Hello from Bucks County, PA!
So, I've been meaning to write this up for some time, and I figured now might be a good time since I'm sitting in a hospital bed, bored and high on some pretty good drugs
Anyway... I've been lurking on the site quite a bit (and have learned a TON... thanks!) since getting back into homebrewing maybe 6 months ago, after a ~10/yr hiatus to have the family, get divorced, etc. etc. etc. When I decided to get back into brewing, I went to the new Keystone Homebrew Supply store in Montgomeryville, PA and one of the guys walked me through getting everything I needed, without any annoying or unnecessary upselling tactics (you'll see why I mention this later). I promptly went home and did a 2 batches in just the first week and was instantly re-hooked.
By the second batch, I was starting to get a sore throat. I didn't think much of it due to the cool weather, etc. and didn't bother going to the doctor. A few batches and at least a month later the sore throat persisted (and I started getting some other weird symptoms) so finally went to see the doc.
Towards the end of a thorough once-over, the doc starts feeling around the right side of my neck witha a perplexed look on his face, mentions something like "that's not right" and sends me to get an ultrasound of my thyroid right away.
Long. story. short... since I wasn't upsold Star San the month prior, I'd been mixing huge batches of iodophor with my entire arm, soaking the kitchen and my gear with it (not to mention a number of times that I unintentionally soaked my clothes too).
The sole purpose of the thyroid is to process iodine -- and I had spent much of the prior month, in effect, feeding it "steroids". This apparently caused it to swell and make some very large cancerous tumors externally palpable as well as press against my vocal chords and some other misc. nerves.
Without getting into too many gory details, when the biopsy came back after the first operation, it showed that it was likely only days or weeks away from getting completely through a major artery and spreading through the bloodstream. I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't been practically bathing in iodophor for a month, I wouldn't have ended up at the doctor until after it was too late.
So, anyway... IMO this brings new meaning to RTADBHAHB. Thanks, Guys (and gals)!
So, I've been meaning to write this up for some time, and I figured now might be a good time since I'm sitting in a hospital bed, bored and high on some pretty good drugs
Anyway... I've been lurking on the site quite a bit (and have learned a TON... thanks!) since getting back into homebrewing maybe 6 months ago, after a ~10/yr hiatus to have the family, get divorced, etc. etc. etc. When I decided to get back into brewing, I went to the new Keystone Homebrew Supply store in Montgomeryville, PA and one of the guys walked me through getting everything I needed, without any annoying or unnecessary upselling tactics (you'll see why I mention this later). I promptly went home and did a 2 batches in just the first week and was instantly re-hooked.
By the second batch, I was starting to get a sore throat. I didn't think much of it due to the cool weather, etc. and didn't bother going to the doctor. A few batches and at least a month later the sore throat persisted (and I started getting some other weird symptoms) so finally went to see the doc.
Towards the end of a thorough once-over, the doc starts feeling around the right side of my neck witha a perplexed look on his face, mentions something like "that's not right" and sends me to get an ultrasound of my thyroid right away.
Long. story. short... since I wasn't upsold Star San the month prior, I'd been mixing huge batches of iodophor with my entire arm, soaking the kitchen and my gear with it (not to mention a number of times that I unintentionally soaked my clothes too).
The sole purpose of the thyroid is to process iodine -- and I had spent much of the prior month, in effect, feeding it "steroids". This apparently caused it to swell and make some very large cancerous tumors externally palpable as well as press against my vocal chords and some other misc. nerves.
Without getting into too many gory details, when the biopsy came back after the first operation, it showed that it was likely only days or weeks away from getting completely through a major artery and spreading through the bloodstream. I'm fairly certain that if I hadn't been practically bathing in iodophor for a month, I wouldn't have ended up at the doctor until after it was too late.
So, anyway... IMO this brings new meaning to RTADBHAHB. Thanks, Guys (and gals)!
