Parathyroidectomy Completed!

This surgery was originally scheduled for June 16th but due to an infection inside my left foot, from having hardware removed, it was postponed for one week.

In order for the surgeon to better see the wonky parathyroid gland, I had to arrive at the hospital much earlier than a typical same-day patient to have radioactive material injected into my veins. It seems parathyroid glands are pretty picky about what they snuggle up to, and due to their deep and loving relationship with radioactive materials, it causes the glands to sparkle and shine.

The hospital where the surgery took place was pretty cool. (I feel I am expert in judging hospitals since this would be my third surgery in 3 months.) Their same-day surgery area was its own wing, with two beds per room -- and a door, not a curtain, that closed!

The surgery itself took almost three hours and after two hours in the recovery room I was returned to the same-day surgery unit to order room-service, watch television and sleep. Which, after I ate, is all I did for the next 18 hours.

All is well.

'Twas the Night...

...before surgery and all through the house...

Actually, tomorrows' surgery will be a piece of cake compared to the surgery I have coming up on June 16th.

Tomorrow, the Foot Wizard will be removing the hardware he inserted almost (exactly) three months ago to help the broken bones heal. Ever since the last cast came off and I was able to use the CAM boot and put some weight on my formerly broken foot, the screws have bothered me terribly when walking. It feels as though, with every step, they will protrude through the bottom of my foot.

I am back to wearing my Skecher's and Fagawi's and I could not be more thrilled!

Returning to work is NOT far behind.

The surgery taking place on the 16th is has a lot more risks involved. In the process of removing my parathyroid glands, for instance, my vocal cords could become temporarily or permanently paralyzed. How is that for a wake me up? Although I am certain there are a few people on this earth that probably wouldn't mind never hearing my voice again, it kind of freaks me out.

A lot.

Thyroid Ultrasound

The thyroid ultrasound I had on Monday pretty much confirmed what we already knew (parathyroid glands) and possibly what was suspected (thyroid). We won't know the official results of the ultrasound for three to five business days.

I am starting to really loathe that timeframe "three to five business days" for this, that, and the other. It's driving me crazy.

Health Update ~ Emotions

Walking into the endocrinologists office today, Henry and I were expecting to find out which parathyroid gland was flipping out and to hopefully schedule surgery to have it removed. While we did find out which gland is causing all these problems and where it is located (lower left), we could not be given a date for surgery because the endocrinologist managing my healthcare does not perform them.

Instead, I had to contact a separate office to schedule a surgical consult for June 1st. Which was the earliest I could be seen. So we still do not have a date for surgery and I have to wait an additional 24 days to even get to the point of scheduling one.

What Henry and I were NOT expecting was finding out that the 24-hour urine test and the newest set of labs, requested by the endocrinologist, have turned up yet another health issue: Hashimoto's Disease.

In the span of maybe ten minutes it was confirmed that I would need minimally invasive surgery to remove the screwed up parathyroid gland and that there was a chance I might have to have a second surgery, with a much larger scar, if the surgeon was not able to locate it on the first attempt. I also heard Hashimoto's disease and the need for an ultrasound (scheduled for Monday, May 11th).

My head was spinning and I essentially shut down. My brain was having great difficulty processing the information just given to us and there was absolutely no way I could handle any additional input at that time. When we finally left the endocrinologist's office the only thought roaming through my head was "I cannot possibly handle finding out about me having another serious health issue".

Our ride to a restaurant for lunch was pretty quiet because both of us are frustrated at a process that is moving too slow in solving these problems and yet, at the same time, we know there is nothing we can do to speed it up.

During the ride several thoughts occurred to me.

• I was wondering if having the VNS installed was a mistake and if all of my depression symptoms were related to my parathyroid and thyroid glands.
  I want to know if that one final piece of clarity needed in my brain -- essentially the last leg of the journey of Coming Into the Light -- will be solved by curing the hyperparathyroidism and treating the Hashimoto's Disease.
• I know exactly when the fog in my brain was lifted, where I was and what I was doing at the time. I know what that one moment of clarity looks like, feels like and tastes like because I've had it once before. Unfortunately, that sense of piece was very short-lived.It was March 2007. Henry and I were on a chairlift at our local snowboard area and vividly recall turning to him and saying "I feel good. My brain is clear, my thoughts are clear, everything seems so much brighter."

See, up to that moment I was living my life in shades of gray. The world around me was so dull and lifeless that when that moment hit me it was as though somebody had turned on a great big spotlight and pointed it directly at the world around me.

Two weeks later, at one of our most favorite snowboarding resorts, I fell and broke my elbow. Sitting here now, and looking back over the two years since then, I can say with almost absolute certainty that that is where I began falling apart all over again. Physically, mentally and emotionally.

Could it be that my fractured elbow two years ago was the beginning of the serious health issues I am experiencing now? Could it be that my broken nose in May 2008 accelerated the downward spiral and that my broken foot almost four months ago was the screaming and rattling wake-up call I needed to be a lot more attentive to my physical health?

Is my current depression, fatigue, memory problems, mood swings, sleep disturbances, irritability, and muscle aches attributable to something other than the lack of chemicals in my brain?

These are just a few of the many symptoms of hyperparathyroidism, hypercalcemia, and Hashimoto's Disease that I am experiencing and I've been blaming it on the chemical imbalance (BiPolar) in my brain.

I feel like a burden to my family. I feel as though I've let my husband down; something I seem to be inadvertently doing a lot of lately. I am sick and tired of being "sick and tired".

Right now I feel like death waiting to happen. Except if it comes, it won't be by my own hand. It will be by something I have absolutely no control over.

Isn't it ironic?

Health Update ~ Nuts and Bolts

To bring everyone up to speed I broke my left foot on January 25th. The ER doc called the fractures "funky" and referred me to a Podiatrist.

After 8 weeks of casts, and absolutely zero signs of healing, my foot doc scheduled surgery for March 19th to install a plate and six screws. I immediately went to my personal physician and asked her to do a complete blood work up -- which is how we discovered my parathyroid glands are master overachievers. Not only was my parathyroid hormone level through the roof but so was my blood calcium level.

Until today I have been dealing with three diagnoses: fractured foot, 'hyperparathyroidism' and 'hypercalcemia'. The only way to correct hyperparathyroidism is via surgery to remove the gland that is causing the hypercalcemia.

These two conditions -- Hyperparathyroidism and Hypercalcemia -- kind of go hand-in-hand; the former causing the latter. In my case, these conditions are severe enough to cause me to have either a heart attack or complete heart failure.

Last week I visited the Nuclear Medicine department where they performed several scans of my parathyroid glands. Today I learned the results of those scans from my endocrinologist and it appears that only one of the four glands is affected and a surgical consult has been scheduled for June 1st. Hopefully surgery will be scheduled shortly after that. So far I was hearing everything I expected to hear from the endocrinologist.

What I had not planned on was hearing that I may have to have two surgeries to remove the messed-up parathyroid gland. The first surgery will be "minimally invasive" (outpatient, local anesthetic, very small incision on my neck.) I also was not expecting the doc to tell me there was a high probability that they would have to do a second, invasive surgery (under general anesthesia, large incision), to remove it.

At that point I'm thinking, "WTF. Why not." Then it gets better.

The last set of blood work the endocrinologist ordered shows that my immune system is attacking my thyroid (not parathyroid - although named similarly, they have nothing to do with the functions of the other) -- a condition called Hashimoto's Disease (an autoimmune disease). What this means is my immune system is essentially eating my thyroid gland and will continue to do so until there is nothing left of it.

[Note: The thyroid helps set the rate of metabolism - the rate at which the body uses energy. Hashimoto’s Disease prevents the gland from producing enough thyroid hormones for the body to work correctly.]

Thankfully Hashimoto's Disease can be helped with synthetic thyroid hormone replacement therapy. An ultrasound of my thyroid gland has been scheduled for Monday, May 11th to determine its size.

In two years I have broken three bones (elbow, nose, foot) and, so far, have had two surgeries (nose and foot). Soon I will be having a third surgery.

Possibly a fourth.

Does it get any better than this? (That's a rhetorical question, by the way.)

Health Issues

We are going into month four of health issues and it appears we may have one of the four on the road to healing. The four health issues I am dealing with are:

• Hypercalcemia (caused by...)
• Hyperparathyroidism (preventing my...)
• Broken left foot from healing properly (which has, indirectly, caused injury to my...)
• Left elbow

This past Tuesday the foot doc gave me the nod for putting 50% of my weight on my left foot AND no more casts! It appears the plate and six screws holding my fifth metatarsal together are doing their job!

The hypercalcemia (too much blood calcium) has me a lot freaked out because the overabundance of blood calcium can cause a heart attack or the heart to fail altogether.

I feel like a partially mobile time-bomb...

Will the Healing Finally Begin?

I had surgery on my foot last Thursday, March 19th and it went well. The doctor inserted a plate and several screws.

Except for feeling like my cast is too small, and the throbbing and burning pain, I feel pretty good.

Let the healing begin...please?

Broken Foot Update

As of today it has been exactly thirty days since I broke my foot.

Within the first two weeks of the injury I had the pleasure of wearing three different casts. The first cast, a splint of sorts, was given to me by the emergency department until I was able to follow up with a specialist.

The second cast, bright red, was given to me by the specialist two days after I broke my foot. Five days later we had to cut the cast off because I somehow managed to not cover it properly for a shower and wound up soaking it.

The third, and so far final, cast (hot pink color) was a replacement for the soaked cast and I wore it for less than thirty minutes. When the cast was being applied I had to flex my foot and managed to hyperflex my toes as well. Once the cast dried I realized having my toes in that position for another three weeks was not possible because it was painful AND uncomfortable so I asked the doctor to cut it off.

Instead of applying another cast I was given a "CAM Boot" that is specifically made for metatarsal injuries AND I could go back to work because I was able to walk with it.

I managed to work for approximately two weeks when my next doctor appointment rolled around and my foot/ankle was x-rayed again. When the doctor slapped my x-rays up on the screen I knew instantly what he was going to say and my eyes started to well up with tears. The x-rays showed absolutely no healing and although I could continue wearing the boot, I was remanded to using crutches 100% of the time.

Which means I cannot work. Which means I have cabin-fever in the worst way and I'm tired of laying around. I can still drive (because I broke my left foot) and many stores have motorized wheelchairs, but it takes forever for me to get ready to even leave the house so I don't do it very often.

What most people don't realize is the enormous amount of energy it takes for your body to heal a broken bone, so a trip out of the house is exhausting.

...sigh...