Just read through previous attempted blogs that I wrote and I don't know where my head was because I can't make head nor tail of them :)
The summer of 2012 was amazing, one of those proud mummy moments, (my son would curl up with embarrassment if he was to read that lol ). The local PCSO had nominated my youngest to be an Olympic torchbearer. Personally I didn't think he stood a cat in hell's chance but was so proud that somebody had found him worthy of a nomination. A typical 14yr old lad at home, messy bedroom, washing left lying around and at that stage of still being a child but thinking he was a man, we've all met one lol. No even if I do say so myself he was a good kid and did a lot in our community especially for the older generation. I was in work when I found out he had been successful and was to carry the torch. I was beaming like a cheshire cat, it was even more magical as I was a massive fan of the olympics. The day he carried the torch, the heaven opened but it felt like the sun was beaming its rays down on me, I still get a warm glow when I think back.
Fast forward to 2013. I was doing reasonably well apart from being very prone to chest infections. I started having a few falls and again me being me put it down to clumsiness. The crunch came when I almost fell on top of Kerry my blind dog (not the best combination, I lost my right visual fields due to a stroke in my 30's and I go and adopt a blind dog, we must look a right pair when we are out on our walks :) . Again I went traipsing off to the docs thinking it may have had something to do with the stroke and again she sent me to the hospital for a MRI scan. This is where I begin to think that someone, somewhere is really looking out for me. The results came in and although nothing significant showed up in my brain (I was just happy that they managed to find my brain) they had picked up what looked like a cyst on the LEFT side of my thyroid and felt it needed further investigation but nothing to worry about. So about 6 weeks later off I trotted to my local hospital for an ultrasound scan of my neck. The radiographer did the scan and then brought a doctor in and they decided to do a fine needle aspiration. The doctor said it looks quite innocent so again I wasn't overly worried. I received a phone call slap bang in the middle of Coronation Street which I was a bit miffed about and I was just going to ignore it but felt a bit rude so answered it. It was my lovely respiratory consultant which surprised me. He started off with general chit chat and then mentioned the ultrasound and fna. He said he had received a copy of the report and felt I should be referred to somebody and hoped it would be over the next few days but nothing to worry about Wendy he said in his usual jolly voice, nothing to worry about I thought so why would you phone me at almost 8pm but I couldn't be angry with him, he really is a genuinely nice man. Anyway the consultants secretary phoned me the next day and offered me an appointment. My legs felt like lead weights walking to the hospital. I kept telling myself they were just being overly cautious and I was was bloody over thinking again. He explained to be that they needed to do another fna as the last one was not telling them too much and although they didn't suspect cancer they couldn't rule it out. Hold on a minute, rewind, yes he did say it. I wouldn't mind but even though I'd heard of the thyroid I was totally oblivious to what it was. A fortnight later I was back in the waiting room trying unsuccessfully to convince myself that it was a bit of a palaver about nothing. Being the awkward so and so I am it wasn't that easy and it was decided that due to the specimen still being inconclusive that they would perform a hemi-thyroidectomy. I didn't relish the idea of a knife being near my neck but what was a girl to do. The surgery wasn't half as bad as I imagined it would be and I was discharged the following day. Went for my post-op check but they didn't have the results and was told to make an appointment for a fortnights time, it was only 3 weeks until Christmas. The receptionist said that there were no appointments in a fortnight and gave me an appointment 3 weeks into the new year. For the next few days my mood left a lot to be desired and I decided to take the bull by the horn and phone the CNS. I explained that I was feeling very low in my mood and the thought of waiting until the new year for the results wasn't helping. I was given an appointment for the morning of Christmas Eve. Not the best gift for Christmas that year being told it was definitely a thyroid cancer. It was totally unrelated to the lung cancer so at least I could be thankful that it wasn't secondaries. Had a completion thyroidectomy in the January and the referred to Christies for RAI in the April 2014.
Started taking thyroxine but couldn't quite get the levels right and started losing weight again and I lay all the blame at the medications door. Had my follow up uptake scan and all was well. Until that is, I went for a check up in July 2015. The doctor mentioned that I was a little underweight and I asked if it could be the medication. We decided once my bloods came back we would consider lowering my dose but in the meantime she wanted me to have a CT scan. I went for the scan a couple of days later but didn't hear anything so went on the basis of no news was good news. When I still hadn't heard anything around the middle of August I gave them a call, more to see if I could drop my medication than anything else and was told there was a letter in the post for me.
Going to finish off there until tomorrow because I seriously need to visit the land of nod zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Hopefully I will be able to write again tomorrow. Finding writing all of this down very therapeutic :) Night, night, sweet dreams xx
