What's Happenin'

Well, it's been quite an interesting month.  What started out as a routine physical, it certainly hasn't ended up that way.  I had some bloodwork done and my thyroid numbers came back and were off enough to raise eyebrows.  T3 & T4 were off the upper end of the chart. TSH was undetectable.  Doctor W. sent me to a endocrinologist, who basically seemed to blow off my test results but recommended I have a thyroid uptake scan.  So one morning,  got shot up with radioactive iodine and the next had the scan, thinking that this was just preventative.  Next thing I know, my primary care physician, Doctor W is now recommending a thyroid sonogram.  HMMM.MM.  He said they didn't like what they saw on the scan, there were 2 large nodules on my left lobe of the gland that were cause for concern and he recommended them to be biopsied. BIG HMMM.MM.  Called the endo, who is so laid back I swear she's dead, who basically said yes, there were some things they wanted to check out but there was no cause for alarm.
So to make a very long story short, through the frustration of the primary care and the endocrinologist not communicating, to the primary care's nursing staff who screwed up the paperwork, to the endocrinologist telling me that she's leaving the practice in November (why didn't they give me to a doctor that's staying), to the endo's nursing staff who messed up my prescription and to them both for thinking the other was handling things, on Friday, I had the biopsies.  One word.  Painful.
The physician's assistant took 12 samples...10 on the left side, 5 samples in each of the 2 large nodules.  On the right, he biopsied a smaller nodule, taking 2 samples because as he said that even though neither doctor ordered it, he felt it should be done because my right lobe is "cold".  Cold?  Turns out that the uptake scan revealed that the right lobe didn't absorb any iodine so it's considered nonfunctional.  Oh.  Nonfunctional.  As in NOT WORKING!  And I found this out through the PA and NOT EITHER DOCTOR!  So I told him to go for it. And he did.
The PA was wonderful, as was the other staff members.  They were kind and gentle and very attuned to my fears because this procedure is done without anesthetic and even though the needle prick hurt, the pressure and moving the needle to gather samples is really what hurt the most, especially in the nodule that was hard.  Plus, the multiple sample sites in each nodule caused the nodules to get pretty angry.  Fortunately, they got enough tissue samples to finish the test.   I will know in a week whether the nodules are cancerous and to be honest, my instinct tells me that they are going to want to perform surgery to remove the offending gland, especially because the right side is essentially dead. 
At least now, I have a name for the bone numbing fatigue I feel most every day, the fogginess in my brain, the lack of concentration and the weight gain even though I am considered to be hyperthyroid.   I blamed my symptoms on stress, my age, on the myriad of life changes in the last 5 years, my job, my marriage, the Air Force and sending the kids to Afghanistan and to Okinawa, oh, you name it, I blamed it for my lethargy and my lack of motivation and fatigue. Well, it's got a name and now hopefully we can make some correction in my life.
So that's my story kids, hope it wasn't too boring for you.

I have been stitching a little bit. Not as much as I would like, I am working on smaller things and trying to finish up some WIPs that are nearly done but got tossed aside when the siren call of new things beckoned. I am working on the latest LHN snowman ornie, so cute!  And I need to finish With thy Needle and Thread's Blue and Brown pillow top so I can send it off to the incredibly talented Faye. And I need to finish off the Prairie Schooler, Christmas Eve, which is 95% done and the frame is waiting at Michaels.

It's a beautiful day in Upstate NY...I will be going out to do some gardening once it warms up a bit.
So that's all from my world.  I hope you have a wonderful week ahead and get some quality time stitching while watching your favorite team play football today. GO STEELERS!

Thanks for hanging in there with me.  Next time I will post stitchy pictures.