Dinner out on the town.

Shelby called me at work today and said "I will make dinner tonight".  I was relieved as I am feeling pretty tired these last couple of days.  So I get home about 5 and he meets me at the door with.  "You are coming with me to my fishing meeting, it will only last 10 minutes. Then I am taking you out to eat."  I replied "what exactly do you expect me to eat on the low iodine diet"  He says "I'm taking you to Golden Corral so you can have a steak."  The meeting lasted 30 minutes, riveting conversation! Then we headed down to Osage Beach.  Paid the 24 dollars for 2 buffet meals and headed for the salad bar.  This works since I can do the fresh foods, no dressing!  Then we went to order my steak and lo and behold, they preseason all the meat.  Everything!  So I resigned myself to plain baked potatoes.  Sort of saying things under my breath since Shelby was just sure I could eat there....and everything looked and smelled so good!  The assistant manager just happened to walk by and I took a chance and asked him if there was anyway to get a steak that wasn't pre-seasoned.  This extremely nice guy went way out of his way to go cut a fresh slab off the cow (not kidding) and had the chef cook it perfectly medium rare just for me....Highly recommend Golden Corral at Osage Beach.

Football Season is here!

Tonight was the Jamboree in Camdenton.  Six area teams scrimmage each other so the boys can get their feet wet against players other than their own teammates.  Eldon really looked great tonight...Lee went out for several plays and made some really good tackles as a middle linebacker.  I love watching the kids do their "thing".  Makes all the two a day practices and stinky football gear worth it!

Back in the full swing of work and school

This week has been totally busy with the back to school work at Osage and the kids activity schedules to keep up with.  I am soo glad that Lee has his license this year for football practice 7:00 -8:30, band from 11:00- 1:00, then football again from 6:00- 8:00.  In the middle of all this he had to register for his classes and attend a few other meetings for school clubs etc...last year I thought I would lose my mind!  He also has a girlfriend that he works into the schedule :) 

Savana has been completely bored this week.  I have been back to work with some very long days and she has been hanging at home mostly.  She had a good time with her day of orientation for her freshman year at Osage.  Right now she is deciding what she wants to wear tomorrow for the first day of school.  She has it layed out and ready to go, she has been doing this since kindergarten!  Don't ask me where she got this organized side.  I guess when the kids were little, I did sometimes lay out their clothes but Lee sure did not keep it up.  He is a true disaster area when it comes to organization.

Well, I am tuckered out and heading to bed.  Good night!

Low Iodine Diet...

I have to be on the low iodine diet for 4 weeks before the scans, so today was the start day!  It is not horrible but is pretty restricting and takes some planning since I cannot eat any "prepared, store bought food" and I really cannot eat out since everyone uses iodized salt.  I stocked up on my safe foods and ingredients,  baked a loaf of bread in the bread machine and the kids have put a huge dent in my low iodine bread already.  My "no-no" list includes: iodized salt, dairy products, egg yolks, soy products, anything from the sea, red dye #3, and most chocolate due to the dairy content.  I also cannot eat potato skins but the insides are ok.  Basically I am safe with fresh meats, fruits and vegetables or frozen without salt added.  I can eat unsalted nuts so organic peanut butter is ok as long as it has not had salt added. Also, sugar and artificial sweeteners are OK.  Sodas are fine as long as they don't have red dye #3.  Confused yet?  Yep it took me a while to get it figured out but I am getting there.  At least there is no issue with my morning coffee routine!  That would have brought on a mutiny!

Here we go again....

Bummer, bummer, bummer....the "cancer level" (thyroglobulin) had doubled in the last 3 months...also the TSH level was all out of whack which is an indicator that there are thyroid cells trying to get busy in my system.  So here is the plan.  I am stopping thyroid replacement medication so that they can get the scans they need to see where the thyroid cells are in my body....and I will probably get another round of iodine treatment in about a month...  I am sad that I have to be hypothyroid again.  I felt sooo rough last year before the treatment but hopefully it won't be as bad since I am not recovering from a big surgery this time.  I had a good visit with Dr Khan, she did an ultrasound of my neck and did not find any suspicious lymph nodes.  Those darn cancer cells could be anywhere...and the scans that they do will hopefully show them right where they are.

Lee did his own school registration today while I was at the Dr.  Says it went fine and that he didn't need my help at all....funny what a drivers license does for a kids maturity level!

Back to work...

Today I went back to school to get some "catch up" work completed before the big "everyone comes back" day.  Took 6 hours of computer and copy work but it is pretty much ready.  Also ran over to the the Middle School to arrange that office and prepare for the sports physicals tomorrow.  It felt good to get back into a routine type day.  Lee started back in Eldon with band practices.  Savana called me multiple times complaining of being bored here at home.  She will come with me to help with check in tomorrow, I can almost always find something for her to help me with at school :0) 

The next 2 weeks are not really contracted days at school, but several things just work better and allow me to get important information gathered if I am present.  So I am kind of flowing in and out until the 12th which is my actual first required day back.  All the kids start on the 18th.

Friday is a "labwork day" so I am running up to Columbia to get that drawn early in the morning.  I have Dr appointments the following Wednesday, just followups and they will let me know how the cancer levels and thyroid hormone levels are running.  I get to see the endocrinologist, Dr Kahn, who diagnosed me a year ago.  I have not seen her as a patient since that day... We have ran into each other at survior/support group meetings but nowhere that we could sit down and just talk to each other.  I really like her!  She is so "in tune" with her patients and willing to let you vent.  Surgeons are not known for their bedside manner and that is definitely true about my ENT surgeon.  I always feel a little jittery on Dr appointment days.  I don't want to think that I could need more treatments but the possibility is there.  But I am feeling better everyday...so I anticipate that they will say "See you in 3 months!"  That would be good news (yearly appointments are generally not allowed until several years of clean labwork)