** Ok I started this post late last week.... read on for the latest.
Well I am sitting here typing this from home, I have been confined to within these walls since Tuesday. For those who do not know I had surgery on Tuesday to remove ......... well you can tell by the picture it had to have something to do with my belly right???
HERE IS THE STORY:
On March 11th, 2010 I started a 4 day period without my high dose of hormone replacement therapy (since I don't have a thyroid for those keeping track). My doctor decided to DENY my medication in order to force me to call in and make an appointment. Well it was the weekend by the time I got to the pharmacy and calls to the "on-call" doc went unanswered. This started what I can only describe as a medical domino effect..........
On March 13th I noticed that my belly just "popped" out - yes there were jokes that it could have been all the Girl Scout Cookies that I consumed (I am not telling anyone next year about how many boxes I eat - HA!!) but it just felt different. After a few days it really started to hurt and just kept getting bigger (it was rock hard) and I was becoming concerned that it had something to do with not taking my thyroid medication (mind you the doc takes out my thyroid due to cancer then denies the medication I need to function on a daily basis - very nice - the poor pharmacist had to see me cry!!). I talked to a few of the docs I worked with and their main concern was fluid retention due to not taking the medication which can lead to heart failure. I immediately went to the doctor, not my regular doctor, she was out of town.......
The "fill-in" doctor confirmed that I indeed did have all of the symptoms of heart failure! WHAT?? This was beyond irritating and between you and me, quite scary!! The doc sent me for all sorts of tests and told me to go to the ER immediately if this or that happened. I went back to work the next day and told my boss (neurologist) what was said and he got on the phone with his good friend who is a cardiologist and just happened to practice across the street. He saw me that day.
I recognized the doctor and he was so excited to meet me in person - see we have passed each other several times over the years walking around the hospital and he is about 5ft tall and always gives me this HUGE smile. He was extremely gentle - that sounds a little strange but he made me feel SO comfortable and he LISTENED!!! After he had me explain what had happened he told me to get up on the exam table and then he grabbed my hands (as if to calm me - he apparently does not know I am an ol' pro at this medical "stuff") and told me softly, "Brandy my dear, you do have all the symptoms of heart failure so I am going to examine you". Well after poking and prodding, ECHO, etc..... he stated that he did NOT feel it was heart failure but something in my abdomen (good guess doc). So he ordered a CT of my abdomen & pelvis.
The next day my REGULAR internal medicine doctor called me to come in and within 5 minutes she asked if I had been on an antibiotics lately. I said that I had been on a high dose of Levaquin due to a 2 month bought of bronchitis - she said, "AH HA!" that was it - the good bacteria had been killed and the bad bacteria took over. Well..... I don't want to go into the traumatizing lab work I had to go through - GROSS!!! Needless to say those results came back NEGATIVE for toxins (after she made me down gallons of probiotics).
Well.... the CT results came in and the cardiologists office called me to say, "Mrs. Chandler your results came back and you have a mass on your adrenal gland". Those are not words I was wanting or ready to hear. I am just days away from finding out I am FINALLY cancer free (you all know I have been counting down the days for a year) and quite frankly I was scared. Just like the thyroid I had NO idea what the adrenal glad did or where it was. I was then scheduled to see a specialist that Friday.
Since most of my medical issues have been found by me "digging" into my own results I saw on my report there was a ovarian mass. I called my internal medicine doc who went over the results with me and she told me to call my OB/GYN. I did and they got me in quickly.
I went to my OB/GYN and after laughing at my protruding belly (yes we have that type of relationship where he can laugh with me) he did a quick exam and felt this "mass" from the outside and said, "we gotta get that huge (golf ball sized) thing out on TUESDAY". So.... that was that.
I went to the adrenal glad doc and he said all was well and he showed me that the ovary mass was the area of concern and NOT the adrenal gland - WHEW!!!!! That is the end of that.
I had my surgery this past Tuesday and while they were in there getting the golf ball out they discovered "massive amounts" of endometriosis which they cleaned up as much as they could but could not get it all - therefore I get to go on another journey of 6 months of medically induced menopause (been there done that in 2003 and it was NOT pretty - I am still apologizing to my loved ones).
When I woke up from surgery and Gene told me what they found I felt like I was punched in the gut (not just from being cut open - ha) but we have all been counting down the days until May 4th where I would finally hear I was cancer free and WE COULD MOVE ON WITH OUR LIVES and hopefully start getting the hormones right to have a baby this year. I spent the next few days at home and had way too much time to think. I pretty much cried for 3 days.
I am 38, have thyroid cancer, and now have to deal with 6 months of menopause. This was a hard blow since I have been really looking forward to starting a fresh beginning tomorrow - and mostly looking forward to starting a family.
So, we pushed forward and started the MD Anderson appointments on Saturday, May 1st. The first day went great - just a headache and nausea from the Thyrogen shots. Then Sunday, yesterday, it was a full blown vomit fest. Oh man I was hurting! Then today I went in WITH JUST ONE DAY TO GO and they told me that since I had had that CT with CONTRAST a few weeks ago that I could not have the radioactive iodine pill and the scan tomorrow that will show if I have any cancer tissue.
So, there ya have it! I have counted down the days for the past YEAR to find out the DAY BEFORE that I cannot find out if I am cancer free tomorrow. Dang it! BUT - there is still good news - I find out TOMORROW if that ovary mass is benign or not! How cool is that that it just so happens to be tomorrow!??? So God didn't want me to go the past year counting down for nothing! :-)
That is the latest - I will give another update tomorrow after all of the appointments. I will be going back to MD Anderson to get two results which will ease my mind. One being the thyroglobulin which the number will tell us if there is any cancer cell activity and the ultrasound results which I can already tell you they measured 4 nodules (tumors) and the largest was .49cm so that is good - they biopsy if they are 1cm or larger. So, they will probably not do anything about those until next year to see if they have grown.
So, tomorrow I will get the ovary mass biopsy result and learn when I can get the scan done that should have taken place tomorrow.
~ GO MOMO ~
