Cancer Scare

This is old news for some but I realized I never wrote about it on the family blog.

Around May I just wasn’t feeling right. I had been tired all of the time. I had little motivation to do anything. I just wanted to nap.  The only other time I  have felt that exhausted was when I was pregnant.  I had to have a nap every day just to make it through the day.  I chalked it up to being busy.  I have four kids and so it would make sense that I was tired.  Shortly thereafter I started to get dizzy. At first it was just when I got up but soon I would get dizzy while sitting.  I knew then that something was off.

I decided it was time to go see a doctor.  I had to find a real doctor because the only one I had was my ob/gyn.  Luckily, I found a really great one. I have really liked her.  I went to her and she listened to my every concern. I was pretty sure something was up with my thyroid. I knew my twin sister,Janeen had the same issues and so I figured that was what was up. My doctor ordered  a bunch of blood tests.

The results of that showed that my b-12 and iron levels were really low.  She put me on vitamins to help boost those numbers.  It is also showed that my thyroid was low but she didn’t think I needed to be medicated for it.   She decided to err on the cautious side and have an  ultrasound done of my thyroid just to make sure it looked okay.

I went in for the ultrasound.  It was quite weird to have one done on my neck.  I wasn’t entirely sure what they were looking for. I did notice they took a really long time on my right side and not very long on my left.  The technician didn’t say anything to me afterwards so I assumed all was well.

A few days later I flew to New York.  When my plane landed I noticed I had a message from my doctor.  She told me that two nodules were found on my ultrasound and that I needed to have them biopsied.

Now this was all happening during the craziest summer ever.  I was in NY for a week and then scheduled to be home a day before we were heading to Utah for two weeks.  We then would come home for one day before leaving for Hawaii for three weeks.

The endocrinologist was able to schedule me in for the one day I would be in town before heading to Hawaii.

On the day I was scheduled to see the endocrinologist we were busy packing for Hawaii and celebrating Gianluca’s first birthday.  I figured I would go in and he would biopsy the nodules and then I would go home.  However, my appointment ended up just being a consult with the doctor.  He would have to schedule the biopsy for another day.  I told the doctor I was leaving for three weeks and wondered if I should get it biopsied while I was in Hawaii.  He told me I probably wouldn’t be able to get into one in Hawaii because there was only one on the Island.  He knew that I just wanted to get it done.  He offered for me to come back after his last appointment of the day and he would do it then.

I went back later in the afternoon and had the nodules biopsied. It wasn’t too pleasant of a procedure. I wasn’t allowed to move, even breathe when he had the needle in my neck.  It was awkward and painful.

When I asked him what he thought he said he thought the one wasn’t anything major but the smaller one did look like cancer.  I asked when we would get the results.  He told me he had to give them in person if they weren’t normal.  He told me he wanted me to enjoy my vacation and not worry and he would give me the results when I got home.

It’s not fun being told you might have cancer.  However, I still was able to enjoy our time away.  As soon as we got home from Hawaii I had more blood work done for the endocrinologist.  After the weekend was over I went in for my results.

It took awhile for my doctor to pull up my results, and he spent a lot of time talking Health IT with John.  Finally, he told me that my results were good but not completely normal.  I did not have cancer.  I totally thought I did so it was a relief to know I didn’t.  I was told that I have an autoimmune disease called Hashimotos though.  There isn’t anything that can really be done for it.  My immune system attacks my thyroid.  However, the thyroid is quite cool and can regenerate.  My thyroid levels were low and not where the doctor wanted them so he prescribed medicine.  After 6 months of seeing both my regular doctor and the endocrinologist and having blood work done once a week it looks like my body is finally responding to the extra b-12, iron and thyroid medicine.  I feel so much better.  I am not as tired as I was before. I hardly ever get dizzy.  After I learned I had Hashimotos, I went and researched it and I had so many of the symptoms it was unbelievable. It was nice to have a reason for why I had so many little things going wrong.

It is nice to feel “normal” again and to have the energy I need to keep up with life.  I never realized how important my thyroid was until it stopped working.   It truly is amazing how the human body works.

 

 

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