Whaddup yo?  It’s been a minute.  I feel like I say that every time I go to write one of these.

Anyway, it’s been quite the summer already!

In regards to my health, let’s rewind a bit.
June 1st, I was forced to leave Group Health as my employer switched health insurance providers.  Which means I would no longer be able to see those doctors, not an ideal situation at all.  A week or so later we were told that Microsoft wasn’t going to renew our contracts with our employer.  July 1st, I started working for a different company doing the exact same job, with yet again another insurance provider!  Former employer took FOREVER to get us our health insurance information that I never took the time to see a doctor last month.  I think it took 3 weeks to get our information.  Absolutely ridiculous.

I called Virginia Mason to schedule an appointment with a doctor for sometime after July 1st, played phone tag, then received a call from someone to schedule a Thyroidectomy.  Uhhh…yeah, been there done that.  Once I told her that I already had that done and that I wanted to start seeing a doctor for follow-up treatment I never heard back.  Completely disenfranchised from that experience, I called Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to see a doctor there.  Played phone tag with them for a couple days, then I was finally able to get scheduled to see an endocrinologist there.  Phew, right?  Not quite, I didn’t know if I was going to have my insurance information in time with the new company.  Luckily, I was able to get the info Wednesday morning for my appointment that Friday.
Went to SCCA and found that the endocrinologists work in the same area as Women’s Care.  It felt odd being in that department, almost uncomfortable in a way.  They had this thing hanging from the ceiling that looked like the craziest crazy straw I’ve ever seen.  So I asked the lady what it was, it was pink, silver, and I think white.  She said it was called a Femergy.  Uhh…ok.  Not sure she found it as humorous as I did when I mentioned that it looked like a crazy straw.  Oh well.

I was finally called back, got weighed, which was up a couple pounds from the last time in May.  However, the last time I was weighed I took my shoes off and everything out of my pockets.  So I assume that I’m close enough to the same.  Which is a good thing because a lot of people actually gain a lot of weight after they lose their thyroid.  I’m fairly pleased.  Nurse took all the other vitals, nothing out of the ordinary.

The endocrinologist comes in, we chat about what I’ve been through and how I feel now, what medicines I’m taking and how I’m taking them.  This gets interesting.  I told her I was taking my Levothyroxine as 2 pills twice a day.  She mentions that it really needs to be taken on an empty stomach.  I told her coincidentally I tried taking all 4 pills the day before but didn’t feel that great in the afternoon, and that I had went back to my normal routine that day.  She asks that I continue with taking them all in the morning so we ensure that it’s on an empty stomach.  I agree and think, that’s actually going to be much easier anyway so I don’t have to worry about taking them in the afternoon.  Score.  I think I need to give my body some time to adjust to getting the full dose at once because I still don’t feel great in the afternoon.  Blah.  We talked about how my previous endo was going to bring up my case at his next ThyCa conference at the beginning of June but because I was no longer with Group Health I never heard the outcome, she tells me that she was the report as part of my file, I got excited, but forgot to ask about getting a copy of it.  She tells me that because of the size and spread of my cancer that I’m at a high-risk for recurrence.  I’m aware of that, and ok with that, cause really what else am I gonna do?  lol.  It’s not like I can pick and choose here.  😉  She continues to tell me that we’re going to get a PET/CT Scan done next month, which is 3 months after the CT Scans and Ultrasound that I had done in May and caused a lot of worry and anxiousness.  I had a feeling that a PET scan was going to happen after my appointment in May with my old endo.  It’s just another step in this journey, and I know it won’t be the last.

We talked about all the complications I had from the surgery, my voice, my breathing, my eye, my lack of sweat.  She gave me a couple of recommendations for a PCP which I’ve narrowed down to two.  One at the Polyclinic and one at a UW clinic in Belltown.  Once I see one them I hope that they’ll get me hooked up with someone that can get the surgery taken care for my vocal cords.  I mentioned to her that Dr. Short recommended someone at UW that is extremely experienced with the procedure I need done, but couldn’t remember his name and didn’t have service on my phone to look up the email.

Alright moving on…
NWMOTIV.com had our annual Forum Fest event at Pacific Raceways on June 26th.  It was a record breaking event with 391 cars registered for the show, a world record breaking drag race by a SpeedFactory Civic which ran the 1/4 mile in 7.99 seconds.  Thousands of people in attendance and amazing weather made for a great day.  I even pulled the Maxima out for the weekend, and Jeff, Erin and Nathan stopped by for a bit.  I think it was the first time they’ve been to an “import” car show.  I think they had a good time!

We’re gearing up for Formula D at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe this weekend.  The event staff, teams, media and others are starting to roll into town.  Such great weather for them to be here.  It’s going to be another amazing event.  Next weekend marks the return of Hot Import Nights to the Seattle area with the event being held at the Tacoma Dome.  It’s the first time they’ve been back since 2008.  There’s some excitement in the air for this event, but some skepticism at the same time.  We shall see!

August brings a couple new things, we’re doing an event at The Museum of Flight during Seafair weekend! I’m really looking forward to this, a lot of fast cars and fast jets all in the same place.  This will be something you won’t want to miss!  A week or so later I go in for my PET scan, looking forward to the several hours that’s going to take…  Then a follow up with the new endo to go over the results and maybe a decision if I’ll need to go through External Beam Radiation or not.  If I have to go through that, it’s going to be tough and not something I’m looking forward to.  But we gotta do what we gotta do!