Thursday, December 17, 2009

Why Thank You, Doctor!

I did say that today, but not to a doctor. I said it to a radiologist who was doing an ultrasound of the lymph node areas around my neck. During the ultrasound, she also looked at my thyroid and while looking at it, she said, "Let it be known, you have a pretty thyroid!" There you go! Shame I can't post a picture of it here.

I've made peace with the surgery thing and understand the benefits of it vs. radiation. Radiation could cause some toxicity issues and do damage to surrounding organs (namely, intestines) that could be difficult. Surgery will require a portion of the small intestine to be removed, but the surgeon is assuring that it's not a real issue.

Everyone, doctors and nurses that I have talked to agree surgery is the best option.

I had made my mind up that if the surgery was able to be scheduled sooner than later (i.e. within the next week or two), I would consider it Providence and move ahead with it. As it is scheduled, I am scheduled for surgery on December 30 sometime most likely after mid-day. Then, I will be in the hospital for 3-5 days and then a recovery time at home of about 7-10 days.

In addition, the surgeon requested that I have a colonoscopy before the surgery and it is scheduled for December 23rd. So...we'll have that out of the way and I understand that there is lots of drinking the day before...so Merry Christmas!

The reason I had an ultrasound today is that while the surgeon was examining me, he had concern about a bump near my left clavicle. He ordered an ultrasound on it and it came back clean. What they were looking for was to see if there were any blood vessels feeding into the bump. If there were, that would be a bad sign. However, there weren't any blood vessels feeding it. He still may give a closer look at it before or during the surgery if it is still of concern at that time.

I do have several lumps like that all over my body. They have never shown cause for concern during any of the CT or CT/PET scans. I remember my maternal grandfather and an uncle on the same side of the family having their own personal collection of them. Crazy.

That's today in a digested form. I'm doing much better stress wise this evening than I have in awhile, but I'm sure the anxiety will start to perk upward over the next couple of weeks. A month from now, it's in the past.

I told my friend that went with me today, "This ain't what I bought a year ago."

"...Into the woods-
You have to grope,
But that's the way
You learn to cope.
Into the woods
To find there's hope
Of getting through the journey.

Into the woods-
Each time you go,
There's more to learn
Of what you know..."
-Stephen Sondheim

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know you have to be relieved that the "decision" part is over. Personally, I have always thought that lumpy people are beautiful. :-) Good luck Greg.

-J

skippy said...

Anyone can have a pretty thyroid. What's your spleen look like?

You ought to look up the video of Katie Couric getting her colonoscopy. High comedy, that.