Updates!

Hi!

I haven't updated in a while, but I'm doing fine. Sure, it's 3:53 in the morning, but that just means my absolutely adorable dog woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep. It's cool. It happens. Here's what's going on:

- I have a new, great job and I'm very happy about it! I wake up in a state of non-dread on a daily basis. It's so weird!

- We set a wedding date, this Autumn. The venue is tiny, so the guest list will also be tiny. We're excited! We also booked a kick-ass honeymoon.

- Jim's great. The doggie's great (except for the gnawed-at portion of her tail). My family is great. Jim's family is great. Everyone's great.

- My next check-up for the thyroid cancer is not until August, but I've been active in other ways, vis-a-vis my physical health. As of about a month and a half ago, I've been doing Pilates once or twice a week with a super instructor, I have been walking as much as possible, and I just went to acupuncture for the first time last night. Wooo-wooo! As soon as I get around to filing the paperwork with my doctor's office, I'll be joining the gym in my new super-cool workplace.

- I'm going to be doing some more improv soon (way to announce that intention, Lisa)!

That's the news for now!

Sometimes it's nice to know you're right.

I have to say, it's very, VERY comforting to know that I am right about my health now and again.  Even when the results are concerning, it's nice to know I am not crazy.

I have been struggling for months - more than I have in the past, I suppose - with exhaustion, depression, chronic crankiness, my weight, headaches, klutziness, memory issues, etc.  Well, I finally got my blood work back and - surprise, surprise - these symptoms are actually caused by real things!!  

Yes, folks, that's right.  While you may think I'm crazy - and I am, so you're right - you're also wrong, because my symptoms are based in medically proven reality.  I am still hypothyroid and I am still hypocalcemic.  I have been placed on a higher dosage of Levothyroxine (synthetic thyroid hormone) and 2,000 mg/day of calcium + vitamin D.  

Symptoms of both of these deficiencies include those listed above, as well as others I won't burden you with right now.

Can I get a HA!?!

For now, health-wise, that's all the news there is to report.  On the cancer side, the blood work looked fine, and I don't have to get tested again until August/September.

And, while I have a bit more news for you, which is not directly related to healthcare, but is also related to my being right about stuff... well, that news has to wait a while longer!

another day, another bullshit

I think I am hypocalcemic again.  When my calcium gets low, I get... well, the word one might use, if one were being a bitch-ass, would be crazy.

Or it's just very bad PMS.

I did get my blood levels tested, though, so I guess we'll find out soon enough.

"pristine" and random free association

Pristine.

That's what my doctor called the ultrasound.  Yay.

I don't have to get my thyroid rechecked until the late summer or so... and then I'll have a body scan with radioactivity... I think.  Because I haven't had enough radiation applied to my body.

In addition to the ultrasound, I have to have my blood work (I've been remiss) - and then I will update more/again/etc.

Well. I'd better get to bed.

Oh, before I go, the promised free association:

LOST is stupid this season.

I like yogurt.

Roger Ebert looks so sick and I feel awful for him and all the more worried about me in light of his condition.

Oh. And? I fell (for the third time in a few months) today. I fell trying to get on the subway.  The subway driver was kind enough to open the door so I could get my legs out before closing it again and leaving the station.  My elbow hurts.

And stuff.

Tonight

Tonight I looked in the mirror and I was movie-star thin, with eyes and ears that were too big for my elfin, waify face, and I turned sideways and I disappeared.

No.

I am getting no sleep.  I have my three-month follow-up since the radiation in the morning.  I'm trying not to be stressed about it, but I'm also not sleeping.  Soon it'll be time to take the drugs... although I have to get up early...

Eek.

Status update.

Hi Folks,

I'm blogging on my lunch break (such as it is), so this will be necessarily brief.  I just wanted to let you know the latest:

- Thyroid-wise:  I continue to await my first post-radiation follow-up. By "await," I mean "need to schedule."  I will let you know when that is, and what the result is.  (Don't worry, mom, it's not even supposed to be until the end of this month/beginning of next.)

- Other-physical-stuff-wise:  I've been going through some diagnostic testing to ensure that some other concerns identified over the summer aren't awful and/or immediate.  One of them, an ongoing health issue I've dealt with, seems okay at the moment (yay), with the proverbial "keep an eye on it" stamped upon it (I suppose the status has to be proverbial, as one can't really stamp anything on my internal organs without a laser or branding iron). The other issue, a precancerous finding in (and summarily removed from) my small intestine, also seems to be maintaining its status quo at for the time being, in that the doctors, so far, don't see anything else precancerous there.  I had an x-ray with some yummy barium drink, and assuming the radiology doctor's findings don't differ from my GI doctor's findings, I'm golden at least until the next follow-up test, whatever it may be.

- Mental-stuff-wise:  I went through a very trying couple of months around the time of the radiation.  I was depressed and anxious, moreso than ever before.  Whether it was caused by physical challenges, stress, or a combination of the above, a variety of remediations were applied and seem to be having the desired effect.  I'm very much better now and I commented to Jim yesterday that on the way home from work, I experienced this sustained feeling that I couldn't pinpoint at first... and then realized it was happiness.

Well, that's all the news from the front, and it only took me 10 minutes to type... surely a respectable lunch break.  Thanks for the positive thoughts.  Please point some positivity at my doggie if you'd be so kind, as she goes in for dental work (i.e., goes under anesthesia and possibly has surgery) this Friday.  She is the love of my life, as everyone in my life knows, and I am praying that she comes through with the flyingest of flying colors.

It's 12:33 and all is well with my cancer.

I am cancer-free!!!  The radioactive iodine scan found that there was only a small concentration of normal thyroid cells left over, and all in my neck, and they've all (in theory) been obliterated.  I go back to the doc for a checkup in January-ish.

I returned to work after disability and then a quick trip to Florida for a wedding on Tuesday. Catching up is a weighty task.

And I am awake most of the time now.

And I can't stop my brain.