Waiting Game

Hey y'all!  How's everyone doing?  Hope you're all having a great week.

Today's post isn't super positive, sorry about that.  Y'all know I usually try to keep things happy but like... I also want to be honest about life with T1D, and that means I'm not gonna keep this stuff from you.

But before we get started I wanna say happy Diabetes Awareness Week!!!  If you know a PWD, give them a hug this week!

Ok, here goes.
One thing that plenty of people know about T1D is that it comes with a whole host of complications.  Like, so hecking many.  Heart disease, blindness, loss of circulation, nerve pain, and generally shortened lifespan are the most common ones.  But that's not all, folks!  It also increases our risk of getting other autoimmune conditions. (yay.)

One fairly common condition that often goes hand-in-hand with T1D is thyroiditis.  Basically, there's this gland in your throat called the thyroid, and in people like me, it doesn't work.  That causes lack of appetite, lack of energy... lack of lots of important things.  I take medication to help with that, so it's really not a big deal.

But here's the killer: it also suuuuper increases my risk for thyroid cancer.  Like, I don't know the exact statistics because my doctor wouldn't tell me (if that's any indication), but I know my chances are pretty high.  In fact, I already have a tumor--they call it a "nodule" because it sounds more friendly--on the left side of my thyroid.

Two years ago, I had a biopsy done on the nodule, which was probably definitely the most painful procedure I've ever had.  Thankfully, it was benign (which means Not Cancerous).  But it still has the potential to become cancerous, which is pretty hecking scary.

So every year, I get an ultrasound to see whether the nodule has grown.  Last Friday, I went back to the hospital for my annual appointment with the grumpy folks in Ultrasound Room 1 (lemme tell you, there is nothing more awkward than being a teenage girl in an ultrasound clinic).  Here's how it works: if the nodule has gotten smaller or stayed the same size, it means I'm probably safe, so we'll wait another year and see what happens.  If it's grown--which, so far, has happened every year--we'll rebiopsy and see what's going on.

Like I said, I had my ultrasound done on Friday.  Today is Monday.  And still no results.

I'm... kinda going crazy with waiting.  You would think, by now, I would be used to waiting for results from the doctor's office.  But last year, I got the results the day of the ultrasound, so this wait is making me pretty anxious.

That's all I've got for today, folks.  Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be able to update y'all with the results--good or bad, anything's better than waiting.