So I saw the dr on Monday morning. It was totally not worst case, because just by the ultrasound he couldn't have given me a whole bunch of details. It turns out I have nodules on my thyroid. Nodules that contain nodules, that contain cysts. The largest on the left is 3.5 cm and the largest on the right is 2.8 cm. Good grief that is large. He can't tell yet exactly what it means, so I went for more blood tests, and then a thyroid scan yesterday. That was pretty cool. They inject you with radioactive iodine and see what parts of the thyroid light up. It's kind of weird, because if there is X amount that's hot, that's good. But if there is x-y amount that's hot, that's bad.
I go in to see the dr tomorrow morning for a diagnosis and hopefully a determination of a plan for moving ahead. Looking forward to finding out the results.
Thursday, 10 April 2014
Sunday, 6 April 2014
Uncertainty
So last week (Tuesday to be precise) I couldn't sleep, and just before midnight I realised my arms were tingling, and going numb. I kept getting up and trying to shake it off, but it kept getting worse and worse. I finally woke Jon up, because I was getting seriously scared, and we ended up on the phone with Healthlink, and I was looking stuff up online....I thought I was having a heart attack, but symptoms didn't match. I seriously honestly truly thought I was dying that night, that I wouldn't see morning. It scared the crap out of me.
The nurse at Healthlink told me that it didn't seem life-threatening, but if it got worse overnight to go to emergency. If it didn't get worse, see a doctor the next day. OK.
It didn't get worse, so I went to a walk in the next day. Saw this a-maz-ing doctor that, sadly, isn't taking new patients. He sent me for blood tests, the results came back and I went in to see him. Turns out my thyroid count was way high, and he wanted to send me for more blood tests, an ultrasound, and a scan. Yeah, like I didn't google the you-know-what out of thyroid and everything related!
I went for the ultrasound on Thursday, and have the blood tests scheduled for this Tuesday, and the scan for this Wednesday. I figured we'd get the results at the end of the week or next Monday. The doctor's office called me yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, and said I needed to come in first thing Monday morning. Like that isn't going to freak me out completely?
Again, back to Dr. Google. I had to reassure the Dr. from last week that I'm not trying to find something that matches my symptoms, I am trying to be informed. So, what's the worst case scenario that I could come up with that would make the doctor call me in before my other tests were done. Of course, a growth was the worst thing I could think of. Soooooooooooo, google everything I could find related to thyroid growths and such. Turns out that 80% are nothing more than a cyst or equivalent - so no biggie. Of the remainder, 15 percent that may be cancerous are easily treated with a slim likelihood of recurrence. The last five percent is the worrisome part, but even most of those are treatable. The last one percent is rare, but it's a very dangerous one. I like being unique, but not like that.
We will find out tomorrow morning what he saw on the ultrasound to have me come in so quickly.
On the plus side, I did find a new doctor - met him today for the first time, and think it will work out well. Pity the one I've been seeing wouldn't take me as a patient - believe me, I begged :)
Praying that it's something we can treat so I can stick around for a while yet.
The nurse at Healthlink told me that it didn't seem life-threatening, but if it got worse overnight to go to emergency. If it didn't get worse, see a doctor the next day. OK.
It didn't get worse, so I went to a walk in the next day. Saw this a-maz-ing doctor that, sadly, isn't taking new patients. He sent me for blood tests, the results came back and I went in to see him. Turns out my thyroid count was way high, and he wanted to send me for more blood tests, an ultrasound, and a scan. Yeah, like I didn't google the you-know-what out of thyroid and everything related!
I went for the ultrasound on Thursday, and have the blood tests scheduled for this Tuesday, and the scan for this Wednesday. I figured we'd get the results at the end of the week or next Monday. The doctor's office called me yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, and said I needed to come in first thing Monday morning. Like that isn't going to freak me out completely?
Again, back to Dr. Google. I had to reassure the Dr. from last week that I'm not trying to find something that matches my symptoms, I am trying to be informed. So, what's the worst case scenario that I could come up with that would make the doctor call me in before my other tests were done. Of course, a growth was the worst thing I could think of. Soooooooooooo, google everything I could find related to thyroid growths and such. Turns out that 80% are nothing more than a cyst or equivalent - so no biggie. Of the remainder, 15 percent that may be cancerous are easily treated with a slim likelihood of recurrence. The last five percent is the worrisome part, but even most of those are treatable. The last one percent is rare, but it's a very dangerous one. I like being unique, but not like that.
We will find out tomorrow morning what he saw on the ultrasound to have me come in so quickly.
On the plus side, I did find a new doctor - met him today for the first time, and think it will work out well. Pity the one I've been seeing wouldn't take me as a patient - believe me, I begged :)
Praying that it's something we can treat so I can stick around for a while yet.
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