Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Tomatoes, my eggs, and a ANOTHER biopsy

Two posts in one day. Bear with me.

One of today's Yahoo health headlines said something like "seven foods top nutritionists would never eat." And the FIRST one was canned tomatoes.

Ok.

I eat canned tomatoes. A LOT of them. I have never minded that taste, and I lazily use them on homemade pizzas, on top of spaghetti squash, etc. etc. Probably I eat them twice per week, at least. So imagine my horror when the article said that the BPA is found in high amounts in canned tomatoes. "Studies show that the BPA in most people's body exceeds the amount that suppresses sperm production or causes chromosomal damage to the eggs of animals." Maybe I'm an idiot but I didn't know this. I swear I didn't know! All the things I've done to protect my health, and this I didn't know.

I didn't eat anything else on the list. We only do organic milk, we don't eat any meat (mostly for humane purposes but also because of those scary hormones they feed factory farm animals) but who knew canned tomatoes could be crapping out the chromosomes on my eggs?

Sigh.

And today I had to have a biopsy of my thyroid, which managed to grow a single solitary suspicious nodule. When I had it ultrasounded two weeks ago I took the ultrasound report to my boss, a wonderful endocrinologist with whom I would trust my life. I covered up my name on the report and asked if he would think it needed to be biopsied. He immediately said yes.

When I said, "Waah, it's me, and I don't want a needle stuck into my neck" he told me I could survey all the endos at our practice and go with the consensus, but that was his opinion. So everyone I surveyed said to biopsy for sure.

I kept avoiding scheduling it and then today he called me and said "I want to biopsy that thing today. No more waiting."

So today on my lunch break I had my neck numbed up while my favorite doctor/boss punctured my little nodule with a needle in three different locations. Yowza.

The odds of cancer are low. But since thyroid cancer runs in my family and my nodule was suspicious, well, you just have to be careful. Thyroid cancer is highly treatable but dude, I don't really want it.

Damn those tomatoes and damn that thyroid nodule.

16 comments:

  1. Shit-sticks!
    Seriously, that's all you need right now...
    you've had to have a lot of biopsies, it's about time you stop getting poked! ;)
    Hope it all goes well, you get the results quickly and they're negative!
    Gosh, Mrs. LC- I'll keep you in my prayers.
    NO, I have never heard that tomatoes & BPA connection! What? That's crazy!

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  2. Another canned tomato eater here. I had no idea either. Unflippingbelievable.

    Dear gawd on the biopsy! Seriously, haven't you already been through enough?! I'm sending all good thoughts to you that everything turns out fine. I'm sorry for any added stress right now.

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  3. Does the whole canned tomato thing apply to canned tomato paste or pasta sauce? I would think they would all have the same thing in common as they are all not fresh tomatoes. Half the time I really wonder how concrete the data is as everything seems to be contaminated now and I can't stop eating! What to do?
    Hopefully the thyroid nodule is benign. Maybe they'll find white fluff or nougat? Poor joke, I know. Post the results because you know I will worry! And either way + or -, could that have affected the last IVF? Since it is all endocrine and all... just a thought.

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  4. I am keeping my fingers crossed on the biopsy - I hope that the studies were limited on the tomato thing...

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  5. Ok you're freaking me out with the talk of cancer. Regarding canned tomatoes and BPAs... well, I don't really eat canned tomatoes. But that is mostly because my dad grows ten million of them and freezes the excess so I don't need to. If he didn't then I'm sure I would. And this is coming from a person who works in the environmental field and now only takes her lunch to work in glass containers. So don't feel too bad. This is relatively new info.

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  6. Oh Jeez, Seriously? When are you going to catch a break? I hope all is well, you are in my thoughts!

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  7. ARGH! Canned tomatoes? At me to the list of people who had no idea. Although I bet canned tomatoes are regularly consumed by child abusers and by sexually active teens and it doesn't seem to impact their fertility rates. Yeah--I'm a little bitter about that.

    UGH about having to have another biopsy. You need a break! Good to have it out of the way though I suppose. I hope you get good results. And soon.

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  8. Really, canned tomatoes? Wondering if that's now going to be on the list of things to stop eating while cycling. "We need you to stop caffeine, alcohol, oh, and canned tomatoes."

    Hoping the biopsy comes back negative.

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  9. Ugh. I have a multi-nodule goiter (conjures up images of old ladies with huge bulges in their necks!) and remember being scared about possible cancer, but it sounds like a multi-nodule goiter is not very scary...and when I brought those xrays to my endo, he laughed at them for scaring me at all...said it was Hashimoto's. Its all very grey. I have no idea...and i know thyroid cancer is very treatable but any cancer is scary...so sending good wishes. And, I'm sick of even hearing about biopsies from you...you must be so sick of having them! I'm sorry!!!!

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  10. Helpful tip:

    Eden Organics does not use BPA to line their cans of beans. I just wish they made other canned good products.

    http://www.edenfoods.com/faqs/view.php?categories_id=5

    Good luck with the biopsy!

    Cameron

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  11. Yikes! I am so tired of worrying about plastic. I feel like plastic water bottles, the lining of stainless water bottles, plastic containers in the dishwasher, plastic bottles of juice (also acid) etc. etc. have been threatening me for years. I am probably infertile because I put all of my homemade organic leftovers in plastic containers so that I could take my healthy lunch to work and microwave it - releasing all kinds of leached chemicals right into my food!

    I don't even have plastic containers in my kitchen any more. No non-stick coatings, no silicone spatulas. I use glass and stainless steel. I just can't take any more "new reports" - and I'm not some kind of hippie or OCD person. It just got to be too much to keep up with. We eat organic and that's our luxury - no fancy jewelry, no exotic vacations. I figure it all evens out...

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  12. Ashley, noooo! =( I just feel so helpless reading about your most recent health scare (I can only imagine how helpless YOU feel!). You poor, poor dear! When do you get the results of the biopsy?

    Even though this probably isn't cancer, I'm still upset for you. =(

    I swear, there is so much on this planet (most of it man-made!) that's harming us. How in the world do we keep up with it all???

    p.s. I loved (though "love" seems like a strange adjective) your Christmas Letter. Keepin' it REAL. T and I just got our first 2 Look-at-our-adorable-baby-and-happy-family photo Christmas cards in the mail yesterday. Grrr....

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  13. I read the same article and I too eat a lot of canned tomatoes. I checked the organic company that I buy them from, and I think it's still plastic, though they call it "white enamel". Nice sneaky job Muir Glen. You just lost my business. Of course, I then think that's the thing that caused my cycle to fail.

    I hope the nodule is benign. Hugs.

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  14. Oh for heaven's sake.

    LISTEN UP UNIVERSE - STOP TORTURING MR. & MRS. LC!!!

    You know I'm a big foodie - they ALWAYS tell you to get canned tomatoes when they're not in season because they are apparently picked at the height of ripeness and canned immediately to preserve the taste, nutrients and texture. I cannot believe that they found high levels of BPA in them. Sigh.

    As for the thyroid nodule, not my ideal way of spending a lunch hour but at least it is done and you'll find out soon enough. That just stinks and I'm sorry you had to go through the biopsy.

    Hugs.

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  15. Hmmm, BPA is from plastic, it leaches out and has shown cancer-causing properties... so I would think this is a can issue and not a tomato issue. So wouldn't all canned goods have this issue? Or does it have something to do with the fact that tomatoes are acidic? I also thought the leaching happened at higher temps, like microwaving food in a plastic bowl. So frustrating when we try our best to eat healthly and no matter what we do, everything causes cancer.

    I'm so sorry to hear that you had to have your thyroid biopsied, ouch! I alread read your next post that it turned out ok, yeah!!!

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  16. Holy cow... I missed a few days of reading and to read about the biopsy!!! Yowza! And I, too, had no idea about canned tomatoes. I eat and cook with them all the time!

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