Aussie Mark needs some good vibes

[westen44]

Hoping for a speedy recovery. 

[Basshappi]

Hang in there Mark! Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

[amptech]

Best wishes, Mark!

[Dave W]

He's home now and the doc says surgery went well. Here's hoping for a full recovery and a good prognosis for many years of playing!

Good news. Hopefully that means his long term outlook will be good.

[Pilgrim]

Mark, hope you re doing great! Hang in there and recover fast.

[doombass]

Hoping for a fast recovery Mark.!

[Hörnisse]

Sending lots of good vibes and love from Austin. 

[rahock]

Kick some ass Mark . Good vibes coming in from Detroit.
Rick

[FrankieTbird]

 

[clankenstein]

Hoping you bounce back soon in Kapiti N.Z.

[uwe]

I'll just sit here and wait until you are well again!

[Aussie Mark]

Hi gang, thanks for the good vibes!  I had two malignant lumps on my thyroid that had spread into the adjacent lymph nodes - the surgeon removed the entire thyroid and those particular lymph nodes and he's feeling confident that he got it all.  Pathology over coming weeks will confirm whether he got all the thyroid cells - if his scalpel work missed some, I'll have radioactive iodine treatment, which involves swallowing a capsule of radioactive iodine (doh!) and sitting around in a lead lined room for a week while the iodine tracks down any thyroid cells and nukes them.   Once that point is reached, my prognosis is as close to 100% as can be.

In the meantime I'm on my one-a-day thyroid replacement hormone pill regime, which I'll need to do for the rest of my life, as well as calcium supplements until my para-thyroid recovers from the shock of having it's next door neighbour removed.  Initially I was very tired and sore post surgery, but have been improving every day - my neck movement is now around 50% and I'm am mostly pain free, other than around the incision site, where my neck is still very tender and numb.  I see the surgeon tomorrow for a follow up where he will remove the wound dressing and see how that is coming along.

Yesterday I did some exercise for the first time - jogging onto the sporting field carrying a water bottle during my son's rugby league game, and if the sun is shining later today I might try a short, flat, slow bike ride and see how that goes. 

I'm playing bass on a few songs at one of our band members' wedding this coming Sunday, so life is starting to return to normal.  I'm very much enjoying these three weeks off work though!

I definitely dodged a bullet with this, as I'm a typical male who never goes to the doctor.  I had some discomfort in my neck that lasted for a couple of weeks, and once I'd decided it wasn't muscle soreness and I thought I could feel a lump I decided to see my doctor, even though I didn't feel ill at all.  He sent me for an ultrasound scan and after that they called me in for biopsies, and from there everything escalated quickly - I was referred to a surgeon and was in the operating theatre just 10 days after the biopsy was done.

As someone suggested on Facebook, this might be a good reason to get another tattoo :-)

[Dave W]

Bless you, Mark. Hope the pathology report is good.

[Rob]

Great news Mark!
Here's best wishes that they got it all.
B

[Pilgrim]

Delighted to hear it! Hang in there and be well.