That. Just. Happened.

I thought it would be a fun exercise to write out all of the appointments I've had since this whole thing started, now that I can start to look back and reflect on everything.  For someone who is about to go through this, maybe it'll give you an example timeline of what to expect.

Here you go, my remembrance of 2015 (so far).  Every single line, except for the one that says "via phone," represents an appointment at a doctor's office or hospital:

01/07/15: Initial Primary Care Physician (PCP) visit, received diagnosis of thyroid nodules
01/08/15: Ultrasound of thyroid nodules, received diagnosis of "suspicious for thyroid cancer," referred to surgeon
01/12/15: Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) surgeon consultation, referred to radiologist for ultrasound-guided Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB)
01/21/15: Radiologist performed FNAB
01/27/15: Received biopsy result of "benign," via phone
02/05/15: ENT surgeon consultation, instructions to repeat ultrasound in 3 months
04/17/15: Repeat ultrasound of thyroid nodules
04/28/15: ENT surgeon consultation, thyroid nodules diagnosed as showing "minor growth," referred to radiologist for second FNAB
05/14/15: Radiologist performs second FNAB
05/21/15: ENT surgeon consultation, received biopsy result of "Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma"
05/29/15: Endocrinologist (Endo) #1 consultation
06/01/15: ENT surgeon #2, second opinion
06/03/15: ENT surgeon, pre-operative consultation
06/03/15: Endo #2 consultation
06/04/15: Endo #3 consultation (ended up choosing this one)
06/08/15: PCP pre-operative physical exam and blood draw
06/18/15: Total Thyroidectomy
06/23/15: ENT surgeon, first post-operative exam
06/29/15: Endo, post-operative exam and blood draw, received Stage 1 diagnosis
07/01/15: ENT surgeon, second post-operative exam and bandage removal
07/02/15: Nuclear Medicine, consultation
07/14/15: Endo, blood draw to check hormone levels
07/21/15: ENT surgeon, third post-operative exam
07/29/15: Endo, first Thyrogen injection
07/30/15: Endo, second Thyrogen injection
07/31/15: Pre-treatment blood draw
07/31/15: Nuclear Medicine, received 52.1 mCi of Radioactive Iodine I-131 (RAI)
08/04/15: Post-treatment blood draw
08/05/15: Nuclear Medicine, Whole Body Scan (WBS)
08/10/15: Received WBS result of no metastasis

I'm not even upset.  I'm actually impressed.

I thought the list would be long...but not that long.

Granted, it's a little bit longer because I decided to "audition" 3 different endocrinologists, and get a second opinion with another ENT, even though I was already very happy with my primary ENT surgeon.  And the fact that I got an initial false negative diagnosis also lengthens things a bit.  But yeah, that is a glimpse as to how my 2015 has been so far.  I hope yours has had less doctors' appointments! :)

-W