Synthroid

I had another PET scan last week.  By now, they're routine and are meant to help us catch any early developing problems.  Generally I don't even think about them, because I expect everything to be fine.  This past week, however, I had a feeling that something was off.

I met with Dr. Knechtl yesterday and explained that my scan looked great, except for my throat/thyroid area.  It was lighting up a little bit, which means that there is some activity going on there that shouldn't be.  He asked if I had any history of thyroid problems, and when I relayed that my mom has hypothyroidism, I was sent downstairs to the lab to have more blood drawn, then be on my merry way.

Now, I'm not the type to ask a million questions--if it's supposed to be, it will be--but when I told my husband about the scan results, he had several.  What's are my t3 and t4 levels?  What about my TSH?  Did they check for a tumor marker?

Uhhh...... ?

All I know is that I had to get more blood drawn, and instead of the usual purple and yellow tubes, this time they used red.

Shouldn't that be enough information, babe?  

No.

No?  You did take phlebotomy, didn't you?  Isn't the tube color enough for you to know what's going on?

Ashley!  No!

Then he shakes his head and starts to laugh.  Although we're still newlyweds in a lot of areas, discussing our medical issues is something we're really great at.  He asks questions;  I say "I don't know."  I call whichever physician I'm working with, put them on speakerphone and spend a minute or two relaying questions and answers back and forth between the two of them, eventually get tired of pretending like I know what they're talking about and hand the phone to Isaac, then spend the remainder of the phone conversation trying to detect any facial expression changes on him.

This morning, we're at the point in this process where I've called the physician but was transferred to the lab nurse, who read me my results, but couldn't answer any of his other questions.  I think her and I were getting extremely confused between Isaac's questions and my translations of them.

It sounds like I've got hypothyroidism.  Which is NOT the worst thing in the world.  I have to take drugs for the rest of my life (thanks, Mom) but at least it's an easy fix.

Best of all, it doesn't involve chemotherapy.

Hallelujah!!!