'Scuse my absence

I was supposed to do a recovery run on Thursday following the marathon and return to training Monday or Tuesday of this week, but I came down with the nasty cold I was fighting pre-race. My head is so full of phlegm I think I can never blow it all out of my nose. Then on Monday something else happened that set me back for a day or so.

I think many of you know about my recurring health problems, but here's a little recap . . . I suffer from 3 separate heart arrythmias, one of which makes me faint; severe vestibular vertigo; migraines; depression and other assorted goodies;asthma; excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS); and insulin resistance. I have about 6 specialists. I have blogged many times about the fatigue, depression, weight gain, pain, recurrent URI's, etc. On a given day, basic functioning is all I can ask of myself, let alone training.

This year, I finally got off all of my medications. I was starting to train again. Things were going better than I'd imagined. On Monday, I got a call from my endocrinologist that my results came back from my thyroid biopsy, whcih I've been running around trying to have done for about a year. It was kind of my "last stop before I'm off all meds but Glumetza."

The diagnosis was papillary carcinoma.

Why am I telling you all this? you might ask. Well, for one - I'm not sure how it's going to affect my training schedule. I'm having my thyroid completely removed in about 4 weeks and then I will probably need radioactive iodine treatment after that to kill the remaining tissue. I'm going to do as much as I can, but I may not make any of my race goals until my fall marathon.

I'm also hoping, as I always have with any of my other health issues, that being upfront about what I'm going through may help others be more aware of their health. My lump was discovered about 7-10 years ago, but because my thyroid hormone levels kept coming back normal, my previous doctors took no further action. I never knew that everyone didn't have bumps on their neck - I thought everyone's thyroid was lumpy. My current doctor sent me packing to the endocrinologist, and a year later I got this news. There's always the very small chance that they're wrong, and it's just suspicious tissue - at which point they can attribute it to thyroid disease and not cancer. But either way I'll be safer.

I'm hoping that everyone will remember it's crucial (especially for women) to check your neck.

Tonight I finally got through my head cold fog, so I should be back on my training schedule, which I'm going to TRY to follow as much as I can for as long as I can.
My sense of humor has not disappeared, however. I've decided cancer can f' off.