THE DECISION HAS BEEN MADE

I saw my surgeon on Monday (gee, he's really great, answers any questions you ask and explains everything so well) and he told us (Phil always comes with me to medical appointments) that the CT scan showed I have what seems to be an adenoma on one of my parathyroid glands on the left side.  This is more or less what it would look like:

The glands themselves are tiny, about the size of a lentil seed and in some cases there can be less or more than four and they are not always where they are supposed to be.  I am hoping mine are where they belong.  I was told the 'spot' could actually be on the thyroid itself but hopefully this is not the case.  I don't really need any complications as I am hoping it will be quite a short operation.

We discussed the situation thoroughly and the surgeon's advice was that this adenoma should be removed or otherwise calcium will be leached from my bones etc. etc. etc. even though my bones last year showed they were then very solid when I had the bone density scan done.  We could of course continue to have more tests over the coming months/years but this condition does not cure itself so tomorrow I go Murdoch Hospital (have to be there at 7am which is not our time of day at all) and I was told I will be 'first cab off the rank" which is good news, particularly as I am diabetic.  Without knowing the full extent of what he will find the doctor has recommended a general anaesthetic as anything being done to the throat can cause coughing which would be rather dangerous when surgery is being undertaken.

I know this is risky at my age but there is little choice and I am sincerely hoping that if I have this operation I will begin to feel better in several ways, first of which is to feel less tired and 'washed out' every day and perhaps less bone pain and muscle cramps.  It seems this condition can also leach our phosphorus and magnesium and the lack of the latter can cause cramps.   The metformin I take for diabetes also leaches magnesium from the body so this could hopefully help that problem be resolved to some extent.

While I was at the surgery the doctor anaethetised my nose and throat and a camera was popped down to check my voice box which fortunately is OK (Phil confirmed that he had no doubt my voice box worked quite well) which I think was good news.    That only took less than 5 minutes and not all that uncomfortable although yesterday I was still feeling the after effects which gradually wore off during the day.

I have to go to the hospital to pre-admission this afternoon and have checked with Hospital Benefit Fund who tell me I am covered for a private room (after first paying a $200 excess) so ask for one (which I already did on the form) and that both the surgeon and anaesthetist are partly covered so hopefully the 'gap' won't be too huge.

Hopefully I will only be in hospital for a couple of days at most but I won't come home unless I feel confident I am OK as, apart from Phil, I have nobody to call on should anything go wrong.  Phil is wonderful but should I faint (I never have yet) or similar he'd have no chance of getting me up off the floor.

Wish me luck and hopefully I will be back here with you, hopefully feeling somewhat better, by next week if not earlier.   I have some more information about grandfather (PR) which you may find of interest.  Until then, au revoir.

P.S.  I just checked back to make sure this post appeared OK and couldn't believe it when it said I had posted it 20 minutes ago when, in fact, I posted it at least 4-5 hours back.  Where do these things go to in cyber pace before they appear here I wonder?