I had my appointment this morning to discuss the results of my recent CT scan. If you are just joining the party, the CT was done to figure out why the heck my parotid glands swell up cutting off the salivary flow to my mouth as pictured <====here. No that’s not something stuffed in my cheek that’s how much my face blew up this past Sunday. It hurts. A lot. And it hurts worse as you eat because your salivary gland tries to work but nothing comes out so it just fills it up and sits there. Notice my facial expression? Yeah I'm not too happy!
Anywho, back to the point of this post. The report said that there was no evidence of a thyroid gland indicative of prior thyroidectomy (excellent news since i’ve had 2 surgeries to remove that puppy), no abnormal looking lymph nodes (excellent news to any cancer survivor), no mass, cyst or abscess found in the salivary glands (more good news, no more surgery needed)… the scan was grossly within normal limits as the docs like to say.
Sounds like wonderful, fantastical news right?
Well if you have been following along the past week or so, you know that the differential diagnosis if nothing anatomically wrong showed up is Sjogren’s Syndrome an autoimmune disease somewhat similar to Lupus or MS. Well nothing was anatomically wrong so now I get to see a new doctor who will run new tests to figure out if I truly do have it. More waiting… fantastic.
So I guess I will take the good with the bad even though its a halfhearted victory cheer. It is definitely a relief to hear there is no evidence of cancer spreading in my neck. It is just difficult to think about taking on this possible new diagnosis.
For now, I'm reading up on symptoms, tests, treatments and trying to be patient as I become a patient yet again.
Praying for your always and that God sends comfort your way - both physically and emotionally. I love you.
ReplyDeletePraying for you and that the doctors finally figure out what is wrong with you!
ReplyDeleteLove you!
Aunt Dorie