The MRI went well on Monday, once the insurance company found me in their system, and after only 3 failed attempts at putting in the IV for the contrast.
I hate MRIs because the noise is so startling, but when you're having a head MRI, they put foam around your head that helps a lot. If I ever have to have an MRI that's not for my head, I'm going to ask for the head gear anyway, because otherwise I feel like I'm under attack (literally) from all of the loud banging sounds surrounding me, getting louder and louder until they suddenly stop. And then start up again with little clicks that progress to a different cadence of loud banging.
I keep my eyes closed the entire time because I'm pretty sure I would freak out if I saw how confined the space is. And I pray; that helps a lot.
The very cool thing about going through Banner/MDA is that all of my records are uploaded on to their myBanner website, so I logged on Tuesday to get the report. I don't have it in front of me and I'm too lazy to download it again, but: results consistent with adenoma (which means benign); no unusual vascular activity (so, no sign of cancer building up a blood supply) and no sinus cavity invasion (it's not so big it's growing into my sinuses). It is bigger than normal, there is definitely a mass there, and there is "leftward deviation of the infundibulum," which means the mass is pushing the pituitary stalk to the left.
I still haven't heard from the doctor, but I'm not sure about how or when that will happen (it may be up to me) , but it seems to me that none of this is particularly worrisome. I'm asymptomatic and the mass is non-functioning and my pituitary function is fine, so there's no reason to do anything.
I suppose we'll just keep an eye on it. An annual CT may be just the thing, less trouble and expense than going through the Thyrogen protocol, and I can check in on the mediastinal nodule and the pituitary adenoma in the same test.
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Yay!
Did I say I'm slightly less grumpy about science fair since two of my students took first and second place at the district science fair? Only slightly, but still - they made me look good.
I finished grading, entering, sorting, and stacking all the science-fair related materials at about 2:30 this afternoon. I'm trying to tote up the number of hours it took: 3 hours Friday at school and then 5 hours at home and then 2 hours Saturday morning and a marathon 8 and a half hours Saturday night and then another 3 and a half today... that makes 22 hours, right?
Thank God we have a 3-day weekend.
I am so very appreciative of how quickly I can read, how consistent my snap judgments are, and how good my addition and subtraction skills up to 100 are. I can't imagine getting through that amount grading if I were any slower. Plus, my organizational skills came to play: I put together a one-sheet listing of all my students so I wouldn't have to be rifling through stacks of paper while I was grading their display boards. Brilliant, and a great snapshot of who-did-what.
I haven't taken any ibuprofen today and I don't feel too bad. I'm hopeful that my flare is subsiding now that huge stress is in the past.
Head MRI tomorrow morning, and then basically nothing, so I can get caught up on my homework and my sleep. Glorious!
I finished grading, entering, sorting, and stacking all the science-fair related materials at about 2:30 this afternoon. I'm trying to tote up the number of hours it took: 3 hours Friday at school and then 5 hours at home and then 2 hours Saturday morning and a marathon 8 and a half hours Saturday night and then another 3 and a half today... that makes 22 hours, right?
Thank God we have a 3-day weekend.
I am so very appreciative of how quickly I can read, how consistent my snap judgments are, and how good my addition and subtraction skills up to 100 are. I can't imagine getting through that amount grading if I were any slower. Plus, my organizational skills came to play: I put together a one-sheet listing of all my students so I wouldn't have to be rifling through stacks of paper while I was grading their display boards. Brilliant, and a great snapshot of who-did-what.
I haven't taken any ibuprofen today and I don't feel too bad. I'm hopeful that my flare is subsiding now that huge stress is in the past.
Head MRI tomorrow morning, and then basically nothing, so I can get caught up on my homework and my sleep. Glorious!
Monday, February 09, 2015
OK, part 1
Saw my endocrinologist today, and happily, all my pituitary-related labs are fine.
She (mildly) harangued me to see my rheumatologist about this flare that is killing me, although it does seem to be letting up.
I'm getting the MRI done anyway. Endo doesn't think it's worth it, since she says, "There's no baseline, so you don't know how big your pituitary was before anyway." However, I have had quite a few looks at the inside of my head over the past decade or so and no one has ever remarked on my pituitary before, either from CT or MRI scans. Even if it's benign and not pumping out hormones, it can still mess me up if it gets too big.
Still haven't graded a bit for the science fair, but am feeling fairly well caught up on everything else, so I hope to start grading all that ... tomorrow. Maybe.
She (mildly) harangued me to see my rheumatologist about this flare that is killing me, although it does seem to be letting up.
I'm getting the MRI done anyway. Endo doesn't think it's worth it, since she says, "There's no baseline, so you don't know how big your pituitary was before anyway." However, I have had quite a few looks at the inside of my head over the past decade or so and no one has ever remarked on my pituitary before, either from CT or MRI scans. Even if it's benign and not pumping out hormones, it can still mess me up if it gets too big.
Still haven't graded a bit for the science fair, but am feeling fairly well caught up on everything else, so I hope to start grading all that ... tomorrow. Maybe.
Friday, February 06, 2015
well, that happened
Way too much work this week, starting with last weekend when I worked all the hours there were catching up on grading and prep work, but also on my own coursework.
Monday I took photos of the 35 bulletin boards showing all the in-class projects and put them into a power point presentation. I also found a really cool "science" page border and made signs for all the tables by teacher and grade. Tuesday my students checked in their projects, and I had to review all ~150 of them to decide which ones were worthy of judging. Then Wednesday was the actual science fair, which involved getting 300+ projects set up in the gym, and the top tier judged.
Only half of my volunteer judges showed up, both great guys who worked hard.
I haven't been sleeping and my RA has been in a vicious flare for what seems like weeks now, so I was even more exhausted than even all this work would involve (what with full-time teaching and two grad classes continuing uninterrupted). Maybe that's why, when a top student came by to pick up her display board, which clearly did not follow the guidelines, I commented to her that her font was too small before telling her how excellent her work was. That didn't sit well with her father, who called me out on criticizing her after she'd worked so hard. My apologies and subsequent praise did nothing to mollify him, and he went on to harangue me, quite loudly, for a good 10 minutes or more.
When he finally left, one of the judge (I'd only met him 2 hours before!) came over to see if I was OK, and I immediately burst into tears. Mortifying. I wasn't crying because I'd been yelled at, I was crying because he was so very kind, and I was so tired, and the whole situation was just so ... unnecessary. My AP came in to see me, because the peeved parent had gone on to harangue her, too.
The DH bailed on helping me with the break down, because... reasons. But he did drop off DD, so there were four of us to fold up and stack 300 tri-folds, stack up a few dozen binders, take down the signs, and gather up the various odd materials that the students had brought in even though we'd told them they should not.
When I finally got home, I had to sort through the ballots and figure out who won in both the elementary and junior high divisions. It wasn't obvious so I had to build a spreadsheet. Then on Thursday morning I had to fill out the certificates and accidentally wrote in a wrong name... oops. But other than that, and 150+ reports and the 150+ display boards that need grading by the end of next week, it's OVER.
P.S. Today, I checked in with my AP again to see if there was any fall out from the obnoxious encounter. I was advised to pretend it hadn't happened, which I have been doing, out there in the real world. The parent had a follow-up meeting with admin and he is "willing to let it go." When I heard that, I thought my brain was going to explode (and given that whatever-it-is on my pituitary, maybe that actually will happen one of these days.) That guy owes me an apology. He chastised me for criticizing his daughter in public but then literally yelled at me for 5 minutes, walked away, and then came back to yell at me more, dragging up stuff that happened last year, when his daughter won the district fair! It was so bad that another parent came by to tell me I didn't do anything wrong, and that she would stick up for me to the administration if there was any question, since she heard the entire encounter. And now I really will drop this, and pretend it never happened. I'll never get an apology or even an iota of respect from that guy, so I'm not going to look for either one.
Monday I took photos of the 35 bulletin boards showing all the in-class projects and put them into a power point presentation. I also found a really cool "science" page border and made signs for all the tables by teacher and grade. Tuesday my students checked in their projects, and I had to review all ~150 of them to decide which ones were worthy of judging. Then Wednesday was the actual science fair, which involved getting 300+ projects set up in the gym, and the top tier judged.
Only half of my volunteer judges showed up, both great guys who worked hard.
I haven't been sleeping and my RA has been in a vicious flare for what seems like weeks now, so I was even more exhausted than even all this work would involve (what with full-time teaching and two grad classes continuing uninterrupted). Maybe that's why, when a top student came by to pick up her display board, which clearly did not follow the guidelines, I commented to her that her font was too small before telling her how excellent her work was. That didn't sit well with her father, who called me out on criticizing her after she'd worked so hard. My apologies and subsequent praise did nothing to mollify him, and he went on to harangue me, quite loudly, for a good 10 minutes or more.
When he finally left, one of the judge (I'd only met him 2 hours before!) came over to see if I was OK, and I immediately burst into tears. Mortifying. I wasn't crying because I'd been yelled at, I was crying because he was so very kind, and I was so tired, and the whole situation was just so ... unnecessary. My AP came in to see me, because the peeved parent had gone on to harangue her, too.
The DH bailed on helping me with the break down, because... reasons. But he did drop off DD, so there were four of us to fold up and stack 300 tri-folds, stack up a few dozen binders, take down the signs, and gather up the various odd materials that the students had brought in even though we'd told them they should not.
When I finally got home, I had to sort through the ballots and figure out who won in both the elementary and junior high divisions. It wasn't obvious so I had to build a spreadsheet. Then on Thursday morning I had to fill out the certificates and accidentally wrote in a wrong name... oops. But other than that, and 150+ reports and the 150+ display boards that need grading by the end of next week, it's OVER.
P.S. Today, I checked in with my AP again to see if there was any fall out from the obnoxious encounter. I was advised to pretend it hadn't happened, which I have been doing, out there in the real world. The parent had a follow-up meeting with admin and he is "willing to let it go." When I heard that, I thought my brain was going to explode (and given that whatever-it-is on my pituitary, maybe that actually will happen one of these days.) That guy owes me an apology. He chastised me for criticizing his daughter in public but then literally yelled at me for 5 minutes, walked away, and then came back to yell at me more, dragging up stuff that happened last year, when his daughter won the district fair! It was so bad that another parent came by to tell me I didn't do anything wrong, and that she would stick up for me to the administration if there was any question, since she heard the entire encounter. And now I really will drop this, and pretend it never happened. I'll never get an apology or even an iota of respect from that guy, so I'm not going to look for either one.
Tuesday, February 03, 2015
clarifying...
I realized after I wrote it that the last post must seem absurd: I do nothing (it seems) but talk about my pains both psychological and physical -- here.
Out in the real world, it's different. If I'm moving slowly because I'm in pain, I'll let the family know. Other than that, it's all just business as usual.
I'm feeling slightly less squished because I worked pretty much the entire weekend to get caught up on grades and homework, but I'm definitely in a flare because everything hurts and I'm having trouble sleeping, too. My mammogram went fine this morning, and it's only one more week until my appointment with Dr. B, where we'll discuss what to do about my pituitary.
Off for ibuprofen, and bed.
Out in the real world, it's different. If I'm moving slowly because I'm in pain, I'll let the family know. Other than that, it's all just business as usual.
I'm feeling slightly less squished because I worked pretty much the entire weekend to get caught up on grades and homework, but I'm definitely in a flare because everything hurts and I'm having trouble sleeping, too. My mammogram went fine this morning, and it's only one more week until my appointment with Dr. B, where we'll discuss what to do about my pituitary.
Off for ibuprofen, and bed.
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