-Don Marquis
I’ve been a registered massage therapist for 18 years. My profession is intimate, and has made me privy to all kinds of knowledge, and information. I have clients of all races, religions, and sexual orientations. A very diverse group, that as a collective, has been a plethora of knowledge.
Last year a regular client of mine came to see me. We both have a thyroid condition called hypothyroidism, and she too, works in healthcare. She asked when I would be seeing my endocrinologist next. When I told her that I didn’t have an endocrinologist, she said I should be seeing one annually with the condition I have.
I went to my physician with that information and she sent off a referral. As a seasoned procrastinator, I thought I was being proactive for once.
Months later I was sitting in a stiflingly hot room, in front of a tiny man in a two piece suit. During his intake, he asked if I had temperature regulation issues, whether I typically feel hot or cold. I decided to make a joke of it, as I looked over at the draft stopper placed along the door’s base, keeping even the slightest bit of air from coming through, “well, I am typically cold, except for right now”. He didn’t laugh.
He wanted to examine my thyroid and I felt my anxiety taking hold. She can be such a sneaky bitch, rearing her head at the most inopportune times. I couldn’t figure out why I was anxious, it was just standard procedure lite, yet here I was, stress sweating. Picturing my sister teasing me about ending up with swamp ass, or swass, as she affectionately calls it.
After the exam he has me sit down, and tells me he wants me to return in 3 months. He gives me a requisition form for blood work, and an ultrasound. It is then that he tells me he felt a mass on my thyroid. Very nonchalantly. He continues on as if time hasn’t stopped for him, as it had for me.
“Hold on, can you back up a minute? You felt something on my thyroid?”
“Yes, there is a nodule on the right side.”
“Should I be concerned about that?”
“Well that is why I am sending you for an ultrasound.”
I walked out of that room wondering if my idea of being proactive had been a ruse, after all.
