Thursday Update

Fine needle aspiration today on the Thyroid nodule (or "N'duule' as my endocrine Fellow says it) today.  I'd classify the experience as somewhere between a piece of cake and a big pain in the neck.  I also had an EKG which was honestly the easiest thing I've done all week.  Tomorrow I'll have a CT scan and a consult with surgery to find out the details of the when/whys/hows of surgery as well as a meeting with anesthesia to see if they want to do any Alpha or Beta Blockers to keep any possibility of hypertensive crisis at bay.

I'm being admitted as an inpatient a little earlier than I expected and that's thrown me for a bit of a loop. 

Andy gave blood today and they give you really good Blood-letting gifts here:  A little insulated lunchbox, and a bottle of water, and a chip clip, and a pen, and MILANO COOKIES!!!  He snuck a package out for me because that's how much he loves me.  I love him because he's the kind of guy who sees that they're in need of A+ blood and he says, "Where's the blood bank?"  Well...  I love him because I just do, but that's one of the things I love about him.

One of the things that we learned earlier in the week is that Tomas really has gotten fat.  He's almost doubled in size.  We need to get that booger out of there if you ask me.

Honestly, I've had several moments of just wanting to go home and pretend that none of this is happening and go back to life as normal.  This has been really overwhelming and honestly harder than I expected at times.  But in the long run I know I'm getting the very best care possible.

My favorite things so far about the whole experience have been the sense of community that exists among the patients here and the incredible diversity of people.  It's been a while since I've been in a population this diverse and I love the richness of it.  On the first point at the lodge where we're staying there is a community kitchen which is the only place that we're allowed to eat.  And while that is incredibly irritating when I just want to eat my Oreos and Milk upstairs in my room watching Bones it also makes for great chances for folks to sit and talk and swap stories.  I've met several other people with weird tumors like mine.  And THAT brings instant camaraderie, I gotta tell you.   (You can tell the pheo-para patients.  They're the ones carrying around containers of their own urine.  Oh. Sorry.  That might be oversharing, but you'd laugh if you were one of us.).

Bones is on and I have to Skype with my girls so I'm going to wrap this up.  But those are my thoughts today.