End of Procedures, that is.
Got to bed staggeringly late, as I was too wound up too relax or sleep. Got up at 6AM, was over in the Head & Neck Dept by 6:30, where R & I waited, and waited, and waited. It seemed to take forever to call me, forever being approximately 45 minutes. 45 minutes is a lot of time, you know -- in which I could have been sleeping or doing something like getting some breakfast. But, that was not to be.
After paperwork, another more moderate period of waiting (that first time was the longest wait all day, all the others were maybe 10 minutes each), then to see a triage nurse who took vitals. I'm 170 cm tall, I'll have to convert that to inches later and figure out if I am as tall as I say I am! Then the triage nurse went over my record. Then I briefly met Dr. C's nurse. Then Dr C's intern examined me. Then the good dr himself came in and did the exam. Having to do the "stick your tongue out and say EEEE" test twice in the space of 15 minutes is icky. (It wouldn't be so bad if not for the little mirror they have shoved into the back of the throat.)
Dr. C says he will be astonished if the tests do not show abnormality. The question is, what will be the size and nature of anything they find. Those two factors will determine the basis for his recommendations. I am not a candidate for radiation treatment now. I am being evaluated for surgery. It is very unlikely they will identify anything that requires immediate surgery, but I told the doc I'd like to get it over with asap if it's necessary.
After Dr. C, over to the endocrine neoplasia specialist, Dr. W. Only before I met him, I was raked over the coals by his nurse, S. She had a strangely confrontational manner, and I found myself quite literally defending my presence at MDA ("This last biopsy says it wasn't cancer. What are you doing here?") and my health history ("What is this 'precancerous' thing you've written for your mother and grandmother?") Anyway, she did a very thorough exam herself, and gave me a breast exam tutorial. Then Dr. W came in and we discussed my Cytomel issues, and he told me it was OK to drop it back down to 5mcg/day. Hallelujah! I did push back at him a bit on the quality of the combined t4/t3 therapy studies as it is one of my pet issues. But I personally have no dog in that hunt now, I have no idea how I'd feel on just T4 and am willing to give it a try. I'm very happy to be knocking my T3 dosage down a bit and hope it will help my digestive system slow down.
After Dr. W (it's now about 11:30), I went over to get labs drawn: 6 tubes. Yikes. And I had a chest x-ray, too, my first ever.
Finally: LUNCH! We grabbed some sandwiches from the deli and ate outside in the warm sun. It's freezing in here!
After lunch, my head/neck CT, with contrast, and is it ever a strange feeling to get that rush of iodine heat. It's nice to be warm, though.
U/S tomorrow morning, with an FNA if necessary. And Dr. C says we'll have results from anything we do tomorrow pretty much immediately, which is cool. We'll discuss the CT scan results on Wednesday morning.
So: could be surgery, could be "wait and see." I will know more tomorrow, and should have a definitive plan on Wednesday.
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