Monday, June 22, 2020

don't look now

Literally, don't look.

A lot of running around today, starting with a very early (7:15AM!) eye appointment.  Yay me, the eyes are still doing fine, no changes noted, everything's stable and working fine.

Then home for just a bit, then out again to meet my principal, briefly, to sign my catechist certification paperwork.  Then to the post office to mail the paper work off. Then grocery shopping, and getting a fill up for the van -- 19+ gallons is surely a record?  I didn't know my gas tank was that big!  I believe this is the first time I've put gas in it since the beginning of May, so there's that.

Anyway, home, put groceries away, and then off to MDA for a quick bloodwork and ultrasound check.  Blood draw went very smoothly, 4 tubes from the right hand, easy-peasy.  Ultrasound?

Don't look.

Because I'm pretty sure I saw something when she switched on the Doppler, and it didn't look good: Round (bad), big (bad), lots of vascularization (very bad).   Yikes.  The technician only used the Doppler twice on that side, once to identify the carotid artery (unmistakable), and then to look at whatever this thing was.   But OF COURSE I am not a radiologist so I will now do my best to forget whatever it is I think that I saw.  It was probably just a reactive node.  Yes. Of course that's what it is.

Fortunately, I'll know by Wednesday the latest, that's my follow-up appointment.  In other news, my TSH is up to 0.31!!  This is the highest it has been when I'm not going for an RAI scan or treatment since my first surgery.  Curious what my Tg (thyroid cancer tumor marker) is going to be, whenever that comes in.  I'm actually getting better at this being patient thing.  I guess practice really does help.

Update: "Normal-appearing cervical lymph nodes", one on right (1.7 x 0.4 cm) and one on the left, the one I saw: 2.0 x 0.8 cm.  These seem pretty big to me, but "normal-appearing" is very reassuring.   I love how quickly these reports get posted to the patient portal at MDA.

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