Trouble, again.

In 1969, when I was 25, during a routine exam, my doctor discovered a lump on my thyroid.  He sent me for x-rays and it was decided that the nodule had to come out!  I was hospitalized for a couple of days after the surgery.  The good news was the thyroid tumor was benign.  The bad news was the surgery was brutal.  I was bruised from earlobe to earlobe and nipple to nipple.  Really!  My throat was so sore I couldn't swallow and could barely talk.  To top it off, (I was in St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach), the nuns came in an told me I was faking and to start eating!  My dear roommate, who was Catholic, was horrified; and assured me that not all Catholics were like those nuns.  I knew that.

When my Dad visited me, I told him how bad I was hurting and how the nuns berated me.  He went to the office of the hospital director and told her to keep the nuns out of my room.  They didn't return for the remainder of my stay.

Fast forward to 1988, when I was 44, another nodule was discovered on my thyroid.  When the doctor told me I literally burst out in tears, and I'm not a weepy woman.  He asked what was wrong, so I told him what happened 19 years earlier.  He assured me that medicine has come a long way, and this would be a breeze.  And it was.  After an ultrasound, it was determined the nodule needed to come out; they used the same scar, that was good, and the results were the same, benign.  I only stayed in the hospital one day.  I had visitors from work and I could actually talk to them.  Amazing.

So, here we are in 20ll, and I'm 67, with another nodule on my thyroid.  My endocrinologist has been watching this one for couple of years but thinks it's time to take a look at it.  This time I don't have to have surgery for him to determine if it's benign or not.  He's sending me to a pathologist, today, who will do a fine needle aspiration.  She'll then examine the tissue and determine the next step.

We live in a great age.  Medicine has come a long way, again.  Keep your fingers crossed for me, that everything will be AOK!

Do you see a trend, here?  I've had a nodule every 20 years or so.  I wish it would stop.  I threw in the photos because every post needs photos.

Be well and do good,