Travis Holland

“What?” has been Meghan’s favourite phrase this week, as I’ve had a very weak voice but still insist on saying things from different rooms or over noises like the dishwasher or television. Other than that, I’m recovering well. I’ve had some swelling in the last few days, and a bit of nausea to boot, but on the whole I’m feeling relatively fit and healthy.

Here are a couple of photos of my neck before and after for comparison. The before shot focusses on the left side of my neck because I expected the incision to be about 1/3 longer than it is, with the additional section going up toward my ear. However, that turned out not to be the case, thankfully, due to the altered diagnosis:

Over the last few months, I have received so much support and love from my extended network of friends, way beyond anything I ever expected. When I set about making this all very public, the last thing on my mind was what people would do for me. I have been overwhelmed and touched by each of the hundreds of messages on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, comments on this blog, gifts, phone calls, text messages and visits, and I cannot thank you all enough. Following is a selection of nice things that have come my way recently.

• While in the hospital, I received a wonderful bunch of flowers from the District 9710 Rotaract Committee.
  
• My work colleagues at the SMART Infrastructure Facility sent me a very sweet gift of flavoured teas and a glass cup from T2.
• I have had quite a few visitors, including Meghan’s work colleagues and dear friends. It has been really great to talk and laugh with so many people, though the physical action of laughing can be quite painful at the moment.
• I have had touching Facebook messages from people whose family members have been through (literally) the same experience.
• Many people have been contacting my mum for daily updates.

Thank you to everyone who has shown me this support – it has helped tremendously to keep my spirits up and my interests alive, despite everything else that has been going on.

In the next few weeks, I’ll begin sorting through my life and getting it all back in order. I’m due back from sick leave with the uni officially on May 20, and I have to visit the surgeon on May 23 for a checkup. I have at least four visits with my GP to monitor and reduce my calcium supplements depending on what my calcium levels are doing, and one with the endocrinologist for a thyroid hormone test. There may still need to be some radioactive iodine treatment but we will deal with that as needed.