Biopsy
After I had the ultrasound, I waited to hear from my primary care doctor about what was next.
I went on a roadtrip with girlfriends to Southern California and I got a lot of news during that trip. A receptionist from an endocrinologist's office called me and asked to set up an appointment. No one had ever told me why I would need to make an appointment...no one had told me anything about the ultrasound. At this point in my life, I was so so busy and I wasn't going to clear my schedule for something if it wasn't serious. I was working six days per week so I could fit my classes in too.
The next bit is just a bunch of awkward phone calls with receptionists and utter lack of communication. My primary care doctor's receptionist actually set up a phone appointment so we could talk, but my doctor never called me. Don't know why. I have not heard from him since. This is all going on during my vacation, by the way.
Finally, an endocrinologist called to talk to me about the ultrasound. Her name is Dr. Chan. I remember being in the hotel room alone and she told me that those things the ultrasound tech was measuring were nodules. She said I should have a biopsy. My heart sank. To me, biopsy = cancer. Somehow. I'm sure thousands of people have benign results every day, but I was scared. She told me that I'll need to have an appointment with her and she's going to check me out and probably need to do a biopsy.
I think she said during this phone call that there's a 5% chance of cancer. I made my mind up right then that I was in the 95% group. Honestly. I was naive. I'm not someone who gets cancer. I'm not someone who has anything rare or different about her--I'm just like everyone else and I always have been. And that's fine with me!
It was hard to tell my friends who were on the trip with me what I was facing. It definitely changed the tone of the trip for me. But I firmly believe that there are no mistakes in God's world and I was exactly where I was supposed to be when I got that call. Dr. Chan was really nice to me. She asked me (and would later ask me all the time) if I felt especially tired or if I experienced any weight gain. I always said no. And looking back, that's because my thyroid was functioning normally. There wasn't anything actually wrong with that.
Maybe I should discuss what the thyroid is. It's a small butterfly-shaped organ that's in the neck. It lays on top of the throat and everything. Someone experiencing hypothyroidism, which would be having insufficient TSH, may have lower energy, weight gain, dry skin and constipation. Hyperthyroidism, having too much TSH, would mean someone has high energy, weight loss, faster heart beat and stuff like that. Hyperthyroidism can make your eyes kind of bug out. If you know someone who has that look about them, that may be what it was. I knew a woman who looked that way; it turned out she had hyperthyroidism.
I scheduled a biopsy and Johnny came to the appointment with me. I worked almost a full work day before the appointment and then we decided to meet by my work and go to Kaiser. He had left work early too. He was totally late getting to the parking lot and he wouldn't answer his phone. I envisioned him in a fiery crash on the freeway. He ended up getting there and we went to Kaiser.
A word about Johnny--he's a really great guy. He's working on a bachelor's in biology and he works as an insurance salesman. We've known each for I guess 13 years. My family moved next door to his family in 1999. He is so supportive and loving. He'll do things like change the oil in my car or clean the whole kitchen without telling me. He has helped me move twice. He listens to all my crazy. And we have a very similar take on the world. We've been on a great adventure together.
We saw Dr. Chan on March 20 and she said we should go ahead with the biopsy, right then and there. An LVN or medical assistant, not sure what she was, had to be present and I had to sign all this paperwork before the procedure. It was weird. They confirmed my medical record number out loud to each other multiple times. It didn't feel normal to me that a doctor was doing something to me that required such protocol.
I was just amazed at how close my neck was to my face....I knew it was right there, but man she was right there. The LVN was doing an ultrasound on me while the doctor did the biopsy. The scary part was that Dr. Chan seriously cautioned me that I could not swallow while she had a needle in my neck. If I swallowed, the big nodule on my thyroid would move and the needle would rip my insides basically. So I did not swallow at all. She had to poke me in five different places. I ended up with green and yellow bruises.
She told us that there are nodules on my thyroid that are too big to keep there. She said if they were smaller, that would be one thing. She estimated that they've been growing for the past three or four years. That was very strange to consider that foreign things had been growing in my neck that I didn't know about.
Since the biggest nodule on my thyroid (the one that looked like a lump and that led me to seek medical attention) had only been on one side. So she said the standard operating procedure would be to have a surgery to have half the thyroid removed. She said after having that out, I have a 50%-80% chance of needing thyroid replacement medication for the rest of my life.
She reiterated that the chance of cancer is 5%. She said if it ends up being cancer, they will remove the whole thyroid and I definitely will need to be on thyroid replacement hormone for the rest of my life. She said I'd need to have a radioactive iodine treatment about six weeks after surgery. I honestly feel that she oversimplified things. I'm in the middle of this process right now, and it's not so cut and dry. Maybe she truly didn't want to over-load me with things. There's just so much more to it than that.
So we left and we waited to hear the news. I was beginning to despise the lump on my neck. I felt like other people could see it and I hated that it was there. My friends and my cousin Nichole liked to joke with me that it was a goiter, recalling an episode of Seinfeld.
I went on a roadtrip with girlfriends to Southern California and I got a lot of news during that trip. A receptionist from an endocrinologist's office called me and asked to set up an appointment. No one had ever told me why I would need to make an appointment...no one had told me anything about the ultrasound. At this point in my life, I was so so busy and I wasn't going to clear my schedule for something if it wasn't serious. I was working six days per week so I could fit my classes in too.
The next bit is just a bunch of awkward phone calls with receptionists and utter lack of communication. My primary care doctor's receptionist actually set up a phone appointment so we could talk, but my doctor never called me. Don't know why. I have not heard from him since. This is all going on during my vacation, by the way.
Finally, an endocrinologist called to talk to me about the ultrasound. Her name is Dr. Chan. I remember being in the hotel room alone and she told me that those things the ultrasound tech was measuring were nodules. She said I should have a biopsy. My heart sank. To me, biopsy = cancer. Somehow. I'm sure thousands of people have benign results every day, but I was scared. She told me that I'll need to have an appointment with her and she's going to check me out and probably need to do a biopsy.
I think she said during this phone call that there's a 5% chance of cancer. I made my mind up right then that I was in the 95% group. Honestly. I was naive. I'm not someone who gets cancer. I'm not someone who has anything rare or different about her--I'm just like everyone else and I always have been. And that's fine with me!
It was hard to tell my friends who were on the trip with me what I was facing. It definitely changed the tone of the trip for me. But I firmly believe that there are no mistakes in God's world and I was exactly where I was supposed to be when I got that call. Dr. Chan was really nice to me. She asked me (and would later ask me all the time) if I felt especially tired or if I experienced any weight gain. I always said no. And looking back, that's because my thyroid was functioning normally. There wasn't anything actually wrong with that.
Maybe I should discuss what the thyroid is. It's a small butterfly-shaped organ that's in the neck. It lays on top of the throat and everything. Someone experiencing hypothyroidism, which would be having insufficient TSH, may have lower energy, weight gain, dry skin and constipation. Hyperthyroidism, having too much TSH, would mean someone has high energy, weight loss, faster heart beat and stuff like that. Hyperthyroidism can make your eyes kind of bug out. If you know someone who has that look about them, that may be what it was. I knew a woman who looked that way; it turned out she had hyperthyroidism.
I scheduled a biopsy and Johnny came to the appointment with me. I worked almost a full work day before the appointment and then we decided to meet by my work and go to Kaiser. He had left work early too. He was totally late getting to the parking lot and he wouldn't answer his phone. I envisioned him in a fiery crash on the freeway. He ended up getting there and we went to Kaiser.
A word about Johnny--he's a really great guy. He's working on a bachelor's in biology and he works as an insurance salesman. We've known each for I guess 13 years. My family moved next door to his family in 1999. He is so supportive and loving. He'll do things like change the oil in my car or clean the whole kitchen without telling me. He has helped me move twice. He listens to all my crazy. And we have a very similar take on the world. We've been on a great adventure together.
We saw Dr. Chan on March 20 and she said we should go ahead with the biopsy, right then and there. An LVN or medical assistant, not sure what she was, had to be present and I had to sign all this paperwork before the procedure. It was weird. They confirmed my medical record number out loud to each other multiple times. It didn't feel normal to me that a doctor was doing something to me that required such protocol.
I was just amazed at how close my neck was to my face....I knew it was right there, but man she was right there. The LVN was doing an ultrasound on me while the doctor did the biopsy. The scary part was that Dr. Chan seriously cautioned me that I could not swallow while she had a needle in my neck. If I swallowed, the big nodule on my thyroid would move and the needle would rip my insides basically. So I did not swallow at all. She had to poke me in five different places. I ended up with green and yellow bruises.
She told us that there are nodules on my thyroid that are too big to keep there. She said if they were smaller, that would be one thing. She estimated that they've been growing for the past three or four years. That was very strange to consider that foreign things had been growing in my neck that I didn't know about.
Since the biggest nodule on my thyroid (the one that looked like a lump and that led me to seek medical attention) had only been on one side. So she said the standard operating procedure would be to have a surgery to have half the thyroid removed. She said after having that out, I have a 50%-80% chance of needing thyroid replacement medication for the rest of my life.
She reiterated that the chance of cancer is 5%. She said if it ends up being cancer, they will remove the whole thyroid and I definitely will need to be on thyroid replacement hormone for the rest of my life. She said I'd need to have a radioactive iodine treatment about six weeks after surgery. I honestly feel that she oversimplified things. I'm in the middle of this process right now, and it's not so cut and dry. Maybe she truly didn't want to over-load me with things. There's just so much more to it than that.
So we left and we waited to hear the news. I was beginning to despise the lump on my neck. I felt like other people could see it and I hated that it was there. My friends and my cousin Nichole liked to joke with me that it was a goiter, recalling an episode of Seinfeld.
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