You are working on the surgical floor and will be receiving a patient from the postanesthetic care unit. The nurse calls and gives the following report: C.P. is a 55-year-old woman who underwent a subtotal right thyroidectomy for papillary carcinoma. Estimated blood loss was 25 mL. Vital signs (VS) are 130/82, 80 to 90, 20, and SaO294% on room air. She is receiving an IV infusion of D5.45NS at 100 mL/hr. She has received a total of 3 mg morphine sulfate IV push, and she is awake, but drowsy, and fully oriented. C.P.’s past medical history includes a total abdominal hysterectomy for fibroids and low-level radiation treatments to the neck 30 years ago for eczema. Both parents are living; her father had a myocardial infarction at 70 years of age; her mother has hypothyroidism but never had thyroid tumors.

1. Name the major risk factor that likely contributed to C.P. developing thyroid cancer.

2. What are the common manifestations of thyroid cancer?

3. What specific preparations will you make before C.P. arrives?

4. You receive C.P. from the recovery room. How will you focus your initial assessment, and why? Begin with the ABCs.