No, you're not staying up too late, you've got something wrong with your thyroid!

During Small Press Idol, I spent months staying up late, waking up early, etc... Somewhere in the middle of the competition, April or May, I started getting really tired, like I wasn't getting enough sleep (which I wasn't). I thought, well, I've been staying up late and waking up early for months, so I just need to get some sleep, rest up, and I'll be good to go! So, I took the period between rounds 2 and 3 and then between 3 and 4 to catch up on sleep, chores, etc, thinking it would help me feel better... it didn't. During the last handful of months, too, I started to gain an odd amount of weight... I thought to myself, "well, I haven't been eating a lot more, but maybe my metabolism is slowing down or I'm eating more than I thought." Nope...

During SDCC this year, my wife and I gave blood... I get this letter in the mail a couple of weeks later that I got a false positive for something indicating I could have or could end up with leukemia. Since my grandfather died of leukemia, I thought, OH CRAP, and made a quick appointment with my doctor to get things checked out. Barrage of tests later, nope, I'm fine, oh wait, there are some levels off with your thyroid! Hmmm....

Didn't think too much about it, but I did recall that thyroid issues run in my family. The doctor scheduled me for an ultrasound of my thyroid which showed that I have multi-nodular goiters on both sides of my thyroid. The doctor didn't seem too worried but said "just in case" I should get these extra tests done (I'll get back to that "just in case").

Last Thursday and Friday, I got to play Radioactive Man... They gave me this radio-nucleotide pill (radioactive iodine), which was cool because I didn't have to get a radioactive injection instead (phew). They kicked me loose for a few hours and then did some scans... Friday morning, more scans...

Today I found out that there's a bunch of abnormal stuff in the readings, so I just need to find out what my next steps are, but I was told I'm probably going to need to get my thyroid taken out. Some? All? Who knows!

Strangely enough, I was listening to Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb when my wife called to tell me... Surreal.

Just thought I'd share since people actually do read this thing, I've come to find out!

Well, while you're reading... go check out all of the cool stuff I updated at the Bearded Lady site... Darn it!