The Walking Long Shot
Should I ever pursue a career as a jockey (or take up any other activity upon which ordinary people might choose to wager their hard-earned cash), you'd do well to put your money on me—especially if, to the untrained eye, I appear to be the dark horse in the race.
Because I've got a pretty good odds-beating streak going of late.
First there was my initial cancer diagnosis: although 80% of breast biopsies are benign (as the radiologist took pains to assure me back then), mine was, of course, malignant. I later discovered that the chances of being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 34 were less than 0.5%.
So much for comforting statistics.
I found out last week that the odds of a second, post-mastectomy breast cancer are even smaller than I'd originally been told—just 0.8%. And that doesn't even take into account the radiation treatment I had, which would drop the figure to an even more miniscule percentage.
And, of course, I've got the freakishly severe estrogen-withdrawal-induced joint pain, although I can't cite stats on that just yet. Unless you want to count raised eyebrows and dropped jaws among medical professionals, that is.
So it should not have surprised me in the least to learn today that despite a blood test that came back negative for the antibodies that indicate Hashimoto's disease—a form of hypothyroidism—that's exactly what I appear to have.
It turns out that the blood test is only 95% accurate.
The definitive test for Hashimoto's is a look at the cells themselves, which was done back in January, when I had the fine-needle aspiration of my thyroid. While I had been told back then that everything was benign, it wasn't until today—when I went to the endocrinologist for a regular check-up—that I heard about the secondary findings. (And those findings mean that that infernal rogue was right after all. @#&$%!)
As a practical matter, there's no real difference between having Hashimoto's and having some other form of hypothyroidism, so it's not like I have a whole new problem to contend with.
It's just another case in which I am a statistical outlier.
(That's me over there, waving from the edge of the bell curve.)
Because I've got a pretty good odds-beating streak going of late.
First there was my initial cancer diagnosis: although 80% of breast biopsies are benign (as the radiologist took pains to assure me back then), mine was, of course, malignant. I later discovered that the chances of being diagnosed with breast cancer at age 34 were less than 0.5%.
So much for comforting statistics.
I found out last week that the odds of a second, post-mastectomy breast cancer are even smaller than I'd originally been told—just 0.8%. And that doesn't even take into account the radiation treatment I had, which would drop the figure to an even more miniscule percentage.
And, of course, I've got the freakishly severe estrogen-withdrawal-induced joint pain, although I can't cite stats on that just yet. Unless you want to count raised eyebrows and dropped jaws among medical professionals, that is.
So it should not have surprised me in the least to learn today that despite a blood test that came back negative for the antibodies that indicate Hashimoto's disease—a form of hypothyroidism—that's exactly what I appear to have.
It turns out that the blood test is only 95% accurate.
The definitive test for Hashimoto's is a look at the cells themselves, which was done back in January, when I had the fine-needle aspiration of my thyroid. While I had been told back then that everything was benign, it wasn't until today—when I went to the endocrinologist for a regular check-up—that I heard about the secondary findings. (And those findings mean that that infernal rogue was right after all. @#&$%!)
As a practical matter, there's no real difference between having Hashimoto's and having some other form of hypothyroidism, so it's not like I have a whole new problem to contend with.
It's just another case in which I am a statistical outlier.
(That's me over there, waving from the edge of the bell curve.)
posted by Jody Rosen Knower at 7:20 PM
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