I often write about physical health and wellness, but today I write about the spirit. I just finished a week that started and ended with gathering of friends. I can wholeheartedly agree with all those studies published touting the health benefits of interaction with others! I feel that this week, I was really blessed with the "silver and gold" friends in my life.
Sunday brought Drinks, Dessert and Diapers, benefiting DePelchin, an event thought up by myself and my buddy Susan Barnes. I just became friends with Susan this year ... we are fellow Junior League members, and hit it off immediately. I discovered later this is because her birthday is the day before mine, so she shares a lot of my Virgo qualities. While volunteering at the Extreme Home Makeover build in July, we decided we should celebrate our days together, and it would be cool to do something for others instead of just having a party for ourselves.
It was decided we'd do a charity item drive, and after researching several organizations, learned that DePelchin Children's Center has a program for teen moms in transition that could use diapers. It took a few months from our August birthdays, but we harnessed the power of Facebook and our networks and to date, have collected more than 6500 diapers (about 20 weeks worth!).
What was great about this project was it brought so many people together around a cause. In the weeks leading up to the party, we had people bringing us diapers every time we turned around. At the party, everyone from family, fellow League members, Leadership Houston classmates, co-workers (past and present), even some UH alums and Susan's choir members were part of the success.
Not only was it so rewarding to see so many old and new friends, but I am grateful for the new bond I have established with my partner in crime. This event has brought to light a big need in our community, and we're already scheming about how to take on that larger initiative. Stay tuned as I'm sure there will be more to come soon!
The week ended with a watch party at our house for the UH v. SMU game. The friends we had over are some of our oldest friends ... since college, in fact (though Adam went to school with Joe since middle school). These are our friends who have seen us at our craziest ... and still are willing to hang out with us. Anyone who has known me for a good length of time knows that if I laugh so hard I snort, it's REALLY funny ... well, I snorted a lot on Saturday. It was great to just let loose and goof around for a few hours (which became 6 thanks to the storm delay in the game, which we quickly remedied with some Wii tournaments).
This has been a particularly active few months for me, and these two parties remind me that it's all about the people. I will try to keep that in perspective the next few weeks when I get stressed or overwhelmed about the balance. Because within that activity, I'm creating a lot of interactions which are likely benefiting both their and my health in the big picture.
So whether you are a new friend or old, thanks for being my friend. I may not get a chance to say it to each of you or even see you often enough to do so, but I appreciate you being whatever part of my life you are able to be. I hope I can be just as good to you in return.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Biopsy bites
Two weeks ago, I underwent my thyroid biopsy. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you already know that I got positive results, which is comforting. But I thought I'd take some time to recount my experience of that day and since then.
I took the day off work, which was smart. In hindsight, if I have to do it again, I'll take a second day to recover, or at least make sure the procedure itself gets scheduled for the morning. I THOUGHT that was the plan, but turns out my morning appointment was just the consult with the endocrinologist. Fortunately, his son was who did my procedure, so I could get in for the biopsy the same day. After the consult, it was pretty certain I'd be put on synthroid based on my blood work results, but the final verdict would come post-biopsy.
I am quite thankful that I have a friend who went through this same procedure about a year ago. She did not hold back and told me how painful it would be. She. Was. Right. All the web sites that said it wasn't "any worse than having blood drawn" lied, or those writers have superhuman tolerances for pain.
When I arrived for the procedure, I had to lie down with a bolster pillow under my shoulder blades and lean my head back. I was basically upside down so that they could easily do the aspiration on my thyroid. I was not given any anesthesia ... doc's reasoning was that it would only numb the skin, and wouldn't prevent any other pain ... plus, that's more needles. No thanks.
They took three samples. It hurt like hell. My mom, who came with me, said they were pretty big needles. When it was over, doc asked how I felt. My response: "All I could think was I wondered if this is how it would feel to be stabbed."
I'll admit, I'm not a fan of pain, but I'm not a baby either. However ... I was glad I didn't have to drive myself home right away. And when I did, I slept about half the evening. And I was sore, BOY I was sore for that whole next day. And my voice was hoarse. But by Friday, I was feeling pretty normal again, physically.
That's when the "what if" thoughts started kicking in. See, I was supposed to get the results Friday or Monday at the latest. I kind of expected it to be Monday, since I had the procedure done late in the day, and they needed time to send it to one of the best pathologists in town to review. (Or so I was told.) As small a chance (about 5%) as I had of it being cancerous, I still worried some about it. I know that if it had gone the other way, I'm very lucky to live in Houston and have MD Anderson in my backyard. But I still was not excited about the prospect. As positive as I worked to be, it was just nagging in the background.
You can imagine my relief when I finally learned Monday afternoon it was benign. I was disappointed, however, that the procedure doc sent the information to his dad's office Friday afternoon, and they opted to mail me the report instead of calling me. MAIL biopsy results?? I know it's probably routine to their office, but this is my thyroid and my quality of life we are talking about here. I suppose if it were serious they would have called ... but if they'd called, they'd have saved me a weekend of worry. But by that point, I was just relieved to get the positive results.
So after reminding the nurse the doc wanted to start me on synthroid, I began my prescription a week ago. The first day was tough. I woke up, took my pill, and the prescribed hour later when I could eat, I was nauseous and exhausted. I called in sick for half a day and worked from home the other half.
Then I was doing great until today. I came back from a lunch meeting feeling very spacey and again, a little queasy. After working through it for an hour without subsiding, I came home early and slept again for 3.5 hours. Thank goodness for sick hours, and that until now, I've not had a big need to use them.
I realize it will take a good 3-6 weeks of being on this dose of the meds for my body to adjust and regulate itself. I can be patient. I'm just not used to being a visitor in my own body. Everyone knows I'm a bit of an Energizer bunny ... I can go go go, and that's what gets me through busy seasons like the one I'm smack in the middle of running. But I'm not used to my body quitting on me. I guess one bad day per week out of seven is pretty good, but it's still odd to me.
I am determined to get through this. This is MUCH better than any of the alternatives, and such a minor health issue compared to what others I know deal with every day. Everyone tells me when I get to the other side when my body has adjusted, I'm going to feel great. It's not that I feel badly right now, I just clearly have my days or moments where I feel differently. And that's okay. After all, as much as people joke that I may be superhuman, I am after all, just a regular human like everyone else.
I took the day off work, which was smart. In hindsight, if I have to do it again, I'll take a second day to recover, or at least make sure the procedure itself gets scheduled for the morning. I THOUGHT that was the plan, but turns out my morning appointment was just the consult with the endocrinologist. Fortunately, his son was who did my procedure, so I could get in for the biopsy the same day. After the consult, it was pretty certain I'd be put on synthroid based on my blood work results, but the final verdict would come post-biopsy.
I am quite thankful that I have a friend who went through this same procedure about a year ago. She did not hold back and told me how painful it would be. She. Was. Right. All the web sites that said it wasn't "any worse than having blood drawn" lied, or those writers have superhuman tolerances for pain.
When I arrived for the procedure, I had to lie down with a bolster pillow under my shoulder blades and lean my head back. I was basically upside down so that they could easily do the aspiration on my thyroid. I was not given any anesthesia ... doc's reasoning was that it would only numb the skin, and wouldn't prevent any other pain ... plus, that's more needles. No thanks.
They took three samples. It hurt like hell. My mom, who came with me, said they were pretty big needles. When it was over, doc asked how I felt. My response: "All I could think was I wondered if this is how it would feel to be stabbed."
I'll admit, I'm not a fan of pain, but I'm not a baby either. However ... I was glad I didn't have to drive myself home right away. And when I did, I slept about half the evening. And I was sore, BOY I was sore for that whole next day. And my voice was hoarse. But by Friday, I was feeling pretty normal again, physically.
That's when the "what if" thoughts started kicking in. See, I was supposed to get the results Friday or Monday at the latest. I kind of expected it to be Monday, since I had the procedure done late in the day, and they needed time to send it to one of the best pathologists in town to review. (Or so I was told.) As small a chance (about 5%) as I had of it being cancerous, I still worried some about it. I know that if it had gone the other way, I'm very lucky to live in Houston and have MD Anderson in my backyard. But I still was not excited about the prospect. As positive as I worked to be, it was just nagging in the background.
You can imagine my relief when I finally learned Monday afternoon it was benign. I was disappointed, however, that the procedure doc sent the information to his dad's office Friday afternoon, and they opted to mail me the report instead of calling me. MAIL biopsy results?? I know it's probably routine to their office, but this is my thyroid and my quality of life we are talking about here. I suppose if it were serious they would have called ... but if they'd called, they'd have saved me a weekend of worry. But by that point, I was just relieved to get the positive results.
So after reminding the nurse the doc wanted to start me on synthroid, I began my prescription a week ago. The first day was tough. I woke up, took my pill, and the prescribed hour later when I could eat, I was nauseous and exhausted. I called in sick for half a day and worked from home the other half.
Then I was doing great until today. I came back from a lunch meeting feeling very spacey and again, a little queasy. After working through it for an hour without subsiding, I came home early and slept again for 3.5 hours. Thank goodness for sick hours, and that until now, I've not had a big need to use them.
I realize it will take a good 3-6 weeks of being on this dose of the meds for my body to adjust and regulate itself. I can be patient. I'm just not used to being a visitor in my own body. Everyone knows I'm a bit of an Energizer bunny ... I can go go go, and that's what gets me through busy seasons like the one I'm smack in the middle of running. But I'm not used to my body quitting on me. I guess one bad day per week out of seven is pretty good, but it's still odd to me.
I am determined to get through this. This is MUCH better than any of the alternatives, and such a minor health issue compared to what others I know deal with every day. Everyone tells me when I get to the other side when my body has adjusted, I'm going to feel great. It's not that I feel badly right now, I just clearly have my days or moments where I feel differently. And that's okay. After all, as much as people joke that I may be superhuman, I am after all, just a regular human like everyone else.
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