Gunnedah woman declared cancer-free after health scare

The Gunnedah woman underwent an operation on January 23 to remove her thyroid gland and two tumours from her neck, which were of concern to doctors.

What had started out as seemingly harmless goiters (enlargement of the thyroid gland), had been identified as category four tumours in December. 

Three days after her operation in Tamworth, Katie was back home waiting to find out if the tumours were benign or malignant. The news came on Friday when Katie received to a voicemail from her surgeon Frank Sardelic.

“It was a really nice thing for him to do,” she said.

“He got the results back and didn’t want me to have to wait.

“They came back completely benign, cancer-free, and now there’s no risk of them coming back because they’ve been removed. That was a huge relief because had I left it, they would have eventually turned cancerous. It’s scary that inaction could actually have led to that.”

Katie said while there were “absolutely no complications” during her surgery, the first few days afterwards were “really rough" because the muscles in her neck had to be cut.

“The first few days were really tiring and eating was so hard,” she said.

“I was absolutely starving, but since I’ve been home, I can’t believe I had surgery last week; I’ve been up and about.”

She is coming to terms with the impacts of the risky surgery and is now on hormone-replacement therapy for the rest of her life.

“I’ve had a lot of bruising to my chest and throat,” she said.

“It was a bit confronting. You look a certain way and feel a certain way and my hair is still falling out pretty drastically [from the medication], so I decided to make peace with it and got it cut off and I’ll give it a chance to come back healthy, so it’s been a big change within a couple of weeks.”

Katie will have a check-up about 30 days after surgery and has been told that her hormone levels should balance out after about six weeks.

This is the second surgerythe young woman has undergone in five months. Katie had gastric sleeve surgery in August and has since lost almost 40 kilograms.

Her appearance isn’t the only major change in her life – Katie has also resigned from her property management position at First National.

Now that she's a “lady of leisure”, Katie said she has been enjoying spending time with her partner and their much-loved pugs Wyston and Walter.

“It’s been really nice to be able to just focus on my health and that’s what I think I’m going to spend this year doing – being the best version of myself I can be and making sure I listen to my body and what it needs and not putting too much pressure on myself, which is what I’ve always done in the past,” she said.

The young woman said the health scare has been a blessing in disguise.

“I’m very lucky that this has happened and it’s given me that kick in the rear end that I think we all need at times to realise what is important in life, and that is family and making sure you’re happy and doing what you love,” she said.

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Though she’s taking time off from realty, Katie isn’t resting on her laurels.

“I’ve actually completed my real estate licence already and I’ve been out of hospital for a week,” she said.

“That’s been a ten-year goal for me.”

Katie is turning 31 in just two weeks and said she thinks it will be a “really positive year”.

“I’ve always believed things happen for a reason, even if you don’t realise at the time and this happening has opened up a lot of doors,” she said.

“Even though it’s been a really rough start to the year, what a fantastic way to start the year though, to be completely cancer-free and have the world be my oyster. 

“At the moment, I’m looking at this completely blank canvas for the rest of the year and there are so many things I’m passionate about that I would like to reflect on and see where the year takes me.”