Virginia!

Today the pathologist at the University of Pennsylvania who will be analyzing my cancerous thyroid tissue called me on my cell phone while I was on my way to Costco. How weird is that? There I was, doing my stay-at-home mom stuff (we needed milk and bread and a few other things!), and a well-known thyroid cancer pathologist who has written books about endocrine cancer pathology was calling me on my cell phone. I talked to her with my Bluetooth thingy in my ear. Surreal.

Dr. Virginia LiVolsi was one of those East-Coast-accent-having women who sound realy gruff but who aren’t that different from any normal person, they just sound kind of harsh because of their “accent.” She called to tell me that she needed my slides to complete the pathology report. I explained to her that the slides went missing after Irvine Regional Hospital closed and shipped all their pathology stuff to a warehouse. I told her that the samples I sent her were all that was left of my thyroid tissue after my surgery. She told me it would take a few more days to complete the pathology report (because she would have to have new slides made), and she said her second opinion report would probably be faxed to my doctor’s office Friday or Monday.

While I was fairly productive and got my laundry and Costco shopping done today, I also managed to find time to research Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL), which I think I have. I know that at 42 years old, I may be perimenopausal and might start getting night sweats more and more frequently as I age and get closer to real menopause. Since I also have a swollen area in my right armpit (have had it since November 2008—6 months now), I made the (probably) ridiculous leap to the conclusion that I have NHL.

Here are some facts about me:
1. I’m kind of a hypochondriac in the sense that I’m very sensitive to my body’s every change and feeling.
2. But I have real symptoms sometimes. (!!!)
3. Once in a while, I have a real illness or disease. Thyroid cancer is a good example.
4. I like the attention I get when I’m sick or diagnosed with cancer.
5. This makes me more susceptible to thinking I have a major illness, such as Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I’m not sure why I chose NHL instead of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (HL)—quite possibly because it shares an acronym with the National Hockey League (NHL), of which my husband is a big fan these days.

I know this is a bizarre nonsequitur, but…
Here are some things that made today enjoyable:
1. An old lady in Costco was wearing an awesome outfit: a heavily starched long-sleeved blue button-down man shirt tucked into a charcoal gray ankle-length cotton skirt, with cuffed jeans underneath, black canvas China-doll shoes with embroidered flowers on top, and a red lanyard around her neck.
2. I went to Quest Diagnostics this morning to have my blood drawn (checking TSH and free T4). I happened to sit next to a gal who looked to be in her late 20s or early 30s, very professionally dressed, nicely made up, and I got to chatting with her after she sighed deeply when other people got called in before her. I suggested she make an appointment next time because I had found that cuts the wait time in half. She was basically a funny, not-too-bitter person who just happened to be a little pissed off that she had to wait so long to get her blood drawn. But the comical part was that she said, “Son of a bitch!” pretty loudly twice in our conversation. One time was when she was describing how her veins “disappear” when the phlebotomist tries to pin them down for blood, and I can’t remember what the context of the second “son of a bitch” was, but it was pretty loud, and it was pretty stinkin funny coming out of this professional-looking, otherwise soft-spoken woman.