Maybe answers, then again, maybe not

July 30, 2009

Went to the neurologist this morning. Boris (he is Russian) and I didn’t communicate so well and we went around again as with all my other docs that I am not depressed, stressed out, or lacking in sleep, and that my shortness of breath is not me hyperventilating. We also argued over whether I actually had sleep apnea accurately diagnosed several years ago because I have a skinny neck and didn’t snore. If it was good enough for blue cross insurance, it’s good enough for me. Anyways, I will be having a muscle weakness test on the 10th, but in the mean time found out one of the samples he got from me was for a drug screening so I’m not so sure we have much else to discuss. I personally think he should go back to Russia.

The endocrinologist had the maybe answers/maybe no answers. All the tests from the bloodletting from the week before came back normal except for one. My calcitonin levels were 6.5. Normal high is 5.0. People generally don’t have symptoms until it is in the 100s. Calcitonin is used as a marker for medullary thyroid cancer so he performed an ultrasound on my thyroid. He said ‘you can watch’, but when I turned my head to watch the screen he said ‘not you’ and proceeded to let Kelli see everything. And I couldn’t talk. So I sat there with ultrasound gel dripping down my neck, I couldn’t see anything or move, and I couldn’t speak for a good 20 minutes. Pure torture. Dr. Ley did find one nodule that had a very active blood supply so will be getting a biopsy of that in the hospital next week. The nodule is .2 inches. Soooo with the calcitonin levels being so low and the nodule so small, either I’m a super-sensitive canary or it isn’t really anything. It could explain everything, but he looked rather dubious that this is the answer. He is like a gentle grandpa who holds his cards close to his chest and we couldn’t get him to crack and give us any more information, but we were grateful he spent an hour with us.

Mom will be here next week for the biopsy and will be here for the muscle test on the 10th. I’ll send out an email when we hear anything or Boris has managed to send me to rehab.

Prayers and funny emails to keep me laughing are highly appreciated right now.