When Cori Salazar’s mom noticed a mass on her neck, she visited her doctor. A biopsy was inconclusive, but the lemon-sized lump was moving her trachea, so she had surgery to remove it. The 38-year-old then learned she had an aggressive thyroid cancer.
In June, Cori Salazar returned for a second surgery to remove the rest of her thyroid and some lymph nodes. She was told her cancer was grade 1 — meaning the tumors cells and tissue looked mostly healthy. Her follow-up treatment includes blood tests to make sure that the cancer has not returned, and if it does, she may need additional therapies.
Raising their three daughters — Juniper, 4, Delaney, 3, and Luna, 18 months — while getting treated for cancer can feel tough at times. But the Salazar family feels grateful for the outpouring of support they've received.The doctor recommended a second opinion from a colleague, who examined him immediately and confirmed the swollen nerves.
The retina specialist told Zak Salazar to go to the emergency room for an MRI. A doctor there told him they found a mass on the right, frontal lobe of his brain, which was so big — the size of a grapefruit — that he needed to be admitted to the hospital.