specialist visit yesterday

Well, went in to the endocrinologist yesterday. My hyperthyroidism is actually worse now (according the the blood tests) than when they gave me the radiation treatment last month. They did say this might happen, as the thyroid releases all of its stored hormones as it dies. So another six weeks without any physical activity to protect my heart. Another six weeks of propranolol. Another six weeks and then I get to go in for another round of blood work and specialist visits.

And yes, I am sort of sad. I had hoped things would be on the upswing by now.

We have had two days of heavy rain, which has melted a lot of the heavy snow cover and turned everything into a sea of mud and water. We are expecting about twelve hours of sustained 50-60MPH winds tonight. So they are expecting widespread power outages as a result, as trees are expected to fall. I am hoping beyond the power of words to describe that we manage to keep our power here at home.

it is trying to be spring

It has actually been above freezing for three days in a row - and that is saying a lot this winter, as it has been bitterly cold and very snowy. The snow is trying to melt now, which should help with the furniture delivery on Friday.

I cannot remember if I ever posted about the new furniture or not. The last couple of months are all sort of a blur in my head what with the thyroid thing and all. Anyway, we have had the same living room furniture for more than fifteen, and possibly as many as twenty years. It has more or less survived cats, a large dog, and two rambunctious sons and their friends. Needless to say, it is literally falling apart now - to the point where the wooden frame has come out of the back and poked holes in the walls.

So Dan and I ordered new furniture for our wedding anniversary in late December. I must have sat on 20-30 couches and found one with great lower back support that was very comfortable. So we ordered a reclining sofa, reclining chair, and reclining love seat. They will all be in a dark chocolate brown. They are made by La-Z-Boy right here in Michigan, so we are supporting our local economy while buying much needed furniture.

The chair and the sofa will go in the living room and the love seat will go in the front room, where we have never actually had furniture other than a china hutch and book cases, as we could not afford to buy new furniture when we moved into the house. It will be lovely having the reclining love seat there. We can relax and listen to music, sit in front of the gas fireplace, and watch the snow falling outside through the picture window. I cannot wait until it comes on Friday.

On last Friday I went in and got blood drawn at the hospital for my Tuesday appointment with the next specialist for my thyroid.

This year I added the kids to my vision insurance just for the hell of it, since it did not cost much. It turned out that they both needed glasses, so this was a very good decision.

heh

It has been three years now (this month back in 2006) since I permanently dropped someone from my life whom I once considered to be a dear friend. I did this because he kept lying to me and treating me like complete and total crap. It saddens me that I still miss the many good things about him, such as his laughter, but I know that I did the right thing.

Why does the right thing sometimes hurt so much?

Ah well. I know that I am the only one hurt by it. I felt great friendship towards him, but he certainly never felt any towards me. By both his words and actions he proved that I meant nothing to him at all.

Well, the new furniture did not come, as it was supposed to on Friday. They said that two of the three pieces have been made and are at the Belleville warehouse. The third has yet to be made by the factory, and they are saying to look for all three to be delivered on Valentine's Day weekend. I am looking very much forward to the new furniture, and reclining in front of the big window and fireplace in the front room with a jazz CD playing and a good book to read

Well, last week was rough. Lots of snowy roads - I saw many people off in ditches both driving in to work and driving home from work. But I did survive, and hopefully I will never have to work another day shift. I cannot stand waking up in the darkness and cold, as I had to for the month of January.

In addition, we all have a nasty bronchitis. "We" meaning everyone here at home along with everyone at work. Seems to be the thing going around the area right now.

After only having Saturday off, tonight I will be heading in to work to go back my usual Sunday through Thursday second shift (providing I am feeling up to trying). I have the feeling this might be another long week to start off February, after January being an extremely long and unpleasant month.

killing the thyroid

On Thursday they decided that I did indeed have Grave's Disease, and decided to give me a huge drink of radioactive iodine (again mixed with disgusting luke warm Ann Arbor tap water) to destroy my thyroid. Again, it made my stomach upset, but I managed not to throw up.

The dose was large enough that I have had to stay in seclusion for a few days. Monday was the first day I had been cleared to go to work, but poor Dan had to continue to sleep on the couch until Wednesday night so as to be protected from radiation exposure. I had to use my own bathroom (thank God we have two in the house) until then as well, flushing at least twice each time I used the toilet (the two main pathways my body will get rid of the extra radiation are spit and pee) until Wednesday as well. We replaced the shower curtain and toilet seat in the one I had been using just to be on the safe side. I had been using all paper and plasticware for eating purposes, and they went into a separate trash bag from the rest of the garbage.

They say I will actually feel a lot worse for the next 2-3 weeks, as my thyroid will release all of its stored hormones as it dies and all of my symptoms will probably get worse until I go into hypothyroidism, and then will be put on artificial thyroid hormones for the rest and my life and stabilize.

I will be taking a drug called propranolol for the next 2-3 months to protect my heart from palpitations. Every time they have taken my heart rate over the past year it has been racing along at around 100 beats a minute, and they do not want that to get worse from the thyroid surge as my thyroid dies. So far the drug seems to be keeping my heart rate down in the eighties, so that is big improvement.

To make things even worse for me, this month I have too go into work on day shift for the first time in more than twenty years. Needless to say, getting up at 5:30AM is not fun, and I hate never seeing any sunlight (as the sun is not up yet when I go into work, I have no window access, and the sun goes down only about an hour after I leave work). This is probably the very worst time for the extreme shift change to happen, and i am exhausted and unhappy with life right now.

I'm so hot I'm radioactive...oh, wait...

Well today was the day I went in for the first round of serious tests for my thyroid, with round two tomorrow.

It was sort of a weird day.

Had to go in "bright" and early, at 0830, when it was still freaking dark out. I hate that crap. People should not have to get up before the sun. Of course, in the depths of the Michigan winter, that would not happen until what many would call mid morning. It was ten degrees Fahrenheit, too, and I also hate that crap.

First I waited in a waiting room with my husband. Then they called me away, and I got to sit in another waiting room for a while.

Then I got called in to an exam room, where they used a special camera with a lens that looked like a telescope to take the before pictures of the outside of my throat, and also measured the baseline radiation readings. (The after pictures will be taken tomorrow, after my thyroid has had 24 hours to suck up all of that tasty radioactive iodine).

And then I got the joy of drinking some low dose radioactive fluid, mixed with disgusting lukewarm Ann Arbor tap water (Ann Arbor has the worst tasting city water of any place I have ever been - depending on the day it can taste like anything from sewer to swamp. Oddly enough, Detroit has some of the best tasting city water anywhere - but I digress). So I drank it down. The radioactive stuff was in a plastic container put inside a lead lined thermos thingee.

Then I got called to another exam room where they pulled blood and then shot me up with a low dose of radiation. The shot came in a lead lined box.

I then got to wait in a third waiting area, while they gave my thyroid 15 minutes or so to suck up and trap the crap they injected me with.

Then they had me lie down on a table and they took films of my thyroid. Some of the films involved them putting a huge machine right over my head, with the cone pressed into my throat. Unfortunately, this made me have a panic attack, with made me hyperventilate and nearly faint and nearly vomit. But by closing my eyes and counting to one hundred over and over again (each image took about five minutes and I had to stay completely still for that time even though I wanted to slap aside the machine and run away screaming and throwing up and peeing in terror and panic and horror) I managed to remain sane and still.

I was told I could go home after the doctor looked at the films to make sure that they were usable. But I think he saw something in the films, as he decided to feel up my throat. So he put his hands around my neck and felt it by pressing his hands up against it, and had me drink small sips of more disgusting lukewarm Ann Arbor tap water (not good when your stomach is already trying to puke) to see what it felt like from the outside when I swallowed.

So after that, then they said the films were fine, and that I could leave.

We got the hell out of there and started driving home, and was still feeling really queasy. But I was trying really hard not to throw up, as who wants radioactive vomit all over themselves and their car? Even though it was still very cold, I had to crack the car window open for the cold air as it helped calm my stomach, and my husband had to pull over in city parks a couple of times when I started gagging. I did manage not to throw up, which was good. That way my tests tomorrow will not be messed up, plus the city did not have to call out a hazmat team to clean up radioactive puke in a city park.

This took all morning, and they had originally told me I would not have to miss work (I talked to my supervisor as soon as nuclear medicine called me to tell me about my appointment and arranged to have the day off anyway, thank God, as there was no way I could have gone into work after that panic attack or with a stomach that upset) or a driver (my husband volunteered anyway, thank God).

Round two will be tomorrow morning, again bad and early and dark. They will use the telescope thingee to take more pictures of the outside of my throat and read the radiation levels. And then I will get to see the endocrinologist on staff with the nuclear medicine department.

I am really hoping there will be no more panic attack inducing stuff.

Happy New Year!!!

And the Wings came through for us all, winning the Winter Classic in Chicago! We Michiganders can always count on our beloved Red Wings!

Spent a relaxing day at home, with family. We watched the Wings, watched The Dark Knight, and had make your own submarine sandwich night, and all ate too much.

But the old superstition says that if you start out the new year with a feast with the people that you love, you will have a prosperous year.

May it be so!

And may we all (especially Steven with his post concussion syndrome) and I (with the thyroid issues) have a much healthier year as well!