Archive for Empty Nest
Have high blood pressure? high calcium levels?
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photo credit: pasotraspaso
This is my two week post op report card, and it’s a good one!
The first week was rough, I’m sure just due to the effects that any surgery has on your system along with hormone and blood chemicals all flying up and down, but now at two weeks post op from my parathyroidectomy I am feeling MUCH better.The symptoms that were IMMEDIATELY fixed are:
- my blood pressure is now totally normal, all the time
- normal bladder control (pre-op I ALWAYS had to pee and could barely make it in time)
- bone and muscle pain GONE!
- I have lost 7 pounds (yeah!)
- digestion MUCH improved
- Sex Drive back… (double yeah!)
Still to go:
I am currently REALLY emotional, I didn’t have the mood swings when I was pre-op like some people do, but I am having them now… I’m thinking it has to do with the parathyroid having to adjust itself.
I still get a little shakey when I don’t get my calcium. I had an appointment with my Endocrinologist on Tuesday and he has me on 1000 milligrams of calcium 4x a day along with a prescription for Vitamin D that I take once a week. I am also scheduled for a bone density scan in two weeks to see how much damage has been done to my bones during this calcium leaching period of God only knows how long. After he looks at that and determines the results he’ll redo my levels.
I am musing that perhaps my weight gain over the last two years and onset of menopause symptoms including rapid weight gain for now apparent reason may have to do with the fact I read on my synthyroid medication I picked up yesterday. (I also have Hashimoto’s Thyroid Disease) It says not to take it with calcium… so I’m wondering if that was/is part of the reason for the weight gain (Hashimoto’s is hypo thyroid) is that the synthyroid couldn’t really do it’s job to help regulate my metabolism with my calcium levels being constantly so high in my blood stream. Only time will tell.
All in all the results of the parathyroidectomy are a huge success. 
Read all my previous posts on this journey
Pt 5: 2 Days Post Operative
pt 4: Tomorrow is Surgery Day
pt 3: Consultation with the Surgeon
Definition :
“Parathyroidectomy“
Parathyroidectomy is surgery to remove parathyroid glands or parathyroid tumors. Parathyroidectomy is recommended when one or more parathyroid glands are producing excessive amounts of parathyroid hormone.
2 days Post Op Parathyroidectomy
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I am cautiously optimistic! I want to shout from the rooftops about how much better I feel in my body than I have for a couple of years, but I realize it might be the pain medications I’m still on. However, even when I wait before taking the meds I can feel that my blood pressure has returned to the low normal I’ve always had before this health issue. Also, happily all of the doom and gloom things I read about recovery which included things like…. your doctor will tell you not to smile, laugh or talk excessively, you’ll be on soft foods and liquids for a week… are totally NOT true. My surgeon laughed when I told him about what I’d read. I’ve often heard from doctors to NEVER look up medical things on the internet as there is as much mis-information as there is good…. So here is my experience in a hope to be encourage other women out there who are preparing for this surgery. I started in pre-op where I changed into my hospital gown, got the IV hooked up and then they let my hubby back with me. We then met my surgeon again, the surgical nurse and anesthesiologist, they were all very kind and answered all questions we had and kept the mood light and easy. The anesthesiologist gave me a shot of happy juice to relax me before the general anesthesia. I remember telling the nurse that wheeling through the hall to surgery looked just like I Greys Anatomy… I really don’t remember anything after that until I woke up in Post Op. AWESOME! I didn’t want to remember a thing and I didn’t. They monitored the PTH (Para Thyroid Hormone) during the surgery to make sure the tumor they removed had fixed the problem. They found the tumor as expected from the scan and removed it, the PTH immediately went back to normal… Good news! I woke up to a bit of a sore throat from the breathing tube and very thirsty, the post op nurse was great, she stayed within view once I started coming to, gave me a few ice chips, told me the surgery went well. I was so relieved when I could talk. I was horse, but talking just fine. She asked my pain level.. it was about 4 out of 10, they tell you to keep the pain moderated on the low end because it’s harder to fix if you let the pain get out of hand. I got a shot of happy juice and something for queasiness. I was also given a mega does of Calcium since my system wasn’t dumping it in. Very Tricky XS Tums.. no kidding. I take 1000 milligrams 4 times a day until I get my blood taken. I got to my room and the nurse was just great, she got me some water right away, ordered up a soft food dinner which consisted of jello, beef broth and ice cream. I couldn’t eat much but since I hadn’t eaten in 24 hours I knew I should eat something. I was pretty much in and out of it the rest of that evening I tried to stay awake to watch 24 with my hubby, but I don’t think I got much of it. Nighttime at a hospital is always rough. There are so many sounds and beeps and just as you go to sleep, they come to get a blood sample to check my calcium levels. I have a BIG appetite come morning and the Adventist hospitals feed you well. I head home after lunch and hope everything continues to improve. I have to take the opportunity to first thank all of my friends and family and especially my wonderful husband for all the prayers and support I was offered throughout this process. More information on Hyper Parathyroid Disorder
pt 4: Tomorrow is Surgery Day
pt 3: Consultation-with-the-Surgeon
pt 2: Appointment with the Endochronologist
pt 1: I thought it was just Menopause
Definition
-
“Parathyroidectomy“
Parathyroidectomy is surgery to remove parathyroid glands or parathyroid tumors. Parathyroidectomy is recommended when one or more parathyroid glands are producing excessive amounts of parathyroid hormone.
Why do Women have to shave?
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SERIOUSLY! It has to be the single thing I most hate about being a woman. We will torture ourselves endlessly in pursuit of the “silky smooth legs” “she wears short shorts” commercial that told us over and over again the only way to attract a man was to have all the surfaces of our body hair free!!
You have so many options and yet all of them have their downfalls. (aka SUCK!)
First off.. shaving.. Ok, doesn’t seem to hard does it? But I don’t know about you ladies out there, but there are areas of my body that I’m supposed to get hairless that I can’t see.. I’ve never seen.. not sure I want to see, but I’m expected to take a sharp blade to it? I don’t think so. Wet or dry, shaving cream or gel, my daughter says use hair conditioner because you always have more of that left than you do shampoo… So ok, I’ve managed to somehow miraculously de-hair myself to the satisfaction of the TV commercial folks and guess what.. By the end of the day I’ve got stubble… UGG….
Then there is waxing! You’ve all seen the scene in the “40 year old Virgin” where he’s waxing his chest hairs… That really IS how painful that is, and how many men out there are willing to do that for us to have a hair free chest to cuddle on.. NOT THAT MANY! It’s Painful, Expensive, did I say painful?? Brazilian Wax… I call that INSANE!!! Even the “Sex in the City” ladies wouldn’t do that!
Cream Depilatories. Ok, these came out with the “who wears short shorts” commercials in the ’60′s.. (yes I’m old enough to remember those) Back in those days you were lucky to start putting that potion on one leg before you were passing out from the fumes. That much has improved, but this option just never worked well for me. I’d wait the allotted time, and parts of me would be burned by the chemicals and other parts of my legs would still have the same amount of hair on them as when I started.
I was recently sent a new product to review on my blog by www.fuelmyblog.com .. Smooth Away -Well here goes with that. It’s not too pricey, is the only good thing I can say about this product. It retails in Target, Walmart, etc. for $9.99. Not bad if it worked AT ALL???
The packaging looked attractive, the instructions fairly simple, the brochure assured me I would be silky smooth and hair free head to toe.
I assembled the “crystal…..” to the pink applicator and began to work in small circles with not to much pressure, alternating clockwise and counter clockwise as the instructions had said….. UM…. NOTHING happened.. not one hair was harmed during the five minutes of working this product up and down my shins. I couldn’t believe it.. It seemed like it should work, I thought well maybe it’s just my hair… so my daughter tried it, my friends… same result… It just doesn’t work at all. So now what…
I did discover a fairly new razor the Intuition Razor for ladies which was introduced to me by Andrea and Andrea of two 
chicks talk tech podcast. In it Andrea talked about these razors and told all the guys listening to go and get one for their wives and all the ladies to get one for their friends. I decided what the heck, nothing else is really much good so I went to Target to pick one up… WOW.. these were different. You could ONLY use them wet, in the shower, but they really did glide gently around your shavable zones and zapped the hair gone.. even those spots I can’t SEE!!! Is it a miracle? Well I wouldn’t call it that but they really do work great. The only downside is they are pricey and as soon as the soapy, lotiony part is worn down they are less and less effective. I suspect these were created by women!
If any of the women out there in internet land have anything to share that works better than all these options I beg of you to share it with me and all womankind!
Thyme the Herb in your Garden
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Thyme Plant in a Pot
Thyme is one of the easiest herb to grow and the hardest one to get ride of once you get it started!
It is related to the mint family which is why it is so hardy. Some varieties of thyme that are in my garden last all winter long, other’s get kind of crunchy so I just trim them all the way back to where you see the healthy flexible stalks.
It thrives in a hot sunny location and doesn’t require much water once it’s established. The low growing varieties are great if you place them between flagstones for a walkway… it will squeeze out the weeds and discourages ants…. I assume they don’t like the smell. The creeping types really added great character to my new rather bland garden walls. (I’ll post my before and after photo’s once the snow clears)
I love to use it fresh in a variety of dishes and it’s one of the herbs that keeps it’s flavor even after it dries. See some of my favorite recipes at my cooking site Chrissy Cooks!
There are many varieties and each has a fabulous flavor, color and different growing habits. The more you cut it back, the bushier and healthier it gets so trim it up regularly for cooking. I love the scent of fresh herbs in my kitchen so I’ll gather them up as I’m cutting flowers to bring indoors for my bouquets.
There are a bunch of different type of thyme including:
- English thyme — the most common
- Lemon thyme — smells of lemons
- Variegated lemon thyme — with bi-colour leaves
- Orange thyme — an unusually low-growing, ground cover thyme that smells like orange
- Creeping thyme — the lowest-growing of the widely used thymes, good for walkways
- Silver thyme — white/cream variegate
- Summer thyme — unusually strong flavor
- Purple thyme — This is the variety I have grown and creeping down my garden bricks
I love to plant thyme along pathways where you bump against it as you wander by which releases the fresh scents. I also found interesting history and medicinal uses for Thyme at Wikipedia
