More ups and downs

I think I have been neglecting my health here for the past few weeks. I don't know. Sometimes I don't feel like talking about things because I don't want to talk about them so I can pretend they aren't happening or because I don't want anyone asking me about it. And its my blog and I can blog about whatever I want.

Yesterday I went to my ankle doctor to find out the results of my ankle MRI. It turns out that yes my ankle has healed up nicely but it has left two pockets of fluid in my ankle which is why it is still stiff, sore and swollen. The answer for this is to try to stick a nice big needle full of cortisone in one of them to see if it helps reduce the swelling. (I hate big needles and don't like the fact that doctors always want to stick me with them.) I go back in six weeks to see how it is doing. Maybe she'll stick a needle in the other pocket of fluid. In the mean time, the outer side of my left ankle is a bit sore from the needle. Oh joy. All of this caused by a nanosecond of stupidity where I tried to look over my shoulder while walking at the end of July 2009.

Next week is my big avoidance. I am invoking my inner three year old who is screaming 'no, no, no' with her eyes closed. Next week I am having an ultrasound of my thyroid. Last year I was supposed to have a baseline ultrasound but it found a 'thingy' called recurrence, thyroid tissue, or lymph node. Nothing was supposed to be there. I had a follow up one in July to see if there was any change. It was the same size. It was called a recurrence or tissue. But since it had not changed, it was called more likely tissue and another six month follow up was called for. Which is next week. The problem is it is big enough to see but too small to biopsy. The fact that it was stable and hadn't changed is good meaning that it is probably just tissue.

Now left over thyroid tissue or regrown thyroid tissue isn't necessarily a good thing. I had radioactive iodine treatment to destroy all tissue and have been told that it is very unlikely or even unheard of to have left over tissue. Regrown tissue is bad because it is unsure if it is good (clean) or bad (malignant) tissue. And it can't be biopsied because it is too small. The only other test is a full body radioactive scan that requires dietary changes and other prep and requires isolation afterward.

Another reason I haven't talked much about this is that this would be a recurrence nearly thirty years after the fact. This is difficult because I don't like talking about recurrences and this is an example of why you can never say you are free from cancer after diagnosis. They just can't find anything. But then they did.

So we are just pretending next week isn't happening.

My tennis elbow is sort of healing. I was supposed to have more acupuncture today but its basically a blizzard outside so everything is canceled. PT seems to be helping and I have progressed to little bitty weights.

In the meantime, my back is having its ups and downs. Today I woke up achy and sore and I'm not sure why. But its snowing out and I can't shovel so I'm just going to work from home with my feet up on the coffee table and get caught up on a lot of work.

Otherwise, life goes on. I actually declined some volunteer work this week because I simply don't have time and was starting to be overstressed.

Oh, and I cant shovel snow so I guess my health has one good side effect. I just get to supervise.