![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/loggerhead-shrike-3624-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"loggerhead-shrike-3624-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd for me personally.<\/p>\n
The last time I used the words “Bump In The Road For Feathered Photography” in the title of one of my posts was a year ago when I had back surgery. Now I have to go under the knife again but this time it’s for something entirely different.<\/p>\n
Recently a fairly routine medical scan turned up a large “nodule” in the right lobe of my thyroid gland. A needle biopsy a couple of weeks ago was inconclusive for thyroid cancer because the type of cell involved requires a more complicated evaluation than can be performed on the tissue provided by a simple needle biopsy. That means the nodule and the entire right lobe must be removed so they can be tested more thoroughly.<\/p>\n
The surgery is scheduled for this morning so I may be under the knife when you read this. Whether it’s cancer or not I may have to have a second surgery down the road to remove the left lobe.<\/p>\n
My understanding is that it isn’t as ominous as it might sound. Even if it is cancer the most aggressive types have largely been ruled out by the needle biopsy and therapies and treatments for the types of thyroid cancer I might have have progressed by leaps and bounds in recent years. I may have to take a single dose of radioactive iodine and I’ll likely have to take thyroxin for the rest of my life but that’s no big deal. For various reasons both of my parents took thyroxin for all of their adult lives.<\/p>\n
And then there’s the distinct possibility that it isn’t cancer but that could go either way. I won’t know for at least three days after the surgery.<\/p>\n
Recovery from this surgery is relatively quick and easy compared to many other surgeries. I should be out of the hospital no later than tomorrow (Saturday) and pretty much pain free within a few days so I should be back to photography and blogging very soon if there are no complications. I should be able to monitor Feathered Photography from my phone while I’m in the hospital.<\/p>\n
I don’t like to bare my soul about stuff like this in public but I saw no practical alternative. If I didn’t post to my blog for a few days without explanation it wouldn’t be fair to my readers who I imagine would wonder what the hell was going on. So here it is, for all the world to see. I’ll admit that it makes me a little uncomfortable but I can live with it.<\/p>\n
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I always try to include a photo with my posts, even the personal ones. But at first I was stymied – what bird photo of mine would possibly work with a post like this one?<\/p>\n
Admittedly the photo I eventually chose is a bit of a stretch…<\/p>\n
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How about a “butcher bird” (Loggerhead Shrike) pulling meat off of a shrew’s leg it has impaled on a tree thorn? Notice the little foot sticking up directly above the thorn that we can’t see because it’s hidden by vole tissue and fur. In the world of butcher birds I guess this at least approaches a type of primitive surgery.<\/p>\n