Mutant Thyroid Thwarted

☆ March 10, 2015

So, I had surgery! And it was so much better than I expected. I was terrified of anaesthesia – in the week leading up to surgery, that thought alone put me into tears, to the point where I actually made a will (it needed to be done anyway, so…. now it’s done). Control issues, ya think? But the day of was shockingly great. The hospital was staffed exclusively by angels, saints, and geniuses. My surgeon took a phone pic of my removed thyroid for me. And the right lobe alone was 7 cm square and reached all the way up to my jaw, below my ear. Whut??? That thing was going to take over my body if left to its own devices, and, as challenging as it’s been, I’m so glad this all was set in motion NOW.

I spent the night in the hospital and a few days on a diet of homemade jello (juice + gelatin = the best). My voice is still too weak to really talk on the phone or for any length of time, but it is improving daily. Luckily, I’m not a teacher or an auctioneer, and can work without having to talk too much. And now I’m in the process of sorting out the proper dosage for thyroid replacement. I’ve been feeling mostly good, but with afternoon slumps, and today I am switching, with excitement and high hopes, from levothyroxine to dessicated thyroid. Though, lying in the sun, reading books has been a pretty awesome side effect of not feeling like I’m running at 9000%.
I don’t think I’ve had lazy, bookish afternoons like this since I spent the summer living on the mountain. I have been organizing the offline writing I’ve done over the past year (gasp!) and making necklaces with some stunner stones – they’ll be finding their way to the Shop throughout the week. Farmily stories and more coming soon!

{ Life, Thyroid ☆ 98 Comments }

The Museum Of Four In The Morning

☆ March 3, 2015

I’m lying in bed, bookended by cats, finding magic on the internet to widen my mind…..
The arc of this TED talk is so awesome and surprising… it’s pretty much the meaning of life:

I also stumbled upon the amazing Cuchira ~ her mini-vids are mesmerizing.
Here’s a direct link since I can’t figure out how to get the embed to work….

Thank you so much for the notes and comments and emails and loooove!

{ Awesome Elsewhere ☆ 25 Comments }

The Health Baloney

☆ February 18, 2015

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.