So other than the weird feeling I've been getting around my scar, my left eye has been watery on and off. Several weeks ago I decided to start using the eye drops I was given for my pink eye bout earlier this year, just to try and clean/clear out whatever bacteria is stuck in my left tear ducts. That just made it more watery, so I stopped after the second day.
The amount of times and volume of water that comes out of my left eye varies from day to day. It used to be that by mid-day, it would dry up enough so I wouldn't have to dab it until later in the evening. However, the color is changing now, and I am having to dab more, throughout the day. Crud. So, when random people ask, I just say, "Oh, it's just allergies". No point in giving them the whole, long, story about my ThyCa journey that has brought me to my first year of being "clear" and my only side-affect from treatment thus far being this damn watery left eye! No, I save that special story for those closest to me.
So how is the rest of my body doing? Well, still not so good. My last PT appt is this Monday (10/3/11), and what do I have to show for it? Nothing. Right after my first session/eval, my left knee started to hurt. They said it was because my left patella wasn't tracking properly, hence the pain any time I went up or down stairs. At the same time, my right knee stopped hurting so the focus was on the left knee. There seemed to be no improvement for my left knee until around the middle of last month, right around the time my right knee started to hurt, again. Yes, back to the right knee. Let me point out here that my right knee started to hurt and swell/stiffen, again, at one of my PT sessions. And it hasn't stopped!
Around the same time the right knee started to hurt/swell, I was given the go ahead to run twice each week, but still only 1 mile each time. Well, my right knee would be stiff/swollen the following day after a run. It got bad enough that I started to take Aleve for it (and my right arm). That only made me think I could climb, when I shouldn't have been doing that either. So, I tweaked my right knee while climbing last week. It was so bad that I could barely walk last Friday, and I could feel something catching when I moved it. My acupuncturist said it could be that I have really tight IT bands, hence the 'catching' feeling I am having around my right knee. I told her I thought my knees have been over compensating for each other, so the pain shifts from one to the other. I never really thought about my IT bands before, but now when I touch them, they sting, like they are on fire. Great. So, I got this really cool foam roller called the "Trigger Point Grid", or something like that. I bring it with me sometimes when I go to the gym. Not sure if it is helping or not. Most of my PT exercises aggravate my right knee, so I only do the handful that don't. I haven't run or climbed in over a week now, which has been a good thing because I can almost walk without a limp on the right side, but I still don't have good range of motion in the right knee. ARGH!!!
And what about the right arm? Well, the first time I got a needle in the armpit (three weeks ago) was the best it had felt in the past four months. I only had a slight nagging feeling along the outside of my right arm. So good, that I decided not to climb for a day or two, so I could live without arm pain for a few days. But, sure enough, when I did climb that week, it started to hurt again. At the next session, I got another needle in the armpit, but this time it wasn't as successful as the first. This week, it seems to be as bad as it was when I started my acupuncture appts. So, my knee and arm pain seem to being going in circles, and not going away. I'm so tired of this.
I can live with the daily dose of T4/T3 that I need to take in order to stay alive and keep any thyroid (cancer) cells from growing and spreading. But I don't think I can live limping on one side or the other or with a gimpy arm. If I had to choose between daily thyroid meds for the rest of my life, watery left eye for the rest of my life, or gimpy limbs for the rest of my life, it would be thyroid meds, hands down. But having to deal with all three, which right now seems like for the rest of my life, really sucks!
Anyway, Thyroid Cancer Awareness month has come and gone. This month, however is the Annual Thyroid Cancer Survivor's Conference. This time it is in LA, and this time I am going. I finally saw the program schedule the other day. I was a little bummed that there will not be any sessions on Hurthle cell carcinoma, when there were several last year. That's why I really needed to go last year, but couldn't because of a mandatory work function. I hate it when work gets in the way.
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