Each year I take my children for a routine physical and 2004 was no different.  The very instant Dr. Cook felt Lauren's neck I could tell something was wrong.  Lauren was referred for a thyroid ultrasound after her brand new pediatrician felt a suspicious mass on the right side of her neck.  I felt numb as the technician did the ultrasound, especially when she kept taking measurements.  She had us wait in the office until she spoke with the radiologist.  By the time we returned home, I had specialists from Children's Hospital calling to get Lauren seen the next day.  I could hardly breathe and I knew something was terribly wrong.  A mother just knows.

The day after Thanksgiving 2004, surgery to remove the tumor confirmed the cancer diagnosis.  Two weeks later she underwent a total thyroidectomy.  I had never heard of anyone with thyroid cancer and suddenly I was hearing words like "thyroglobulin" and "radioactive iodine."  The world as I knew it for the last 13 years had changed forever.  My child had no symptoms when she went for her check-up and suddenly she was a cancer patient.