And so it begins…

Today I start the low-iodine diet (LID) to prep for the radioactive iodine I’ll get next week.   It off to a great start, as I managed to ruin some perfectly good homemade turkey soup by putting too much kosher salt in it.😥  Lesson learned - a little of that goes a long way.

Lunch will be some of the ratatouille ragu I made and froze in individual portions, and dinner will be pork chops in an apricot sauce.  That latter recipe I got from a cookbook put together by a thyroid cancer survivors organization.  It’s going to be helpful as I try to figure out what I can eat for the next couple of weeks.

Getting ready, mentally, for quarantine

Now that Macbeth is on its feet and I don't need to do anything more for them, my focus turns to this LID, which starts Monday and runs nearly two weeks (Oct. 26 thru Nov. 7).  That's this week.  Next week is chockablock - Monday: mammo, podiatry, and first pre-nuc injection.  Tuesday: 2nd pre-nuc injection and an imagery dose.  Wednesday:  pre-dose body scan, radioactive iodine (RAI) dose, then home and into isolation for a week.

I'll be spending my quarantine in our bedroom and using the back bathroom.  The Chief will be moving into the spare BR for the duration and using the front BA.  The "quarantine zone" will include a trash bag, a laundry basket, a TV table (for eating and for my laptop), my electronica and their chargers, and a big bag of lemon drops for the dry mouth I've been warned can come with the treatment.

At least having my electronics means I can videochat with people, even if in-person visits won't be safe.

That's my last show for the year on its feet

Macbeth opened tonight.  This show hasn't been particularly demanding and everyone with wigs or special makeup now knows how to get themselves ready or has someone to assist.  To paraphrase our director, all my little birds are now ready to fly, so I went home shortly before intermission in hopes of getting to bed before midnight for the first time all week.  It'll be nice to have dinner at home with the Chief instead of eating backstage after I finish helping folks get ready.

But don't "my" witches look nice & spooky?

I don't plan to pick up another show this year.  My medical "adventures" will keep me busy, and tired, for the next few weeks, and December is pretty well booked, between a wedding and Christmas.

Good for my humility :)

I'm designing hair & makeup for a production of Macbeth that opens this Friday.  This is a very active production - lots of sword fighting with real swords, not plastic or wooden ones, and the witches have some pretty creepy movement when they're not playing Messenger #1, Lady's Maid #2, etc.  All this means that, for example, fight call takes a lot of time because there's so much to rehearse.  (Fight call is when the performers go through their fight choreography, first at half speed, then at full speed.  This is a very important safety procedure.)

Our costumers are still putting finishing touches on the players' armor, cloaks, etc., and the lighting and sound are still being tweaked.  All this to say that our director has a LOT of pieces to look at and make decisions on.  So far, I've gotten only one note, on the first version of Witch #1's wig.  Just finding the time to ask her a question when she doesn't look like her brain will explode serves to remind me that, while not unimportant, hair & makeup is well down most directors' list of things that they need to render a decision on.  In fact, one of the cast told me that this is the first production she's been in that even had a hair & makeup person.

Bottom line:  It's important to me because that's where my focus is.  Other people, however, have a LOT more things competing for their attention, so my priority and theirs don't align.  I'm not whining, just laughing ruefully at myself.

(My witches won't look like this but I liked the photo.)

Mammo time again :(

Just scheduled my next mammogram yesterday.  This is a semi-annual, diagnostic mammo instead of the standard annual version because I'm "special".  😬  I've been doing this for a few years now, so it shouldn't be a big deal.  However, because of the thyroid cancer diagnosis, part of me wonders if they're gonna find more cancer.  Pray for my peace of mind.

The office where I used to get my mammos done had this cartoon posted where the victim, er, patient could see it.

“Chemo brain” without (thank heaven!) the chemo

It’s been coming on gradually but yesterday was the worst.  I could not seem to keep a thought in my head or to focus if my life depended on it!  I don’t know whether it’s a reaction to the thyroidectomy, or the synthroid, or some combination thereof, but it sure makes life difficult.  “Make lists,” you might say.  Unfortunately, that’s a solution only if I can still remember what I want to write down by the time I find paper and a pen. 😢

Low-key birthday this year

The big "event" of my birthday the other day was spending an hour with my Nuclear Medicine doc.  Given how important that is right now, that's not particularly surprising.  My birthday won't be greeted with fanfare this year, and that's OK.  Tonight's Greek dinner was fine.  The restaurant was fairly empty in our section, so our waitress had time to chat with us.  Better, we managed to get home before the rain started.

Among other things, the Chief & I talked about how fortunate we are to be retired, to have the time and resources to treat ourselves to a nice dinner out.  Not having to worry about cramming domestic maintenance into the few hours work doesn't take means we can do things at a more leisurely pace.  We put in our time; now we can kick back & relax.