He's 1 today...
I just love the fact that his momma started to have her kittens on the day of my surgery and that he was born the following morning. If I hadn't had the surgery we may never have gotten him and I just can't imagine life without this lil orange ball of humor!! I'm hoping we can get the video of him fetching his water bottle lids to a decent size where we can post it on youtube and I can embed it here...
I'll try and find or take a good picture of him today -- he's gotten so big. He's really not gotten that big but he's not got any "kitten" look to him anymore. He still has the kitten in attitude but he looks all adult now.
It has doubtlessly been one of the hardest/worst years of my life, but there you go. It looks like from here that things are getting a little bit easier...
But this past week we had a bit of a backwards step -- I had to do these Thyrogen shots at the endocrinologist because it's the 1yr mark. They drew my blood on Monday morning (crack of dawn and they *bigshock* had trouble finding veins -- dozy ppl!!) and then gave me shot number one in the hip/lower back. Tuesday (again crack of dawn) I wait in the waiting area for a good 40 minutes, then get shot number two (other side lower back/hip). Within about 1 1/2 hours of both of these shots I could feel the effects of them. They swore to me that there are no side effects and that it wouldn't affect my energy levels at all (bullpucky!!!!!!) The shots were right around 8:30am and by 10am I was ready for a nap. It was crappy. Just like how I felt following the surgery. :( So then Friday I went in (they must hate me -- again crack of dawn) and they struggled again to find a vein (when will these people learn??!?! I swear next time I am going to chop off my fingertip!!!).
They will compare the results of the two blood tests and see if there are any signs of cancerous tissue/thyroid cells left in my body. Then in 2 weeks I will see the endocrinologist for my results.
So I was just starting to feel MUCH better and be more like myself and then this... but hopefully the effects of these shots won't be very long lasting and I'll be back on the up and up track again soon!!!
-- the eye drama continues... (lost partial vision in my right eye around Valentine's Day) -- in a way it is kind of a mixed blessing. If I hadn't lost the vision, they wouldn't have found the blood clotting genetic anomaly that I have, and wouldn't have put me on Deplin (methylfolate -- helps replenish my folic acid levels) and then I'd still be suffering from that dark depression and tiredness. I think that in addition to helping the antidepressant be absorbed, it's also helping the calcium and vitamin D too. One week after starting the Deplin it was like someone flipped a switch and I felt like myself again for the first time in almost a year. So that's the up of the blessing. The down is they still don't know exactly what caused it and the laser procedure didn't really do much to it. I'm half-wondering if this is permanent and they just have to go through all these steps before declaring it so. The current thing (from my april 4th appt with the opthamalogist) is that we wait til the middle of July and see if it got any better. If not then we look at the next set of options.
-- Not playing golf online as much these days -- playing more of 2moons (mmorpg) which is fun -- a golf buddy of mine got me into it, and i brought Andy into it and also another of my old guild buddies from the golf game into it
-- We're really enjoying the PS3 -- Andy adores the Rock Band game, and so do I. Ironically he has beaten the Ratchet and Clank game before me (but then I can't play much of it before I get a headache :( so it will take me a long time to beat it). We've been playing Rock Band together and switching it up -- lately I've been the guitarist and he's been the drummer. For a long stretch before this he was doing solo drumming and doing all the songs on medium and getting 5 stars. So now he's slowly working his way through the songs on hard. Good fun. We had some friends over for ice cream the other evening after a fun dinner out and showed them Rock Band and the poor wife was dying to go (she's allergic to cats and was sniffly/sneezy and the baby was sleepy) and the hubby was like "So baby Josiah, what song should Daddy play next???" It was funny.
-- That's pretty much it from a catching up perspective -- there are 2 things I want to blog about separately, so I'll get to that now.
Highlights of the last few weeks (months):
-- finished a couple more socks (I think my total so far is 10 pair?)
-- started a bunch more pairs of socks (mystery sock group is FUN but I can't keep up!)
-- finished the Granny shawl knit-a-long with the girls I hang out with on Tuesday and Thurs. It's not as "old" as it sounds -- it's actually a very beautiful piece and I'll post pics soon as it is blocked and ready
-- finished the dropped stitches shawl for Harriet to wear to her son's wedding at the end of May -- I finished it very early in case I messed it up or something and also so she wouldn't fret about it (she's a worrier like me) It was good fun and dropping the stitches was the best part -- you knit it in this big tube, like a sleeve, then when you cast off you do 5, drop 5, all the way around to the last 30-35 stitches -- then you CUT up the middle of your knitted work and those two halves become your fringe! Very cool, but also quite scary. (Karen from Temptations did the cutting for me -- THANK YOU KAREN!!)
-- had LOTTTTS of fun with babies in April -- Ali and the girls came at the end of March and were here for almost 2 weeks total. Near the end of that time, Brian and then also David and Katie and Elizabeth came for a long weekend -- so for about 5 1/2 days we had EVERYBODY all together in one place. I love when that happens. It's so fun to see my younger brothers as dads. And their girls are all so darn cute! ohmyword. I'm going to have to post pics too -- there were some classics.
-- Dave & Katie & Elizabeth flew up on Skybus which went bankrupt the next day so I ended up moving some stuff around in my schedule (mostly doctor appts!) and I drove down to Atlanta with them -- this was excellent for me because I was hoping to drive down and see them some time in April or May anyhow, but was kind of worried about how my eye would be (if I got a headache somewhere in Kentucky I'd have to stop overnight or something, and I just was worrying about stuff like that etc.) -- this way if I got overtired or had eye problems, either David or Katie could have driven. As it happened I did great -- no headache or anything! It was tough near the end though -- when I was so tired and we got a bit "lost"ish and I had trouble focusing my eyes on the tiny print of street signs.
-- Spent a lovely week with them -- got to have Elizabeth to myself for 2 whole days (she's HILARIOUS!!) -- I should post pics (and/or videos -- took some fun ones!)
-- Got the BEST PEDICURE of MY WHOLE LIFE in Atlanta -- cheaper than I get it up here in Ohio (which was a surprise!!) and they did all these deluxe things with creams/scrubs etc. and massaged and then when your toes are drying they come up behind you and give you a shoulder rub. Fantastic job -- the girl was so attentive to detail and really worked hard to get my calluses down. Superb.
(to be continued)
and the reason I haven't blogged in a lonnnnnnnnnnng time is that it was hating me back (wasn't letting me log in!!) soooo...
the "longer version of the story" never made it online... and it has been too long -- I can't remember all the things I was going to talk about in the longer version... but here are some more details -- the ones I *can* remember...
I started the day by taking a percocet for relaxation -- because I figured I wasn't driving and I didn't want to feel nervous or wiggly while they were shooting laser beams at my eyeballs, I took one just before Mom picked me up. When we got there, I got signed in, she sat knitting while they took me back into an exam room... the first nurse did the pressure test (yellow drops) and then did the basic eye exam (reading the chart from across the room) then dilated my eye (thank God they only did the right eye, if they had done both I would have been miserable all day) and said she'd be back in five minutes to dilate it some more. (this is new)
Once she did the second time, I was taken to the back waiting room and took out my iPod and knitting (b/c they only did the one eye, I could knit while waiting for my pupil to dilate (which is great because that takes about 20 minutes!)... so I ran back to the front waiting room where Mom was watching my stuff and grabbed my current pair of socks to work on.
After about 25 minutes, they called me back to the "Procedure Room" -- where they had taken the photos of my retina that first day this all happened... and by now the percocet had kicked in nicely and I was feeling relaxed and not very scared. They sat me down in the chair in front of what looked like a fancy exam machine (with the forehead strap and chin rest just like when they do the checkups) and the doctor was on the other side of it. They had me tilt my head back and they put 2 more drops in my right eye (this makes about 8 so far that morning) to numb it -- because it was going to have this thing resting against it (which, for lack of any better way to describe it -- looked like a kid's kaliedoscope -- narrow at one end and wider at the other... the narrow end went right up against the laser machine and the wider end (which had a coating of some sort of jelly on it so as to not scratch my eyeball) went up against my eye to keep it open and to keep my eyelashes from getting in the way.
When they described this and what they were going to do -- I was thinking "umm yikes that's gonna be painful and uncomfortable" but because of the numbing drops -- I didn't really feel any of that...
They had me put my head in the chin rest and hold onto the handles just below. There were two nurses in the room with the doctor, one was training on how to do this and the other was the trainer... she was the one who was holding my head in place. When I say this I mean that her hand was just behind my head, gently resting on the back of it -- not really pushing on it, but just applying a very gentle pressure to make sure it stayed still.
The doctor started to type on a computer and put his foot on something similar to a sewing machine pedal and told me to look straight ahead. I found a focus point on the wall behind him and the flashes began. It's going to sound weird but at some points it felt better to close my left eye and just kind of watch the flashes in my right eye. The nurse holding my head would occasionally call out a number (at first the numbers were low, 30 etc. but then they increased by large increments -- 50 or more). When she said 400something I was really starting to feel the discomfort of the procedure. My eye felt very dry and achy -- like I had watched too much tv or spent wayyyy too much time on the internet or something. So I told them it was starting to hurt and they said I was doing REALLY well and that they were almost done. She called out a few more numbers and the last one was like 630 and then we were done.
It turns out that what she was calling out was numbers of pulses that he had shot at my eye. Each pulse being a flash. They told me that I did really well (they kept saying this over and over as if shocked -- and all I could think was "well... just offer everyone a percocet when you dilate the pupils and ppl would probably do soooo much better!!!").
I felt really nauseated when it was over -- the room by that point was VERY warm (4 people breathing for 20 minutes in a room with no windows and with a laser shooting pulses for 20 minutes -- it was stifling in there. They brought me a couple of glasses of water and had me lie down on the reclining exam chair nearby -- the trainer nurse brought me a little eye-pack that was frozen/chilled to hold over my eye and cool things down. That really helped -- although it didn't stay cool for long.
I got out to the lobby and made my followup appointment and Mom and I got in the elevator to go down to the lobby and exit -- we're standing there and she pushes the "2" button.... (nothing happens) ... I giggle and say "umm we're *on* the second floor Mom" and we both laugh.
So then we're walking across the parking lot to the car (she had driven Dad's car because of the snow and because he was taking her car up to Marion for a service appointment). She starts walking behind me and away from me -- I'm going directly towards the car. I stop and stand right beside the passenger door wondering where she was going. She comes back and unlocks the door and we both climb in and I'm giggling.
"Did you forget what car you'd brought?" I ask.
"yeah...." she laughed "Aren't you glad you've got me along to take care of you!!??"
We both laughed until tears were running down our faces.
She dropped me off at the house and I took a brief nap and then she picked me up again and we went out to lunch at Pei Wei's with Harriet...