The Health Baloney

I’m having a lot of trouble writing everything I want to write here because I’m a mess at the moment – I’m distracted and stressed and feeling overwhelmed – so, I’ve decided to just do it in segments. Small, manageable bits that will hopefully become a cohesive story at the end. Here is the beginning.

Way back when I lived in San Francisco (2003), I noticed a bump/lump in my throat/thyroid area. I was in the backseat of my aunt’s car and caught my reflection in her rearview mirror and saw this lump on my neck that seemed to have shown up literally overnight. I had it biopsied at UCSF and they said it was benign and to have a nice life and I’ve spent the last decade ignoring it. This past fall, I happened to feel another lump near it, which freaked me out, but I waited till the new year to investigate it because of my giant deductible – why do anything at the tail end of the year? Long (annoying, full of expletives) story short, I was finally able to see a thyroid specialist and surgeon at the beginning of February.

The appointment was supposed to be just a preliminary chat – prelude to a biopsy – but he took sixteen samples from my thyroid right then and there because he didn’t want to wait even a week till my next appointment for a biopsy. He said that UCSF should have had me back every six months for new biopsies and that the lump itself really should have been removed at the time because thyroid lumps like mine can become cancerous any time, even if a biopsy comes back benign. So I’ve been living with a time bomb in my body and didn’t even know it.

The results from the biopsy came back benign, hallelujah. I will have surgery to remove my entire thyroid next week (his ultrasound showed lumps and cysts and calcium deposits all over, it was a mess). The surgeon is awesome. Not local but near-ish, and he has a ton of experience with this procedure so I trust him with a knife to my throat. Then my whole thyroid will be tested in it’s entirety for the C-word.

I cannot end this post without acknowledging the emails and comments and support I’ve received over the past weeks from you Out There. Thank you. I have more to say on the matter, but in the meantime: you have opened me more than the surgeon will next week. I bow to you.