i hadn't noticed it sooner i the first doctor in  japan made me feel so stupid for not coming in  

sooner it was like why didn't you notice this it's  huge how are you not noticing this until now and  

now like looking back at the  footage of it before my surgery  

yeah it's very obvious but like i guess you don't  look at your neck like that i don't know it was  

kind of like under my under my chin area and you  really only notice it when you're swallowing and  

looking at it so i don't know all these years that  it's probably been in there and i didn't notice it  

they told me that it's about the size of  a mandarin orange it's just so weird to me  

um but the surgeon asked me to stand up and  she'd made little markings on my neck of  

where she would do the incision i told her not to  worry too much about what it looks like i really  

don't care i told her to just do her job i'm only  worried about my health i don't care how it looks  

aesthetically if i have a big scar there  so be it it'll probably look cool whatever  

and she was like no i care how it looks i'm going  to position it in a place so that it's in like  

a fold a wrinkle in your neck so that  it won't be too obvious once it heals  

my sister was with me by the way can't thank  her enough i would not have been able to go  

through this whole thing alone it would have  been hell so it was so nice to have her there  

um just through the whole thing she helped me  feel not as nervous and she was really really  

helpful like asking the nurses questions that i  might have forgotten and preparing everything and  

looking up info for taxis and stuff um yeah i owe  her so much thank you shea you're amazing i've had  

one two three surgeries where i  had to go under general anesthetic  

so i have experience with it before but it still  kind of freaks me out i don't know there's always  

the risk that you'll die or you'll not go to sleep  properly you'll be awake during your surgery or  

something horrible like that i don't know you hear  these horror stories so i was a little nervous but  

i felt really grateful that i was able to make  the trip to america to see this specialist so  

overall i was pretty happy to be there and then  they wheeled me into the surgery room and uh the  

nurses there were all super nice one of the nurses  came over she said it's party time here's your  

party hat she put on a hair net and now it's  time for cocktails i guess she plugged in the  

anesthetic and that's the last thing i remember  and then i woke up which felt like a second later  

and i was lying in bed and there was a male nurse  trying to wake me up and you could tell that  

he was getting a little like fed up with waiting  for me to wake up and all i remember him saying  

was god we've been trying to wake you up for  ages you just you just wouldn't wake up and  

i was just so groggy at that point i was so  confused there was another patient like on  

the other side of the room screaming and um yeah  he was thrilled to finally see me opening my eyes  

they wheeled me back into my my private room  and the nurse came in to see me and she asked  

me how i was feeling i said i wasn't really in  any pain or anything i was able to talk okay  

that's one of the risks of thyroid surgery is  that they can damage your vocal cords in the  

process and some people lose their voice or have  their voice damaged permanently it was kind of a  

relief to wake up and try talking and have it work  okay my voice was a little raspier than usual but  

yeah i could talk all right and the nurse asked  how i was feeling i said you know i wasn't in any  

in much pain or anything i just felt really  nauseous i get nauseous really easily and she  

was like okay let's go over to the bathroom and i  made it like two steps that i puked all over her  

it's horrible it was really embarrassing um i'm  sure they're used to it but i felt really bad  

everybody was so nice and i just felt so bad  to puke on her the surgeon told me that the  

surgery went very well they removed the tumor  they also removed two of my lymph nodes that  

are located behind the thyroid i believe because  those are the first lymph nodes that the cancer  

will spread to so they wanted to remove those  and have those sent off to the lab for testing  

to make sure that nothing had spread and i would  be getting those results in about a week or so  

they would phone me i was actually able to go back  to my hotel in florida like right away i think  

i woke up from surgery and maybe an hour later i  don't know if time was processing properly for me  

but it felt like maybe an hour after surgery i was  already heading back to my hotel i was able to eat  

properly which was cool i thought after having  surgery on my throat i wouldn't be able to eat  

or it would be extremely painful or something but  yeah it felt like normal i was able to drink and  

eat solid foods and there were no issues there  at all and i felt really good the first day  

but then when i woke up in the morning from  the second day i felt like i was hit by a bus  

or something my lungs were so painful this whole  like chest area was really painful i wasn't  

expecting that i thought my neck was gonna kill me  but i didn't even notice that and i was coughing  

up blood it was just a mess my sister contacted  the nurse and was like she's coughing up blood is  

that okay and they said it's a normal thing that  happens after surgery because while you're asleep  

they put a breathing tube into your lungs so you  can breathe under anesthetic um and sometimes  

that will cause irritation and you'll be coughing  up some stuff for a few days after your surgery so  

yeah the hardest part was really just the pain  in my lungs and getting up and walking around  

was so hard it's really really painful but  honestly that's my fault because i decided  

not to take the prescription pain meds that  they uh prescribed for me they sounded really  

strong and scary and i was like i'll be fine  but yeah i was in a lot of pain for about  

five days i want to say and then it started to  get a little better each day and i could like  

see the light at the end of the tunnel um it's  been about a week and a half now and i would  

say the pain is probably about 90 percent gone it  still hurts when i move my neck this is about the  

full range of motion i have i can't look over i  can't like look behind um and i can't tilt my head  

back but in general i feel good no pain in my body  or anything anymore it's just a little awkward  

to sleep and i have to be careful when i'm like  looking around not to turn my head too much yeah  

so after resting in florida for two more nights  i think two or three more nights um we took our  

flight back to canada three flights back to canada  and i've just been at home resting with my family  

it's been really good to see them even though  this whole trip just happened out of nowhere and  

i wasn't planning on seeing anybody of course it's  really nice to be back here with my family after a  

very long one week wait a couple days ago i heard  back from the hospital they had my lab results  

and the tumor came back non-cancerous it was just  a really big random ass tumor that wasn't cancer  

i tested my lymph nodes they tested the tumor  and they didn't find anything so they told me  

yeah i'm good to go i only have half a thyroid  left now and hopefully the other half that wasn't  

destroyed by the tumor will be able to function  on its own and produce the hormones that my body  

needs to survive you need your thyroid so if it  can't handle producing those hormones on its own  

i will need to take some hormonal supplements  to make up for that but the surgeon said  

there is a chance that it'll be okay and she's  actually confident that it will be okay because  

the right side of my thyroid had been just taken  over by the tumor and it wasn't working anyways  

so the left side of my thyroid had been doing all  the work for who knows how long now it could have  

been years really and my thyroid hormone levels  were perfect so yeah there's a chance i might not  

need medication but it's kind of hard to tell  in a couple months i have to go for a checkup  

at a doctor in japan and just see if all  my levels are okay and hopefully it is  

because i've heard that it can be really tough  trying to balance your thyroid hormones out with  

medication it can be a bit of a struggle getting  the right balance because everybody's different  

so fingers crossed so if any of you guys out  there happen to be going through something similar  

honestly thyroid problems are so much more  common than i had any idea about i had no idea  

after doing lots of research and watching hundreds  of vlogs of people going through something similar  

it really made me realize how common it is  so i wouldn't be surprised if one of you  

is going through something similar if you want  to ask me any questions about my surgery or yeah  

just anything anything i can help share with you  about this experience leave some comments for me  

i would be very happy to help you out but yeah  that's where we are do you want to see my sick  

scar it looks kind of gross because it's not  healed yet so if that's not your kind of thing  

then maybe don't watch the end of the video um  but this is what it looks like now they didn't  

use stitches they actually use like a surgical  glue so on top of the incision you can see this  

kind of like grayish stuff that's glue that should  fall off between two weeks and three weeks after  

surgery so i'm just kind of waiting for that to  fall off but i think it looks like it's healing  

nicely i want to say it doesn't look overly like  bumpy or anything so i feel like once it's healed  

maybe it won't be too big of this car but like  i said i really i don't mind i don't really care  

too much about stuff like that um might be kind of  annoying to have people comment on it all the time  

and ask what the hell it is that would probably  be the only reason that i don't want to have a  

big scar across my neck but hopefully lots of  people will watch this video and then they'll  

know what's up but yeah that's been my past three  months how have you guys been i really hope you're  

having a nice fall and you're enjoying fall and  your life hasn't been a [ __ ] show like mine but  

i will be back to japan in two weeks from now and  hopefully i'll be feeling really good and able to  

make videos again i really missed you guys i was  really really sad about all this because i was so  

excited about making content about my new city and  exploring sentai but we can make that happen uh  

in november when i get back to japan but they're  gonna make me quarantine for two weeks when i  

get back so i'll get back to japan and then i'll  have to quarantine for two weeks and then we can  

go explore fingers crossed nothing else happens in  the meantime and we can actually do it this time  

honestly if i'm ever not making videos it's never  because i don't want to it's it's always because  

something [ __ ] has happened and i'm unable to  so yeah if you don't hear from me for a while  

i'm probably just going through something and i'll  be back i really like making videos for you guys  

so if something's keeping me from it it's  frustrating me as well and i'll be back as soon as  

possible trust me um but yeah i guess that's it um  like i said if you have any questions for me about  

this experience if i can help you out in any way  leave them down below and i'll see you guys again  

very soon hopefully from japan next  time i might make a video here in canada  

i don't know would you want to see that  um my friend kelsey is coming to visit me  

from america and we're gonna hang out for a bit  while i'm here so that'll be fun maybe we could  

do something together let me know if you'd be  up for that and i'll talk to you guys very soon

you