Day 295: When Surgery Sounds Exciting!

I’ve had seven surgeries in my life. When I go see a new doctor and they take a surgical history, I laugh and tell them it’s quicker to tell them what I have left than it is to tell them what all I’m missing. No one relishes having surgery. But, yesterday…I finally got the word I’ve been waiting for for the last three years. I had a phone consult with an endocrine surgeon yesterday and he said, after carefully reviewing all my studies, lab results and medical history, I need to have a tumor removed from my parathyroid gland.

This is NOT an easy diagnosis to get. The average family doctor doesn’t deal with a lot of parathyroid disease so it’s not really high on their radar. Only about 100,000 people are diagnosed with PHPT (Primary Hyperparathyroidism) every year in the United States. I have always said, if it can be gotten…I will get it. You have to be persistent and do your homework and press for the tests you need.

I am sure mine started about four years ago. I was fit and exercising every day. Remember the huge staircase I was climbing several times a week. This whole parathyroid journey started with a sharp pain in my foot that would not go away. Then it started migrating, my memory got bad, I had worsening reflux, I couldn’t sleep, and I was c-r-a-n-k-y! When the doctor started saying he had no idea what it was and kinda intimated it was all in my head, I just shut up about it. Then, quite by accident, a nurse practitioner who was checking my blood pressure asked me if there was anything going on in my life (other than my husband’s two recent strokes). I mentioned the pain, she ordered more specific blood tests, and nearly a year later…we have success.

That’s not bad, really. I am a member of a parathyroid support group on Facebook. Many of the people there had to got through several years with several doctors before they got a diagnosis. This leads me to think perhaps that 100,000 number of diagnoses is an underestimation. Now I wait to talk with the scheduler. I’m thinking I should wait till Mr. FixIt and I get our vaccines before we head to Florida for surgery. Just knowing someone believes me and I’m not going crazy is quite reassuring, so I can wait a while longer. This is one surgery I am really looking forward to because this is a definitive cure. You remove the tumor and you get better.

In the meantime, there’s plenty to do around here. We’re going to get back to work on the bathroom renovation and get things fixed up around here. Mr. FixIt’s strokes slowed us down tremendously last year. It’s time to catch up now that he’s doing so much better.