small stupid things

1) I haven't heard the final report on my biopsy yet. I called over to Dr. O's office, and his assistant told me it had just come in today. The bottom line read was "negative for metastic cancer" or something like that, but I want to read the whole report! I'm still not convinced it was a great sample. I faxed over a records request to the hospital yesterday, and asked them to fax the report back to me. We'll see if they comply.

2) Appointment juggling with MDA. I had them switch my appointment with my surgeon so that it would be after my u/s and nuclear scan, and I thought that was all set. I got a call from the endo's scheduler today asking about that u/s (two were scheduled, so one had to be cancelled), and while looking at my schedule, I noticed that they re-scheduled my surgeon appointment for before any of my tests. I sent them a reschedule request with a note: This does not work. Please reschedule my appointment with Dr. C for after my u/s. Let's see what they do with this, now.

3) For never-to-be-known reasons, my paper medical records from my visit in February showed up today, attached to my request for the CD of u/s images. Whatever, dudes. I can't figure them out. Out of morbid curiosity I leafed through them, and stumbled across my blood tests, where the tumor marker leaped out at me: THYROGLOBULIN - 0.3
Hmmm. They told me it was undetectable. In what universe does "measurable" (0.3) equal "undetectable"? Not this one, that's for sure.

When I had my labs drawn before I went back to Houston, my Tg really was undetectable, but the local lab may have used a different method. Anyway, I'm not happy about being misled.

I poked around in the archives to see what my pre-surgery Tg was, and it was 1.4-1.7, so at least it's not that high. But it's still detectable, which is not, you know, the same as undetectable.

Can't do anything but wait, now. But here's an interesting thing. In this photo, you can see the lump on the right side of my neck, just along the jaw bone:


Not to worry, though. The biopsy says it's not cancer. (ha!)

4) Have started on the new RA meds. So far I haven't noticed any improvement, just the contrary. Everything hurts. I know it's bad because I've caught myself involuntarily whimpering a few times. It's as if the connection between the pain and my consciousness has been so clamped down that I actually have to vocalize to get myself to recognize: This hurts, move! Or something. I don't know.

These meds have a patient information sheet that is like the Encyclopedia Brittanica. It's scary, because it can kill you pretty quickly if you react badly to it. There is not just one, but two regimens for clearing the drug from your system should you find yourself in such a bad state. Fortunately for me the only new symptoms I've noticed are the return of the sinus pressure/congestion and a sore throat. The post nasal drip never really went away but it doesn't seem any worse now. I've noticed some dry eyes, too, but I have been very bad about sleep lately, so that I think is my own fault. (What the hell do I know?)

5) Weird neuralgia-like stabbing pains in my right foot today. Really, like someone jabbing me repeatedly with 2-inch long very sharp, very pointy needles. While I was driving, too -- very bad timing, as all I wanted to do was grab my foot and hop around, going "Ow! Ow! Ow!" until it stopped. Since I was on an on-ramp to the 202 when it happened, of course I couldn't do that. It lasted about 2 or 3 minutes and then subsided, but it was very unpleasant, and I can't remember that ever happening before.

6) The shoulder/arm pain/muscle weakness thing comes and goes. Overall it's a bit better since I am trying to watch posture, etc. I'm sure it's muscle (aka fibromyalgia) related. I'm also sure physical therapy would help, but we are broke and I have no one to watch DS2, who only has 4 more days of school.

We are hurtling towards summer here, and I just want school to be over so I can stop having to hover over the kids and their schoolwork. I'm concerned about the boys' surgeries, but I know they will be fine. I just want that to be over, I want to get on that plane and go, and lie on a beach and not think about what's waiting for me come August.