I could use some prayers

[Jasonw560]

Consider yourself prayed on once more.

[The Annoyed Man]

But ... my dad's hair turned grey .... mine turned loose. ...

Lord, please don't ever change our RPB! He's perfectly funny—not too little, and not too much.

RPB, I've been reading your concerns about the possibility of becoming dependent on thyroid medication. I have been entirely dependent on it myself since April of 2000. I had a pretty bad bout of Graves Disease in 1999 causing a wildly overactive thyroid, and it ended with my having to swallow that radioactive iodine treatment to ablate my thyroid gland. On the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo crew capsules, the shield that prevented the spacecraft from burning up on reentry was called the "ablation shield," which ought to give you a hint about what the radiation does to your thyroid gland.......it burns it away. So although I did not have the surgery to remove my thyroid, the treatment effectively did the same thing, and I have been told today all I have is today is some scar tissue that once was a gland.

Now, when it first became apparent that I had a wildly overactive thyroid, it was due to a host of symptoms, the most obvious of which were A) I lost 80 lb in a tick over 2 months; B) I began to experience hormonal changes which included, of all things, sore breasts and wanting to cry all the time (it was disconcerting to say the least); and C) I began to develop sores on my lower legs, and D) I began to experience some cardiac arrhythmias. A simple blood test showed my thyroid levels to be way out of whack, and so the next step was to figure out if the hyperthyroidism was caused by cancer or Graves Disease—the two most likely diagnoses.

So the definitive test was to undergo a PET scan, for which, if I recall correctly, I also had to swallow an iodine isotope, but one that would mark the gland on a scan rather than ablate it. The way the isotope would show in the gland would determine if it was cancer or Graves. If it was collecting in nodes on the scan, that would indicate tumorous tissue and a diagnosis of cancer. If the isotopes were diffusely spread throughout the gland, that would indicate Graves Disease, and that was my diagnosis.

My thyroid was ablated in December of 1999, and then I had to wait until April for my thyroid levels—which had been dangerously high—to bottom out before my doctor could determine a baseline from which to begin prescribing thyroid replacement medication. During that time, I also went through a lot of changing symptoms, including a massive weight gain. Once I got on the medication, I started getting back to feeling normal.

Living with having to take a daily thyroid pill just isn't that bad, and it isn't that expensive either. When I bought my meds from Walmart, I paid $4/month for my thyroid medication. I have since switched to a locally owned compounding pharmacy because I got fed up with Walmart's inability to maintain a reliable inventory on my BP meds, and so now I pay about $5-$6/month. I spend more than that at my neighborhood coffee shop each week, so it isn't like it's a huge chunk out of my budget. I have other concerns about it......like what happens when the supply runs out after the zombie apocalypse......but that's another story.

It goes without saying that Graves would be the preferred diagnosis, but the key thing to remember here if this is the boat you're in is that BOTH diseases are eminently treatable, and the survival rates for thyroid cancer patients are quite high. Nobody wants any kind of cancer, but if you had to pick one, thyroid cancer would be one of the "better" choices. And post diagnosis/treatment, living with a daily supplement is neither difficult nor expensive.

RPB, I'm sharing this with you so that you can gain some perspective on your predicament. I wish someone had told me what was happening to me before my doctor finally got around to admitting that maybe I wasn't just being a whiner, and something was actually wrong and needed to be addressed (I have since "fired" him for incompetence with managing my back issues). I was scared to death. I had lost my dad to cancer just 9 years before this, and I knew that with the bizarre hormonal changes, some kind of cancer was a distinct possibility. It is hard to believe from where I sit today, a relatively healthy guy all things considered, that I was that sick at one time. I mean, I was really, really sick. I felt like death warmed over and I hated every minute of it and was scared to death. Perhaps not entirely ironically, this was also a period of intense spiritual growth for me too, and today I actually am grateful to God for having allowed me to go through this. It was a small price to pay for the perspective I gained.

It is my sincerest prayer that you have peace about this, and our God is a good God, and he will sustain you if you seek him.

[puma guy]

will prayer for the very best outcome!

[RPB]

Thank you all and thank the Lord

I just got back from the doctor followup visit (and visited a Deacon in the hospital with pneumonia on the way back home)

BMI- I'm still too short for my weight, and he hasn't found pills to get taller yet

BP still higher than should be but much better than when I smoked for 45 years (Thanksgiving 2012 will be 1 year anniversary of smelling better)

Bone Density test- yep, I'm getting thinner bones, beginning osteoporosis/osteopenia but not worth/bad enough for taking meds with side effects yet

Blood tests look ok, but I need to watch diet- (didn't say exactly how, but I'll look at the food before eating it I guess)
cholesterol is low, but needs watching
electrolytes/PSA etc all ok

Thyroid scan .... he hasn't gotten the results yet .... but, says the blood test results indicate thyroid is working ... he wants the scan results still to see if there are lumps/bumps (that's how they caught my dad's thyroid cancer he'd had over 10 years)

I asked why surgeons were calling me sounding like they were flipping a coin whether to remove my thyroid or do a colon surgery for reflux ... he said ohhhhh they were supposed to do a colonoscopy, those guys ...



He said I'd live until 12-21-2012 the end of the Mayan Calendar if we did nothing more, so I requested we not do anything else until January. I'd hate for some doctor to practice on me in November and me miss that date and not know what happened. (Really, I'm not sure I want those particular disorganized surgeon doctors even doing a colonoscopy ... they may remove stuff they shouldn't)

And, he gave me a prescription for preferred parking, which I promptly took and got filled.

After Dec, I'll get the aorta scans for stroke, and all the other junk, I feel better when I avoid doctors anyway.

as I was about to click "Submit" here ... Seton hospital called saying the doctor ordered a ultrasound neck thyroid scan (which I had 2 weeks ago at another private testing place, but that's what doctor hasn't gotten the results back on yet...

Dunno if my pictures got lost or the girls operating ultrasounds gossiped about how fun it was to rub my neck so more want in on the fun ...

I'm not going to worry again though, blood test says thyroid ok, if the Mayan calendar is correct, I'm spending $ on ammo, n and guns at weekend gun shows ... not tests to get confused disorganized doctors more cash.

[Jim Beaux]

Thank you all and thank the Lord

I just got back from the doctor followup visit (and visited a Deacon in the hospital with pneumonia on the way back home)

BMI- I'm still too short for my weight, and he hasn't found pills to get taller yet

BP still higher than should be but much better than when I smoked for 45 years (Thanksgiving 2012 will be 1 year anniversary of smelling better)

Bone Density test- yep, I'm getting thinner bones, beginning osteoporosis/osteopenia but not worth/bad enough for taking meds with side effects yet

Blood tests look ok, but I need to watch diet- (didn't say exactly how, but I'll look at the food before eating it I guess)
cholesterol is low, but needs watching
electrolytes/PSA etc all ok

Thyroid scan .... he hasn't gotten the results yet .... but, says the blood test results indicate thyroid is working ... he wants the scan results still to see if there are lumps/bumps (that's how they caught my dad's thyroid cancer he'd had over 10 years)

I asked why surgeons were calling me sounding like they were flipping a coin whether to remove my thyroid or do a colon surgery for reflux ... he said ohhhhh they were supposed to do a colonoscopy, those guys ...



He said I'd live until 12-21-2012 the end of the Mayan Calendar if we did nothing more, so I requested we not do anything else until January. I'd hate for some doctor to practice on me in November and me miss that date and not know what happened. (Really, I'm not sure I want those particular disorganized surgeon doctors even doing a colonoscopy ... they may remove stuff they shouldn't)

And, he gave me a prescription for preferred parking, which I promptly took and got filled.

After Dec, I'll get the aorta scans for stroke, and all the other junk, I feel better when I avoid doctors anyway.

as I was about to click "Submit" here ... Seton hospital called saying the doctor ordered a ultrasound neck thyroid scan (which I had 2 weeks ago at another private testing place, but that's what doctor hasn't gotten the results back on yet...

Dunno if my pictures got lost or the girls operating ultrasounds gossiped about how fun it was to rub my neck so more want in on the fun ...

I'm not going to worry again though, blood test says thyroid ok, if the Mayan calendar is correct, I'm spending $ on ammo, n and guns at weekend gun shows ... not tests to get confused disorganized doctors more cash.

WE TOLD YOU SO!

Thanks for the update and good news.

[RPB]

And the deacon who I visited in the hospital a couple hours ago, just had his brother call me to inform me that another deacon passed away last night (that's THREE deacons in 4 weeks dead, 1 had a stroke actually at the end of services after hearing his son preach, one a heart attack, one just old age, 4th in the hospital with pneumonia !!! , leaving the one with pneumonia as the last one, I'm going to have trouble avoiding being ordained if this keeps up-they tried to last year )
I'm going to avoid doctors a while.

[SewTexas]

YAY, G-d!

but I think I'd avoid being a deacon for awhile, too sounds a bit more dangerous than normal....and I'm an old fashioned Southern Baptist girl...

[RPB]

YAY, G-d!

but I think I'd avoid being a deacon for awhile, too sounds a bit more dangerous than normal....and I'm an old fashioned Southern Baptist girl...

My dad was a deacon in Houston/Lubbock/Burnet, my uncle 82 yrs old yesterday, is a deacon in Lubbock and Littlefield, my cousin (now in Abilene) said no when asked and ended up being a pastor (in Lockhart and now in Abilene) (lots of deacons AND pastors in my family, have been for a hundred years or so all over Texas and Oklahoma mostly... I'm not saying no, I've been saying ask again later ...

==================

I re-looked at my blood test

Triglycerides are 270 (200 is high) couldn't figure out why at the doctor's office (Cholesterol is low)
Just figured it out . I knew a guy who was a vegetarian same thing, he had some health issue, ate corn daily and drank wine

I don't drink but >>>> I eat popcorn popped with Olive Oil daily ... that causes it. High triglycerides and low cholesterol (it's a veggie oil, not animal).
So still i need to cut down on the oil and the popcorn carbohydrate.

Apparently high triglycerides can still cause hardening arteries stroke/heart attack risks, even if no animals are eaten. And Dr Oz said olive oil was good for me ...