Actress Sofia Vergara Underwent Total Thyroidectomy for Thyroid Cancer

Actress Sofia Vergara, best known for her role in the TV hit comedy Modern Family, had her entire thyroid removed for thyroid cancer when she was 28 in 2000. This was followed by radioactive iodine therapy and now takes a daily thyroid hormone replacement for her hypothyroidism.

Image by Jenn Davis from Wikipedia

Thyroid cancer is typically first suspected on a routine examination if a neck mass consistent with a thyroid nodule is palpated. An ultrasound of the neck is typically performed to characterize the thyroid mass further which is than followed by a biopsy. Should the biopsy come back malignant, thyroid removal surgery is performed. Even if the biopsy comes back indeterminate, surgery may still be pursued to be on the safe side.

Other studies may be pursued including CT scan and a thyroid nuclear scan.

Although the type of thyroid cancer Sofia Vergara had was never revealed, she most likely had papillary thyroid carcinoma which is the most common form of thyroid cancer and is highly curable (which is where the comment of being a "good" cancer comes from).

Other less common thyroid cancers include follicular thyroid carcinoma and medullary thyroid carcinoma.

It should be mentioned that until the thyroid is removed, one can NOT be absolutely sure that thyroid cancer actually truly is present. Indeed, the president of Argentina announced that she had thyroid cancer only to find out after her thyroid was removed that no cancer was actually present. Read blog post about this "mistake".

Read more about the surgery here or watch the video below of what Sofia's thyroid surgery might have looked like.

Source:
The Workout: Sofia Vergara Hates to Exercise. NYT 5/3/13

Read More

Celebrity Actors Who Have Received a Trach (Catherine Zeta Jones Included)

Image Taken From www.TopScarCream.com

Tracheostomy (also known as trach) is when a hole is made in the midline neck directly into a person's windpipe (watch video). Although many people may shy away from this deforming procedure, it can be life-saving.

On that note, here is a short list of famous celebrity actors who have undergone an emergency trach for one reason or another:

Catherine Zeta-Jones
Apparently, when she was a child, she had an emergency trach done. She still has a 1.5 inch scar from this procedure which she elected to not have removed [link].

Gary Coleman
He was hospitalized for 3 months due to complications from thyroid surgery for which he underwent an emergency trach [link].

Watch video of thyroid surgery.

Elizabeth Taylor
In spring of 1961, she developed a case of pneumonia which led to an emergency trach [link].

Christopher Reeve
Of the original Superman fame, he became paralyzed from the neck down after a horse-riding accident. A tracheostomy was required for him to breath due to ventilator dependence. [link]

Read More

Actress Reese Witherspoon's Dad is an Otolaryngologist!

It has recently come to my attention that actress Reese Witherspoon's dad is an eminent otolaryngologist!

John Witherspoon, MD has practiced with a Nashville, TN otolaryngology group for over 30 years and is an instructor in this specialty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He went to medical school at University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine and completed his residency at Tulane University Hospitals and Clinics.

He unfortunately has come under recent scrutiny from the media which hopefully will pass over quickly!

I wonder if Reese Witherspoon used her dad as a role model in the romantic comedy movie "Just Like Heaven" when she played Elizabeth, a workaholic doctor.

Read More