Friday, January 30, 2009

Miss. Madison

Here is our little princess all dressed up in her new Valentine's Day gear for a day of FUN with Granny Bell!

To start your day off with a smile, here is a video of Madison singing her song about the planets. They are learning about OUTER SPACE at school right now and she is loving it! She is constantly getting in a rocket ship to fly into Outer Space to see the stars and the planets!


ENJOY!!


(And yes she is STANDING on Daddy for this performance!)



Monday, January 26, 2009

It's Official

I will "check in" for my RAI (radioactive iodine) treatment on Monday, Feb 9th at Plano Presby. I'll stay 3-4 days in isolation for the treatment. Today is my 1st day off of my thyroid meds, wish me luck! Since the premiss for the RAI treatment is that thyroid cancer is attracted to iodine, so anywhere there are still cancer cells it will soak up that RAI and kill the cancer. SO I have to go off the thyroid meds, so there are no traces of synthetic thyroid in my body for the RAI to waste it's magic powers on! But I'm told you pretty much "bottom out" so I'm not really looking forward to the next 2 weeks!

Bringing my camera in the office tomorrow, got some videos for you all to see! Much more FUN than me and all my medical drama! ;-)

Hope all is well and Happy Monday!
Love, Anna

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

It's been a while so I think I must...

It's been a while since I've blogged, no real reason really, just nothing blog-worthy going on right now.

Yesterday was one of those days, everybody has them, it was just BAD! I could not shake my bad mood all day! Today is shaping up to be a better day! I got to watch the inauguration of our 44th president via MSNBC.COM (had to fight the firewalls at the office to find a site that was "approved"). He is such an eloquent speaker, I enjoyed watching. This is probably the 1st election that I have even remotely been interested in. I'm just not that into politics. Nothing in particular really, I believe in giving my vote to the best man/woman candidate, not necessarily a "party" so to speak. And now I sit, with the rest of the country to see if this man can help us! Let's all hope & pray that he can! These past few weeks, as I have watched my friends and co-workers get laid off has been rough. It's hard to come to work every day not knowing what the day will bring, and who will be left standing when it is over. Luckily I have not been touched by this recession and am hoping that I continue to stay in a safe position.

On the cancer tip...I heard from the endocrinologist office this morning. Looks like I will go into the hospital in about 2 weeks for my Radioactive Iodine (RAI) treatment. I will stay in the hospital (in isolation no less) for 3-4 days. I'm now told that once I am released from the hospital I will still need to stay away from my family for another few days (not sure how long yet) to protect them from my glow-in-the-dark-radioactive-self! She was like "You can't share a bed with anyone, and no hugging or kissing", well how am I going to explain that to my loving children! Best to stay away, for their safety, but most definitely NOT my sanity! I do not do well being away from them, so this part will most definitely be DIFFICULT! We go sit down the with DR on Tuesday so I will know more details at that time. I'm hoping I'm allowed to bring stuff with me to the hospital b/c if I can have my IPOD/LAPTOP/CELL PHONE I will be a MUCH happier camper, even though I use the word "happy" very loosely in this situation. My next 2 weeks will be rough as I have to go off the thyroid meds I am currently taking, this will cause me to quote un-quote "bottom out". Everyone reacts differently so there is no way to know how much I will be affected. It apparently will make me very tired and moody (GREAT that's what I need with a 4yr old and a 17 month old!) To find comedy in all of this is hard, but I am trying. In fact on my 1st appt with this DR, when he asked me "So how long have you been feeling tired?" I was like "Are you serious? I have 2 children under the age of 4, I've been tired for well...4 yrs!" Who asks questions like that...SERIOUSLY!

Found another great site for Thyroid Cancer information...www.checkyourneck.com, other than having a really cute name, they have some great information!

I'll get off my soapbox now, I know you all have better things to do than read my whining. But I wanted to keep everyone in the loop on what's next in my world.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Ode To My Little "BIG" Boy

Has anyone seen my BABY? Austin is turning into such a "big boy" right before my very eyes! (And yes I realize he's in desparate need of a haircut!) He is 100% BOY! He loves all things boy...

He loves TRUCKS... He loves TOOLS...
He loves FOOT-BALL, both on TV and in his little hands!

He loves his "Sissy", which he is actually starting to say!

He loves to YELL for "DAD-DAY!!"

He loves to EAT! And will eat ANYTHING!

My precious youngest child getting so big! TEAR! He is so wonderful a child, easy to put to sleep, easy to feed, always just relaxing and taking it all in (or tearing it all part as the case may be!) His vocabulary is growing by leaps & bounds! Just this morning while eating his breakfast and watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he proclaimed loud & proud "O'TOODLES" at just the right part! (Yes he might be watching too much TV!)
Each child is special in their own way, so different, yet so the same! It is such a joy to watch them grow and change into their own individual wonderful little people!

Increasing Awareness

If you've been reading my blog then you already know I am currently battling Papillary Thyroid Cancer, even though the Dr's assure me they got all the cancer during my surgery, I still consider this a battle, as I still have my treatments to go.


In an effort to increase awareness about the #1 Cancer in the US I am including some information for you, my friends & family, who like me, probably never even gave Thyroid Cancer a 2nd thought! I would not wish going through this on anyone!
  • Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer. Thyroid cancer is a cancerous tumor or growth located within the thyroid gland.
  • Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that has increased in incidence rates over the past several years. There are expected to be 11% more new cases in 2008 than in 2007 in the United States.
  • The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 37,340 new cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. in 2008. Of these new cases, about 28,410 will occur in women and about 8,930 will occur in men. About 1,590 people (910 women and 680 men) will die of thyroid cancer in 2008.
  • Many patients, especially in the early stages of thyroid cancer, do not experience symptoms. However, as the cancer develops, symptoms can include a lump or nodule in the front of the neck, hoarseness or difficulty speaking, swollen lymph nodes, difficulty swallowing or breathing, and pain in the throat or neck.
  • There are several types of thyroid cancer: papillary, follicular, medullary, anaplastic, and variants.
  • Papillary and follicular thyroid carcinomas are referred to as well-differentiated thyroid cancer and account for 80–90% of all thyroid cancers. Variants include tall cell, insular, columnar, and Hurthle cell. Their treatment and management are similar. If detected early, most papillary and follicular thyroid cancer can be treated successfully.

  • 80% of all Thyroid Cancer cases occur in women under the age of 40

If you would like to learn more about Thyroid Cancer and what you can do to help, please log on to http://www.thyca.org/

My advice to everyone is pay attention to your body, if you don't feel something is right, see your doctor! Be honest and let them know what's going on! Had I not insisted that something was wrong, I wouldn't have known about the cancer!

Love to all,

Anna


Monday, January 5, 2009

Not Me Monday

It's truly a "Not Me Monday", more in the fact that I just don't feel like ME! This surgery stuff is for the birds and I have truly reached that point where I just want to feel GOOD again! I hate to be a whiner and complainer but SERIOUSLY! I need some R-E-L-I-E-F! I came back into the office today for the 1st time since my surgery, and it's not the funnest thing ever. I don't know that I will make it a full day, but hey I could use a nap before the kiddos get home anyway!

I did not let Austin eat his pancakes in our bed (again) this morning, even though it drives Jeremy NUTS! Who wants to deal w/a whiny 17 month old at 6am over pancakes and sitting at the table...NOT ME!

I did not attempt 2 times to take my morning pills, and then walk out the door and completely forget them, only to have to turn around in the street and go back to the house to fetch them. Then I did not forget to grab the bottle of "Aleve", not that it is aleving ANYTHING, and have to stop at CVS on my way and grab a bottle for my desk!

I did not have Jeremy get the kids all buckled into the car and start their movie (YES a movie is necessary at 7am, on the 5 min ride to school!), and totally forget nap stuff for both kids. Had to run back in the house while Jeremy sat w/the kiddos and back bags of pillows, blankets, etc.

And I am not sitting here contimplating just how long is appropriate to STAY at the office for my 1st day back before SPEEDING home to take a NAP!