Damian's Cancer Battle Fundraiser

Damian was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer in December. They had been keeping an eye on a nodule they found for around a year and it got large enough to biopsy in November. Roswell called him immediately and got him in in December. According to their current research, they wanted to try to take only the right side of the thyroid (the side with the tumor) and leave half in so he wouldn't have to be on medication. They anticipated if everything went well it would take 2-4 weeks to recover fully before he could go back to "normal" activities and we would continue follow up treatment from there. His surgery was set for January 4th. That surgery was pushed back because of the nasty storm in Buffalo until 1/24. Over the last week or two leading up to the surgery, Damian was starting to experience some discomfort in his neck. When they got in to perform the surgery, they found that the tumor was stuck to his vocal chord/nerve and was solid as a rock. They also observed the sickness had spread onto a couple of lymph nodes on the right side. To be safe, they removed the lymph nodes on the right and the tumor and that half of the thyroid, but determined it was not safe to take the entire thyroid at that point as it had been almost 4 hours, and they feared the nerve would get damaged, preventing Damian from being able to breathe on his own. They contemplated multiple different options during the procedure but made this decision. They stitched him up and put in a drain to prevent further swelling. Doc came out to me to tell me about the news which wasn't what we originally planned, but they had prepped for just in case during the talks of the plan last month. Ultimately, the safest choice was made, and we are so grateful it went how it did. On 2/15, Damian will go back in to have the same procedure done on the left side. He will be off another 2-3 weeks for that surgery. Because they are certain there is residual microscopic bad cells floating around, the entire thyroid needs to be taken out so they can do the RAI treatment in the very near future. He's going to have to isolate completely from the family for 1-2 weeks depending on their plan once that takes place (most likely the mid-end of March). This is the latest update we have. He got his first drain out today and is sore, but doing great. We are extremely positive and thankful for his entire team at Roswell. They are experts for a reason and we have all faith in them that they will get him healthy again. This fundraiser is to help with expenses directly as he will be off work much more than we originally anticipated. Please keep the prayers up for him. He will beat this. Thank you for your support!