Time Out

Baylor hospital

Time Out is what I have been taking for the past two weeks to deal with a few problems that had to be attended to .
Problem no 1
As many of my blog readers know from either me chatting with them or otherwise,  I developed a small "lump" under my ear lobe shortly after Christmas. I know that isn't right.  My family doctor put the fear of God into me by insisting that I go the same day to get a CT scan done to find out just what it was. The scan revealed a nodule ( fancy word for lump) on the parotid gland. No, I didn't know I had one of those and the times I had to tell people not carotid or parrot gland , I guess lots of other people don't know about parotid glands either. Just so you know, it's a gland under the jawbone and stretches into the cheek and under the ear.It helps make saliva inside your mouth .
After discussion with the ear , nose and throat surgeon, Dr D.( a very tall , handsome doctor,who easy could appear in one of the TV series)  it was decided that the nodule had to be removed as these often turn cancerous especially in older people.
Did you know I was older??I really have never thought that but NOW I do.

The biopsy on the nodule hadn't shown signs of cancer but best to be on the safe side, get it out before it got larger or decided to mutate into cancer.
"Oh yes and by the way. we also found a nodule on your right thyroid as well, which also is seeming non cancerous but just in case, we better take that out as well." Just as well the whole body wasn't scanned. All sorts of odd nodules etc might have been found that had to be taken out !!
 That I wasn't so sure about but after a lot of reading on my part and especially as this doctor is so highly recommended by everyone you talk with and because it would only be day surgery, I agreed I would go for the 2 surgeries.
I was nervous about having this done. I am one of those rare people who at 76 years old have never had a surgery done and never even been in hospital .I even had both of my babies at home; those were the good old days !!!
So last week I went into the Baylor hospital in Fort Worth and had my right thyroid complete with the nodule taken out.The hospital staff were excellent, very well coordinated and organized and in  no time at all I was on my way home  minus my right thyroid and nodule. This was followed by a painful couple of days with a drain tube from the very small incision but helped with the aid of some very potent pain killers which made me very woozy. I had the best of nurses , Mike, who made sure I did what I was supposed to do, took the right medicines,cooked great  nourishing meals and kept me from overdoing anything.
So now tomorrow I go back to the doctor to make sure problem no 1 is fixed.
Problem no 2 the removal of the parotid gland will be done at the end of this month so that gives me a good 2 weeks to worry some more....
but I can have a glass of sherry at least during the the first week!