What a pain in the neck!

Sorry I’ve been inconsistent with my blog postings, I’ve been waiting to meet with my doctors and receive the pathology reports on the tests that have been run lately. And then the blog editor went on the blink and it took a while to figure that out. Hopefully this gets us back in the swing of things.

I saw Dr. Akins (radiation oncologist) last Friday (27 Aug) and he was very pleased with my progress. He hadn’t seen me since April and I was in pretty bad shape back then. He has moved hospitals, he was at Wilford Hall Medical Center and now he is at Brooks Army Medical Center (BAMC) where I got the PET scan done. He also became the proud father of a new baby boy. I think we spent more time talking about the baby then we did about my case. We discussed my PET scan and he was very optimistic that the thyroid nodule will turn out to be nothing to worry about, but agreed it was a good idea to have it checked out. I gave him a run down of my current condition and he said I was pretty much on schedule with my recovery, but as usual was noncommittal on just how long some of the effects will last and when I’ll get back to real normal. He did a physical examination and said the tongue in the location of the tumor was healing very well and he said it felt good to him. He said because I’m seeing 3 doctors, he didn’t feel it was necessary to see everyone the same month, so I didn’t have to come back to see him until early December. That gave me an indication that my recovery was going well.

On 30 Aug I saw the speech therapist and she was also impressed with my progress. My visit to see her doesn’t actually have anything to do with speech therapy, she’s just interested in my ability to swallow, move my tongue and open my mouth. We ran through the regimen of exercises she gave me to see how I was doing and was satisfied enough to where I don’t have to schedule any more follow-up visits with her unless I feel it’s necessary. I was happy about that, the less time I spend at medical appointments the better.

That brings me to my appointment with endocrinology on 31 Aug. I wouldn’t say it was the high light of my day, but it was interesting. If you visited any of the links from my last blog post you might understand the reservations I had about the appointment. I wasn’t looking forward to the possible Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA). I got to the appointment a bit early. I wasn’t sure exactly where the endocrinology clinic was in the hospital, so I figured I’d get there early and get good directions. As it turns out the clinic is about 50 feet inside the main entrance of the hospital. Great, I was way early and would have a chance to read the July 2005 edition of Popular Mechanics.

Lucky me, I only had to wait about 5 minutes before Dr. Strickland came out and got me.

It was a bit before the appointed time, but she seemed eager to get started. We went back to her office and she went through my medical history and asked if there was any history of thyroid issues in my family, was I a smoker, I’m I a heavy drinker (define heavy drinker?), do I wake up with night sweats, do I get cold/hot easily, blah, blah, blah . . .

Then she asked if I knew what a Fine Needle Aspiration procedure was. I told her I’d done a little research and that yes I thought I was pretty familiar with the procedure. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I knew what was going to happen. She then went into all the gory details. If I agreed to the procedure, she would be inserting a 25 gauge needle attached to a suction device 4 times into the nodule and recover some cells for examination. She said it won’t hurt much, a 25 gauge needle is smaller then the needles they use to take blood with. And by the way there won’t be any medication to deaden the pain. They figure that sticking you with a needle to inject pain killer is only making matters worse. By the time they stick you a couple of times to administer the pain killer they can be done with the procedure. She seemed pretty caviler with this minor pain that I’d be subject to. I told her I had a pretty high pain threshold and that I was getting used to being stuck with needles over the last 8 months. She then asked me if I agreed to the procedure, I said yes, and off we went to the “procedure room.”

We went into a room with a chair, an examination table, an ultra-sound machine and a desk. She told me to get up on the table and wait. She returned with a piece of paper that turned out to be the consent form for the procedure. It was the last Xerox copy of a very poor original, neither one of us could read. She went on to explain what was printed in the blocks of unintelligible faded out print. I told her I believed her and signed the form. She probably could have then removed one of my kidneys and sold it on the black market and I wouldn’t have had any legal recourse (and one less kidney).

I was then told to lay back and she put a rolled up towel under my back, between my shoulder blades. I was told this wasn’t to make me comfortable, but to put my neck in a better position to do the procedure. She was right, it wasn’t comfortable, but from what I was about to experience it was a minor discomfort. I didn’t even have to take my shirt off; they just positioned a towel to keep the ultra-sound goop from getting on my shirt.

It was time! Dr. Strickland then squirted some goop on my neck and began to spread it around with the ultra-sound wand. She located my thyroid and the nodule. She pointed out a black spot on a black and white screen and I made agreeing sounds like I could actually see what she was talking about. She then said she was going to start the procedure and that I was going to feel a slight prick, and oh by the way don’t swallow during the procedure. That fine little needle felt like a dull carpenter’s nail going into my neck. She stuck it in and then wiggled it around a bit to get a good sampling of nodule cells, she then said, “suction on” and her little helper replied, “suction on” a bit more wiggling then, “suction off”, “suction off” the helper replied and she pulled the needle out. She then turned her back to me and somehow got the collected cells onto a specimen slide for the pathologist. She asked how I was doing, and I said fine (grimace, grimace). She said, “good, only 3 more to go.” She then proceeded to run through the procedure 3 more times. All in all, it only took about 5 minutes and after the first 3 needle sticks, it wasn’t too bad.

Once it was over they had me sit up and wait a few minutes to settle down. We made some small talk and I asked her when the results would be back, she said about a week at the most. She asked if she could call me with the results and I gave her my phone numbers. She asked how I felt and I said, “like a pin cushion.” She said I was released and could go back to work. I did.

So now we wait. I can only be optimistic about the results; it doesn’t do any good to worry about it. I’ve been through enough crap the last 8 months and I’m feeling pretty good physically. Most people on the street wouldn’t even know I’ve been sick by looking at me. If it turns out the nodule is cancer I’m ready to start the good fight all over again. I just hope for Terry’s sake it’s benign, she’s gone through enough so far this year. She could use some good news for a change.

So keep your eye on your email, I’ll report the results as soon as I get them. My guess is we’ll be celebrating.

Cheers,
Miller, out