Other things going on for Anna
Oct. 14th, 2004 02:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiper+/-0: This past Monday, had a followup appointment with that endocrinologist I was supposed to see, regarding whether what's left of my thyroid is functioning properly. She asked me some general questions, just to get a base idea of how I'm feeling these days; she also physically checked my neck and how I swallow, and looked at my reflexes as well. (The interesting part of this was that I held up both my arms in front of me and my right hand visibly trembled. Stupid nerve damage. Grf.) Then she sent me over to the clinic lab, where they took a blood sample. It should be another few days, most likely, before I hear back on whether I need to take any thyroid meds. It'll be interesting to see; apparently, one of my two readings pre-surgery indicated I was a little hyperthyroidish, possibly due to the big nodule having started to generate its own thyroid hormone outside the control of my pituitary gland. Goody!
+/-1: Recent read #1: The Cutout by Francine Mathews. I mostly know this lady's writing via her Jane Austen mystery novels, written as Stephanie Barron, though I've also read her Nantucket mystery series. I wanted to give one of her suspense novels a shot, so I chose this one! Two thumbs up on the suspense, though I was left sort of unsatisfied on the level of resolution of personal conflicts for the principle characters. One of those novels where I think part of the point (stated or otherwise) is to show that not everything has a particularly happy ending--and while I do respect authors who can do that and still tell a gripping story, it still kind of leaves me unsatisfied just because I like happy endings. I want to see "the hero always saves the world, the villains get what they deserve, the boy will always get the girl!" I don't mind it being difficult to accomplish, in fact, I want to see it being difficult to accomplish, but I do at least want the satisfaction of knowing these poor characters who have been busting their asses all throughout the story get to have some reward in the end!
+2: Recent read #2: One for the Money, by Janet Evanovich. I was told this was a fun, fluffy book; I was told pretty much correctly. ;) Heroine in a situation I think all too many of us sympathize with in today's economy: getting laid off from her job. However, unlike most of us, she decides to go out and get money by becoming a bounty hunter, working for her slimeball cousin. Hee. Her family is suitably colorful, and I was even amused that the love interest somehow managed to be both a Lothario but also a sympathetic, attractive character. I'd like to be all snooty and say that this book was too fluffy for my tastes--but y'know what? I can't. I read it while bathing, and even after I was out of the bath, I kept reading it because I wanted to know what happened next. So I'll probably go get the next one, too.
+3: This is mostly interesting to
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aerialscribe, who recommended The Three Musketeers to me a very long time ago and to which I am only just now finally getting around to reading. This is what I get for having such a huge To Read shelf! And I'm finding it an oddly fluffy read as well, for a classic novel. But it's kind of funny; reading it, I'm having an experience similar to what spazzkat has described if you only see Casablanca after you've seen the countless movies and TV shows and other things that parody it or otherwise derive stuff from it. I.e., having a lot of the elements in this book feel very familiar, almost to the point of being cliched, and yet this is the original source!Though so far I have to admit to smirking a little, so far. I'm about 100 pages or so in, and the big intrigue of the plot has finally gotten underway, but I'm getting a little annoyed with how young D'Artagnan is only a puppy, and yet he's this incredibly talented swordsman who has defeated opponents who should have had him for lunch, and he's got three Musketeers all older and more experienced than he is falling all over each other to say what a clever boy he is and how they ought to follow his lead. If somebody was trying to play D'Artagnan on a MUSH, we'd be calling him a powertwink in a heartbeat! ;)
+4:
wildshadowstar informs me that our sister Sarah and her new baby boy are doing quite well; I sent the happy mommy and her husband and kid yellow roses and a stuffed critter courtesy of 1800flowers.com. I hear tell Sarah keeps meaning to call me, as well as email me baby pictures, but hey. NEW BABY. She's got even more excuse to lag on her email than I do!That said, I still kind of giggle every time I think of the kid being named Caleb. This is what I get for being a Buffy fan; the first thing that pops into my brain now is the bad guy priest from seventh season, the one played by the actor who was the Captain on Firefly.
+5: Some things which amuse me these days: squirrels trying in vain to break into the new suet cage feeder that Dara has put in the side yard by the patio (it's fun to watch them jump on it and make it wobble back and forth). The new flannel and fleece blanket that
solarbird purchased for me is a big hit with both myself and the cat; every time I curl up with it on the media room couch, Polly does her damndest to curl up with me. And she curls up on it by herself as well. However, although I have discovered that Polly has nominated our bed as one of her new kitty snooze spots, she doesn't want to stay on the bed after I come to bed. Go figure.-6: My iPod is acting strangely and I'm not sure why; I seem to be able to get only about an hour, maybe an hour and a half, of play time out of it before it up and announces that its battery is dead. Yet after having it do that and then sit for a little while, not plugged in, it suddenly started showing a charge again. I need to see if I can consistently make this happen. Dara says the device is developing 'battery memory' and that I need to drain it completely, recharge it, and drain it again to kick it in the head. Apple claims you don't have to do that with iPod batteries, but.
+7: In yet another round of getting caught up on my email, I sent another letter to a fellow fan from the Great Big Sea board, one who, like me, has taken up a new instrument just for the joy of playing these boys' music. Thanks to that new letter I found myself compelled to pick up my guitar again, and happily played away on Tuesday night. But boy, did my fingers feel the lack of practice. Clearly I need to be doing this more often!
And I haven't picked up my bouzouki in about as long, either. I need to do something about that.
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Date: 2004-10-14 10:44 pm (UTC)+4: Nathan Fillion. My wife considers herself a "Fillionaire" -- or at least she did, before she found out about James Marsters. :-)
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Date: 2004-10-15 01:35 am (UTC)*snicker* 'Fillionaire'! I hadn't heard that one before. ;) And also, mmmmmmm, James Marsters. I'm rather fond of that gentleman, myself!
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Date: 2004-10-15 01:53 am (UTC)Contrast that with SuperGrover. :-(
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Date: 2004-10-15 03:15 am (UTC)For one thing--I don't think Yoda and Count Whatsits were just trying to give one another lovetaps with their lightsabers. :) Granted, it has been quite some time since I actually saw the movie, but 'waving their swords at each other' was NOT a fair assessment from what I remember of that fight. There was actual lethal intent there. Maybe Yoda wasn't out to outright kill the guy, but I'm sure Count Whatsits would have happily killed Yoda if he could have done.
For another--hell, I actually kind of LIKED Hyperactive Whirling Green Ball of Yoda Death. ;) I mean, let's face it--if you're going to have a badassed Jedi master, a job which has 'duels with bad guys' as part of the overall job description, and said badassed Jedi master is shorter than practically everybody else in the galaxy, he has to have SOME means to even the odds.
And having him employ extensive use of levitation struck me as reasonable. And as long as you're going to give Yoda that edge in a duel, milking it for all it's worth also strikes me as reasonable.
Is it SILLY? Sure. But hell, so's everything else about Episodes 1 and 2. And yeah, it's a whole different flavor of story from The Three Musketeers...
At least superficially. Because if you're going to diss the duel in AotC on the grounds of silliness, I will see you that and raise you 'young upstart from a poor province waltzes into Paris, gets himself into three duels with the three most famous musketeers there are before the day is out, and then winds up wounding not one, but two major badassed swordsmen among the ranks of the cardinal's men.'
In other words, it's got its own 'fairy tale' flavor going on, which all of the Star Wars flicks have in spades, sure, but Three Musketeers isn't lacking in that regard either.
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Date: 2004-10-15 05:37 am (UTC)And thanks for the seconding of the recommend on the movies! ^_^ I also have another book on my To Read pile that you recommended--The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles--and I'll get to that eventually, too. ;)
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Date: 2004-10-15 09:09 pm (UTC)I am also fairly convinced that I heard Christopher Lee say "Your Schwartz is the same size as mine: now let's see how well you use it." :-)
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Date: 2004-10-16 08:14 pm (UTC)And there's silly dialogue all over ANH, too. Leia's crack about Tarkin's "foul stench"--I mean, c'mon. She's a Senator and a Princess, she ought to be above making petty remarks about the guy's odor even if he IS totally evil.
But like I said to
*snickers about the Schwartz, though*
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Date: 2004-10-14 10:55 pm (UTC)If I could tune my guitar, I could play the damned thing...but for some reason, that's the one thing I really stink at doing!
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Date: 2004-10-15 01:33 am (UTC)Do you tune by ear or do you have a tuner? Tuning by ear IS hard--I can usually approximate it myself, but not reliably. So I have to break out the tuner to help me out.
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Date: 2004-10-14 11:41 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-10-14 11:59 pm (UTC)Speaking of TV references. I said to Eric, "What about 'Poppy' if the baby is a girl?" He says, "Poppy.... is a LITTLE SLOPPY" from the Seinfeld episode. Sigh.
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Date: 2004-10-15 01:23 am (UTC)I'm hoping my experience won't be as wacky as my friend from the Great Big Sea board who told me all about her thyroidectomy--she had 90 percent of hers out, and afterwards went through all sorts of wacky ups and downs as they tried to figure out the right dosage of hormone to give her.
As for Eric, heh! ^_^
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Date: 2004-10-15 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-10-15 05:14 pm (UTC)But then, there's a big ol' bookstore that sells both new and used books near my new house, so perhaps I can check there for used versions of these books that aren't in crappy shape. :)
Ipod weirdness
Date: 2004-10-15 02:10 pm (UTC)Re: Ipod weirdness
Date: 2004-10-15 05:19 pm (UTC)"A: The iPod uses a lithium ion battery. The first and second generation ("non-dockable") iPods use a Sony UP325385 A4H 3.7V 1230mAh lithium ion polymer battery. The third generation ("dockable") iPods use a 3.7V 850mAh lithium ion battery. The iPod mini uses a Sanyo EC003 lithium ion battery."
And yes, I know about the battery memory issue--I mentioned that in the original post on this thread. :) And what you recommend is in fact what Dara told me to do. ;)
Also, you can't just pop the battery out of an iPod--it's integrated into the unit. So it's not just a matter of opening a little hatch and taking the battery out. It's possible for a user to do it, but it'll be a lot more work. Before I try to replace the battery, I'm going to try the drain-and-recharge thing; if that doesn't work, I'm going to see whether doing a restore-to-factory-settings on the device works, as users have also reported that this can recover a lot of battery power. (Apparently there was a bug in the software that drives the iPod, and upgrading to the latest version + doing a restore kicks the device in the head somewhat and gets back a lot of battery power that was previously acting like it wasn't there.)
Re: Ipod weirdness
Date: 2004-10-18 02:09 pm (UTC)Re: Ipod weirdness
Date: 2004-10-19 02:17 am (UTC)And, again as was mentioned on the URL that
Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-25 04:29 am (UTC)I actually had whats called a "Thyroid Storm", rare but "Oooh lucky me"...I had a Seizure, fell down a flight of steps, my eyes started bulging out, then drying out, and basically the hyperthyroid gave me "Graves Disease", I lost my sight in my left eye, and have had 6 surgeries on it. ITS FUN!
So, my curiousity, how long has it been since your diagnosis? and partial thyroid removal? ( No meds???) thats crazy, no wonder your shaking
We must talk more!
I do have "before and after" of the "Lovely" huge lumps on my neck before the surgery, as well as before and after my eye surgeries ( a little graphic, but I try and help women educate themselves so they get help and med attention, and hopefully do not go through what I have ,and still do)...
Again, must talk !
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-25 04:47 pm (UTC)Here's the short story on my thyroid. This past June, on a routine physical, my doctor thought my thyroid felt a little full--so she sent me in for an ultrasound, and that revealed five, count 'em, five lumps around my thyroid. Four of them were under 1cm in size, but the big one was 6cm, and so because of a history of cancer in my family we agreed that having a biopsy on that thing would be good. The biopsy found no cancer, but the folks that did the biopsy did issue a verdict of "intermediate possibility of cancer", so we decided we'd better have the right half of my thyroid, the one that made the big lump, taken out.
So now I have half of it left. There are still some of the lumps in there, but they're little. My endoc says that she'd like to have another ultrasound done on those next June just to make sure they aren't getting bigger--and according to the lab tests she ordered for me, my thyroid levels are currently normal, so it seems like the half of the thyroid I have remaining is doing its job.
The shaky hand thing, I suspect, is just as likely to be a leftover from my having broken my arm last summer. I sustained some nerve damage at the time, and that hand's been a little shaky ever since.
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-28 09:22 pm (UTC)"My endoc says that she'd like to have another ultrasound done on those next June"...
Why is your Endo waiting so long? I mean considering the cancer in your family and all?
I am looking to go to a different endo myself, hes nice as hell, but I found a women Endo ( also deals with Graves Disease, which I have as well) in Philadelphia, and she is suppose to be "top notch" so ...we'll see once I get there.
That seems so long though in your case to wait till next June????
*Sending healthy thoughts* ! :)
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-29 05:12 pm (UTC)Good luck on switching endocs on your side!
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-29 10:25 pm (UTC)How long ago did you have you surgery?
Sounds like your panels have stabled out...I can't wait for that! Are you on Synthroid or any other meds? I am on Synthroid, but the mcg changes very frequently, hopefully that will change.
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-30 07:13 pm (UTC)I'm quite relieved by this, since I've heard from other women who have gone through thyroid surgery that the really annoying part for them has been trying to figure out the proper dosage of the meds to take.
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-30 11:33 pm (UTC)As far as the meds, I am to the point of playing around with the dosage myself, regardless of what my Endo has subscribed, still havent found a "happy medium" yet shall we say !
TTYS!
Happy Halloween !
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-10-31 05:20 pm (UTC)Still, though, every so often if I swallow in a certain way I can feel the muscles of my throat pulling oddly. And it took a long time for my singing voice to come back--it's not even quite back to normal yet, I have trouble hitting some of the higher notes I used to be able to hit correctly when I sing. But they're starting to come back. (Disclaimer: I don't sing for anything but my own pleasure, but I love to sing in the car if I'm driving somewhere. Or if I'm walking somewhere with my iPod. :) )
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-11-01 04:26 am (UTC)"Still, though, every so often if I swallow in a certain way I can feel the muscles of my throat pulling oddly."
Isent that the wierdest feeling? I guess they stitched us pretty tightly !
Hope your singing voice gets back its full potential, even if only in the car, being you enjoy it I am sure you'll get it back to where it was.
I do notice my voice will change ( when I least expect it) But, before the surgery the surgeon is suppose to explain the chance of the voice box being "bumped or damaged" or the worse senerio of complete damage to the voice box.
One day its raspy, then real high, or low...or I might have a day where it sounds like me, I think?
As far as the scar, its sounds the same as yours, the surgeon tried to cut along the one of the natural lines of the neck, but its still "real pretty" ( ha, ha..keeping my humor).
TTYS !
Have a good week !
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-11-12 07:13 pm (UTC)Indeed, the swallowing thing is a strange feeling!
And I am happy to report that my singing does actually seem to be improving; in fact, there's a certain clarity of tone I didn't have before. This may or may not be related to not having a big ol' lump in my neck pressing against my windpipe anymore. Regardless, it pleases me.
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-11-12 08:19 pm (UTC)"There's a certain clarity of tone I didnt have before".
Hey maybe that's a "benefit" to having the surgery since your a singer ! But, your right about not having that "lump" pressing your windpipe, I noticed not long after the surgery that that annoying(yet ugly too) lump was no longer choking me, or bulging out of my neck .
The swallowing is annoying, actually my hubby and I are "sharing" a lovely flu/cold right now, and I am getting a sore throat, so swallowing is even more enjoyable right now! LOL
How long have you been a singer? I was one of those "garage band" singers some years back(heh), but wore sunglasses due to shyness....BUT..Now like you, I sing in the car, well, until someone pulls up next to me at a stoplight !
TTYS ! Have a great weekend !
Re: Thyroid problem..
Date: 2004-11-21 02:28 am (UTC)I've been singing along with my favorite artists for years now, ever since I was a kid, but it's become a lot more enjoyable since I fell in love with my current favorite band (Great Big Sea). I particularly love singing along with them. :D
Sympathies about that flu--hope you've managed to fight it off!