More Thyroid Drama, Oh Snap!

First of all, happy birthday Dani! Hope it was a wonderful day!

I went back to the doc on Monday. Cailin was not so pleasant in the waiting room but cheered up by the time we got to the examination room. She sat on the bed and listened to the doc as he checked her ears and throat. Her ears are fine, but her throat was slightly irritated. Might have had something to do with her using it to voice her displeasure in the waiting room just prior, but hey, I'm not a doctor. He wants me to get her bloodwork done to rule out low iron and to check her sugar levels. I'm not looking forward to that. Carter was good, just tagged along for the ride.

So remember when I said I had nodules on my thyroid and the gland next to it or beside it or whatever? Turns out it's a bigger deal than I thought. The doc referred me to the hospital to get this pesky thing checked out with the radioactive dye/X-ray combo. Imagine my surprise when the hospital called me the next day.

I was under the impression that we would be looking for hotspots in the thyroid, but the imaging staff informed me that they were doing the procedure on the parathyroid glands. This would be one of four glands neighboring that pesky thyroid gland. One of which has a nodule on it. Only they were calling it a tumor. Then there's the whole breastfeeding thing where you can't nurse for 24hrs at least after having the procedure, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. So they told me to call back when I was ready to do it and they would fit me in right away.

I hung up a little confused. I was sure the large nodule in the thyroid was going to be scanned, but now it's the parathyroid? Tumor? Say what?

Google is the most useful tool.

There are four parathyroid glands located behind the thyroid. Despite sharing similar names and close real estate, the two glands are not related at all. These four glands, normally the size of a grain of rice each, control calcium levels in the body. Since many systems require calcium to function properly, these glands are quite important. One of my glands presented on the ultrasound with a tumor on it. I prefer 'nodule' myself, but I stand corrected.

Sometimes these glands just simply puff up and become tumors for no apparent reason. They can mess with your calcium levels, making them too high, and cause health problems like fatigue, generally not feeling well, anxiety and irritability. And cancer and stroke too. You know, the fun stuff. Generally speaking, the cure is to remove the offending tumorous gland(s) before they wreak havoc on your body.

I made the mistake of watching a parathyroid removal video. While it is only a one inch incision into the front of the throat, the narration really got to me. "... And now the surgeon will expose the thyroid and check for any sign of suspicious nodules and remove them, being careful of the vocal chord nerve..." as he flops about the gland responsible for this poor guy's metabolism. Then they showed the removed gland/tumor and I got queasy. Not the greatest feeling when you already have heartburn....

I really hope I don't have to have this parathyroid thingy removed. It really freaks me out that I might have my throat operated on. My arm or leg or torso? That's fine, but not my teeth, eyes or throat thank you.

So it looks like I may have hyperparathyroidism as well as hyperthyroidism. Totally unrelated glands, both really hyper. Nice.

Well It's Still March

I really don't like March much. It's that almost-spring-still-winter-oh-my-gosh-get-me-out-of-the-house-before-I-go-crazy month. You know. But hey, at least it's not January right? I really don't like January at all. Speaking of which, here is our New Years card. A little late. Heh. While it hasn't been terribly cold out, the weather has still been crappy. It's been snowing more than it needs to, and the roads haven't been great. We managed to get out one sunny afternoon for a lovely two hour long walk. Carter slept almost the whole time and Cailin walked the last half of the walk. She threw snow balls and informed me she was 'popping the snow bubbles'. She got to splash in puddles, play in mud and throw snowballs all in one walk.

Carter seems almost as big as Cailin now. He popped another tooth through, and has three more coming in. Despite all that teething, he is in fairly good spirits. He's doing a lot more floor exercises, but is still pretty content to roll to his back and play with whatever he's got in his hands. He especially loves my Blackberry, and is quite sneaky about grabbing it. Seems every time I turn around he's got it in his hands or he's chewing on it. He is also quite smitten with the iPad - something Cailin is not enjoying sharing much. Carter hasn't been enjoying going to bed very much lately, but once he is in his crib (after a few cries of displeasure) he drifts right off and sleeps through the night.

Cailin is getting the potty training stuff down. Without going into gory oversharing detail, she can do all the steps herself, including getting up to the sink and washing her hands. I was bribing her with mini Reese cups (chocolate), but she is much more smitten with puffy stickers. I'm okay with that!

The potty humor is ever expanding with Cailin. Some of the things she comes up with are so off the wall. The other night she was snuggling with me while we played a math game before bed. She suddenly sniffed the air disdainfully and announced, "EWWWWW mom, B smells like poop!" It was hilarious - and I couldn't argue with her since she was right.

Gymnastics is still Cailin's favorite activity. She has so much fun there, and takes home everything she learns and performs it in our house to her fullest ability. No walking beam? She'll walk down the edge of the tub, thank you. No uneven bars? The towel rack works just fine (sans towels of course). Climbing apparatus? The couch cushions arranged into a maze/obstacle course is just the ticket. Nothing to jump off of? The back of the couch to the ottoman works great. I could pull my hair out when she climbs the curtains, and Bailey isn't fond of being ridden like some rolly polly miniature horse. Carter is very content to sit back and watch Cailin go through her routines and laughs the whole time at her.

I've also been busy lately myself. I went back for yet more bloodwork on Friday and I'm going back to the doctor next Monday. Hopefully some of the the previous issues will be cleared up and we'll be able to attack the thyroid issue soon. In the meantime, I'm still feeling antsy in my pantsy 98% of the time. It's annoying. Even after sleeping through the night I feel tired, yet hyper.

I made two cakes this week. The first, Cat in the Hat. Which strangely didn't include the Cat:

The second was a string monster much like the Oscar cake I made a few weeks ago (a month ago?). I didn't get to take a picture with the big camera before it went out the door, and so only have a crappy cell phone picture of it. I'll have to post it later.

The kids have been sleeping a little better and a little earlier in the the night, and I've been able to work a bit on hats. Every time I catch up on an order, I get four more. I might have to stop taking any new orders while I catch up with the current ones. I also found some time to update my website and deleted the hats I will no longer be making. Here is my favorite "Chloe" hat of my 2012 Spring Collection:
I've also been working on a new collection of Modern Animal hats. Here's the Teddy Bear:
This one is for a friend's baby. I also really enjoy just getting creative and crafting hats without any particular person in mind. A local store in town here asked if I would be interested in selling my designs - aka my patterns. I told her I don't write them down as I wouldn't know how to. She said that's not a problem as she would help me. I find the idea very interesting, but as of just now, I just can't commit to the time it would take to sit down with her and write up these designs. Maybe in the future. But it's still exciting!

Tonight Ryan and I sat down for some quality time together - and did our taxes. We submitted them online and I felt quite accomplished for getting them done. It wasn't as hard as I expected. Definitely beats waiting at the tax office and paying 5X the price than that of the software. Carter even helped out by swatting the keyboard for me until we set him up with Angry Birds on the iPad.

Now we wait to see if they weren't difficult for a reason (like I did them wrong). Heh.

Teething and Rolling

It's been a couple of exciting weeks for Carter. He woke up one morning with his first tooth! The other front bottom tooth is about to break through as well. He decided to start sitting up by himself too. He's a little tippy still, but getting more steady everyday.

He also decided that tummy time maybe isn't the worst thing that ever happened to him and is starting to enjoy it - and when he's tired he rolls over to his back. From his back he can roll up to his side and stays there forever, balancing and looking all over the room. Then he can roll back to his tummy. So he went from not sitting or rolling to sitting up, and rolling front to back and from back to front. Sometimes he looks like he's moving in slow motion while he's doing his floor exercises.

Carter is the happiest and sweetest baby. I didn't know he was even cutting a tooth, a nice change from Cailin's usual mode of cranky tooth cutting. Speaking of which, she's been cutting her two year molars for about seven weeks now. That means the household hasn't slept much in the last seven weeks. She now has two fully cut on the bottom, and one poking through on the top. It grew over and then popped out again. Hopefully it stays out now. We're waiting on that one last pesky tooth.

We keep telling each other that after these molars, she's DONE. At least until around six years old. But that's a long time away.

Cailin has been enjoying gymnastics, going shopping and trying out Papa's new hot tub. Everyday she is surprising me with how much she is learning. Her potty humor is developing at a rate that makes my head spin. But don't even ask me about potty training.

I've been feeling pretty on edge with this pesky thyroid thing. The kids have been tag teaming me most nights and I haven't been able to work on my hat orders. They are piling up and the deadlines are looming. I am absolutely swamped and feeling the strain.

Anyways, it's been a very event filled and milestone reaching kind of week.

The Results Are In - Kinda

Last Friday I got yet more bloodwork done. On the way home, the ultrasound clinic phoned and said they could fit me in that afternoon. I couldn't believe how quickly I got in.

The ultrasound was quick and painless (since then I've had a pretty sore throat). I watched her take measurements of suspicious white circles on the ultrasound screen. Nodules. I knew what to expect then.

Today I went back to the doctor's office. Anyone keeping track? What is this, like the 12,199th time in the last month? Anyway, my regular doc is still on vacation and the place was in complete disarray. Long story short, they finally found my results and dished them to me, cold-leftovers-straight-out-of-the-fridge style:

Liver: two different elevated enzymes. No conclusive verdict as to why.

Cholesterol: Meh. Borderline. Possibly becoming a problem if I don't clean up my diet.

Good cholesterol: Low (crap).

Urine: Contains blood (what the what!)

Thyroid blood test: Whack, yo. Overactive, or if you prefer, hyperactive. But not hypoallergenic.

Blood Sugar Level: Perfectly normal, thank you!

Thyroid ultrasound: Pesky thing contains a nodule smack dab in the center. And another one either on the neighoring gland, or pushing on said gland from on the pesky thyroid. They are both fairly small. At any rate, they are enough to be pushing my peer pressure-prone thyroid into overdrive.

I don't have many choices at this point. I can get some nice, lovely radioactive dye injected into my body and see where it floats to in the thyroid now, or I can wait another 6 months to do it. Since you can't be a nursing mother when you get that done, I guess I will wait. There isn't much in terms of medication at this point. The doc is sure my thyroid will burn itself out and quit working as is normally the case. Then I go on thyroid hormone treatment for the rest of my life. I could also have Graves Disease, an autoimmune disorder of the thyroid. There is no cure. So in the meantime, I get to enjoy a heightened metabolism, being too hot constantly, and feeling antsy in my pantsy 98% of the time. Don't forget my hair trigger irritability level. But hey, my house has never been cleaner!

The liver enzymes and blood in the urine are some cause for concern as well. The doc can't come to any conclusions other than a possible infection. I'm going in for more bloodwork in two weeks to see what we find then. It's possible everything will be clear by then. We won't ever know why things were out of whack. However, the thyroid issue is here to stay for a while.

How about a nice baby picture?
Isn't he cute? He really likes to jump in his Jumperoo now.

I'm staying positive. Now that I know it's my thyroid making me feel funny, I can deal with it. We have a game plan. Waiting isn't much of a plan really, but I'm optimistic about the results of future testing.

There are big changes coming to our dinner table as a result of these tests. It's time to eat a little better than we have been. Stay tuned for what I can only presume to be a veritable riot in our household. Heh.

Grouchy Cake and Bunk Thyroid

The last week has been incredibly busy. I couldn't get through to the doctor's office, so I paid a visit to them in person and stood in their long lineup. Most of my tests from last week were back, and the results demanded another visit, so I booked for Thursday (yesterday).

In the meantime, I did really important stuff, like baked an Oscar the Grouch cake for a friend's birthday:
I went to the craft store and stocked up on yarn, finished a few large orders (and shipped them, I detest the post office ughhhh), took the kids shopping for Valentine's day stuff and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned the house. Cailin was not impressed about going home from shopping, so we stopped by the office and saw Papa on the way home (and daddy too!)

Valentine's Day was pretty lame for a few of us. Cailin got a snazzy set of Hello Kitty pajamas that she basically has lived in since (yay!), Carter got his six month shot (boo!) and Nana got a root canal (huge boo to the hiss! aka LAMESAUCE).

Wednesday, Cailin's friend Olivia came over to play. The girls were so cute and they play together so nicely. They watched Tangled downstairs by themselves on the big screen. (OMGosh, did I mention we got a huge 3D TV for downstairs? Guess I just did).

Wednesday night was not a good night. Cailin woke up several times in the night and got up at 4am. She also got Carter up, who was on his maiden voyage sleeping all night in his crib for the first time. He did wonderfully by the way. He's been napping in his crib for a while now, and he slept stretched right out as much as he could stretch.

Cailin in the meantime, just simply hasn't been sleeping. She didn't feel good for a week, did a week of antibiotics, cut two molars and now is working on two more. She has slept through the night a whole three times in the last month. Poor girl! We're all getting a bit tired around here.

That didn't stop her from stealing a hat off the counter and running around the house laughing like she had the holy grail or something. What a goof! We've been having such good days playing and laughing. Yesterday the lack of sleep must have caught up to her. She was such a pooper in gymnastics that she had to sit on the side until she would participate properly. On the other hand, she allowed the teacher to lift her up onto the bar! Making progress in leaps and bounds.

Last night she cried for two hours before falling asleep, despite having had an Advil. Those rotten no good teeth! She's pretty sick of teething (frankly so are we). Two more teeth and she's done til she's six.

Cailin loves to sing. I'm not sure where she got 'Twinkle, Twinkle' from as I don't sing it, but she's been singing it as she runs around the house. Of course, once she runs out of words she knows, she makes them up. She uses "tractor, Jeep, Ranger and Papa Ray" mostly as substitutes for the real words, but still sings in tune to the song. Cute!

Carter finished night #2 in his crib with no issues at all. He loves having all that room. His wee basinet was getting a little snug. He did really well with his six month shot (only one needle this time!). He scrunched up his face and let out a mad squeal, then immediately sat straight up in my arms, mesmerized by the little bell the nurse was ringing. No tears! It was a wonderful change of pace. They are so caring and understanding in that clinic in Beaver City. Cailin tried very hard to take a bike home from the waiting room.

Yesterday I went into the doctor's office convinced that my diagnosis was Hemochromatosis. I was prepared for it. It meant a lifetime of maintenance to keep the iron levels in check, but I was prepared to deal with it. Imagine my surprise when the actual iron levels came back normal. Normal levels, normal binding. Normal white blood cell count (no infection). My ferratin level is still sky high (which is why Hemochromatosis was suspected) and my liver enzymes are slightly elevated. The ferratin is an indication that something is wrong and we have to find out what. But the kicker was the thyroid levels. My pesky little thyroid seems to be overactive. The doc went through a checklist concerning thyroid symptoms and I was surprised to have most of them. Some of them overlap with Hemochromatosis as well. Shaking hands, feeling tired, dizzy, being anxious, agitated and irritable, a sore throat (I've had that for such a long time I ignore it completely) and being unable to withstand heat (HELLO! Right here!); I have all of those. What I really want to know is, why aren't I skinny with this overactive thyroid thing? Feeling this awful should come with a few perks I say!

Seriously though, this should be an easy fix once we figure out what's going on. I got up at 6:45 this morning and wandered off to the lab for yet more bloodwork. My gosh, the size of the needle they stuck in me today.... I almost got squeamish. Almost. These tests are for checking liver function, diabetes, cholesterol, and thyroid stuff. I was also super surprised to get a call from the ultrasound lab telling me they could fit in a thyroid ultrasound scan today. So I'm taking control of my health and getting this all done way faster than I imagined. By next week we should have a better picture of what is going on with me.

Cailin also insisted the doctor have a look in her ears and throat while we were there. She sat very still while he checked and followed his instructions to a tee. She's good to go!

The Sickies Part 2

So we went back to the doctor on Monday for our real appointments. Cailin had finished her seven days of antibiotics (blahhhhh) and I had got some bloodwork done and we were looking for clean bills of health. Carter had his routine six month checkup.

Cailin: is perfectly healthy. All signs of her ear/throat infections are gone. She was running about the examine room like a monkey on speed. Surprisingly she wasn't the least bit concerned with the doctor even though she couldn't remember seeing him before (he was a sub for our regular doctor). We saw him before when Cailin was a wee baby.

I'm so glad her medicine is done. It was hard to get into her; she would see the dropper in my hand and run for the hills. While administering the meds one night I noticed she had FINALLY popped two molars through in the back. Now I had a clear picture of what was going on. She had a cold/ear/throat infections and was cutting teeth all at the same time. We haven't slept through the night in two weeks now, and I'm hoping we get back on track very soon. In fact, she had such a rough night the other night we sat in the rocker and shared an apple fritter. Heck, it's not like anyone was actually sleeping.

We made a quick trip to Sears tonight and this is what happened in the Sesame Street quadrant. We left with three mauve curtains for the front windows and no toys.

Carter:
Was given a clean bill of health as well. He's in the 85th-ish percentile for height/weight, and is tipping the scales at 18.4 lbs. I mentioned my concern over his odd shaped flat spot on the side of the back of his head. The nurse assured me it was nothing to worry about, and the doctor concurred. However, he offered me a referral to the pediatrician to get a second opinion just in case. Since Carter's head is over the 95th percentile mark it could be a warning sign that something is wrong. I'm sure he's just fine, but a second opinion would be great.

Carter is enjoying his baby food, and eats veggies no problem. He's been sleeping through the night, though he finds it a little hard with Cailin being up so much. During the day he's been sitting up on the couch and playing, bouncing gently in the Jumperoo and enjoying naps in his crib.

Me: I was expecting either to have nothing wrong with my bloodwork, or to have low iron. Imagine my surprise when my iron level was actually high. My iron is over twice the normal-high range it should be.

He thinks I may have hemochromatosis, the inability of the body to rid itself of excess iron. Looking back in my records, my iron was of normal range one year ago (while I was pregnant) but the year before that it was abnormally high. The year before that it was normal (pregnant with Cailin), and the year before that it was also high. The level has been trending upwards for the last five years. The high level could also be the result of an infection or liver disease. Goody.

At any rate, after the doctor we went over to the lab where I had some more bloodwork done. I'll have to go back to the doctor for those results soon.

So it's been an exciting couple of sleep deprived weeks. It's surprising how fast the household shifts into 'survival mode' with sick kiddies around. Now that everyone is feeling better, we're making the trek back into normal house rules. Oh, what a laugh. Cailin is really not liking the rules enforced once again. No, you can't eat granola bars for three meals a day. Yes, you have to brush your teeth AND your hair. Yes, you have to go to bed. Like an hour ago.

Here's hoping for a full night's sleep tonight!

The Sickies

Cailin and Carter haven't been feeling well. In a strange role-reversal, I got a cold last weekend and gave it to the kids. Since then Cailin has been having a terrible time going to bed. Ryan mentioned he thought her ears might hurt. Then she told me her ears hurt and was crying a lot. I phoned the doctor and tried to shush Cailin's crying while I was on the phone, but it seemed to have helped my case because they told me to come in for a visit within 30 minutes.

She has ear/throat infections. And she's back on the foulest medicine I've ever seen/smelled/tasted. I won't compare the taste to what I want to compare it to. It's just BAAAAAD. The doc also told us if she gets one more throat infection before her birthday, he's going to recommend her tonsils get removed. Yeah, I don't know about that.

Poor Carter is sickies too. His throat is red and his wee nose is running. Despite feeling sick, he's still been the happiest baby on earth.
Looks like someone's Advil kicked in. Heh.
We've been watching a lot of movies and enjoying the sunshine through the window. We've also taken up residence on the couch/fort/tent/tunnel/play area for the next foreseeable future. Hope everyone feels better soon, we've got a walking track and water park to explore.