busy

things have been busy around here....but wanted to check in and say I've officially begun my thyroid ablation treatment and am hibernating in my own home. from today through monday morning i can't really be around the girls much. dan either, but especially the girls. i took a dose of radioactive iodine to kill my thyroid since i'm no longer responding to medication (I have Graves' disease / hyperthyroidism). i wasn't looking forward to this, but i've been sweating rather uncontrollably these last months. at first i attributed it to summer heat, but labs confirmed i was still running high.

of course today didn't go at all smoothly because someone forgot that i needed a pregnancy (ha!) test prior to this procedure. needless to say i was already halfway through (and had already spent 1/2 hour in the x-ray lab getting scans of my neck) before someone else realized the error. i was livid. i had a total panic attack in my endocrinologist's office because i was concerned lab results (which we all know were negative, obviously) would hinder the pharmacy's ability to get my drugs in a timely fashion (and there was much orchestration required to get the kids squared away---day care, D, sitters, mother-in-law, etc.) and therefore muck up my plans. fortunately we got it all worked out, the labs were ordered STAT, and i took my iodine around 2 p.m. this afternoon....

i have to use plastic utensils and paper plates; i have to flush the toilet 3 times whenever i use it; i cannot wash my laundry with the rest of my family's, and i cannot prepare anyone else's meals. until monday. sounds like a vacation, right? WRONG. because i can't contaminate anyone else, either. so no spa day, no massage, no shopping, etc....because i have to be a minimum of 6 feet away from anyone else at all times (I can *briefly* embrace my kids once or twice a day, but no kisses). i'm lucky christy sent me some new books to read, and Netflix comes in the mail. and i can't contaminate anyone over the phone or through email, thank goodness! but it's also stressful being in the house when the girls are here (like now). and they don't really understand why they can't get near me despite my explanations of not feeling well and having "yucky germs."

anyway, more tomorrow since i'll have all this time on my hands and no children to contaminate...