Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
The Christian rock group Stryper‘s Michael Sweet has provided an update on his fight with the most prevalent kind of thyroid cancer, papillary thyroid carcinoma, as per Blabbermouth. Less than a month after having a nodule in his thyroid’s right lobe biopsied, Michael received his diagnosis last autumn. Sweet informed his followers of the latest developments in his fight with cancer on Friday, June 26, by going live on his Facebook page.
I went to have my six-month checkup yesterday, and they call it active surveillance. So that’s what they’re doing right now with me regarding my thyroid cancer. People say, ‘Don’t say ‘my thyroid cancer’. Don’t claim it.’ So I’ll just say the cancer that’s right there [on my left side]. And they did an ultrasound. It was quite extensive and quite lengthy, and they were obviously checking out not just that, but this side [the right side] as well, and all my lymph nodes, and just checking my whole area out. All this stuff. And it was making me a little nervous because it went on and on — much longer than usual. It’s usually typically half the time. And it just kept going. She kept beeping and typing, and beeping and typing, and beeping and typing.
And after a while, my mind started racing. I started thinking, ‘Okay, is she seeing more? What’s going on?’ So after that appointment, I went up to my doctor’s office and met with my doctor. I went in the room and I waited quite a while, and went in another room and waited quite a while. And once the door opened, three doctors walked in. And I gotta tell you, [my wife] Lisa and I looked at each other, and my heart started racing because that’s never happened either. And thank God, the first of the three doctors, a young gentleman who was amazing, he said to me, ‘First of all, everything’s good.’ And then, phew, I breathed a sigh of relief. But the initial walk-in of the three doctors was kind of scary, to be honest, because between that and the ultrasound, I felt, like, ‘Okay, something’s going on.’
This is what happens with all of us. This is human nature. We sometimes think the worst, when we really should be thinking the best, and it’s easy to go there. No matter how prayed up you are, how positive you are, it’s easy to go there. So that’s where my mind was going, and thank God he said everything looks great. Nothing has spread to my lymph nodes. The cancer is surrounded by healthy tissue. It’s a papillary cancer, so it’s very slow-growing.
It’s not aggressive. It hasn’t changed at all since the last time I had it checked in six months. So now they wanna check me in eight months, which, it wound up being nine months because I couldn’t get in in eight months ’cause I have things going on. But so nine months they’re gonna check me again and see where I’m at. And I guess, with my age and the type of cancer that it is, it’s very possible, actually probable, that it’s not going to grow, or at least aggressively.
So I asked the doctors point-blank, ‘What are the odds of me being late 70s, early 80s, and this hasn’t changed?’ And they said, ‘Actually, very good.’ So there’s that possibility, a very strong possibility, and that’s where I’m at. They’re hesitant on surgery right now because of where it is. It’s much closer to my vocal nerve. And obviously, there’s that risk of vocal nerve damage. But if it came down to it, push comes to shove, if it meant me having damage in my vocal nerve and not being able to sing, I would take that any day of the week over an aggressive form of cancer spreading or anything like that.
So I wanna be smart, I wanna be wise. I’m following my doctors’ leads. They’re the best team I think I could have. I’m in the best place possible for this, which is Boston Mass Eye And Ear, which is part of Mass General Brigham, and all that good stuff. And I’m in the best hands and best care possible.
