Fighting the Thyroidians

It’s been a couple of days since I posted last, but a lot has been going on. Wednesday was an appointment free day and I decided to go outside with my girlfriend and help her by trimming some of the piles of brush lying around in the yard with my electric chainsaw. Yeah … I know … I’ve already been rebuked by a friend for making such a foolish move when I’m in a weakened, unequilibrated state. In all fairness to me, however, it was an electric chainsaw, not a gas one! 😉 I lasted only 5 minutes and had to quit before I fell over.

Thursday I got my second infusion after a 10 day delay. Yay! Dietician came and chatted with us while I was being infused. I’m now supposed to eat on a high calorie with fiber diet … Boston Creme Donuts, Cherry Pie, Cheesecake, HoHos, Pecan Pie and the like! My weakness and lack of stamina and energy may be related to a few things but most certainly to the fact that I have lost 27 lbs in the last month and she explained that when loses weight that fast he is losing muscle … not fat. So, we need to fatten the guy up! I’ll have to be careful not to put on more fat and once I’ve established a nutritionally sound routine we’ll be doing Physical Therapy to help get my muscles back into shape.

Thursday afternoon found us at the Endocrinology Department to talk about my seriously overactive Thyroid. A lot of technical explanations but I’ll try to summarize it here:

My first immunotherapy infusion in February sent the agents of destruction into my body. These agents were instructed to rally the immune system to attack the cancerous tumor in my body and reduce it to a sniveling shadow of what it currently is so that the Medical professional with a knife can cut me open and tear it out. It seems as though some of those agents miscommunicated the mission objective and instead led them to attack my Thyroid gland. Well, the thyroidians were never ones to walk away from a fight and so they retaliated by upping their defensive strength pushing it far beyond where it should normally be.

That’s where the ologist stepped in with bad news and good news. Good news: It’s treatable. Bad news, it will take time. There are two types of thyroidians … some of them are career beings and they are in it for the long haul. Some are reservists, being called up for a limited period of time to meet a current need. We do not at this point know which type we are up against. The attack plan is the same though … a new medical battalion from the pharmacy and a beefing up of a medical unit already on the field whose function is to ameliorate the symptoms but not address the cause. If it is the reservists, they will only fight for a couple of months and then go home. If this is the career forces then we’ll carry on the battle into the future. If it is the reservists, the new medical battalion will not hurt anything. If it is the careerists then the medical battalion will do it’s work for the long haul.

There are some dark and sinister possibilities that are out there but they are “rare” and the sort of things which make me wish I had never been heard to say, “I like being different”. 🙂

At any rate, I’ll have to put up with the symptoms (although reduced somewhat) for at least three months,

This morning now, I was back to the hospital at 5:45 for the follow-up CT scan of my abdomen to confirm that my bowel perforation is healing.

So as I write this I am awaiting the arrival of the grandkids who will be good medicine indeed! My heart is filled with love and gratitude for my girlfriend who sits in hospital waiting rooms and this morning got up before light, after a rough night herself, to take me to the hospital where she sat again for almost three hours. I’m thankful for all of those who are praying for us as we take this journey!

I am thankful to God for the fact that He walks this path with me. I don’t always like the route we take but sensing, and being reminded of His presence and care reels me back in when I start drifting. It was one of those moments when I needed to be reeled in when a friend recently shared this perspective. “In times like this, when it feels as though every time you turn around the rug gets pulled out from under you, it is best not to stand on the rug but to stand upon the Rock … the Lord Jesus!”