Thyroid Scan

Back at home, after being out west for several weeks... its always difficult to be separated from family and it was hard being away from home for some time as well. But back to reality of doctor's appointments and treatments and such. Today, i woke up and my left eye felt swollen and I'm having difficulty seeing things again. The situation is getting progressively worse and I am getting more and more frustrated. I could not drive to work today because I could not see. So, I ended up having to cancel my patients. Not a very good thing. I had the first part of they thyroid scan scheduled today. It was frustrating, as they did not tell me that it was at the main hospital. So, I started out at the outpatient center, where, aside from the cancer center, is where I usually have all my tests done. It was not in that location. Fortunately, i can walk through the hospital... 4 buildings later and almost late for my appointment, i found the room they told me to go to. Only to discover that I was at the main pt. registration office. Aaarrrgggghhhh.... fortunately it did not take too long, and after a few minutes, i was tagged and told to go down to nuclear medicine. Finally found it, only to sit in the waiting area for 40 mins before a doctor finally came to talk to me. She was very a nice. A resident... Dr. J and she asked me a bunch of questions and asked how things came about. She told me the eye is classic for Graves disease... optomyopathy, I think is what she called it... but she did not think that medication would help the eye go back to normal. She thought that maybe steroids would. She strongly encouraged me to ask the PCP to refer me to an endocrinologist. I sure hope that this scan works.

I was NPO for over 6 hours prior to this appointment. I was told not to eat more table salt, any seafood or kale for the pass 2 weeks. The tecch checked to see if I was 'radioactive' before I was given 2 pills to take, with radioactive iodine. I was told not to eat for another hour and then I can eat whatever I want except for the things mentioned above. I was so disappointed with what she said about my eye. there has got to be a solution for this because it has now affected my work and I need to be able to go back to work soon. I wanted to break down and cry but I told myself that I will find out the results of the scan, talk to the PCP and hopefully an endocrinologist, look at all the options and come up with a plan. I want to find out if my monthly injections and daily chemo meds are somehow affecting my thyroid function. I really hope that the scan will reveal something... my frustration is mounting and I want some answers and I want my eye to get better :-(

Okay... so that's what's happening so far. I have a drs appointment, my injection and then the scan all scheduled tomorrow... I am tired.. but I am thankful that we are finally getting some answers... more to come tomorrow...

Surgery Day-2

ICU Recovery nurse, Patricia... keeping track of her monitors.. she did well in surgery and they're just waiting for her to be more stable and more awake so she can press her medicine button..

Dr Christie... resident who checked the reflexes and movement in her feet... so far, so good...

Lauren woke up long enough to take this picture with me :-) she was smiling and in good spirits, although she was in alot of pain and had difficulty breathing... my eyes were really bothering me today and I couldn't put my contacts in today... my eyes were really red and was tearing up all day...

A big sigh of RELIEF.. we were worried for her, as she had a small seizure when they tried to start the IV pre-op... they monitored her very closely throughout the 7-hour procedure.. praise the Lord, she did very well.. thank you to the doctors and nurses and all the OR staff for a job well done..

Yvonne & Mom waiting to see her in recovery.. unfortunately, they didn't want anyone to visit her anymore because they wanted to see how she would do on her own... everyone's tired but so grateful for God's guidance and mercy through this surgery..

Now begins the long road to recovery... journey of hope continues

Surgery Day

Jesse and Yvonne drove up from Glendale to visit Lauren..we waited for so long for her to get out of surgery and then out of recovery... she was in recovery for over 3 hours...

Lalaine and Jun also came over to visit...

After all the tours and visits to the 2 different hospitals last Sunday, it turned out that they returned the surgery back to the original hospital... they said they were able to staff the OR at least.. was the strike averted? we don't know... haven't been able to watch TV or anything and there are no picket lines outside..

Lauren was so tired.. slept late doing homework...

woke up at 3, left at 430 so she can check in by 7... but the doctor still had to do surgery on a small baby, so her surgery was pushed back to 930...

Family fun Day Pre-surgery

The whole family having fun after we spent the afternoon in SF touring the different hospitals (we went to the wrong campus first) where they changed Lauren's surgery to since there was supposedly an imminent nurses strike at the original hospital..

Candy and Auntie Amy were able to join us in this picture..

After we went to 2 different hospital campuses, we went to Japantown for some noodles.. and then we took crazy pictures at the photobooth...

the kids with Auntie..

cousins...

FAMILY

we're in this thing together...

"I will be here..."

walking up the hill back to the van... as you can tell, I live in an area where there are NO HILLS... so I had to take my time walking up the hill :-)