Auntie's Hideaway

I just thought you should all like to know that yesterday was a very, very important day for me.

One of the hallmarks of hypo-thyroidism is... puffy fingers or swollen hands. Because of this latest bought of adventure on the Thyroid Seas, I have not been able to wear my wedding band for about three years or so. In fact, I've been wearing my paternal grandmother's ring for about a year now, so that I didn't feel "unmarried." However, yesterday, on a whim, I picked up my wedding band and slipped it on and you can see the result here...



I cannot even begin to tell you how happy I am!! And I'm still wearing it! The Husbandly One congratulated me and said that perhaps the current dosage of thyroid hormone is working for me. I think he may be right! We'll see if the endocrinologist agrees in two weeks!

*dances off, ridiculously happy*

It's RAINING!!! IT'S POURING!!!!

We got .19 inches in ten minutes!! And... IT'S STILL RAINING!!!

YAAAAAAAY!!!!!

Please, rain gods, a good hour's soak would be WONDERFUL... maybe two??? Pretty please??

*runs out to dance in the rain*

ETA: It's dropped from 103 to 72 in the last twenty minutes or so, and we've got about .78 inches of rain!!

As I excitedly mentioned to thanfiction last night...

I was putting my hair up in a ponytail the other day and suddenly noticed that the bald patches aren't so visible any more, and when I looked even closer... there's short HAIR...

MY HAIR IS COMING BACK!!!!

*squees with excitement and joy*

My hair is coming back, my hair is coming back, oh, joy, oh, frabjous day, glory and trumpets, y'all, MY HAIR IS GROWING AGAIN!!!!

And I almost don't mind that in less than an hour, my house will seem overly full of teenage girls. Okay, so there will only be two, but still, the Impossible Son and I will be outnumbered. But... I don't care at the moment because MY HAIR IS COMING BACK!!!

*skips off happily to do the dishes*

it's been a long, long day. And I haven't looked at LJ all day, and omg, I MISSED YOU ALL!!

*hugs her computer*

The Husbandly One took today off, so after we sent the kids to school, we took a little, er... personal time, and then headed to the post office to mail off some books, hit the pharmacy, our credit union, and then our vet to get some Advantage to tame the Flea Infestation of Doom. All in the name of getting some errands out of the way.

And then, I had an appointment with the endocrinologist, which was all good news. He kind of wanted to drop the dosage of my thyroid medication, but then he took a look at me and said, "Auntie, this is the most energetic and bouncy I've seen you since you started coming to see me. You know what? I like that. So... let's keep the dosage where it is now. It's not affecting your heart apparently, since you're not having any episodes, so let's just keep it here for now, and I'll see you in six months!!"

Have I mentioned how much I love this doctor?

*does cartwheels and terrifies the cats*

Even better, the Lump has not grown, so... YAY!!!!

*doesn't do more cartwheels because... the cats are traumatized enough*

And now, in celebration, I shall go outside and weed the tomatoes, which are coming along beautifully! WHEEEEE!!!!

1.45 inches of rain so far since 11. a.m.!!! YAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!

*runs out to dance in the rain*

I got home from picking up the kids and refereeing a squabble (why does a trip that takes five minutes feel like two hours when your kids are fighting?), so I was nice and cranky and very much the Bear. When I got up on the front porch, I saw the mail had come, and what did I find in the mailbox?

A Gackt postcard from karadin!

SQUEE!!!

It's GORGEOUS!! *and Miss Priss rolled her eyes at Auntie when she did a little happy dance on the front porch, which Mr. Manzie promptly joined in, though he didn't know why*

THANK YOU!!! HEE!!

*gets busily busy on her own little project*

Okay, so it was drawn by the Impertinent Daughter! Still... it's FANART, from one of MY fics!! She's like... my NUMBER ONE FAN!! OKAY??

*laughs*

It's funny, because we were sitting here talking while I was trying to finish something up, and she'd asked me, "If you could have fanart from just one of your fics, which one would it be?"

"Hmmmmm," I said, thinking it over. "Oh, I know. From Heroes and Hobbits..."

"Hugo curled up in Percy's lap? Yeah, I like that one, too," she said, grinning.

I was stunned. "You remember that?" I said, totally surprised. "I mean, just from the title, you remember that?"

"Of course, I do!" she said, looking very affronted. "I remember every one of the stories you've let me read! I love your stories!!" Then she smirked and said, "Just for that, I'm not going to draw that picture. I'll draw something else"

And this is what she drew...

( Clicky to see what she drew! )

I had determinedly spent most of today away from my LJ, mostly to catch up on householdy type things, and to do some shopping that needed to be done. The Impossible Son has outgrown his jeans: they're both too short, and too tight in the waist.

So, after some looking at the budget, we went to San Marcos and got him some jeans, and I finally, finally found some wool socks, so my feet are toasty warm!! And when we got home, I logged into LJ and found some lovely, wonderful person gifted me with a year's paid time!

*squees with joy*

So, since this person obviously wishes to remain anonymous, I shall have to write a fic to post as a thank-you!!

And in case I didn't say it before...

THANK YOU!!!!

*is very happy*

Okay, so I saw Dr. Endocrinologist yesterday, and got good news! *see, I spared you all the agony, didn't I? Aren't I nice like that?*

So, the nodule, at this time, is nothing to worry about. It's small, it's benign, it's... well, it's basically on a dead thyroid, and about the only way to really treat it is to do surgery on Auntie and take the entire thyroid gland out, and right now, that's not an option.

Most of the other problems, I'm having are caused by the dosage of my thyroid medication being (puts her hand to her ear to hear the LJ Chorus) TOO LOW!!

*laughs*

So, he has increased my dosage. And what he has said is, "Auntie, this is what we're going to do. I'm raising it this much, and we'll leave it there for a couple of months. If you don't feel better, then we'll raise it a tiny bit again. And if THAT doesn't work, well, Auntie, we'll just keep raising it until you feel like your normal self again!"

Well, he wasn't quite THAT free with it, but pretty close! I do have to have a lot of blood work done, because of another problem I may potentially have, that might be throwing a spanner into the works, so, we will just see what comes up!

All in all, I feel much more optimistic than I have in a long time! He is also going to be sending info and instructions to my regular doctor to explain why my dosage is being increased, and what it means for me, and what he wants to see happen on my next thyroid level check. *does a dance of joy*

Do you know, I had a moment of horror when he was explaining the results of some new studies to me, and what that meant for my thyroid dosage? I thought, because he was saying that my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) level was TOO HIGH, and would need to be lowered, well, I thought he was saying my DOSAGE would need to be lowered, and I said, "Oh, geez, Doctor, when MY doctor lowered my dosage to .88, I was MISERABLE! PLEASE don't drop the dosage on me!!"

He looked mildly surprised and said, "Actually, Auntie, I was thinking of INCREASING your dosage, if that's okay!"

If that's okay??? HUZZAH!!!

I bet y'all can just SEE me doing cartwheels right there in the doctor's office, can't y'all? *laughs*

The Husbandly One took off his lunch hour to come hold my hand during the exam and all. It was a great relief to both of us, I must say!

So, I don't even mind that it's 29 outside right now, and I'm wearing 2 pairs of sweatpants (because I can't find my thermals), and a hat, and a scarf. I'm HAPPY!!

*skips off to tackle the Impossble Son's "Bedroom of Doom"*

Isn't it amazing how gas prices went down so dramatically just before the election? My, my, what an amazing coincidence!! I paid $2.18 a gallon this morning to fill up the minivan, spending a whopping $24.85! Man, I haven't paid that little in, what, two years?? Of course, I was at a quarter of a tank, but STILL!!

Too bad it didn't help! I think the Republican party severely underestimated both our anger... and our intelligence. After all, to their way of thinking, we were stupid enough to vote for the Shrub twice, right?

Over 136.6 million voters said, "Oh, HELL, no!!"

And we didn't let them steal it, either.

I wonder how many voters insisted on paper ballots rather than the electronic voting machines? I know that when I went to vote last night, I chose paper and sat down to do my thing, and heard a couple come in behind me who opted for the touch screens, and within seconds I heard, "Ma'am? Ma'am, excuse me but the machine's not working right!"

A poll worker bustles over and says, "What's the problem, sir?"

"I voted straight Democratic, and the damn thing just switched all my votes over to the Republicans!"

So, the poll worker gets him to move aside and she clears it and resets it and says, "There you go! Try it again, sir," and starts to walk off.

"Dad blast it, the damn thing did it again!!" he nearly shouts before she gets two steps away.

So she comes back, clears it and resets it. They do this two more times before he turns to her and says, "Can you just give me a damn paper ballot so I can vote and get out of here??"

They gave him a paper ballot!

*snorts with laughter*

You know, when I watched McCain's concession speech last night, I turned to the Husbandly One and said, "I said this about Hilary Clinton, and I'll say it about McCain now. If he had shown us this through his entire campaign, things might have been different. I still think Obama would have won, but it would have been a lot closer."

I was disappointed to hear all the booing and rudeness while he tried to speak, though I wasn't surprised. It is what he has encouraged through the majority of his campaign, and he only started backing off when he realized what his vitriol was arousing in his supporters. The Husbandly One said something interesting, though. He said, 'You know, I've been following his campaign, just to get a feel for what was going on, and watching videos of his rallies, and you know, the people who were the worst, the ones who would bring stuffed monkeys with the word 'Obama' written on them, and so on, were older people, you know, in their sixties, seventies, and up. "

And he's right. I started to say, "You know, those are people who really should know better," and then I stopped. Because I remembered my dad and his attitudes when I was growing up. He's a Mississippi country boy who had grown up during the Depression, and fought in World War II, and was raised a hard core Southern Baptist, and he had all the attitudes of a typical Southern boy of his time. He was racist.

BUT... he knew that attitude was wrong, and needed to change, and he also knew his children could not share his attitude and beliefs. So, he worked hard to conceal his prejudices from us, though they slipped out from time to time, and made sure we didn't share them. I didn't even know he thought that way until I was in my twenties, and man, talk about a big let-down!

Thing is, a lot of folks from his generation, those people born in the twenties, thirties, and early forties, shared his attitudes and beliefs, and a lot of them never gave them up, or found them hard to change. And for some of those people, McCain's campaign brought those attitudes and fears boiling right back up to the surface. Which is incredibly sad.

Obama's speech... y'all, Auntie was in tears. It was... a wonderful moment. We let the Impertinent Daughter stay up to watch the results, and I hope she remembers last night for the rest of her life. It was a huge moment, wasn't it? You have to admit, the man is a superb orator. We haven't had one of those in the Oval Office in a very long time, and oh, isn't it wonderful?

Okay, Auntie is babbling, but I think I'm entitled to a bit of babbling! It's relief, sheer relief!

How much y'all want to bet oil prices start climbing way up again?

*is too happy to care!*