Hi friends,
I've just come off of an emotional roller coaster of a week! My scheduled mitral valve repair and maze procedure for Monday, the 19th has been postponed.
An errant thyroid test, winding around somewhere since I had it drawn a couple of weeks ago showed up and indicated hyperthyroid condition. I had a nodule removed 20 years ago and have been tested religiously ever since; also with my atrial fibrillation it has always been tested to see if a correlation existed. Always normal - till this one.
In the midst of this news I had a routine mammogram and what they called a fibroadenoma that they had been watching for four years had grown making it "suspicious". I nearly decked the poor technician and told her I didn't need ONE MORE THING! Didn't these people realized that I was on the final countdown for open heart surgery and doing everything possible to hold myself toghether and and approach it in as calm a manner as possibe. Calmness flew right out the window on Tuesday!
An insane few days of calling doctors (many) to try to get the breast biopsy done and the thyroid uptake test done ensued. At some times I was able to calmly discuss things with office personnel and at others just the recounting of the facts for them would make me weepy. Raw emotions for sure.
Amazingly, a biopsy was put into place for Thursday, although they swore they would know nothing until Monday. From feeling that this would be "nothing" to an absolute conviction that it was "something" set in by the time of the biopsy.
Meanwhile, my surgeon finally got the thyroid results and said that they couldn't do surgery on people with hyperthyroid conditions. Something about "thyroid storm" -very dangerous. That was actually a relief because someone other that myself took the ball out of my court and I could stop worrying about trying to get everything worked out to go ahead and have the surgery as scheduled. I keep wondering if they order thyroid tests in the pre-surgery testing. Would this have been found? I'm asking my surgeon Monday.
The biopsy began as a core biopsy with very serious faces all around and suddenly the radiologist performing it yelped and said "It's shrinking! It's a cyst!" There was much joy and merry making in the room. Apparently the "fibroadenoma" was really an old cyst (making the fluid dense and therefore indistinguishable from tumors) and now it's gone! That was a relief beyond words.
I went ahead with my cardio cath on Friday and learned that all arteries etc, are in great shape. Also, my mitral valve is back to a puny "mild". I was in Normal Sinus Rythym for the first time in a long time and they were able to see how it performed under those conditions. I have not had a chance to discuss these results with my surgeon and EP and am trying not to project too many scenarios before that. It does give me a much needed missing piece of information, though.
I am sorry for going on so long. This has been very cathartic for me. I came out of the week OK but it wasn't a pretty journey!
Judy
I've just come off of an emotional roller coaster of a week! My scheduled mitral valve repair and maze procedure for Monday, the 19th has been postponed.
An errant thyroid test, winding around somewhere since I had it drawn a couple of weeks ago showed up and indicated hyperthyroid condition. I had a nodule removed 20 years ago and have been tested religiously ever since; also with my atrial fibrillation it has always been tested to see if a correlation existed. Always normal - till this one.
In the midst of this news I had a routine mammogram and what they called a fibroadenoma that they had been watching for four years had grown making it "suspicious". I nearly decked the poor technician and told her I didn't need ONE MORE THING! Didn't these people realized that I was on the final countdown for open heart surgery and doing everything possible to hold myself toghether and and approach it in as calm a manner as possibe. Calmness flew right out the window on Tuesday!
An insane few days of calling doctors (many) to try to get the breast biopsy done and the thyroid uptake test done ensued. At some times I was able to calmly discuss things with office personnel and at others just the recounting of the facts for them would make me weepy. Raw emotions for sure.
Amazingly, a biopsy was put into place for Thursday, although they swore they would know nothing until Monday. From feeling that this would be "nothing" to an absolute conviction that it was "something" set in by the time of the biopsy.
Meanwhile, my surgeon finally got the thyroid results and said that they couldn't do surgery on people with hyperthyroid conditions. Something about "thyroid storm" -very dangerous. That was actually a relief because someone other that myself took the ball out of my court and I could stop worrying about trying to get everything worked out to go ahead and have the surgery as scheduled. I keep wondering if they order thyroid tests in the pre-surgery testing. Would this have been found? I'm asking my surgeon Monday.
The biopsy began as a core biopsy with very serious faces all around and suddenly the radiologist performing it yelped and said "It's shrinking! It's a cyst!" There was much joy and merry making in the room. Apparently the "fibroadenoma" was really an old cyst (making the fluid dense and therefore indistinguishable from tumors) and now it's gone! That was a relief beyond words.
I went ahead with my cardio cath on Friday and learned that all arteries etc, are in great shape. Also, my mitral valve is back to a puny "mild". I was in Normal Sinus Rythym for the first time in a long time and they were able to see how it performed under those conditions. I have not had a chance to discuss these results with my surgeon and EP and am trying not to project too many scenarios before that. It does give me a much needed missing piece of information, though.
I am sorry for going on so long. This has been very cathartic for me. I came out of the week OK but it wasn't a pretty journey!
Judy
