it's always something

i have "thyroiditis" now. the fun never ends, does it?
i started feeling off on thursday and dismissed it. when it continued on friday, i called my mom and then dan, and then left a message for my doctor. i was super hot (even more so than usual, which means i was disgustingly sweaty), very breathless/winded, and felt a large lump in my throat....almost like i was trying to swallow a golf ball. and my neck was very tender. i really didn't want to be one of those patients. you know the ones. the ones that call and call and nag and act like hypochondriacs. i suppose being a doctor's wife i overhear a lot of conversations and most of the time people are just overreacting. but my own husband started freaking out a little and wanted me to come right in to his office. so that's when i called my doctor.

he called me back and we talked about my symptoms. he said it's thyroiditis. which i don't fully comprehend, but i think it's a reaction to the treatment/ablation therapy i had. my thyroid is rebelling. it's swollen (i suspect this was causing the tenderness and the lumpish feeling in my throat) and my symptoms are getting worse instead of better. he prescribed some beta blockers (i'm not even sure what they do, but i think they're supposed to help with the shortness of breath mainly) and told me to take 600 mg of Advil every 4-5 hours. the beta blockers are kicking my ass and making me soooo sleepy...so i haven't been taking them as often as i was told. and the advil is tearing up my stomach even though i'm taking it with food. argh. he said if i wasn't feeling better within a week, we'd try some steroids and i'd need to come in. so it's just a waiting game until then, i guess.

i am paranoid that this means the ablation therapy didn't work and i'm either going to have to do it again or have a thyroidectomy. i'm frustrated and wishing the fall weather would get here so i could maybe stop sweating slightly. ugh. when i talk half the time it sounds like i've just finished running a marathon or something. and for someone who's not that out of shape, it's definitely worrisome.

in other news, i took the girls to synagogue this morning for a Rosh Hashanah program called "Mazel Tots." We had cupcakes and apples with honey, sang songs, did an art project, and met some other kids. sadly the next program is for Hanukkah, and it's the same day as the girls' birthday party...so I guess we'll have to miss it...boo!

we're going to services tomorrow night and tuesday morning, and meeting with a potential decorator tuesday evening. we just don't trust ourselves and our taste and want this house to come together nicely. we won't use her for every little thing, but for most of the bigger things like flooring, paint colors, window treatments, and some of the big furniture. we obviously have a lot of furniture already, but are in need of a new couch for the basement and some new things for a cozy/formal living room (which doesn't exist in our current home)...and we'll be getting rid of the girls' toddler beds when we move and getting real big-girl beds. yay! i can't believe they are almost three years old?!?!?!?!

ok. gotta go.
and so many shows returning tonight----Brothers & Sisters, Dexter, and Californication. And True Blood started a few weeks ago and we love that. Sunday is a big tv night. Thank goodness for DVR!!!

house pics

prepping for roof, which should go on next week. and it's hard to see here, but some of the windows have been installed.























in the middle is where the screened in porch will be....

Quote du Jour

Abby to Dan just seconds ago:

"Daddy, I have a wedgie. You take it out of my tushie for me, please."

Charlotte's Web

Ok, so I'm no Ansel Adams and I don't edit my pics. These photos don't do a justice. This spider was HUGE and had erected an enormous web in between two of our hibiscus bushes. She was suspended in mid-air and I nearly walked into her (we have some stepping stones between those bushes that lead into the driveway). I wish you could see better....

done!

woohoo! finally. back to normal and can be around my kids, husband, etc.

i have to follow up with my endocrinologist in a month for labs and we'll be able to confirm whether or not the radioiodine worked. let's hope so. and then i'll start my new medication which i'll have to take for the rest of my life (but my hormone leves should remain much more stable from here on out). in the interim, my symptoms haven't abated at all, and i was sad to learn it may be months before i feel better. i guess it's a small price to pay, so i'm trying to be patient. but we all know that's not exactly a virtue of mine!

we are gearing up for Halloween and I've started putting up decorations outside. I scored some NWT Pottery Barn Kids witch costumes on EBay for $20. Hooray! They are so excited, but probably not as excited as I. I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

my dad and kory have rescheduled their visit (they were supposed to come a few months ago and had to cancel) for the weekend of 10/4. looking forward to that. and working on Thanksgiving plans and trying to coerce my brother Mark and his wife and daughter to make the drive up here with my mom and Kevin. We'd love it. We'll see.

the house is coming along nicely. second floor walls are in and windows are going in. roof is supposed to go on next week. we're hoping to be in sometime next summer. time will tell. i am significantly more patient than my husband, so my expectations are not as high. i'll be happy if we're in there by the middle of fall.

i guess that's it for now....

i miss my kids

i just want to hold them.
sigh.

tomorrow, maybe.

House progress.....

Side view from yard

front

basement

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...

Sarah Palin makes me nauseous

I just have to get this off my chest. Surely I'm allowed to share my own views within this blog, and I must declare my distaste for Sarah Palin publicly. I read a lengthy article in yesterday's New York Times that described how she hired all her old high school pals to fill various positions and conversely fired people she didn't like or who crossed her. And she urged the city's library to remove Daddy's Roommate from shelves, claiming that it was "offensive." Whatever. Obviously this is nothing we hadn't already heard, but it just burned me up.

Anyway, here's the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/us/politics/14palin.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin

more house updates

Basement floor has been poured.

Garage floor has been poured. Next step = framing.

some notice would be nice

I really hate it when things like this happen.

It's naptime, right? and the water department just pulled up with some trucks and I guess they're checking things out. they're now in my backyard with a long cable and some walkie talkies and being very noisy. would have been nice if someone had called or knocked on the door to let me know what exactly they're going to be doing, etc. RUDE.

D and I are leaving Wednesday morning. We're going to Aspen for a few days. The girls will be staying here with my in-laws. I cannot wait. I desperately need a break. I'll post pics when we return.

uuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh

we're all sick. bad head cold. it's been super fun dealing with that. i know it could be worse, but...i was just sick in june. it seems like it was only a few weeks ago.

in other news, two weeks from now i'll be undergoing thyroid ablation therapy. my thyroid is no longer responding to medication and i'm sweating constantly. it's just time to get it done. i'll have to steer clear of the girls for 3-4 days (they'll go to school and then dan and sitters will take over) while i'm radioactive (i have to take a large dose of radioactive iodine to kill my thyroid). it shouldn't be invasive or painful or anything, except perhaps for a sore throat. it's either this or surgery, and D said no surgery. so there you have it.

the girls are now napping in underwear. woohoo! progress continues!

and abby is coughing through her nap. oy.

confession

i have a bad mommy confession to make. i feel awful. i know i can't un-do it. i've been really anxious/stressed out about Hurricane Gustav. not that that is an excuse for what I did, but maybe it puts my mood into perspective.

i took the girls to the grocery store this morning (right after water started coming over the tops of the levees in new orleans), and they wouldn't ride in the cart. not a regular cart, and not a car/fire truck/police car inspired cart (these days even when we do get one of those kiddie carts, they rarely stay in it long). i told them they had to stick with mommy if they wanted a treat. well, that lasted for about 5 minutes, and then they were off and running. all over the store. it started when i was at the meat counter waiting for my ground turkey. they took off. it's monkey see-monkey do all the time with the girls. endlessly frustrating. again, not an excuse.

so i chase them down TWICE, and TWICE warn them that if it happens again and they refuse to stick with mommy, they're going to get a spanking. no one likes to spank their kids. and part of my problem is that i am constantly threatening, and often without any follow through, so they think they can do whatever they like most of the time. well, today i proved them wrong. i have only spanked in public one or two other times, and it wasn't the same as today, and i don't think it was both of them at once, either.

i was furious with them. i spanked them each and izzy promptly plopped down on the floor in the middle of the aisle and started wailing as a result. i guess when she sat down (or when i spanked her), she bit her lip, and it started bleeding. so here i am with two crying kids in the middle of the grocery store (and it wasn't a big/long shopping trip, either----i needed maybe 6 or 7 things and we were gone less than 30 minutes), one with a bleeding lip, and i'm sure people wanted to call child protection services on me. i was just at my wit's end. that's no excuse, either, but sometimes i think i need to quit taking them to the grocery/target/etc. because i cannot control them. once the manager almost had to shut down target because abby ran off and was hiding and wouldn't respond when i was calling her name up and down each aisle. she thought it was really funny. i, however, was not laughing.

i need a solution. i need to be able to go to the store like a normal person and not have to go running around after my kids. i need to calm down and not get so bent out of shape and take things out on them----although, in my defense, even in retrospect, they deserved it today and were being completely wicked. the terrible twos are getting me down. i really don't feel like i have the upper hand here, and i should. i'm the mommy. but it's two against one most of the time. my fear is, if i leave them to their own devices, especially in the grocery store, there will be broken jars of spaghetti sauce and packages of M & M's torn open all over the floor.

i am sorry for being such a shitty mom.

video of canal

VIDEO: Water laps over Industrial Canal

argh

well, we were thinking Gustav wasn't wreaking as much havoc as we'd anticipated, but now water is overtopping the Industrial Canal and there are some barges loose. oy vey. i'm still keeping my fingers crossed and hope this won't turn into another catastrophe.

my family is still hunkered down in Florida and i think they're going a little crazy with the waiting and the worry.

meanwhile we're battling a cold here and just watching NOLA news on-line:

www.livenewscameras.com