Thyroid check done for this year.
Dr. N., instead of horrible Dr. B., did my thyroid check.
Both radiologists were there and the waiting room was so packed that I sat in the hall. There was no where to sit. I came back in when I thought it was getting close.
He calls me in and since it was late February, I whispered in English "Happy New Year!" as we were coming down the hall. Tet, Vietnamese New Year had been a week or so earlier. He smiled and then set about trying to find an examining room. He started darting around like a lost gnome. The lab coats a lot of doctors wear here in France are amusing. They're gathered at the neck and have floppy arms. They look almost Medieval. Finally, he finds one I haven't seen in years. He dashes out the door, telling me to roll my turtle neck down.
I already had a spat with evil Dr. B. over this so I had on a tank top under my turtle neck. I only had to take it off. Dr. N. stops at the door, coming back in. "That's very good!" Yes, I told him. I've been through this with your wonderful colleague...
He didn't want me lying flat down like Dr. B. I wanted to tell him this but was torn about appearing to tell him to do his job. More comfortable sitting up and not having to lie on that rod thing behind the back, like Dr. B. uses.
He starts telling me about his Tet celebration. It fell conveniently on a weekend and he was able to go to Paris. He said that they had a gathering of about 40 family members. Then, oddly, he starts explaining Tet to me. I finally interjected "New Moon, right?" He stopped. Yes, you know that.
"I'm from San Francisco. I know about Tet... well, Chinese New Year's. I had enough firecrackers thrown at my feet as a child..." Little blond girl from the suburbs, of course!
He looked crestfallen. Oops. He seemed really keen to talk about it and then I took the wind out of his sails. I felt guilty, like saying "No, continue explaining..." even if I knew already. Too late. Of course I had to bring up Chinese New Year's. I know the Vietnamese love being compared to their big neighbors! He just fell silent.
So we get to the thyroid. He's looking at the screen. "THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS THYROID!" he exclaims. Well no, there isn't. I could have told him that. He didn't get the memo. This is a yearly CHECK.
"Nothing here to puncture!" Oh for crying out loud. Can I someday have ONE normal appointment without weirdness from him. "Puncture?!? Who talked about puncturing anything?!?" Then I realized, I was about to sink myself again. "But believe me, if I need any puncturing, I won't hesitate to have you do it!" Need ego stroking here!
"This thyroid is perfectly normal. I don't know why they're monitoring it!"
"Because I have a bad family history, I've done radiation..." He still didn't look convinced. "My sister had a rare form of lymphoma that started in her thyroid so they want to keep an eye on mine." Then he looked alarmed. "No, your thyroid looks fine. Just normal signs of aging..." He keeps on "Yes, it's just growing OLD". Oh heaven help me.
I'm done but I do have some of my scans which I think were from my last apt. Turns out I grabbed the wrong ones. I'm so lame! I'm kicking myself. But he snaps them out of my hand and starts talking about my benign ovarian cysts again. Of course he doesn't realize these are scans he's already seen (unless he has some sort of weird photographic memory which I wouldn't put past him). I then start to feel guilty about the waiting room full of patients so try to squirm out of it.
He repeats that I shouldn't have yearly MRI's because of possible kidney damage but when I mention that the gynecologist wants to do an MRI of my ovaries, he says "Yes, we can do that..." and that won't damage my kidneys since I just had a breast MRI?? No, he means yearly. Whatever. I grab my stuff and leave, bummed that I didn't get the chance to see another picture of him with his twin. Gosh that was cute!!!
Of course I find the right scans a week later while cleaning up. Kick myself. Have to think of strategy to see twin picture again...
Then I went to see the endocrinologist. For some dumb reason, I thought that I had had done the wrong blood work. I lost the original Rx so I called for another. She gave me one with another doctor's name on it. Hmmm... So I did it. Then, I couldn't figure out how to handle this. I called the office and diplomatically told the secretary (whom I did not want to accuse) that I had a "concern" about the labwork. Please ask Dr. B-S and IF I didn't hear back from her, I would assume everything was fine. I didn't want to create extra work for them. At least I knew that I'd be covered if it was wrong.
The labwork was fine. She didn't notice nor mention the fact that Dr. N. had done my scan. Yeah! In fact, she was in a cheery mood and told me that my numbers actually looked better than a year ago.
She talks to fast. Actually, her talking fast is not so much the problem. I understand her but it's all terminology I don't get. I can talk Breast Cancer or Birth Medicalese in French, no problem. But thyroids? I'm all confused. I don't "get" the thyroid in English, let alone French!
I do know that radiation patients have a higher chance of thyroid problems but they don't know much more about the subject. I had radiation, I have a family history AND I have elevated levels in one category. It's not good but my thyroid is. She even said that maybe we'd drop the scans and just do yearly bloodwork.
Okay, that's done for the year! Next task... those ovaries.
Dr. N., instead of horrible Dr. B., did my thyroid check.
Both radiologists were there and the waiting room was so packed that I sat in the hall. There was no where to sit. I came back in when I thought it was getting close.
He calls me in and since it was late February, I whispered in English "Happy New Year!" as we were coming down the hall. Tet, Vietnamese New Year had been a week or so earlier. He smiled and then set about trying to find an examining room. He started darting around like a lost gnome. The lab coats a lot of doctors wear here in France are amusing. They're gathered at the neck and have floppy arms. They look almost Medieval. Finally, he finds one I haven't seen in years. He dashes out the door, telling me to roll my turtle neck down.
I already had a spat with evil Dr. B. over this so I had on a tank top under my turtle neck. I only had to take it off. Dr. N. stops at the door, coming back in. "That's very good!" Yes, I told him. I've been through this with your wonderful colleague...
He didn't want me lying flat down like Dr. B. I wanted to tell him this but was torn about appearing to tell him to do his job. More comfortable sitting up and not having to lie on that rod thing behind the back, like Dr. B. uses.
He starts telling me about his Tet celebration. It fell conveniently on a weekend and he was able to go to Paris. He said that they had a gathering of about 40 family members. Then, oddly, he starts explaining Tet to me. I finally interjected "New Moon, right?" He stopped. Yes, you know that.
"I'm from San Francisco. I know about Tet... well, Chinese New Year's. I had enough firecrackers thrown at my feet as a child..." Little blond girl from the suburbs, of course!
He looked crestfallen. Oops. He seemed really keen to talk about it and then I took the wind out of his sails. I felt guilty, like saying "No, continue explaining..." even if I knew already. Too late. Of course I had to bring up Chinese New Year's. I know the Vietnamese love being compared to their big neighbors! He just fell silent.
So we get to the thyroid. He's looking at the screen. "THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS THYROID!" he exclaims. Well no, there isn't. I could have told him that. He didn't get the memo. This is a yearly CHECK.
"Nothing here to puncture!" Oh for crying out loud. Can I someday have ONE normal appointment without weirdness from him. "Puncture?!? Who talked about puncturing anything?!?" Then I realized, I was about to sink myself again. "But believe me, if I need any puncturing, I won't hesitate to have you do it!" Need ego stroking here!
"This thyroid is perfectly normal. I don't know why they're monitoring it!"
"Because I have a bad family history, I've done radiation..." He still didn't look convinced. "My sister had a rare form of lymphoma that started in her thyroid so they want to keep an eye on mine." Then he looked alarmed. "No, your thyroid looks fine. Just normal signs of aging..." He keeps on "Yes, it's just growing OLD". Oh heaven help me.
I'm done but I do have some of my scans which I think were from my last apt. Turns out I grabbed the wrong ones. I'm so lame! I'm kicking myself. But he snaps them out of my hand and starts talking about my benign ovarian cysts again. Of course he doesn't realize these are scans he's already seen (unless he has some sort of weird photographic memory which I wouldn't put past him). I then start to feel guilty about the waiting room full of patients so try to squirm out of it.
He repeats that I shouldn't have yearly MRI's because of possible kidney damage but when I mention that the gynecologist wants to do an MRI of my ovaries, he says "Yes, we can do that..." and that won't damage my kidneys since I just had a breast MRI?? No, he means yearly. Whatever. I grab my stuff and leave, bummed that I didn't get the chance to see another picture of him with his twin. Gosh that was cute!!!
Of course I find the right scans a week later while cleaning up. Kick myself. Have to think of strategy to see twin picture again...
Then I went to see the endocrinologist. For some dumb reason, I thought that I had had done the wrong blood work. I lost the original Rx so I called for another. She gave me one with another doctor's name on it. Hmmm... So I did it. Then, I couldn't figure out how to handle this. I called the office and diplomatically told the secretary (whom I did not want to accuse) that I had a "concern" about the labwork. Please ask Dr. B-S and IF I didn't hear back from her, I would assume everything was fine. I didn't want to create extra work for them. At least I knew that I'd be covered if it was wrong.
The labwork was fine. She didn't notice nor mention the fact that Dr. N. had done my scan. Yeah! In fact, she was in a cheery mood and told me that my numbers actually looked better than a year ago.
She talks to fast. Actually, her talking fast is not so much the problem. I understand her but it's all terminology I don't get. I can talk Breast Cancer or Birth Medicalese in French, no problem. But thyroids? I'm all confused. I don't "get" the thyroid in English, let alone French!
I do know that radiation patients have a higher chance of thyroid problems but they don't know much more about the subject. I had radiation, I have a family history AND I have elevated levels in one category. It's not good but my thyroid is. She even said that maybe we'd drop the scans and just do yearly bloodwork.
Okay, that's done for the year! Next task... those ovaries.
No comments:
Post a Comment