That would have been hellish for her and all of your family.
The birds are rejoicing for your benign diagnosis as well. You’re their champion, and I appreciate your knowledge and your photography. Thank you.
Excellent news! I think only someone who has experienced the dreaded waiting for the results of a possible cancer biopsy can fully appreciate the relief the word ‘benign’ evokes. One way or the other it is life-changing…you described it well! Enjoy your day(s) to the fullest my friend.
Great news! Continued Good Health! & Fabulous Photo Days!
“Take Care!”
Thank you for telling us. Rest well!
So thankful for this news. It has been on my mind, and I have sent you all my good Karmic energy. Your example has been so important to my development as a member of the raptor education community and has informed my ethical photography skills (such as they are).
What a relief, Ron! And I’m so very sorry that your sister, Mona, lost her first her health and then her life after living downwind from plutonium production. I’m glad you’re going to take time to yourself to convalesce and conserve your energies. Rest stop and breathe easy!
I’m relieved, and am glad you shared some of the backstory. Take whatever time you need. Healing’s a process, after all, and any process takes time. On the other hand, your doctor’s report came sooner than you expected, and feeling 100% may arrive sooner than you expect, too!