one stop clinic

My first visit to the hospital was on 22nd Sept 2006. I think it might be my first visit to this hospital ever. I was given an appointment for the breast clinic, despite the lump being in my neck, which caused a bit of alarm - what if they got my records mixed up, cut my breast off by mistake! The afternoon session though is for general lumps - of course. I think I only had to wait half an hour for this session, and was quite impressed that I was taken into an examination room and had my blood taken, my lump sampled (fairly painlessly) and sent downstairs for an x ray all at the same time. The x ray dept must be one of the most depressing places to work ever. It's lit by grim, not quite powerful enough fluorescent lights and the ceiling squats on your head like a threat. There is no natural light at all. And it's full of ill people. There were no chairs left in the bit I had to wait in - anyway, I could stand without pain so would have felt a bit bad occupying one. I had my lungs x rayed and was given a card to make an appointment for the final part of the process - an ultrasound scan.

I had the ultrasound a couple of weeks later - the ultrasoundist (what is their proper name?) took a long time and kept pointing at things on the screen to a doctor who was in the room with her. Being an eternal optimist I decided that the unease I felt in there was just down to normal hospital paranoia although I was a bit unnerved by the silence and the way they both went out of the room while they waited for the pics to print. At this point I was reassuring myself with my extensive internet research which said only approx. 3% of thyroid lumps were malignant. The ultrasoundist said I did have a lump in my thyroid and that I would probably have to come back for a FNA (fine needle aspiration - oh yes, I've got all the medical jargon now) under ultrasound. I walked out of there feeling a bit unnerved but trying to get myself to keep things in perspective. No point worrying about things until you knew there was something to worry about. Yeah right - that one works at 3pm on a sunny Autumn afternoon, but is no use at all at 3am with morning a long and dark way off.