Hello from the edge of hypo!

I  was going to start this yesterday, but, well, I was tired.

...


I'm two days away from subjecting myself to three weeks of medically necessary extreme hypothyroidism and a low iodine diet to prepare my body for radiation treatment in hopes of destroying the remaining thyroid cancer left behind after surgical total thyroid removal and all I can think about is how much during those upcoming three weeks I'm going to miss ice cream.

Oof. Ice cream is good.

But not having cancer is better. Right?

For the past three months, I've been waging a war on an enemy I previously knew next to nothing about.  I mean, thyroid cancer? How often do you hear someone talk about that?  It wasn't until after I wound up on an exam table, peering at weird blobs on a fuzzy screen and contemplating why the ultrasound tech had suddenly gone silent that I even considered what having a healthy thyroid means to a body.

Turns out, it's pretty important.

Many exams, a trip to the ER, one CT scan, a fine needle aspiration, much blood work, multiple doctors, and two surgeries later, and my battle is still ongoing. I'm still learning and discovering and, most importantly, fighting.  I like to think I'm in the homestretch, headed towards renewed health, but I hear this leg of the journey can be the most trying. Ahead of me looms three weeks of hypothyroidism and radioactive iodine and body scans. I'm more than a little terrified.   I'm taking deep breaths and advancing anyway.


At the urgings of my sisters who seemed both enthralled and horrified by the descriptions of the "going hypo" period of Radioactive Iodine (RAI) treatment, I've started this blog.  Expect a bit of info, a lot of personal musings, and, quite likely, a few episodes of just head-to-keyboard.  I'll show up, though, so there's that. 

And, I have these wonderful people to keep me grounded and focused:

The love of my life!  The Capn! Matt.

My babies! Abigail, Jonathan, & Lily

And cupcakes! Cupcakes keep me focused. ;)

Currently, only two very small, white pills of Cytomel stand between me and the next step towards kicking cancer butt.

In the meantime, allow me to catch you up...