Surgery schueduled

Tuesday was a rough day for me.

Isabella spent the last two nights at my parent's house so I could go to my back surgeon appointment and my thyroid biopsy. And neither appointment shed good news...

I'm having back surgery on Monday, Jan 22. Yes, in 12 days! The scheduling department tried to get me in Thursday (as in tomorrow) but a cancellation fell though. The urgency surrounds where the herniation is protruding. If it swells any more, it will hit my bladder nerve causing incontinence, which may be irreversible. So I'm on strict orders to "take it easy" until the surgery to make sure I don't worsen the herniation.

The biopsy was a lot more traumatic than I thought it would be. Put under just a local and laid on a metal table (very uncomfortable for everyone but especially so for someone with a hurt back). Told the procedure would take less than 20 minutes, I struggled with the pain, the needle pressure and the throbbing back. At 20 minutes, the procedure was still going. The doctor was able to aspirate to three cysts (Yeah) but they found a large solid mass inside my thyroid that they needed samples from. One set...not enough says pathology...another set...need more says pathology. This continues through five sets. And let me tell you, even with a local, I could still feel the needle's pressure and the instrument’s snip when extracting the tissue. So five sets later, I said no more. I said that if they needed more tissue that we would schedule something under twilight or anesthesia. The doc said no problem because he only extracted blood on the last set so he was done, too.

And the pain is much worse than I expected! The doc told me to expect swelling and bruising and soreness in the biopsy site for a few days. Soreness...I can barely bend my neck back it's so sore...and swollen! So off to the couch with an ice pack. (I've got a lot of these types of days ahead.........)

Thanks for checking in!