I've been debating about posting this, since I'm not really good at following things I post, LOL. But I thought the message was much too important not to share. It's a 20 year long story and I will condense it as much as possible.
I was diagnosed about 10 years ago with Hashimoto's Autoimmune Thyroid Disease. It took me 8 years to get a doctor to listen to me, I was given a wrong diagnosis, treated for a thyroid condition I didn't have, and then finally got the proper diagnosis.
Some people have Hashimoto's and have very few symptoms. And, for some of us, it turns our lives upside down. I've lost so many years of my life to this disease and it's flares, and medication adjustments, and body pain, etc. Finally, last year, I convinced my endocrinologist to add Cytomel to my Synthroid hormone replacement. Right after the last increase in December I started to feel truly well...emotionally and physically.
But, I had some issues that were bothering me. I had a lot of body pain and knew it wasn't fibromyalgia...even though several doctors tried to put me on medication for it. In September of 2016, I had my annual physical and took a look at my results. My serum calcium level was over 10. If you are over the age of 30, it should NEVER be over 10. I looked back at my previous years, and apparently it had been at this level since about 2013. There were calcium oxylate crystals in my urine. I had quite a few polyps removed during my colonoscopy a few months prior. My blood pressure was an issue. I had blood glucose issues. I was falling apart at the age of 58 and thought there had to be a connection.
I did some research and realized that there was a good probabability that I had hyperparathyroidism....a benign parathyroid tumor. (Not related to the thyroid gland, except that the parathyorid glands are usually located behind the thyroid.) I started to question my doctors, and was told my numbers were in "normal range." There is one thing that a thyroid patient learns very quickly....there is no such thing as "normal range." One doctor even went so far as to tell me not to go looking for problems.
But, I was determined and made an appointment with a thyroid/parathyroid specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In the meantime, I had another appointment with my endocrinologist. He asked me when I had had my last ultrasound. DUHHH!!! He had never sent me for one, and I had questioned him about that in the past. I told him never, and we scheduled a routine ultrasound to check out the condition of my thyroid gland and look for any possible nodules.
Fast forward two months, and several tests later, and I was diagnosed with a low grade papillary thyroid cancer. The surgeon that my endo recommended was the exact same doctor with whom I had an upcoming appointment to discuss the possibility of a parathyroid adenoma. I am convinced my angels have my back!
While parathyroid adenomas are almost always benign, they can wreak havoc on your health and can drastically shorten your life span. Parathyroid.com is a great website that gives all of the details.
My excellent surgeon LISTENED to me when I saw him for the first time and ran all of the tests. We also scheduled surgery for a thyroidectomy. My parathyorid tests were coming back inconclusive, but I finally was sent for a CT scan and what looked like a sizable parathyroid adenoma was seen.
I had my surgery almost two weeks ago. The small thyroid cancer was found totally contained, lymph nodes and surrounding tissue were clear, and I most likely will not need a radioactive iodine treatment....I'll find out for sure on Friday. BUT, a fairly large parathyroid adenoma was found!!!
Within 48 hours, my blood pressure meds were halved. A lot of my body pain was drastically better. And, because the tumor hadn't been there for more than a couple of years, my body should heal from any damage that it caused.
If I hadn't been already scheduled for the thyroid surgery, I think that surgery for that parathyroid adenoma may not have happened for a while, as sometimes it is hard to be positive that they exist....even with all of the proper testing.
So, if you know something isn't right in your body, continue to seek answers. Don't just take the word of one, two, or even three doctors. Do what your gut tells you to do.
Even though the parathyroid adenoma was benign, it would have continued to suck the life out of me....long before the small thyroid cancer would have done any real harm.
For any of you that are interested, the website that I used, Parathyroid.com, is a wealth of information on the condition. And, it's very accurate as my surgeon followed their exact protocol.
"I've been here since October 2006. Wow!"
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