Status update.

Hi Folks,

I'm blogging on my lunch break (such as it is), so this will be necessarily brief.  I just wanted to let you know the latest:

- Thyroid-wise:  I continue to await my first post-radiation follow-up. By "await," I mean "need to schedule."  I will let you know when that is, and what the result is.  (Don't worry, mom, it's not even supposed to be until the end of this month/beginning of next.)

- Other-physical-stuff-wise:  I've been going through some diagnostic testing to ensure that some other concerns identified over the summer aren't awful and/or immediate.  One of them, an ongoing health issue I've dealt with, seems okay at the moment (yay), with the proverbial "keep an eye on it" stamped upon it (I suppose the status has to be proverbial, as one can't really stamp anything on my internal organs without a laser or branding iron). The other issue, a precancerous finding in (and summarily removed from) my small intestine, also seems to be maintaining its status quo at for the time being, in that the doctors, so far, don't see anything else precancerous there.  I had an x-ray with some yummy barium drink, and assuming the radiology doctor's findings don't differ from my GI doctor's findings, I'm golden at least until the next follow-up test, whatever it may be.

- Mental-stuff-wise:  I went through a very trying couple of months around the time of the radiation.  I was depressed and anxious, moreso than ever before.  Whether it was caused by physical challenges, stress, or a combination of the above, a variety of remediations were applied and seem to be having the desired effect.  I'm very much better now and I commented to Jim yesterday that on the way home from work, I experienced this sustained feeling that I couldn't pinpoint at first... and then realized it was happiness.

Well, that's all the news from the front, and it only took me 10 minutes to type... surely a respectable lunch break.  Thanks for the positive thoughts.  Please point some positivity at my doggie if you'd be so kind, as she goes in for dental work (i.e., goes under anesthesia and possibly has surgery) this Friday.  She is the love of my life, as everyone in my life knows, and I am praying that she comes through with the flyingest of flying colors.