December 13, 2013

Thyroid Biopsy - Quick and Painless

December 13, 2013

This morning I was up early and mixed up three kinds of cookies.  I got them baked and made a few trays to share.  One went to my thyroid doctor, one to the lab technician down the hall from the doctor's office - he is the best I have ever had at extracting blood.  One tray went to my mom's house tonight - more on that later.

By 9:30 the cookies were baked and trays made.  I went to the office and got in a couple of hours of work before leaving to go do some Christmas shopping and then to go to Harlingen for the thyroid biopsy.  I love to bake for others and this was a good time to do it.  My arm continues to get stronger.  I could tell it had improved from the last time I baked, just a week ago.  I was able to mark one more adult off my Christmas shopping list thanks to a good wish list provided by that person.  I shopped in four stores in Brownsville, got a quick lunch to eat on the road, and took off for Harlingen - about 30 miles away. 

As I was leaving the house this morning, heading to the office, I got a text message.  I stopped and read the note from my daughter-in-law Barbara that she was taking their baby (just turned 2) to the doctor with a high fever.  Almost exactly a year ago, this precious little one had a seizure which landed her in the hospital for about 3 days.  She has had no additional problems and is very healthy, but it turns out she now has the flu and a respiratory virus (RSV). Her dad, our son, has been sick all week with what he thought was the flu, so I guess they are passing it around.  I hope they heal quickly and keep it to themselves.

Back to my Harlingen trip, I started going to Dr. Concha in 2010.  At that time, she did a thyroid biopsy on a nodule I had.  It was benign.  Now, this year, that nodule had doubled in size so she needed to do another biopsy.  I won't get the results for a week.  I have no symptoms other than the fact the nodule has grown.  I was 15 minutes early for my appointment and they took me in immediately.  That is nice.  I was there about 25 minutes, total time and part of that was chatting with the doctor.  After she finished the biopsy I told her I had something for her and gave her the cookies.  She was delighted and said she couldn't bake like that.  I told her to take care of my thyroid and I would do the baking.  She is such a gracious lady.

Funny thing, when she finished the biopsy she asked if I was allergic to something and I misunderstood what she said.  She had asked if I was allergic to Band-Aids.  I said yes, as she got ready to put one over the biopsy spot.  I told her it was OK to put it on and that I wouldn't leave it on for long.  She told me to leave it on for 10 minutes.  I took it off after about 15 minutes and now there is a very visible rash in the shape of the Band-Aid on my neck this evening.  That looks much worse than the site of the biopsy.

I asked if it was alright to go shopping or if I needed to go home and take it easy.  She laughed and said it was fine to go shopping and that in fact it would be good for me.  So, following my doctor's orders, I went shopping.  I got a few more gifts taken care of but nothing major.

While driving home, our youngest son called with a couple of Christmas shopping questions.  I pulled off the freeway and stopped along the access road so that I could hear him.  We had a nice visit and then my cell phone was about to go dead so I told him would chat later. 

When I got home and unloaded my purchases, my husband showed up and we left to go to my mom's for supper and to decorate her Christmas tree.  My sister Janet is here with her husband and they had been putting up Christmas lights outside Mom's house.  We had a great supper of Bar-B-Q from Rudy's Bar-B-Q and then Janet and I started on the tree while her husband cleaned the kitchen.  Then the guys went and got some more hangers for the ornaments. 

My parents were blessed to be able to travel to many corners of the world and Mom collected ornaments as they traveled.  The tree has a wonderful assortment of ornaments and Janet and I liked working together on decorating it.

Janet worked hard to get everything perfect.  We had a discussion at supper about our perfectionism.  We are more alike than we realized. 

My arm gave me very little trouble today and I am thankful for that.  My hearing is good enough that I am comfortable in public alone, but I still miss a lot.  Things at supper were OK for the hearing, but I did have them repeat many times. 

Once we were home I talked to our son Bob in New Mexico and his wife, Vickey.  They are so excited about their planned trip to spend Christmas with us.  We are so pleased that they are making the long trip.