Can I throw myself a shower?

I’m having quadruplets…..why not? I think I’ll go register at Tiffany’s and Target.

Yet another threat for those with TED

Today I poked myself in the eye. How stupid am I? LOL! I guess when your eye pokes out so far, even a fingernail is an accident waiting to happen.

I can’t even wear my sunglasses anymore,  because my eyelids are pressing up against the lenses. I’m feeling like a lizard these days……..

We have a decision!!

Woo Hoo!!

I’m happy to report that I love my new gyno…..he’s a guy, no? LOL!

After a thorough exam and interview process, he decided that I was indeed a good candidate for a Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy….which means that he can go in and obliterate my uterus using only 4 small incisions and a bionic surgical arm vs. cutting me open and slicing and dicing me. He also agreed that I didn’t need to remove my cervix, which relieved me to no end, and I don’t have to take the Lupron shot, which would’ve mimicked menopause for three months to shrink the fibroids before surgery. This is all good news.

I found this particular doctor online, as I was researching doctors in the NW who are experts at the laparoscopic technique. I’m so happy to have found him……he’s been doing these surgeries in his own facility for over three years, and he’s never had one go wrong yet…..over 200 surgeries with no hospitalizations? I definitely want him on my team!!

Second Thoughts

So, I felt like I was ready to go ahead with the full hysterectomy, and then last night I came across this site:

http://www.hersfoundation.com/

It has opened up many questions for me. I get that she is a disgruntled Hysterectomy recipient, as are the majority of posters on that board, and i don’t blame them one bit for their feelings…..but to put a full hysterectomy on par with genital mutilation is a little bit overboard for me.

But, it has definitely given me reason to pause, and plause………

The Waiting Game

So, it’s been several days since I’ve blogged (I feel as if I’m going to confession: “Forgive me for I have sinned, it has been 6 days since my last confession” LOL!)

I’ve been overwhelmed with the idea that my Thyroid is not the only thing wrong with me…..now it’s my uterus, too!! Are you KIDDING ME?

My decision is to have a full Hysterectomy, removing my entire uterus and cervix, but leaving my ovaries…..that way, I have menopause to look forward to in about a decade!! You KNOW I’ll blog about THAT later!

A Myomectomy really isn’t in the cards for me. I have birthed two daughters via emergency C-section, my body absolutely HATES to be pregnant, and my youngest was born with multiple mid-line birth defects. We went to a genetic counselor when she was a year old, and they could neither confirm nor deny genetic factors in her various anomalies…..but that’s a whole other blog!! I always had a strict rule that I would wait until the youngest was out of diapers before I tried for another baby, and my youngest is still in them(she’s eight and a HALF) , so THERE you GO! LOL! So, since my baby making days are over, why have a procedure that leaves the uterus in tact, but still has a 40% chance of tumors returning…..not my kind of odds.

As a side note, my husband always wanted to try for a boy with me (I have a bonus son from my husband’s previous marriage…..he’s 19 now)< but I have a heavy musical theater background, and I’m quite sure that any son I actually bore from my loins would come out with jazz hands and singing show tunes (and there is NOTHING wrong with THAT!!)<<But my jock of a husband is not so sure. It is actually my fantasy to have a gay son….think of it: He’d do my hair, take me shopping, and we’d go off on fun cruises and trips to Broadway throughout my retirement…..paradise for an old theater major! But, that’s a whole other blog……

So, My OB/GYN wants to surgically go through my stomach (via the cesarean scar that’s been opened twice already) and remove my uterus, complete with the cornucopia of tumors, and throw in the cervix for good measure, since I’ve already battled cervical cancer in my 20’s.

Laparoscopic Hysterectomy (where they enter through and artery and grind up the tumors, uterus, etc. and stitch it up all with bionic instruments isn’t really a good option for me, since my uterus is as big as a woman in her second trimester…..to do this, I would have to receive a shot that fakes my body into menopause in order to shrink the tumors to a manageable size, wait three months, and then do laparoscopic surgery. That means three months of hormonal changes (like I haven’t had enough of those anyway) dried up vagina, hot flashes, the works…….sounds like a blast to me! And for my husband, who has already been through more than his fair share of my moodiness, hormonal swings, and steroid induced rages……I’d rather just get it over with and move on with my eye surgery.

So, now that I know what course I want to take, I am ready to remove the fruit salad and get on with life. Only one snag in the plan…..my OB/GYN is on vacation, and scheduling for the surgery can’t take place until she signs off on it. That puts us at the last week in July, which is really too late if I am to keep my appointment with my eye surgeon.

So, what’s a pre-hysterecoidal woman to do? I’ve made an appointment with a well-known OB/GYN who was the first to bring the laparoscopic hysterectomy to the Northwest on Thursday…..I pre-screened him, and have been assured that he would be able to complete any surgery just after the 4th of July…..which works out well for my plans.

So, ladies, the lesson for today is this: If you aren’t happy with what your doctor tells you…..don’t hesitate to get a second opinion!!

A benefit of this whole ordeal……I’m NESTING! Keep in mind that both of my daughters were born 3-5 weeks pre-mature, and I never got a chance to go into nesting with those pregnancies…..this one is the the first!! More on that in another blog!

It’s Quadruplets!!!

I tell you, when it rains, it POURS! I’ve been having mysterious menstrual issues, and unfortunately my Grave’s disease has masked some symptoms for me.

Ironically, I had the Mirena IUD placed two years ago. It is laced with a low level of estrogen, so when my periods stopped, I did not associate it with Hyperthyroidism, but thought it was because of the Mirena. We’ll never really know for sure which it was, but it eliminated the one symptom that might’ve  gotten me into an endocrinologist sooner.

Now, in yet another ironic twist, symptoms that I’ve dismissed as “Grave’s related” masked the fibroid tumors that an ultrasound just discovered this morning. I’ve had periodic breakthrough bleeding which I have been ignoring for months, thinking that it could be related to the odd cocktail of hormones running rampant through my body. And the frequent urination was passed off as the result of all of the cleansing teas and extra water I’ve been focusing on to improve my health. Sure, I’ve had a lot of abdominal bloating and weight gain….but what hypo girl doesn’t balloon up?

Turns out that I have 4 tumors: One the size of a Grapefruit (whom I’ve named Gertrude) 2 the size of Plums (whom I’ve named Penelope and Pumpkin) and a little one the size of a walnut (aptly named Wally) It’s fruit salad in my uterus….no wonder I love to dance like Carmen Miranda!

My Uterus is the size of a pregnant woman in her second trimester, and it is estimated that the combined weight of the fibroids could weigh around 8-10 pounds, which puts me much closer to my ideal weight! LOL!

So, now the question is this: do I deal with the fibroids before the eye surgery, after the eye surgery, or insist on a two-fer in the O.R.?

“One of you take the head, and the other can work on the bottom half…ready…set………GO!”

Quick Eye

Here is a photo I just snapped as I stepped out of the shower:

Dark circles appear, mainly because I have been sick for a week.

Signs of Life!!

Well, I think I’ve finally made it through the worst part of this silly cold which kept me kooped up for a week! Now I have to do all those things I put off last week!

My kids have three more days of school, and then we take off for our first summer vacation trip. We’re going to Friday Harbor, in the Washington San Juans to visit my mother, who has a fantastic home up there. We only go once or twice a year, because it takes soooo long to drive (6-7 hours from Portland, depending on stops for the little ones) and then there is the hour long ferry to get over to San Juan island! But, it is my step-father’s 60th birthday, so we wanted to make the trip in honor of him.

Looking for a great easy Father’s Day gift from your little ones? Look no further! I found this cute paint-it-yourself wind chime at Smith and Hawkin, and yesterday each daughter painted a side. My youngest is special needs, and not the best with painting, so we stenciled the moon and stars on her side, signifying night time. My older daughter painted a beautiful daytime scene with rainbows and flowers and the sun. The results were quite catching in under an hour!

As an added bonus, we are taking our kids to the Great Wolf resort on our way up to the San Juans…..The Great Wolf Resort is the Pacific Northwest’s first indoor water park. You have to buy a horrendously expensive room to gain access to the waterpark, but what better way to celebrate the first night of summer vacation? Plus, it puts 2 hours of road behind us, and we can ease our way up to Anacortes and make the 2:45 ferry easily. The 2:45 is the last straight shot to San Juan….the other ferries stop at all the smaller islands, and it takes almost 3 hours to get to Friday Harbor that way!

So, I may be out of touch later this week, but will resume when I return on Monday.

Hope you all have a wonderful Father’s Day Weekend!!

You want me to stick what WHERE?

I cannot believe that it has been an entire week since I first came down with this blasted head cold…..and yet, here I am. It was one of those that I would start to feel better, do to much to compensate for being in bed all day, over do it, and end up back in bed the next day. I felt so terrible that on Friday I did something drastic…I actually called and made an appointment with my doctor!

The last time I felt sick and didn’t go in to get it checked out, I ended up spending the better part of a week in an ultra sterile hospital room. This time, my doctor talked down to me as if I were a child and explained that I just had a head cold, and there was nothing they could recommend, short of over the counter medicines, which are worthless in oregon, where the tweakers have made most sinus medications impossible to get. You can’t even order Advil Cold and Sinus over the internet and have it delivered to Oregon……these are crazy times.

The worst part is that, for the first two days I was so sick I forgot to take my thyroid pills….so now I have my hormones all kinds of wrong, but catching up again…..why is it sooo hard to take one pill a day…I never forget to take my MonaVie or my daily vitamin…..why is it so hard to take medicine once a day every day? I’m sure some of you can relate to this, though.

I consider myself to be very lucky that my husband built a steam room into one of our bathrooms downstairs. There is nothing like spending 30 minutes in a hot steam room with eucalyptis oil to open up the sinuses and relieve congestion. Tonight two of my girls joined me in there, and we added lavender and ended the evening perfectly with cups of herbal tea…a regular girl’s spa night in!!

If you don’t have access to a steam sauna, I have a suggestion that seems gross, but I discovered this afternoon that it actually works. It’s called a sinus rinse, and it works by forcing 2-4oz of warm saline water through your nasal passages, rinsing the entire nasal cavity of it’s mucus (yes, it’s gross….that’s why it took me four days of being miserable before I tried it) Basically, you force it in one nostril, and it comes out the other….works better than 30 minutes in a 100 degree steam sauna, and it takes just a minute.

It creates an emergent sensation of drowning at first, but once you get used to it, I have to tell you that it works. For more info, go to:

http://www.neilmed.com/usa/products.php

looks pretty, huh? I spared you the video of me doing this!

 

Autoimmune Disease and me

I realize now that I have had autoimmune diseases since  was a child. It started with vitligo, a white skin fungus that started on my knee and made it all the way my torso before reversing itself and fading back down spot by spot. I had a great grandmother with vitiligo all over her right hand, and it’s hereditary, so I blame her. Below is an example of a man’s hand with vitiligo:

Then it was pneumonia that plagued me for years….the common cold would go around, and I would get pneumonia. When I was pregnant with Kelly I somehow activated another autoimmune disease, Ulcerative Colitis, which I suffered with for 5 years before getting it under control.

And now it’s Grave’s Disease. I get the feeling that someone is trying to send me a message! More on that message, and my answer to it tomorrow.