Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Waiting Rooms

Alert the media! I've just returned from the endocrinologist.

No one can tell me definitively why my lymph nodes are swollen. To be safe, I'm scheduled for a Radioactive Iodine Uptake test for tomorrow morning. Specifics on the test are available here.

Essentially I take a pill (I ingest radioactive iodine) and then return later in the day so that a gamma probe may measure its effects on my thyroid gland. It's not a significant source of radiation, so I won't suffer from anything long-term or hazardous.

The current hypothesis is that I have Graves' disease. Tomorrow's test will prove or disprove this theory.

Another blood test was ordered, and now even more vials of my blood are floating around the lab waiting to be analyzed. The doctor hopes she can find a viral cause for the swelling.

And I retrieved my car from the dealer. It appears to be working and idling correctly, so hurrah. It also has a brand new driver's side mirror. Today's car repair total stands at $327, but most of that was for fixing the mirror -- which I broke five years ago.

Saturday we pick up our new kitten in Los Angeles.

Monday I hop on a plane to Massachusetts for work. The endocrinologist is hoping to have a more concrete diagnosis by then. Hence, the immediate need for a Radioactive Iodine Uptake test.

By the by, BF has been absolutely wonderful through all this.

This is Ten Sticks, signing off.

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