"duh,duh,...duh,duh...DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH DUH..(insert scream here) oh no,it's a BLOG ATTACK!! you can hum this to the scary music from the jaws movies if you'ed like

this blog will NOT let me sleep tonight! it is an open letter to all of my blog followers for your help. as some of you might know, my friend Wendy and i have this website called: thethyroidnecklace.com. we offer a FREE necklace to a thyroid cancer patient, as well as providing (hopefully) good information and our support. it is a non-profit program- we accept donations for necklaces, as well as new or homemade jewelry. all that we ask of recipients is that you provide your "cancer story" and it can be as long or as short as you would like, along with a picture of you. we then will send you  your necklace- our offering of hope and support- and print your story/picture on our website.

some of you might be a little hesitant to write a story chronicling your adventures with  thyroid cancer, but i know from experience how liberating this can be. i started my blog a year ago, as a way of helping others deal with some of the issues i was facing. i hope that i provide good information on thyroid cancer/treatment. but i would be amiss if i did not admit that my blog has been a lifeline to me. it has helped me deal with my situation, and to know that i am not alone. i have "met" some amazing and inspiring people through my blog. that is why i am reaching out to all of you to help us with this project! we are having some trouble getting the plane off the ground so to speak. we have lots of necklaces that we would love to send to fellow thyroid cancer patients.

if you would like to help us with this project, please email me at : dreamfields4ever@aol.com. and we can get started. i would like to thank everyone, especially our first two recipients on our website, in advance for your help and support.

there, i did it. now maybe i can get some sleep.

gee, maybe i am back to "normal" now

we have just finished a three month, well closer to four month, house remodel project. i have been so exhausted that i began to worry that my cancer was back! then i realized a few things: 1) i am getting older- not a bad thing considering the alternative and 2) my thyroid has flown away, and no matter how well my thyroid medication works, it is just not quite the same. i need to be more patient with myself, and realize that i can not work as hard as i did when i was in my twenties( and i had a thyroid then, as well).

i think that every thyroid patient- especially a thyroid cancer patient- that i have talked to has complained about exhaustion. people just do not realize what a powerful organ that our thyroids are. and with most things in life, you really do not miss it until it is gone. when i get sad and start to miss my thyroid, i think about the cancer, and the really,really bad case of thyroiditis that i had before i had it removed. have you ever had thyroiditis? it is so painful and i was to the point that i was just hoping my temperature would be low enough that they would not postpone the surgery. thankfully things went on as planned, and of course that took care of the thyroiditis.

with the remodeling project, i would work for several hours- cleaning- we had dust EVERYWHERE. one day i was in the kitchen trying to fix an omelet before i went to work, and i almost had it out of the pan when the carpenter cranked up his saw. this great "cloud" of sawdust covered everything in the room. and i do mean everything. i can now say that i know what sawdust tastes like,though. ( not too bad, and i just thought of it as a little extra fiber). along with cleaning, i helped move boxes and the occasional piece of light furniture. the thing i did not like, was that  after a few hours my bed pulled me in like a magnet. i could not have resisted it if i had  tried. was that normal? no, not compared to  a few years ago. but i guess that this is my new normal. o.k., i need extra rest now. i feel lazy sometimes, but i still take a nap if i can. some days are better than others, energy wise, and i will admit to going to bed earlier, or sleeping later.

i exercise, yes, zumba!, and i do the best that i can. my house may not be "martha stewart" ready,EVER, but that is o.k. i work full time, even though at times i feel beyond exhausted. but i am here, and i have an awfully lot to be thankful for. i will admit that adjusting to the new normal has been tough. but i am getting there.

"I need to laugh, and when the sun is out, I've got something to laugh about. I feel good, in a special way, I'm in love and its a special day. Good day sunshines, good day sunshine, good day sunshine...." " Good day sunshine, by the beatles

whew, the sun is out, the storms are over( for the moment), i am back on the computer, and my three month house remodeling project is almost over!! what a beautiful day. this is also vacation week for me. i was supposed to spend it in the hospital, getting my full body scan. as some of you might be aware of, thyrogen injection is on backorder from the manufacturer. it is supposed to be available sometime in june. "the best laid plans of mice and men" as they say. i will probably get my scan sometime in july. my new doctor requires that her patients be on the LID for four weeks. FOUR WEEKS!! well, i should be able to easily shed the 20 pounds that i want to lose. ( no joke)  i had a hard time being on it for two weeks last time. the author of my LID cookbook, Noreen Gilletz, says that there is no reason to be on the LID for more than two weeks. does this mean that my new doctor is a sadist? i am not sure, and i should have asked her why four and not the usual two. i am going to ( since i now have some time) inquire about this and get back to you with her answer..

also, she uses the I-123 not the I-131 for the tracer dose. that is not going to work for me( she does not know this yet- i will mention it when i call her nurse this week). i did some checking, and i found out that the LIQUID I-123 that she uses has sulfite preservatives. i am highly allergic to this-anaphylactic  allergic, so i can not use this. i will have to get the I-123 capsule( if there is one) or the I-131 capsule. i have had the I-131 capsule before- both the tracer dose for a scan, and the much, much larger treatment dose. i did fine with that one. i had listed  on my records that i was allergic to all sulfite preservatives, but  no one caught this. good thing i am diligent in checking ingredients in foods and medicines that i take. just another example of taking responsibility for  my health care issues. really,i do not expect anyone to take care of this for me- it is an unusual allergy.  however,  one time i had a cat scan done, and the radiologist noticed that i had a sulfite allergy and changed the contrast medium that i had to drink to one that was sulfite free. i was impressed, but this is an exception, i am afraid.

on a lighter note, i get to go to zumba( if my knee holds out!) for two, possibly three times this week!! yeah. i also have to admit that i bought a pair of zumba pants. i was trying not to, but i decided to give it a try. well, they look cute, but run a little small( really, i am not just saying that!). and the disturbing thing to me is that they come too far  below my belly button. i guess by this statement, you can tell that  i am an old lady! i promise that i do not wear "mom jeans"- my daughter fixed that problem for me a few years ago, but i just do not like anything too low. we have two guys in our class, and well, i  was afraid that they would stand behind me in class and that i would  accidentally moon them or something.i got up my nerve and wore them to class last time. i unsnapped the flippy,floppy streamers( too much competition with my belly scarf- i am  NOT giving up wearing that!). i was feeling pretty cool until we started to do some "bending over" moves. i was a little too anxious, even though the guys were in front of me! next time, i am going to wear my boring, sort of old lady, exercise pants i purchased a while ago from LL bean. they work, but they are not cool like the zumba pants. . maybe, after i have been on the LID for a while, i will get up my nerve and try my fancy zumba pants again.

"Ground control to Major Tom, take your protein pill and put your helmet on. ground control to major tom, commencing countdown, engines on. ....i'm stepping through the door and i'm floating in a most peculiar way, and the stars look very different today. ground control to major tom. your circuits dead, there's something wrong, can you hear me major tom? can you hear me major tom? can you......" Space Oddity by david bowie

i certainly have felt like i was floating alone in the universe without my internet! and to think that i imagined that i did not really need a computer! i finally got my internet service fixed and running as of yesterday. i can get back in touch with my email friends, work on my blog again( i have really missed it!), and oh yes, delete some of those 400 or so emails that i now  have in my inbox.

i hope that several of you have checked out the new website i mentioned last time: thethyroidnecklace.com.
wendy and i sincerely hope that this will be a help to others and maybe offer a little hope and comfort. i am excited about this project, and pray that it will be successful. a friend/co-worker of mine is purchasing a necklace in memory of her mother, who died of thyroid cancer. i asked her to write a little something about her mother, and we will include this in our website for the next necklace recipient.i think that this is a great idea- to purchase a necklace for  another thyroid cancer patient in honor or memory of a loved one.

today was my ONE YEAR CANCER FREE ANNIVERSARY!! yes, this time last year, i was in surgery. i was in a very good mood today at work. most places are better than the OR, right? i have an awfully lot to be thankful for- my family and friends have been so very  good to me. i have been so fortunate to have been able to write this blog-i hope that it has helped others as much as it has helped me. i have made so many great "internet friends". it is so good to be able to talk about thyroid cancer with other thyroid cancer patients. you guys just get it- like no one else does.

my husband sent me flowers to help me celebrate. he has been so supportive, i just can not thank him enough. i hope that every thyroid cancer patient, or any kind of cancer patient, has someone who will be there for them. someone who will offer unconditional love and support. i have realized this year just how much i needed those two things, and how appreciative i am of them.

well, it is good to be back on-line. i also had to miss zumba a couple of times because i hurt one of my knees( doing zumba). i have made friends with my knee brace, which i now  do not forget to wear to zumba, even though it sort of shows( i think) under my exercise pants. the combo of not being able to blog, email or go to zumba was almost too much!! i think that i might have been a little grumpy during those two weeks or so. if my husband noticed, he did not say. see what i mean? he is the greatest. thanks,sweetie!

A new website: thethyroidnecklace.com, and some good news!

i finally got all of my test results back  from duke, via the portal internet site. i have  decided that i like this.( better than the confused, half results that i got from my former endo  via the phone nurse last time. )  i have a password, and i just look at the results- at the same time that my doctor sees them.  if she has any comments, she puts a symbol beside the particular report, or result, and i click on that to see what she has to say. i will have to admit that i would have liked to have gotten just a "you're o.k." comment,too.anyway, there was a HUGE difference between the blood work that i had done at my old endos office and the one at duke. my new doctor told me that they had a more sensitive and reliable test at the duke lab, so i will surely go with that! to compare: my first results were thyroglobulin antibodies 5.6 ( anything over 2.0 is considered positive ) ; thyroglobulin 2.3.( also considered positive).   the lab report at duke showed: thyroglobulin antibodies to be less than 0.6 ( considered negative) and thyroglobulin less than 0.1( also considered negative, or if you were me, PARTY TIME!!) let my story be your cautionary tale. if you have doubts or concerns about any test, get a second opinion. it is your life so you should do your best to get the best information/testing that you can possibly get.

now on to the really big news! a good friend of mine, wendy garland, and i have launched a new website called: thethyroidnecklace.com. our purpose is to educate people about thyroid cancer,resources,etc, and also to present a new necklace to a woman who has had  thyroid cancer. we want to show our  support to other thyroid cancer patients, as well as helping the recipient feel better about that huge scar on her neck. the scar fades over time of course, but it does take some adjustment. this is just a reminder that we care about other thyroid cancer patients, and we certainly have been there as well. wendy and i talked about this, and we decided that the recipient does not have to be newly diagnosed, or has  just had her surgery. everyone's  scar heals differently, and a person might be still dealing with issues a few years afterwards. so, please send us your story about your "adventures in thyroid cancer" to our new website if you are interested. we are going to feature one recipient per month to start, but we are hoping that this will take off, and we will be able to feature more women in the future. our website is non-profit, by the way. we are accepting donations for necklaces if anyone is interested in that- hopefully that will be the case!

we have our first recipient, becky drewrey, and her story is on our website. her story is very interesting, and it is good to read about the experiences of others. i got acquainted with becky through my blog, so i am thankful to so many people who have helped me along the way. mary shomon, host of aboutthyroid.com, really got my blog going for me when she did a feature story about it on her website. i would also like to thank my husband for being such a good sport when i got up late at night, a "blog attack" we call it, to write something i  just had to get onto the computer. i appreciate all of my readers, those of you who have made  comments or not. i sincerely hope that i have provided some good information, as well as support or encouragement to other people who are dealing with thyroid cancer.

a big thank you goes out to the graphic designer who did our logo( for free- she has a big heart,too). her name is jessica rose padgett. she took the ideas that  i had in my head for our logo, and made them happen, beautifully, on paper( o.k., computer). so please visit our website and give us your feedback, and let us know if you are interested in becoming a recipient. and thank you so much, again, for reading my blog.

What in the world was a UNC- chapel hill graduate doing on the campus of Duke University???

the only time that i have ever  been on the duke campus was quite a few years ago when i was a student at UNC chapel hill and attended a basketball game. at the time, all i cared about was throttling them. the rivalry between our schools still goes on strong, so never in my wildest imagination would i have thought that i would go back  to THAT school for any help. 

thanks to wonderful directions from a friend of mine, my husband  and i arrived at our destination with very little stress, and only a minor hike in my blood pressure at check in. the person helping me get checked in- taking my vital signs,etc was wonderful. she even came looking for me when she thought that i had been waiting too long for my lab appointment, after my doctors appointment. i will tell you more about the lab later on. 

so i saw the doctor. she had a student with her, which i think always makes for a somewhat awkward situation. i know that people have to learn how to take care of patients, and that this is part of the process, but i do feel that it makes it a little harder to talk to the doctor. she ordered a repeat on my lab work, and really would not comment too much on what i had had  done at my other endos office. i was expecting that, and i understand where she is coming from. i am sure that she feels more confident using lab work done at her hospital. she told me not to "rule out" more surgery or chemo if she finds something. wow, i was a little surprised about that, i guess. the way i figure it, if i get a good scan and good blood work this time, i am going back to my old endo and try to put this behind me. if however, something comes up-i,e, the cancer has come back in my neck area or somewhere else, i will be in a good hospital for treatment. 

the full body scan is tentatively scheduled for the first week in june. it takes that long for the insurance to approve the thyrogen injections, and it will work out well( i guess) schedule wise for me. that is our vacation week, and so i do not have to worry about my husband or myself getting off work for the procedure. you see, this scan takes all week! on monday i get a thyrogen injection. on tuesday morning i get another thyrogen injection. on tuesday afternoon, i get an injection of ( a tracer dose) I-123. no, not I-131, this doctor uses I-123. i am not sure why she likes it better, but i think that it is because it is given IV and not in a capsule form. also, it is supposed to give better scan results, though i am not sure why this is so. so on wednesday, i have the scan done. on thursday i get to go shopping with my daughter! yeah. then on friday, i go back to duke for the all important blood work. she said i had to have this done there. period. so i am staying with my daughter and son-in-law from sunday night until friday morning. 

i first thought about having the thyrogen injections done at the hospital in hickory( like i did the first time), but as many of you may know, there is a shortage of thyrogen at this  time, and i thought that duke would have a better chance of getting the drug. also, i will admit it is actually less trouble for me to have it all done at one place, and of course there is the added benefit of getting to visit with my daughter. i may even go to some zumba classes with her, that is, if can muster up the energy.i probably will though, everyone knows how much i love zumba! 

i said that  i would tell you about the lab appointment. duke university is a very big place, right? modern, cutting edge medical treatment and so on. the lab for that clinic was the size of a broom closet! really, i am not kidding. the med tech came out to get me and led me to this tiny room that would have been small for one person, but there were about 4 of us in there, and oh, i forgot, a dog. a dog! he was in training, i suppose , for guiding blind patients to the lab. he came right over to me( i know not to pet guide dogs in training), but i guess he knew a dog lover when he saw one. i told my husband i sure hoped that he was not a cancer sniffing dog!  i was sitting in a very small chair that had only one "arm" - on the right side. since my good vein lives in my left arm, i crossed it over my body and laid it on the chair arm. the med tech said " whats da matter with yo' right arm??" " there is no blood in there" " Really?," he says. " Yes, really, and my good vein is about right here", i said, as i pointed to a spot on my left arm. Surprisingly, he hit the mother lode. maybe surprising to him, but since i have been stuck about a zillion times, i like to save the med techs some trouble, and me some pain. 

the thyroglobulin results will take about ten days they said. and i can view them on the computer at the same time the doctor does. i am not sure if she will call, write, or send  out a carrier pigeon  with her diagnosis. maybe she will send me an email. i am o.k. with everything now, i have adjusted and have come up with my own plan of action. that always makes me feel better- more empowered. i will of course, let everyone know what i found out. i have been to duke and survived. someone even had a carolina flag up in the lab.i asked the med tech if it was his, he said "heck, no". maybe it belonged to the dog.....

And now for the rest of the story......

after a very terrible day yesterday, worrying that my thyroid cancer was back somewhere- lurking around in my body, spreading mayhem everywhere, my doctor's nurse left a message on my voice mail today. she said that i have thyroglobulin antibodies present in my body, and the test was probably not accurate!! imagine that. no one has ever told me that, and if they had i would not have freaked out so yesterday.

i am going to include some information from " The Thyroid Cancer Book, 2nd edition" by Sara Rosenthal. this is so maybe some of you out there can avoid this situation that i have had to deal with. ask your doctor about the thyroglobulin antibody test- and make sure they do one when they test for thyroglobulin and that they TELL you if you have the antibodies present or not.

from the thyroid cancer book: " around one quarter or more of thyroid cancer patients ( particularly women) have immune systems that produce antibodies against their own thyroglobulin. the reasons for this are not understood and they do not directly influence your health; however, they can make thyroglobulin testing difficult or even impossible. this is because these antibodies interfere with the blood test for thyroglobulin performed in the lab and prevent the thyroglobulin level in your blood from being accurately measured. If the thyroglobulin antibody level is undetectable, then the measured thyroglobulin level may be considered reliable. if the thyroglobulin antibody level is above the normal values for the lab, then you can not rely upon the thyroglobulin level to see if you have persistent thyroid cancer. "

i mentioned this once in one of my earlier blogs, but i wanted to bring it up again. i did not know that i had thyroglobulin antibodies present and i would hate for anyone else to suffer because they did not have this information. my new doctor- the papillary thyroid cancer specialist( i see her next week) actually called me back today,too. her nurse did not leave a message, but i am going to try to reach her tomorrow. i am curious about what she has to say about my test. and i am sure that she will be repeating it when i go to my appointment. i am not ready to celebrate, but i sure do feel better about things now! i was planning on going to Zumba tomorrow anyway, but tomorrow i can shake those coins on my belly scarf with a lot more joy!!

"Hello,hello baby you called? I can't hear a thing. I have got no service in the club,you see, you see. Wha-wha,what did you say,huh? You're breaking up on me. Sorry, i cannot hear you, I'm kinda busy, kinda busy.......Call all you want, but there's no one home, and you're not going to reach my telephone. We're sorry, but the number you have reached is not in service at this time. please check the number, and try your call again later. " Telephone, by Lady GaGa

o.k. i had blood work done on march 31st. i went in for an ultrasound( it was good they said) and a doctor's visit. while i was there, the doctor sent me down to the lab for some blood work. as i said in my face book page, if they need both hands to carry all of the tubes they need to collect, well- you are in trouble. the med tech was good at her job though, and my one good vein hung in there until it was all collected.

time passes. no word from my doctor's office. since it has been a little more than 10 days, i decide to call about my results. i am not particularly worried- the doctor would call if something was wrong, right? so i have to leave a message with the receptionist. she said- oh, the doctor will call you back. uh-oh. one rule we all live by is that when they say that the doctor has to call you back, it is not very good news. if the nurse calls, it is usually fine. no calls from the doctor. so i call the office back- she says this time that the nurse will call me back. maybe the receptionist just mis-spoke and  the the news is not that bad? this morning, i called the nurse back, yet again, and she said- oh, my thyroglobulin test came back a 2. a 2????? it is supposed to be zero, or close to it at least. and a 2?  a two what? a 2.0 on the scale for earth quakes? a t-2 tornado? when i quizzed her on this, she said that the doctor would call me back. guess who has not heard from the doctor yet.

i see a papillary thyroid cancer specialist a week from today. she practices at duke hospital in durham. i called her office, even though she has not seen me as yet. she has all of my records-biopsy,pathology reports,etc, and also the last questionable blood work that i had done in march. i asked( more like begged) her receptionist if she could answer a few question. she said, sure, the doctor will call you back. is that like " the check is in the mail"? am i on some big "NO CALL LIST" and just do not know about it yet?

i had to go home early from work today. the discussion i had with the nurse reminded me of the day that i got the bad news about my thyroid cancer. i was at work then, too. maybe i am just worrying about this too much. maybe it is not a big deal. what is another round of I-131 among friends? anyway, i can not help but worry and i can not find any web site that has any sort of reasonable thyroglobulin test result numbers. there is quite a large variation, from what i can tell. and one site suggested a pre-treatment level be drawn for comparison. ( gee,  wish i had known about that earlier)'

i will of course keep everyone informed about my situation. and by the way, no matter how you feel about Lady GaGa and her wild outfits, her music is great for Zumba.

a guest blog from another cancer survivor

Wendy joins us as a guest blogger with this article.  Wendy resides in South Carolina with her husband and two children.  She works full-time.    As a result of her thyroid cancer experience has most recently started the Myrtle Beach Thyca Support Group.  In addition, she and I are in the process of starting The Thyroid Necklace project to help provide support and information to other thyroid cancer survivors.

A brief description of her thyroid cancer is quite a journey.   She scheduled a doctor appointment after experiencing difficulty sleeping to discuss options for a routine goiter removal.  In February 2010, she was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer and in March 2010 she had a 6 cm carcinoma removed during a near total thyroidectomy.  Recovery from her surgery included RAI in July 2010.  Difficulty with her voice led to further tests in the fall and in November 2010, she underwent a right neck dissection removing 11 lymph nodes, 2 of which were confirmed papillary cancer.

Top 12 things you can do for someone with cancer:

1. Offer encouragement. Don’t just dwell on the bad news of my diagnosis. But don’t ignore that what I am fighting is scary and life changing. Just being there to listen, visit or hug can be worth a lot.

2. Pray for me. I can use all the help I can get to fight this disease.

3. Offer laughter. Laughter is an awesome message. While I am fighting a sickness I still find things funny. It’s okay to laugh and many times it’s very needed. So share your jokes with me.

4. Call or visit me. While this is a time that I value friendship and relationships, going out can be a challenge some days. Call to make sure that I’m up for a visitor and then drop by. Just chatting or watching a favorite movie together can be so rewarding for me. Take the initiative to contact me first. When you struggle with fighting this disease, you don’t want to burden others anymore than you already are, so I’m less likely to call and ask you to come over. Please be understanding if it’s a day I need rest and know it’s not personal.

5. Offer support to my family. Our lives have changed and it wasn’t by choice. My children still want to be able to participate in normal activities. So if you could drive them to birthday parties, ball or band practice or to the mall to shop around the holidays, it would be most appreciated. They deserve some normalcy in their lives. I’m not asking for a babysitter, just a helping hand so my child can participate in their normal activities while his/her parent is fighting cancer.

6. Bringing over a meal can be such a relief. While I am seeking treatment or feeling sick, just a hamburger helper meal for my family can be a huge relief for me.

7. Drop a note in the mail to let me know you are thinking of me. When you are fighting cancer, it’s easy to get discouraged. That cheerful note in the mailbox may be just what I need on the day that receive the phone call from the doctor wanting more tests.

8. Offer to drive me to doctor’s appointments. There will be times along my treatment process that just the act of getting in the car and driving to an appointment is a monumental task. While family members may be willing to go with me, they may have limited time off from work. If you are free, it could be a huge assistance to drive me to a doctor’s appointment and give me some much needed time with a dear friend.

9. Run errands for me. Nothing is more exhausting than trying to go place to place for errands. So if you’re out anyway, you could help by picking up the dry cleaning or a few items from the grocery store or Wal-mart. Maybe you could pick me up a few books to read from the library and drop then off for me to read while I’m sitting at my doctor’s appointments.

10. Any routine tasks you are willing to assist with would be a tremendous help. Sometimes just rolling the trash to the curb, vacuuming, or sweeping the floor can really help us out. Don’t think anything is too small.

11. Help me to feel as normal as I can during this time. If I’m worried about a huge scar on my neck, help me find a nice chunky necklace to distract from it. If I’m having treatments and losing my hair, offer to help me find nice earrings so I can still feel feminine. If I’m fighting skin cancer, be willing to wear a big straw hat when we go out so I don’t stand out and feel different.

12. Realize that you are important to me. Take care of yourself. Be sure to do your neck checks, mammograms and pap smears, prostrate checks so in the event cancer does decide to enter your life, you can detect it early. Help promote awareness.

 thank you wendy for some great ideas! since my children are grown, i especially appreciated hearing about what others could do to help younger children cope with all that we are going through. i hope that other cancer patients can maybe print this out and offer it to others who are concerned, but really do not know what to do to help. 

" So we back in the club, get that bodies rocking from side to side, side to side. Thank God the week is done, feel like a zombie gone back to life, back to life. Hands up, suddenly, we got our hands, up, no control of my body. ....So dance, dance like it's the last, last night of your life, life gonna get you right. " DJ got us falling in love , by Usher

i have just returned from raleigh, and my endocrinologists office where i had my ultrasound and an office visit. things went pretty well, i think. my ultrasound was clear- no aliens growing  in there or anything. i did have to have a lot of blood drawn though- my endo is checking my thyroglobulins, and also my calcium among other things. remember i only have two little parathyroids working for me now. my calcium was low the last time that i had it checked, so we have to keep an eye on that. i asked my doctor if she knew where the surgeon put my remaining two parathyroids. he would not tell me( ?) but i just wanted to know an approximate location. my endo said that the surgeons usually "chop them up", sounds painful, and place them in the muscular tissue in your neck. i wonder if that is why i felt like i had swallowed a sock right after my surgery? anyway, by the parathyroids being in the muscular tissue, they can (hopefully) get some blood flow from that tissue and reattach. i swear, this reminds me of those birds- i think they are mockingbirds- who lay their eggs in another birds nest and let them take care of them. i hope my parathyroids are getting good care from my muscle tissue!! lol

also, i talked to my endocrinologist about seeing the papillary cancer specialist. she was just fine with this. she said that the other doctor would be doing my full body scan( some time this summer), and she would work with this doctor and share information. also, i found out that there is a doctor who works with the cancer specialist, who is a parathyroid specialist. depending on my blood work, i may need this guy's help. anyway, it is all good. i see the papillary cancer specialist april 18th, and i will of course let everyone know how that went. i have another ultrasound scheduled with my endo in september. wow, i hope that i can keep up with all of these doctors.

on an interesting note, i was in a zumba  flash mob last night! imagine this: the scene is a crowed art crawl in university art center. everyone is enjoying the art work- pictures, sculptures, as well as some unusual performance art( one "performance" was a guy in a beekeepers suit dropping tons of apples on the floor! try dancing around that!). our instructor turned on the music( DJ got us falling in love- some of the lyrics are in the title) and she starts dancing. then, the rest of us gradually join in! we are wearing all black, and i think look pretty cool. it was a little hard to dance with the people, art work, and those darn apples still rolling on the floor, but it was so much fun! there were a lot of video cameras there, and someone said that we would be on the local TV station. oh, brother- i sure hope they focus on our instructor, which they probably will. anyway, you gotta dance like it is the last night of your life. you should always do that, i think.

i am doing two blogs today- the one following this one was written by my friend, wendy. she is another thyroid cancer patient, and we have a really exciting project coming up soon. i will be letting everyone know about it when we launch our project. her article is about some things that you can do that would be helpful and appreciated by cancer patients- especially when they are going through surgery and/or treatments.

Whoohoo, i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!

i am so glad to be connected again!! we got a wireless service internet, and just got it going last night. we still have some work to do- we need to hook up the wireless router so that we can move the computer out of my daughters bathroom. yes, bathroom. when it comes to reception at my house, think of that commercial where the man is contorted like a pretzel trying to get some reception on his cell phone. that, my friends, is what it is like at my house! hopefully, we can get this thing up and running a little more effectively. in the meanwhile, i am typing and keeping my fingers crossed( that i do not lose the signal)

as most of you know, we are in the middle of a major house remodeling project. i was talking to one of the construction workers yesterday. he was the only brave soul to get out yesterday- it was sleeting and snowing a bit. it was really cold- especially compared to the warm weather we have had lately.  i was in the kitchen making some tea, and he was working on the wiring for my dryer that will be moved to my pantry. i was telling him that my husband and i would be out of town wednesday and thursday because i had a doctors appointment and ultrasound on thursday. normally i would have left it at that, but for some reason i also told him that i am a thyroid cancer patient. he said "did i hear you say, a THYROID cancer patient?" i said yes, fully expecting him to ask me where my thyroid was or something like that.( believe it or not, some people have asked me that. i even had one person say, well, i did not know you could have cancer there! i did not know how to answer that one.) instead, he told me that he had thyroid cancer back in 2007! from that point, it was on! we showed off our neck scars and talked about our experiences.

his case was very interesting. he is an Vietnam veteran, and was exposed to agent orange. the doctors told him that they could not prove this, but they think that the agent orange triggered his thyroid cancer. i have not read any statistics about agent orange and thyroid cancer, but it makes sense to me. i am going to try to do some research on this. of course, this did not cause my thyroid cancer- i will probably never know the answer to that question. but my goal now, is to live as healthily as possible, and to look forward, and of course, live a good  and happy life.

i went to zumba last night. i can not wait to tell my children( they are grown and married, but will still always be my children) that i am going to be a part of a zumba flash mob! we are going to perform  at an art gallery. i love to keep my children guessing! i like it when they say, i wonder what mom is up to now? i am a little nervous about performing zumba in front of people that i do not know. they will be surprised, pleasantly, i hope. but it should be fun, and it is good to try new things. i really do not want to be on youtube,however.....

Another cautionary tale......

yesterday i found out that one of my good friends, and colleagues,has been diagnosed with colon cancer. she had not had any symptoms, and there is no family history  of colon cancer. she found out about this when she had her screening colonoscopy- one is recommended at age 50.

since there is some family history of colon cancer in my family, i started with my colonoscopies before i turned 50. i have had several colon polyps removed so far- none have been the type that can become or are cancerous. there is a link, and this is pretty well established, between colon polyps and thyroid cancer- especially papillary thyroid cancer. so please, everyone have a screening colonoscopy!! i know that if you are dealing with thyroid cancer, or other thyroid disorders, you do not relish the idea of more testing. but colon cancer can be treated if caught early. i am not a doctor, of course, and i do not know all the particulars about my friends case, but i do believe from what she has told me, that she has a good prognosis. she is in the third round of her chemotherapy,however, so she is going through some tough times right now.

some people are afraid or hesitant to have a colonoscopy done. well, before my first one, i was very anxious. i want everyone to know that there is nothing to be afraid of. the "prep" that you have to do the day or two before is a little challenging, i will be honest.you have to go on a liquid diet and drink either a large volume type laxative, or there are tablets you can take- but you have to take about 50 of them. the test itself is not painful at all. i go to an endoscopy center( that is all that they do there) and a gastroenterologist does the test. they use the "conscious sedation" method which i like. i have an iv inserted in my arm, and the medicine i get just relaxes me. if it were to get painful or something they could add more medicine, or even "put me to sleep", but that has never happened. i get to lay there and look at my colon on the big screen as the doctor is doing the procedure( think katie couric here). a good thing about this type of anesthesia is that you can hop up and put your clothes on and head on home in no time( of course you still can not drive and have to have someone with you, for safety). as for the polyp removal, it is not painful. i did not even know when the doctor did it. they tell me that we do not have nerve endings in our intestines, like we have in our fingers for example, so we do not feel pain when they are removed. believe me, i am a weenie, and if it was painful i would tell you!!

so that is my soapbox message for the week. please schedule your colonoscopy, and if you run across a "Mr. Sticky" you might give him a try as well!!

The totally true story of "Mr. Sticky"

as some of you might know, we are doing a major remodeling project on our home. today, they tore out the floor and dug  about three feet down  in yet another room- this one that is closest to where my husband and i now "call home". i am  scheduled to work the 12 to 9 shift today and tomorrow. when i work the evening shift, i have to deal with the banging,etc, that goes along with home demolition.( they start work at about 7:30, so no extra sleep for me!) they are doing a great job- they are really nice people, but it is a little unnerving to hear/see your house being  destroyed- even if it is what you wanted, and you know that things will look better before too long.

so, i got ready for work  pretty fast, and decided to do a little shopping before i went in to work. i went to a department store, and started looking around. i had only been there a few minutes before i heard an announcement over the intercom:" Attention shoppers, if you will hurry on over to the flashing light, you may be able to receive some free gifts!" o.k. free gifts? usually strings are attached, but i had the time, so i hurried on over. there were only 3 other women besides me, but the woman doing the demonstration acted like we were the "chosen ones". she said, since you have your tickets already, you will be the only four people receiving this free gift!. the woman beside me looked in her hands for a ticket( i swear), but i told her not to worry, because we were the ONLY FOUR PEOPLE in the entire store- well, if you did not count the sales staff.

our free gifts were very small microfiber cloths used to clean eye glasses. i noticed that only 50% of us actually wore glasses( i use  mine for reading), but free is free. then, the sales lady said" well, now, what comes after the number one? since i knew the answer, she gave me yet another microfiber cloth.oh, goodie!

then here comes the sales pitch: she was selling this wonderful product, not sold in stores( oh, no, i knew i needed to run. remember when i blogged that i was a sucker for "as seen on t.v. stuff"?)but today only we could buy it in the store. she asked us if we ever used lint brushes. of course we all do. she showed us what lint brushes would do, or rather not do, then proceeded to (drum roll here) whip out "Mr. Sticky"!! now Mr. Sticky is able to pick up just about anything- lint,hair,kitty litter- she demonstrated all of that. then she washed Mr. Sticky- that is how you clean it. she made us all touch it before and after it was cleaned. i was hoping that i had extra hand gel in the car.

of course, as in all good " as seen on t.v. products", there came the line, BUT WAIT, if you purchase Mr. Sticky today, you will also receive a pocketbook size and the large size( i was wondering what you could use the large size for- it has a telescoping handle.she said it would be useful to remove "stuff" from the ceiling. wow, what stuff? Mr. Sticky is really sticky, by the way. you could probably remove a small animal from the ceiling with that thing.

there is no inspirational message to this blog. of course i brought "Mr. Sticky" home with me- to the delight of the sales person.  another woman bought one as well. how well " Mr. Sticky" does is any one's guess, but i can sure laugh at myself. which is a good thing, i think. although tomorrow,instead of going shopping , i believe i should go to the library before work.

"You can never hold back spring; even though you've lost your way,the world keeps dreaming of spring. so close your eyes, open your heart,..you can never hold back spring. remember everything that spring can bring, you can never hold back spring. " You can never hold back spring, by Tom Waits

no matter how cold the winter. no matter how much snow, ice and freezing rain winter has dumped on us this year, spring is on it's way!! YEAH!!! i walked outside the other day, and it seemed to me ( well, you all know i have an active imagination) that the trees were all excited. they are excited because they are getting new clothes soon. i mean, i get really excited over new clothes so i get it. i can see just a hint of pink in the cherry trees and a smidgen of green in the weeping willows. the daffodils are starting to peek their heads out- come on out, i say. it is truly amazing, but it happens each and every year without fail.

i can not help but think about all of us who have thyroid cancer. we have been through one tough winter, but man oh man, spring is on it's way!! we all have our "setbacks" of course, and there will be more cold weather for sure. some of my flowers/bushes that seem to be over-achievers will get damaged by a late frost, but at least they are trying.

this will be my first spring after my cancer diagnosis. i still have lots of tests coming up- an ultrasound the end of this month, a full body scan in may, etc, but i still feel pretty hopeful about things. the thing is, no matter how much we cancer patients have to go through, there is hope and joy to be found all around us. you just have to look. o.k. maybe you need really strong glasses to see it, but trust me, it is there.

we are remodeling our house this year. my husband and i have talked about doing it for years. but, i think, and my husband has not really come out and said this, we are finally doing it because we realize that who knows what the future might bring. this is important to us- it will make things more comfortable for us, and provide more usable space for our family when they visit. you can not put off doing the things that you feel that you need to do. you can not put off your joy anymore than you can hold back spring. go for it- get a really bad case of spring fever, and enjoy it! 

"its not how fast, it's not how far" a song from the movie Secretariat

i really wish i had the lyrics to this song! i saw the movie this weekend, and thought that it was great. i do not ride horses, but i do admire them. i am a little bit scared of them- after all, they are HUGE. and i have had  two sort of "run ins" with horses. one time, a horse bit the button off of my coat- while i was standing there trying to pet him. another time, our neighbors horses just sort of ran free ( that should tell you how far out in the boonies i am) and one of the horses- his name was romeo, would eat the flowers in my flower garden. if i tried to chase him away, he chased me back into the house! i do have a picture of the "two of us" that my husband took. i look a little nervous in the picture, he looks a little mischievous.

anyway, we  knew how the movie turned out, but there my husband and i were, cheering secretariat on like it was an actual race or something. i do like the idea that everyone has their own race to run. and it is not how fast or how far we run. the fact that we are trying to get there, trying our best and living each day with as much joy as we can.that is what really matters.

i know this will come as a shock, but i was just too tired to go to Zumba tonight. it is the first time that i have missed it ( remember, i went right after both of my skin cancer surgeries, and again  with a broken toe). but tonight i was just worn completely out! i worked all weekend, and my salivary glands/jaw has given me a fit all weekend. i surely wish i knew if there was anything i could do to prevent this! it got really swollen- people at work noticed it, hot to the touch,etc. i drank lots of water, sucked on lemon candy, and massaged my jaw when i could. i finally broke down and took some advil. it really does help, but of course i do not want to take it everyday. this is a small issue compared to the big picture , i know. perhaps it will resolve itself at some point. my ENT doctor had no idea how long i would have trouble with this. it seems that everyone( yes, i am a member of this club) who got a whopper I-131 dose is more likely to have trouble with this. if anyone has any further ideas, please let me know! of course i will ask my endo about it the end of this month.

about my old endo. i have decided that i do not want to lose her completely. if she agrees to this, i will ask her if i can see the papillary cancer specialist for a time, then hopefully the new doctor will decide that i can go back to my old endo. two endos are better than one,right? right now, though, i think that i could gain a little more peace of mind with the specialist. after i have been in remission for a few years( i sure hope!) then i can go back to my old endo. well, that is the plan. we will see how it goes.