"R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me,R-E-S-P-E-C-T,.....I'm about to give you all my money, and all i'm asking in return, honey.....R-E-S-P-E-C-T!!" ( Aretha Franklin)

Aretha gets it, and today i got some respect,too. i went over to the hospital and got my records- the blood work, the x-ray, the whole body scan, and best of all, the pathology report! i had to sign a wavier, and let them make a copy of my drivers licence- it is a good picture,actually. the only thing, i had straightened my hair in it, and of course i am not doing that now. the receptionist  looked once or twice, but i guess i do not look like a criminal or anything, so i got my results!

first of all, i knew about the cancerous tumors in both sides of my thyroid that  they removed, of course. but i now also know that those two little pesky parathyroids that when to Paraguay, well they were cancerous,too. my tumors were unencapsulated,diffusely infiltrative with vascular invasion present.( o.k. if you are keeping score, cancer-1, bea -0) it just means that it had spread to my lymphatic system.

o.k. now for the good news. even though my doctor did not order it, the lab checked for my thyroglobulin antibodies anyway. i have a few of them, but my thyroglobulin was in a good range. so this is not significant really, but it is not bad news either.

results of my chest x-ray: no acute cardiopulmonary disease. no mass or metastasis.( i have now scored major points on this one!)

results of full body scan: focal uptake in the anterior neck( i.e. the I-131 went to my neck like bees to honey, no pun intended, and fought the remaining cancer cells). no evidence of distant metastatic disease to head ,neck,chest,abdomen,or pelvis. no evidence of distant metastatic disease. local activity in the anterior neck only. translation: it seems that maybe, just maybe, it was confined to my thyroid and neck lymph nodes areas- and that hopefully the I-131 did it's Jedi magic and wiped the remaining storm troopers out. YEAH!!!!!!!

now that i know the results, i can breathe easier, live better. i have to make a decision as to what doctor i will be going to in the future. i just do not think that i can go back to my endo. this was not handled the way that it should have, could have, been. i know that every cancer patient sort of holds their breath until the results from the next scan. this will be coming up for me the end of December, or the first of January( depends a lot on when my insurance will pay for it) but for now, it is party time! i am so thankful for the way that this turned out. thanks to my family, friends, and cyber  friends who read my blog and have been thinking/praying for me.