it's been a LONG LONG time!!
Great song that my Dad used to slaughter pun-wise whenever my Mom would make quiche (rarely thank the good Lord) --- he used to do every pun in the book though... quiche me once and quiche me twice and ... etc... you get the picture!
This entry isn't really about that story though -- cute as it may be.
I had an ultrasound done of my thyroid on monday, you know, just for kicks?? Okay, not for kicks, required by my doctor -- I've been diagnosed with an underactive thyroid and have been on synthroid since about last April -- slowly increasing doses (every couple of months they draw my blood, check my TSH levels and then up the dosage by 25 micrograms). Well on Thursday of last week she says she wants to really focus on my thyroid now (she wanted to do this ultrasound etc. last April but due to finances I couldn't do that and the sleep study and the other 3 things she wanted to do) -- so she booked me in for the ultrasound.
I must admit I was more than a little nervous. I mean, that's pretty serious stuff -- if I need an ultrasound, she really must suspect something more. So I went to my appointment and after a fun (not!) 40 minute wait in the lobby, the technician came for me and took me back into a darker room -- and at first I was wondering why it was darker, but later was mucho-grateful for the lights being dimmed.
I had to lie down on this table/bed -- I had worn a tank top b/c I figured I didn't want to have to wear one of those awful gowns -- good choice in the end. She put a pillow behind my shoulder blades and asked me to tilt my head back. THIS was the point where I was supremely thankful for the lights not being on -- as I already had a pretty good headache started, and the lights at that angle would have just bumped the headache up to a migraine.
She squirted a bunch of this gunk on my neck (later when wiping it off with the towel -- I learned that it is BLUE -- how fun!). It wasn't cold but it wasn't warm by any stretch. Then she held the ultrasound wand over my neck and began to put pressure on my throat with the wand -- scanning.
At first I tried to turn my eyes to see the screen -- not that I would have known what I was looking at -- but I sure was curious. In silence, she moved the wand back and forth -- she never said a word, just stopped every few seconds to freeze the image using a trackball mouse. Because I was scared and I get ummm "witty" when I'm scared... I broke the ice with "sooo... is it a boy or a girl??"
And thank heavens she had a sense of humor -- her quick-never-missed-a-beat reply was "it's TWINS!"
I kind of laughed and then we were back to the silence.
It seemed like an eternity.
Then she asked me to tilt my head back even further -- by this point my neck was pretty sore -- it was actually much more painful than I had even imagined it to be -- and at this angle, my breathing tube wasn't open much... so I had to take deep even breaths to avoid panicking. At one point I got a tickle in my throat and had to cough. She asked if I was all right and I said yes, and I did mention that it was a bit painful what she was doing. She apologized very quickly and I said not to worry that she could do what she needed to do to get the images -- that I understood it's her job. She thanked me.
Out of the corner of my eye during this point, I could see that she was shooting images with some bits of color in them. I can't explain why -- because remember I have no idea what I'm looking at!! -- but that color really scared me. Like I could sense it wasn't supposed to be there or something. I don't know. But it surely didn't put me at ease, so I turned my eyes away again.
The whole scan took about 20 minutes -- and by the time she had finished, my neck was rather sore -- I felt as though someone had strangled me -- in fact I can still feel that feeling even now, 2 days later. That day I felt like I had a major sore throat, very scratchy. When I got home the first thing I did was have a cup tea luv -- my first in a long time. That served to calm me down a bit and also to soothe my throat for just a little while.
The last thing the technician said to me after directing me towards the exit was that my doctor would get the results and contact me within 48 hours.
(cont'd)
Posted by kristen at March 1, 2007 3:26 AM