" She put the lime in the coconut,drank them both up, called the Doctor, woke him up and said: Doctor, ain't there nothin' i can take to relieve this belly ache??" Doctor: "put the lime in the coconut and drink them both together.....then you'll feel better-- call me in the morning." " Coconut " by Harry Nilsson

boy ,have i felt like this silly song! i got four different answers on my "lymph node issue", before finally the radiologist got the pathology report and told me the straight as to what was going on. it seems at times like a comedy of errors heading straight for me ( paraphrasing Leon Russell). but really, i am finding out the hard way, you need to stay on top of things and really trust yourself. if something does not seem right to you, it probably isn't. i looked at the orders my endo has sent to my radiologist, who would be administering the RAI. she had ordered 100 milicuries. but after seeing the actual pathology report, the radiologist said that i would need 150milicuries, since it had been in my neck lymph nodes. thank goodness someone caught that! i would have hated to go through the whole ordeal, and not get the correct dose! all and all i do recommend getting the RAI. i know there are some side effects- for me the nausea was the worst thing. the soreness in my salivary glands only (thankfully) lasted one day. and i was very tired- but aren't all hypothyroid patients really tired??!

i am going to give my endo until Wednesday of this week to call me with all of the test results. i have had a complete blood profile, thyroglobulin test( although unfortunately they did not test for the antibodies- it is not a very good test without this- i will talk to my doctor  later about this), a chest x-ray, and of course the whole body scan. she is in a new,huge office. there are so many people that you have to get through before you can talk to her, including her nurse(!). if you hear that i have been arrested for harassment, well, i guess it could happen! seriously, i am going to keep calling until i get to talk to my doctor. i need to know how these tests came out before i go back to work next week. i have been pretty patient until now. everyone has their limits, and i am just about to reach mine.

that said, i have been fortunate on a lot of fronts. the surgeon, even though he was not quite honest with me, did a   good job on my neck. my scar looks pretty good. ( i have ceased to look like a Frankenstein relative ).  of course, the important thing is that he removed all of the thyroid- getting all of the tumors, on both sides. he saved two of my parathyroids- the other two moved to Paraguay. and my voice is not back to what it was, but i think that he did a good job with my vocal cords. i think that in time, i will sound more like myself. of course, squeaky voices seem to be popular these days, so that is a good thing. despite my difficulties in getting in touch with my endo, i really do like her. she is very thorough and the best doctor that i have ever been to. it was not her fault that the surgeon did not get the pathology report over to her. ( he had about a week, and their offices are so close, that if you were any good with a rock, you could easily throw one from one office to the other!) so i am continuing to rest and actually enjoy this week off. i thought that i would have to go back to work today, but the radiologist said not until next week. bless his heart! i feel now that i can have the time to recover from my surgery,as well as not expose everyone at work.