WBS Results and DCR Surgery

My scan results showed no definite thyroid tissue, but there was “intense focal uptake” of the radioactive iodine in my right parotid gland. So my endo told me to get a referral from my primary care doctor to an ENT to get that checked out. At first, I thought, “Well, this is another wild goose chase I’ll be sorry I went on,” but now that I’ve seen the ENT (this morning), I’m glad I’m getting it checked out. The ENT ordered an MRI of the neck, which I have scheduled for Friday.

This makes me feel very good because I think the ultrasounds I’ve had of my neck have been worthless. They look at the thyroid area, don’t see anything, and then they’re done. MRIs are not technician-dependent (that is, the results will be what they are no matter what the skill level of the technician performing the MRI). A week or so ago I was crying to Pommy that I would feel better if I had a thorough ultrasound, and my plan at that point was to try to get my endo to order another one (a “neck ultrasound” instead of a “thyroid ultrasound”), but an MRI is even better. So going to the ENT to investigate the parotid uptake will hopefully shed light on the parotid gland and give a good picture of the entire neck.

Also over the past few weeks, I’ve been pursuing correcting the weepy eye problem that has arisen since my last radioactive iodine treatment. I’ve seen an ophthalmologist twice, who did a few procedures to pinpoint the problem, which is a blocked nasolacrimal duct on the right side and excessive tearing. He referred me to a surgical ophthalmologist to look into doing the eye surgery (it’s called a DCR, or dacryocystorhinostomy) that will hopefully correct the problem by creating another path from my eye to the inside of my nose so my tears will drain the way they are supposed to. (Man, I’ve done a lot of research on a lot of different things since my thyroid cancer diagnosis not even two years ago.) I don’t have an appointment with the eye surgeon yet. I’m trying to collect some info on how many of these procedures he has done before I go see him.