"........streetlight people, living just to find emotion, hiding somewhere in the night.....some will win, some will lose. some were born to sing the blues. oh, the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on. ..don't stop believing, hold on to that feeling. " don't stop believing, by journey.g

i just returned from seeing my endocrinologist for  my six month cancer check up. i had the blood work done ( they tested for tsh, t4, t3- the usual stuff, but also for thyroglobulin and thyroglobulin antibiodies. ) i had the blood work done at the hospital where i have had both my full body scans, as well as  my I-131 treatment dose after my surgery two years ago. i also had the blood work for this test(above mentioned) done at this hospital last time. i have read that the same blood sample from the same patient taken at the same time( lots of sames here, but you get the idea) can vary two fold from one lab to the next! i wanted to be consistent.

however, my doctor was not so impressed with the lab. my blood work was a "little off" she said. the numbers looked pretty good, i guess, but she did not like the way that the lab did the testing. that puts me in a little bit of a limbo. i had less than 0.5 on the thyroglobulin, but i have thyroglobulin antibodies. that basically makes the test, well, a little questionable. if anyone out there is getting ready to have their surgery, I-131, etc, make SURE to get a baseline test for these. i did not- wish i had. that would give my doctor a better idea of what was going on with me.

for the next six month check up, my doctor has requested that i get the blood work done at her office. i will need to drive down the week before my ultrasound/ appointment, but if it means a better test it is fine with me. my doctor is 4 hours away, but her office  is in the same city that my daughter resides in, so i get to visit her and her husband twice this coming march. that is also fine with me.

i do have happy news to report: there are absolutely no goblins growing in my neck! yeah! i was a little worried when the ultrasound machine  kept beeping, but the technician assured me that everything was fine. i still get choked on certain foods- i can not eat bread and chicken together without sitting next to someone who is an expert on the Heimlich maneuver. i do not get choked as much as i did before my surgery,though. still, it is comforting to know that there is nothing extra in my neck.

one thing that i encourage people to do, and that actually came in handy for me, is to keep a record of all of your tests. when i went to my doctor's office, i took a copy of my labs with me. turns out, they had either not received  the fax that the hospital sent, or the fax gremlins gobbled up my test before i got there. anyway, it was good to be able to give them a copy so that i could have a more meaningful appointment. ( i also have yet another copy in my records at home. this comes in handy when comparing results from the past two years). another thing that i had done( my endo  forgot to order this, so i asked my family doctor) was a calcium test. i only have two parathyroids- i had cancer in the other two( they up and left for Paraguay, if you remember from an earlier blog of mine). a person can make out o.k. with one functioning parathyroid, but i wanted to be sure my two little guys were working hard for me. turns out, my calcium was indeed low and i have to supplement.good to know since i want strong bones for zumba.

so, overall, i had a pretty good checkup. i can not say that these six month check ups are not stressful, but i am glad that my doctor is keeping a watch on things in case something does pop up. in the meantime, i am good to go! as with every one of us, i will just enjoy my life and hope for the best.