Prayer Request

Please keep my mother, Anna and her Doctors in your prayers in the next week to 10 days. Dr. Gulec from Goshen Hospital will be performing exploratory neck surgery to correct her hyperparathyroidism problem she’s had for quite some time. In the past 10 days she has had a sestamibi scan, CT scan, and 2 nuclear tests done with 2 different dyes injected in her to try and locate the over-active parathyroid. It’s very unusual that they can’t locate it with the test they have done so far. The Dr. said the sestamibi scan showed that it might be located in with her main thyroid but didn’t show a clear image to be 100% sure. He has 6-7 different steps he will take during the surgery if need be, with each step being a little more complicated and serious. She might lose a part of her thyroid or all of it if need be. There will be a team of pathologists helping with the surgery to determine if what they find is a gland or the parathyroid. The surgery, if everything goes good could last 30 to 60 minutes, if he needs to take all the steps it could be several hours. If any of these steps aren’t successful then it will mean she will need to have major surgery which would require opening her chest and having major exploratory open chest surgery.

The surgery will be tomorrow Tuesday September 25 @ 8:30.

For those of you who don't know what Hyperparathryroidism is here you go: (provided by Web MD)

Hyperparathyroidism is over activity of the tiny glands in the neck that are next to the thyroid gland (parathyroid glands). The parathyroid glands release a substance called parathyroid hormone that helps control the amount of calcium in the bloodstream.

When the parathyroid glands produce too much hormone, the amount of calcium in the blood increases. The body removes calcium from the bones, absorbs more calcium from the intestines, and releases less calcium into the urine. This can result in constipation, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and other symptoms. It can also lead to kidney stones and weakening of the bones (osteoporosis).

This picture shows where your parathyroid is supposed to be. However, when you are developing as a fetus it is up underneath your chin with the lymph nodes and gradually gravitates down beside your thyroid. Sometimes your parathyroid doesn't make it all the way to your thyroid or it goes past your thyroid into your chest. My mom's parathyroid is not where it is supposed to be which is why they are now doing exploratory surgery.

Thanks for your prayers! I will keep you posted on her condition post-op!