finding1sselfsthyroidjourney

June 28 ~ Retake of Mammogram, then a Ultra Sound & PET Scan June 29, 2012

 Hubby fixed eggs, bacon and cheese the night before… since all I was suppose to eat was protein and no carbs.  Water and lots of it prior to the testing. Most likely didn’t have more than a few hours at best of sleep last night..plus hopping up every hour to empty my bladder from all the water.

By 6:45 am a dear friend has text me letting me know I was in her prayers. That was so sweet and her son also had sent me a text of “good luck”.later my sister in law  had text too.. all of this before 8:30. How blessed am I to have such dear dear friends spirtually with me through out the day!

I arrived a few minutes early and a family friend greeted me from behind the desk. Diane and I went down memory lane and how much my papa helped her family at different times… she showed me a scar and told me the story about how her mother didn’t know how to drive… so she called Mr. Grant to take her to the hosptial. She reminded me that Dad did alot of things for the neighbors and always with a smile and never asked for anything in return. What a wonderful day to start the day. Then she shared how much her play pal- my brother and her would do crazy things and dad again would never yell at them…he would just undo what ever they had done and went on about his business.  Like the time She and my brother had put gravel in dads varsal vat. we both laughed.  This stroll down memory lane took the edge off right away.. we both acknowledge that we wouldn’t change those days for nothing.

MAMMOGRAM PORTION ~ am called in for additional mammogram pictures.. the technician explains exactly what she is looking for and why on both sides. Explained why the differnt plates were being used, very through. As I sat in the room, the radiologist reviewed the pictures, asked some additional questions and decided that an ultra sound was only needed on the right side.  This was good news to me… 1/2 the concern already cleared.

ULTRA SOUND  PORTION~   A beautiful Asian girl came to do the ultra sound, I am guessing she didn’t even clear 5ft. She then explained that she needed to find the mass that was less than the size of pea… and to be patient with her. No problem there. I wanted it found so that we would know more… This is the one that they said was round, and from what I had read, this was a good sign. After about 15 minutes she found it, took pictures and measurements and more pictures and measurements from different angles. Went back to my private cubicle and waited. She came back and said nothing more than friroid cysts, very common nothing to worry about, Releived is an understatment…  then my next question to her was why was the original diagonisis – pre/post menopausal mother with breat cancer?  She either couldn’t or wouldn’t answer me that… she simply said everything is good. I would agree but in my mind that really does still bother me.

PET Scan ~ They had a cancelation and were able to get to me about 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. I am escorted down a series of winding  low lit halls to a small cubicle at the end of a hall way. This tech begins to ask questons, double checking that I haven’t eaten,or drank anything other than water since the night before. She checks my sugar, it’s 145.  I has asked why that was important. She explained that the radioactive material attaches itself to the glucose water that will be given to me intervieniously, and that they can’t do the test if a person’s sugar is above 200. So that mystery was solved. Then I am told that the gentlemen that will be administering the IV will come and get me in a few minutes and we would go to the room accross the small hallway. He came, I went to the room.  He told me to lie down an searched for a good vein on my left arm. Well my left arm really didn’t want to particpate. It bent the needle and he had to repostion another needle to make sure it was in a vein. He succeded there was no burning or swelling going on, so he preceded with the radio active iv cocktail. Then I learned more about the prodedure. I needed to lay really still for the next one and 1/2 hours so that the cocktail to go through my body and be able to give them a good picture. He explained that they use the glucose and radioactive material because our body normally will use glucose in areas that need it, so if I was even reading it would go to the muscles that were used to flip the pages etc… So I got how important it was to lay still. I did flench several times when the yard men would start up the weedwacker and edger along the wall that I was up against…but they said that should hurt the results. The next step is to empty your bladder I did that with no problems.  I then waited just a minute or two and they were ready to start the test. I laid on a very narrow table  with what look like almost boxer glove looking thing wrapped around my head and was told to place my arms above and rest them on this head gear.. what fun this is going to be… she then said it should take about 25 min to do my test and then I would be free to go. Alrighty now, lets get started.  So I slid through this cylinder machine that sounds much like an old washing machine. Their cute quote is they check you from “eyes to thighs” I am only guessing here but I would think they did about a foot at a time. I don’t remember how many little jaunts I had till they were done.  I was assisted up  and had to wait a few minutes to make sure all the film was readable. 

I was way more tired than I had imagined I would be. Looking forward to heading home for a nap and some nurishing food too. I called several people on my way home to let them know it will probably be Tuesday or Thursday of next week before I would hear back on these test.

 Well my wonderful hubby had decided to take off so that I wouldn’t have to come home to an empty house after all of that.  After week of  near 100 + temps our trailer was very very warm… we cranked down A/C and litterly took apart all of our floor fans and washed and cleaned them up to get the max turbo air we could.  Took my shower and crashed with wonderful thoughts of tomorrow is TGIF, tomorrow, tomorrow to the tune of little orphan anny song.