Update, almost 2 years later: my neck

 Remember this?

It's that time back in May 2024 when I had a bunch of throat hardware yeeted to save my health and maybe even my life!

Briefly: diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism in early 2023 due to labs indicating high calcium followed up by labs showing high parathyroid hormone levels. Took a while to work through referrals for bone density scans, ultrasounds and a nuclear scan, needle biopsies, etc. before I finally found a parathyroid/thyroid surgeon who took care of everything. In the process, we learned that I had papillary thyroid cancer, but not until it was already out of my body and everything was good.

I just had labs done and the goodest news is that there are no thyroid antibodies in my blood anymore (and there haven't been since I've been tested starting a year after surgery), which means my body isn't fighting tumors because they all got removed! Yay!

But also good news is that my parathyroid hormone level is within range, meaning my three remaining parathyroid glands are doing their job.

My thyroid stimulating hormone is still a little low, but this is the first time it has been detectible since my surgery. This is because after having thyroid cancer and the removal of the thyroid, I was put on a suppression dose of synthetic thyroid medication to reduce the chances that any tumor material might get "fed" and grow. When you're overmedicated, your body doesn't send out thyroid stimulating hormones because you have plenty. That's not a good solution long-term, as being overmedicated can of course have negative health outcomes.

BUT this means that, as we've lowered the dose, we've allowed my body to move closer to equilibrium. My T4 free level is within range, but if it were just a little bit lower and my TSH were just a little bit higher, we'd be in that sweet spot and everything would be just peachy.

I don't have any symptoms from overmedication that I know of, and just like with my original diagnoses, we're just going on labs at this point. 

I feel really fortunate!

PS That picture was also from a few months before I realized that my hair was curly and I don't know how I missed it!