We went to a welcome home dinner on Saturday. Here's Willow dishes up some dinner:





Then we went for a walk in the Maine woods by moonlight.

Vernal Equinox

Beautiful day out today! A couple days ago we had 65F in the shade, then flurries the next morning. Still getting below freezing at night.

Yesterday was the first day in ages I left the fire out all day.

My driveway collapsed. It ate a Jeep Wrangler. The passenger side axels and bumpers were resting on the still frozen driveway. The passenger tires were no where to be seen. There was water pouring under the driveway on that side; the top frozen layer gave way.

That was the worst case of stuck I ever saw anyone in my driveway. My Hay guy came over the next day with his 4WD pickup and a chain and I got to learn how to drive a standard in reverse, except the Jeep didn't budge.

Three jacks, digging, and chopping the frozen ground free of the tires, and digging two diversion trenches to try and drain the stream flowing through the tire rims away, and several more attempts and we got it out! Yay!

I really wanted to get pictures but the batteries for the camera were flat!

I found it extremely amusing that my driveway ate a 4WD Jeep Wrangler. Until I worked for two hours to help get it out.

Now I have an impassable driveway and I am parking my car halfway up. My road (not my driveway)is so bad, my neighbor came over and told me the postman, who drives an International 4WD, has refused to deliver mail on our road for the last 10 days.


The road commssioner is not taking any calls.


My car has 6 inches of clearance and patched brake and power steering lines, but I have to drive it or walk a mile. I have had it sideways twice and didn't slide in my car once all winter, but the mud is so deep it throws the car.

We had huge winds Friday and lost the power for a couple of hours. The neighbor came over to see if we had power. Thank goodness it came on just as darkness fell even though Willow had the candles and lamps lit.

We have bare ground in places, and 6-8 inches of snow in places. The plowed snowbank on the lawn is still 3 feet or so.

Happy Spring!

Wednesday

It's been just about a week since I took the I131 treatment. The treatment takes 1-6 weeks to kill the thyroid. Usually in the interim patients continue with their anti-thyroid meds to prevent a spike in thyroid hormone as the dying thyroid releases the stored hormone.

As I had a rare reaction to the meds, I am not on any, and I am experiencing hyperthyroid symptoms. More muscular/neurological stuff, like back pain out of nowhere that turned into curl up in a ball stomach pains.

My back is still a little cranky this morning and an ankle is now protesting.

My brain is very scattered; I am having a hard time accomplishing anything but the must do's.

The total body fidgets are back.

Total exhaustion.

I am not even sure what the Dr.'s plan is. All I can remember was something about, "see you in six weeks."

I am not sure the natural methods will work when I go hypo, since technically there won't be a thyroid to stimulate. I will be on Thyroxine, I believe, so unless there is naturally occurring thyroxine I will be on pharmaceuticals. Even if there is natural thyroid hormone, if I took it that might effect my prescribed dose.

****

The roads here are a mess. We had about 3-4 feet of snow pack, then we had torrential rain and temps in the 40's for two days. There are orange cones and road barricades all over the place, from where the road flooded over and washed out the road, or turned to ice the night before as it was flooding, creating these crumbling iceburgs across the road in places.

Parts of my road, which is dirt, are nearly impassable without 4 wheel drive (which I don't have). As the top layer of road thawed, the water and muck stayed on top, making mire pits in low sections.

I'll have to take my camera out and get some pictures of a real Maine spring. :)

Congrats to the Firebird for winning a trophy for basketball!

So, I'm 50 hours into the radioactive iodine treatment. Although the only known side effect is a possible sore neck, I have been draggin butt and just got up from a three hour nap.

The tech said I was getting a good dose that will knock the thyroid out, so most likely I am looking at replacement hormone the rest of my life. Thanks Tonia, for the tip on the generic, after I took the pill I was thinking that I hope the meds over my loifetime weren't going to cost me an arm and a leg...figuratively speaking.

Wednesday

I go for my treatment tomorrow. I am a day behind, since Monday was a soppy wet snow supposed to turn to rain that made me not want to risk a wreck to drive to town to swallow the test pill.

So I took the test pill yesterday and went back for a scan today and go back tomorrow for the big dose.

I find it so ironic, ne, Karmic, that an anti-nuc greenie like myself is facing nuclear medicine. No hesitation. That or get knocked out and go under the knife and hope the surgeon is competent enough not to slice my vocal cords or the thymus gland. Nope, just swallow a pill. Not have a breast removed, or a limb amputated, or half my face taken away, it's just a pill. Or maybe two pills.

And a whole list of recommended precautions, apparently I could shed radiation from my saliva and stuff that comes out the other end, so I have to keep my eating utensils separate for a week, and throw out my toothbrush in a week, and wipe the phone off after I use it, and flush three times everytime I go...but the scientist in me wonders how to handle the volumes of drip that comes out my nose working outside in the cold? What about the tissues and gloves and yes, ok, shirtsleeves?

My favorite part, and I had the fellow from nuclear medicine giggling nervously along with me, is that I get a dr's note in case I try and cross international borders in the next month and set off the dirty bombs alert...lol. well, the geiger counter...

One most likely thing that will happen is that I will go hypothyroid and have to take a pill everyday for the rest of my life. But the meds I was taking came to 7 pills a day and crashed my white blood cells, so I guess I can happily take one a day forever to avoid that!

I suppose some comfort might be gained from hearing that George Bush senior and his wife Barbara both had this treatment for hyperthyroidism.