Getting bored and it's only day 3

Today is day3 of my 7-day quarantine.  It's been raining off and on all day - not heavily, but enough that I don't want to sit out on the deck today.  Spending the day in my bedroom with occasional brief forays into the kitchen is already starting to get old.  Yes, I have my all my personal electronica (kindle, phone, ipad, laptop), but that's not the same as contact with actual people.  The Chief talks to me from the hall outside the bedroom, or from the other side of the kitchen, which just seems weird.  Necessary, but weird.

Oh well, could be worse.  I don't really feel bad.  The "no dairy" is dropping my calcium levels so I've got major tingling in my fingers, which sometimes makes it hard to type or do other fine-motor things, but no fever or headache or anything, and only fleeting nausea.  If that's as bad as the side effects get, I'll take it! 

Nuke 'er til she glows!

For my Nuclear Medicine appointment today I wore this shirt:

The nerves didn't hit me until it was time to head for Kaiser.  The labwork went in a jiffy - they took me right away and only needed 2 vials.  Similarly, when I went up to NucMed, I'd barely read a paragraph or two when they called me back.  The scan (don't know what kind but not an MRI) was long but not bad.  In fact, I actually fell asleep and even hit REM sleep at points!  Then they did some sort of calibration with an instrument that looked like it was made from 4" PVC pipe, gave me my capsule, and sent me home.

It's a gorgeous day today so I sat out on the back deck while I ate lunch and read a bit.

Ah, the jokes! Wishing me a glowing report, "Shine, little glow worm," "You light up my life", etc. 😊

Some good medical news, for a change

Yesterday’s mammogram wasn’t quite as uncomfortable as usual, but more importantly, I got some good news.  The rad tech told me that the calcium deposits we’ve been monitoring for the past 2 years haven’t changed so I can go back to annual screening mammograms.  No more semi-annual diagnostic mammos! 

The tech did give me a bit of a scare, though.  She called me back into the room and closed the door, “for privacy.”  I immediately thought it was going to be bad news.  What a relief when it turned out to be good news!

Big week ahead!

SO many appointments tomorrow!  First stop will be the lab, to give them some blood to play with.  Then it’s Endocrinology for my first of 2 injections of thyrogen in preparation for my RAI (radioactive iodine).  That’s my morning.  In the afternoon I have my mammogram 😖, followed by a Podiatry appointment.  With luck, he’ll be able to figure out why my ankles, and now my feet, keep swelling.

Tuesday I go back for my 2nd thyrogen shot, then to Nuclear Medicine for a radioactive contrast dye, both in preparation for Wednesday.

Wednesday is the day I get nuked! First they do a full-body scan to see where any stray thyroid or cancel cells may be lurking.  The NucMed doc then sends my RAI order to the pharmacy.  When that comes back, they give me the pill, keep me for 20-30 minutes for observation, then send me home to quarantine.   Video visits will be welcome, and definitely more interesting than whatever I’ll be streaming. ☺️

Fabulous fall day!

The weather was gorgeous - sunny and mild - so the Chief and I drove out to a favorite farm stand some 35 or so miles away.  The excuse was so I could buy myself a pumpkin or two for baking.  We also ended up coming home with a butternut squash, a couple of jars of preserves, a scarecrow doll, 2 of the biggest carrots I’ve ever seen (the Chief joked they were baseball bats), and a couple of pies.

The trees were turning, the farmland was beautiful - all in all, it was a perfect day for a drive in the countryside, the kind you wish you could box up and store away for when you need a lift.

Found an LID recipe that's a keeper

Tonight I tried a third recipe from the LID cookbook.  The first 2 were just kinda meh, but tonight's dinner - chicken w/ apricot sauce - is a keeper.  It's not as sweet as it sounds, because the recipe calls for ginger with the apricot, and I also added a dash of cumin.  It was easy, too - I cooked some chicken thighs in olive oil, then cooked a shredded onion in the drippings, added the apricot preserves (Bonne Maman in this case, because the commissary didn't have Polaner), ginger and cumin, poured the sauce over the chicken, and there ya go.  Was really good over couscous and with roasted fresh asparagus.

My system is confused.

It seems that getting your thyroid out messes up your hormones or lymphatic system or something.  I find myself getting occasional hot flashes (I thought I was past that!) and my ankles are quite swollen.  My PCP has ruled out gout and the OT I saw today doesn't think it's lymphedema, though that's what she put in my chart so that Kaiser will pay for compression socks.  I see a podiatrist on Monday; maybe he'll be able to figure out what's going on.  Mine aren't as swollen as in the photo but sometimes they do feel that big.

That's Day 1 of 12.

Yesterday wasn't too bad - oatmeal for breakfast, ratatouille ragu for lunch, and a slightly disappointing pork chop recipe for dinner.  (The apricot sauce was good but runny and the pork chops on the dry side.)  I missed my yogurt smoothie; the "no dairy" restriction may be the hardest part of this diet.

My veggie-beef soup recipe can be LID-friendly as long as I use no-salt-added tomatoes. I'll have to omit my mushroom stock and the tomato paste because of the probably iodized salt, but that's not a big deal.  I'll just use kosher salt and maybe some other seasonings from my collection.