There are three main entrances to Duke Health Center at Southpoint, and I've now visited all three for various reasons over the years. Round back is Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine, where I had physical therapy after tearing my adductor and later got a consult and surgery referral for a ganglion cyst. The entrance closest to the Renaissance Center's Nordstrom Rack is the main clinic for your general health concerns, and the entrance closest Fayetteville Rd. is Durham Radiology Associates.
I hadn't seen a primary care physician in the better part of a decade, but when I started showing symptoms of hypothyroidism---namely: chronic fatigue, muscle aches and joint pains, unexplainable weight gain (we're talking forty pounds in eighteen months), plus shortness of breath with only moderate exertion, occasional difficulty swallowing, and a choking feeling when I lay on my back---I decided it was time to go. My new doctor identified a nodule on the left lobe of my thyroid, and immediately referred me to Durham Radiology Associates for a thyroid ultrasound.
I checked in online via the Duke Healthview portal---which allows you to complete all of your paperwork and even pay your copay (if applicable) in advance of your visit---waited fifteen minutes, then headed back for the ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was very welcoming and cracked some truly funny jokes to ease the tension. She was also professional and knowledgeable and explained everything she was doing, including warning me when something would feel uncomfortable. Despite having to lie there with my neck hyperextended and feeling a tad like I was being strangled, the bed was actually pretty damn cushy and comfy.
As gentle as the tech was, I felt pain in the left side of my neck when she moved the transducer over the area. It was then that I started to panic just a tad, but I think the tech could tell, and calmly reminded me to stay still, and that we would be done soon.
After the procedure, she gave me towels to wipe the lubricating gel off my neck, and checked in with a physician on-site to ensure that the images she captured would work. Then I was free to go.
On the wall there is a sign that says u/s technicians are not permitted to give out information regarding what they see on the u/s until it has been read by one radiologist and verified by a second. I had my results just five hours later (got them via iPhone while at the All about Beer CMYE, in fact): a cold, solid nodule on my left thyroid lobe with multiple macro- and microcalcifications, as well as increased bloodflow to the area, all of which greatly increase the concern for malignancy. Within a few days I was in with one of the top endocrinologists at Duke.
While this has all been quite a shock, I feel that I am in the best possible hands with Duke's Medicine, Radiology, and Surgery departments. I am grateful for everyone's exceptional interdepartmental communication and their ability to get all results to me so unbelievably quickly. They employ only the most skilled professionals, all of whom truly go above and beyond.
UPDATE: Got the results from my fine need aspiration (FNA) biopsy and I DO NOT have cancer. HURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! My endos are not sure why I'm symptomatic, since my thyroid is producing TSH in normal amounts, but for now I'm just thanking my lucky stars that it ain't the Big C. For the record, a cancer scare is about ten thousand times more terrifying than an undergrad pregnancy scare. Yikes! read more
