>> A Berks County woman went to the doctor for a routine visit when she was three months
pregnant.
It was a visit she will never forget.
Here's Laura Klitsch's journey.
>> Quit.
Quit.
>> No.
>> No, you can't quit now.
>> 39 year old Laura Klitsch never quits.
She never gives up, even when she receives some disturbing news.
She was pregnant at the time, with her daughter Laura.
>> At one of my routine OB appointments, the nurse practitioner just said she routinely
checks thyroids and you know, not to be worried.
She just palpated my neck and well, she asked me, she's like do you know you have a lump
there?
And I'm, no, I didn't think anything of it.
So then she showed me, like, I swallowed and she showed me the lump and of course then
I saw it.
>> I recall her telling me about the situation but to be perfectly honest with you on my
side, it really didn't seem to be that big of a deal to me because she wasn't making
it that big of a deal.
>> I'm not really a quick worrier, so my initial reaction was sort of like, okay, something
else to check out.
I mean, I was like blissfully pregnant.
I was happy go lucky.
>> She's the type of person that's very positive and says you know what?
We'll get through it no matter what.
>> Some tests were scheduled to take a closer look at the lump.
>> The ultrasound was first just to see how that came up and that looked suspicious.
>> When she was found to have a suspicious nodule on ultrasound, a fine needle aspiration
biopsy was preformed.
And this confirmed that she had a papillary thyroid cancer.
This is when, like any other cancer, the cells inside the thyroid gland begin to replicate
and don't die as they should.
Over time, this allows these cells to grow out of control, to spread, hers had already
spread to the lymph nodes in her neck, where papillary thyroid cancer typically spreads
first.
>> Laura found out the results of the biopsy a day before Thanksgiving.
>> They called me, it was late on a, I guess it was a Wednesday on my way home from work.
And I pulled over, as soon as I knew who the call was from and got the news and I didn't
expect to get super upset but I did.
Because I mean, here, okay, it's malignant, you have cancer, is not something you want
to hear, obviously.
So that was probably my moment of okay, this is real, now what do I do?
I sat and cried for a little while by myself.
>> When the word cancer was brought into it, that's when it became like oh my gosh, this
is pretty serious.
>> Some difficult decisions needed to be made.
>> There were a lot of conversations with my OB with endocrinologists, and Dr. Goldenberg
about whether or not to do surgery while I was pregnant.
>> It just makes the disease more difficult to treat at that point in time because we
not only have to take the mother's well being into account, and to get rid of her thyroid
cancer, but we also have to take the fetus' well being into account.
And it was decided in her case that we would monitor her with ultrasound, which was safe
for the fetus, and the mom, because it has no radiation.
And we would proceed with surgery after she gave birth.
>> I was very happy about that.
I didn't want surgery while I was pregnant.
I didn't, unless it was necessary, I didn't want that risk.
>> Doctors monitored Laura throughout her pregnancy.
She gave birth to her daughter Laura in May.
Three months later, she was back in the hospital for a thyroidectomy.
>> My surgery was planned for August 1st, so probably about a week before that was when
I started to get nervous.
>> Besides the primary tumor in her thyroid gland, she had multiple lymph nodes, both
in the central compartment and in the side of her neck, which harbored metastatic disease.
That does not negatively impact how well you do, but it does indicate that she would be
a candidate for further treatment.
>> And they usually recommend radioactive iodine treatment.
But because I was nursing, and was, felt strongly about continuing to nurse as long as I could,
we delayed radioactive iodine treatment.
>> Laura waited nine months to have the treatment.
>> Radioactive iodine is an effective radiation therapy that would go and destroy tumor that
has now been surgically removed or maybe far away already from the thyroid gland.
>> The thyroid gland uses iodine as part of the engine that makes that thyroid hormone.
And it is unique in the fact that it is the only organ in the body that concentrates iodine,
and it doesn't harm other bodily tissues because they do not concentrate iodine.
>> There is no obligatory hospitalization for patients treated with radioactive iodine,
assuming that they have appropriate home conditions, that they do not expose other people to the
radioactive iodine.
>> I had to be in isolation for three days.
After the initial three days, then I could be within like seven to ten feet from people.
I had a little make shift apartment down in the basement and I was just down there by
myself.
>> Some time needed to allow the radioactive iodine to do its job.
>> I think she pulled through it like a trooper to be honest with you.
>> I dreamed, I dreamed, a day's gone by.
>> Since thyroid cancer can recur, Laura sees Dr. Manny twice a year.
>> One of the main goals is to monitor, obviously.
The way we monitor patients with thyroid cancer is by two methods primarily.
One is to repeat the neck ultrasound.
The other method is measuring of thyroglobulin, which is this protein which is produced in
the body only by thyroid cells.
>> No song unsung, no wine untasted.
>> So far, Laura's tests have been good.
>> When the tigers come at night.
>> I feel like my levels are where they need to be.
My energy's back up to normal or close to normal.
>> As they tear your hope apart.
>> She's doing very well.
She's doing very well.
>> Right now, I feel, I feel great.
>> Dreams to share.