Adopting a MWD

My husband knowing that in the next few years will retire from the Army decided that he would enjoy retiring with another military member.  That being a military working dog.  He put in an application.  A number of months after submitting his application he emailed, just to get an estimate on where we were on the list.  They emailed back the next day saying they have a dog for us.  Her name is Ebby and is a 3 yr old German Shepherd.  She was used to train the handlers but started teaching the handlers what they were suppose to be doing instead of letting them handle her.  We are very excited that we will go to Texas and pick her up in a week or two.  We were sent a photo and she honestly looks a little bit happy crazy.

We currently have a turtle, white mouse, two guinea pigs, a tank of fish and an old orange and white cat.  It will be very interesting to see how Ebby fits into our busy crazy happy family.  My husband is working on making sure the fence is secure.  We have 1/2 an acre all ready for a good run for our new family member.  More to follow when we get her :)

Thyroid Study Completed

The end finally came for the thyroid medication study.  I got a letter in the mail and everything, thanking me for my participation.  Looking back I have to say that it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  Switching thyroid medication/doses is never easy and doing it so many times in the span of 6 months or so was draining. 

My conclusion: I was on Armour and Synthroid.  By far the Armour made me feel better and increased my memory.  I don't know if it works that way for every single person but it was for me.  My thoughts on it are Synthroid is only the thyroid hormone 4.  A fully functioning thyroid turns the T-4 into the other thyroid hormones.  If your converting function doesn't work properly you then will have enough T-4 but not enough of the other thyroid hormones.  Armour because it is actual dried up ground up thyroid from pigs it contains all the thyroid hormones and no converting is needed. 

My cholesterol went down on the Armour.  My hands and feet are warm for the maybe the first time in my life.  My brain also seems to be clearer, making my memory seem to work better.  It seems to me that I can make the decision on how to make a plan to remember things.  The memory test included a board with squares and you have to remember the shapes in the grid and where on the grid those exact shapes were located.  Too much information to record in your brain at one time no matter how good of a memory you have.  So on the Synthroid my brain went "tilt" and I could barely remember anything.  On the Armour I could decide to remember the shapes and not the exact location.  My accuracy was much better on the Armour. 

I am glad I was able to participate in the research study comparing the two medications.  It was truly amazing to me that no one has ever done a study to see what the memory/cholesterol/and personal reactions were to the two generally well known, long term used medications.  In conclusion for me anyway the inclusion of all the thyroid hormones makes a marked difference in how I feel.  I would not want to go back on an only T-4 based medication again.  I have been put on the Armour since the end of the study and intend to stay on it for the duration.

Thyroid study update

It has been a few months since I started on the first "mystery medicine" in the hypothyroid medication research study.  I am pretty sure the first medication I was on was Armour (natural desiccated pig thyroid).  I say this because I felt vastly different on it than I had when I was on the Synthroid.  My hands were warm for what feels like my entire life.  I had the switch appointment with my endocrinologist yesterday and my blood work was discussed.  My cholesterol on Synthroid was way too high and fluxuating.  I was on Lopid and Lipitor and I was still having problems keeping it from going up.  This was really frustrating for me, I am of normal weight, active, eat well etc....  Just seemed so not fair and totally not in my control.  Well the few months on what I think is the natural thyroid medication my cholesterol was almost perfect!  Something I have not been able to do for years.

At the "switch" appointment I also had to redo the memory intelligence test.  While I still fought with the anxiety that comes with feeling dumb enough to only lick rocks, I think I did better.  The test is designed to max out anyone's memory.  Leaving you with a feeling that you just are not measuring up to some intelligence standard chart that you are not allowed to see.  The Dr kept telling me I was doing fine and that I should just have fun with it.  That was not going to happen.  I do think that the new medication helped increase my short term memory and my memory capacity.  The other thing I noticed was I was able to make better decisions on how to memorize things.  I could quickly come up with a plan for choosing what to remember.

Previously I would look at the grid of 20 slots and the 8 tiles of different designs and attempt to remember the placement of the tiles and all 8 designs in the allotted 10 seconds which as you can imagine is impossible.  This time I was able to concentrate only on the 8 designs and with pretty good accuracy chose them out of the stack of decoys and chose the actual designs that were on the grid.

I am now on "mystery medication" number 2.  Which I am pretty sure is Synthroid again.  I will take it for a few months and go back again for a round of blood work and the mental memory test again to see if the changes are solely from the different medications.  When I complete the study I can tell the Dr which one I preferred and go on that medication.  Right now I am leaning highly toward the first medication I took.

Carpenter Bee

Every Spring carpenter bees hover around our deck. Well actually bee, singular.  They are very territorial and will ward off any other bees, wasps, flies...  I got this cool picture of this bee which I named Albert.  Added a few other bee pics.  Enjoy and if you click on it they enlarge and look even cooler.

                                                 Albert in flight

                                                     Color fun with Albert

                                               This was a bee war

                                              This particular bee was named Guido

Lavender Farm

I went with a friend to a lavender farm.  It smelled heavenly.  There were a number of different kinds of lavender and we each cut some to make a little bouquet.  Bees loved it to!

There's a Fungus Among US!

We had a number of different kinds of mushrooms growing in our yard after a rather long rainy spell.  some were pretty, some were weird and some were rather lewd.  You will figure out which is which without me telling you, trust me. I also wanted to mention that if you click on the pictures they will enlarge to regular size.

Boris the Spiderrrrrrrr

Web weaver spider took up residence in the doorway leading from our kitchen to our deck.  I took advantage and took some photos.  I must tell you I got very very close and it was hard to get a good shot while shaking like a leaf.  Boris was big and ate lots of things.  So very much reminded me of the giant spider in the Harry Potter series!

 Note warning of Boris

 Wrapping dinner

 Spinning

 Taking a rest

Night spinning

The Temple of Mirth

This is what happens when you send my children to the Temple of Mirth!!!

Photography

One of my hobbies is photography.  I am not taught, I don't have a real clue how to use all the bells and whistles on my camera but I love it.  Some day I will have lessons but for now I will share a few that I like.  Knowing full well that they are not "technically" correct whatever that is.

Williamsburg, Virginia December 29, 2011  "lighting of the taverns"

First two weeks on mystery medicine

It has been about 2 weeks since I started the first thyroid medicine.  I am pretty sure it is the natural thyroid medicine Armour or something similar.  I noticed the second day on the medicine that my hands were warm.  Really really warm!  Warm hands and feet is a new experience for me.  Never in my life have I had my hands and feet the same temperature as the rest of me.  The veins in my hands/arms etc. are really sticking out from the increased blood flow.  I think I had a virus so I don't know what of my other symptoms were from that or from the new medicine.  The warm hands are definitely from the medicine and it is new. 

Medical research study on Thyroid meds

Well, I thought I would document my journey on a medical research study.  The study is to determine if people who are hypothyroid do better on synthetic or natural thyroid medication.  The synthetic, Synthroid is the usual medication given to those of us with a low functioning thyroid.  Natural thyroid is made from desiccated pig thyroid.  Synthroid has only thyroid hormone 4 or T4 in it.  Natural desiccated thyroid has the other thyroid hormones in it including T3.  There are also other thyroid hormones up until now have been ignored and their purpose is virtually unknown. 

To date there have been no study conducted for the sole purpose of determining if people taking the synthetic drug or the natural drug feel better and have stable labs.

For the record my thyroid is low functioning because of an autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's.  Basically my autoimmune system kills off my own thyroid for no good reason.  Autoimmune problems run in my family.  My son was recently tested for the antibodies for Hashimoto's and he was positive.  My brother has it, my mother and a great number of cousins. 

Getting diagnosed is not all that easy because they symptoms start out slowly and could indicate so many other things.  The symptoms for my Hashimoto's are as follows:
Tired; sleeping really does little good, I wake up bone tired
dry skin
hair falling out way more than normal
my finger and toe nails grow really really slow, no need for a manicure.  Although pedicures last months because the nails don't grow
brain fog; sort of feels like when you first wake up from an afternoon nap but almost all the time.
Slow digestion, I will leave it at that. 
weight gain; mine hit fast, I gained 30 lbs in 6 months and I was barely eating because I felt horrible all the time.
Unable to lose weight, to go with the gaining weight.  It doesn't come off.
Depression, mostly physical because the metabolism is so slow but thinking and dealing with all the other symptoms does drag on your mind to.  Don't like to admit it but it does.
Girls get crazy periods.  Clotting, long, cramping, hormonal crazy, bloating hell.
cholesterol goes INSANE.  I am on two medications to help keep it lower.  I am on Lopid and Lipitor (which also makes my brain additionally foggy).
My blood sugar also increases and so far I am not diabetic but when the thyroid goes South I get borderline and it really concerns me.
I have also noticed that the pressure in my eyes increases and my eye dr has requested I come in often and get it checked because if it increases anymore I will be considered to have glaucoma and need to start medicating for it.
There are other indicators in my blood work but right now I ignore them because it is just too much.  When my thyroid is functioning better and or my medication is all in sync  everything is in normal range.

Back to the research study:

I finally was giving a referral to an endocrinologist by my general practitioner.  The endocrinologist just happened to be doing research on the meds.  Since the Synthroid I was currently on was not adequately dealing with my symptoms nor was it keeping my TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone) down and stable.  I was going to have to change medications anyway and if I can help progress endocrinology in anyway I am in! 

People wonder what it is like being a military wife: this was my beginning

I can't possibly write in a blog post what it is like to be a military wife for decades, that would take me a book at least. I can maybe give a little taste here, a feel maybe?

I have known my husband since 1981. Sometime in that year or early the next he accepted a 4 yr ROTC scholarship. So I have been playing this role for a long time. Of course in the beginning he told me he was commiting to 4 yrs.

Our first year of marriage he was gone for 9 months. He lived at Fort Benning, Georgia and I lived in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. I visited him once over Thanksgiving.  He went to the Officer Basic Course and then Ranger School.  His Mom and I drove down to Georgia together to see him graduate from Ranger School and bring him to Wisconsin for time off before we moved to our first duty station. We moved to Germany soon before our first anniversary.  We lived in a small German town in a Gasthaus.  Not a sole spoke English and I was way to shy and nervous to try any German.  I sat in that hotel room for weeks on end embroidering an entire tablecloth and the napkins to go with it.  I still have them.  I remember my birthday June 17, 1987.  My husband and I had made plans to go to dinner to celebrate.  I got all ready and waited.  It got later and later but he never showed up.  Eventually I got a call through the front desk of the hotel (no cell phones at this time).  Someone had put him on the schedule for all night duty and he would not be coming home.  I was crushed.  I was so lonely, homesick and wanted just this little bit of normal that I couldn't have.  I called an American wife I had met once who lived in the village and told her my plight.  I just couldn't spend my birthday alone, I just couldn't.  She graciously invited me over, while it was uncomfortable and weird.  It was much better than feeling sorry for myself. 

We eventually found a car a BMW 318i.  Our first car!  Only problem was it was manual and I had never driven manual in my life.  So even when we moved into our own apartment, it took months before I attempted to drive myself anywhere. I remember many many nights standing by the window watching for him to come home because I knew not a soul, didn't speak the language. No computers, phone was insanely expensive and I was lonely beyond words.

I eventually made friends. Substituted at the elementary school and we traveled. The traveling was amazing. The Spain trip on the bus being the only woman with all soldiers was a bit funny though. The "excuse me Maam" was really funny for my 23 yr old ears.  It was still the cold war, my husband was gone training for weeks upon weeks on end.  His unit had a spot on the border to monitor and train for invasion. What is funny is that in his head he was home most of the time.  I think that perception is because he just blocked out the time off training.  He would be gone for 45 day FTX's  (field training exercises).   Our first child was born on November 9, 1989 in Nuremburg, Germany. The day the Berlin wall fell. We left Germany the next Summer.

That was a tiny taste of the beginning.  During the time in Germany so much happened.  Looking back that alone could be a pretty interesting book.   You still didn't hear about the worry about losing your spouse.  The planning what you would do if the casualty assistance officers would come to your door.  How you try to explain to your children why their father is gone for long periods of time.  Or how much it would hurt when you had to reintroduce your child to their father.  Maybe the amount of independence you have to acquire so you can survive on your own and then how when your spouse returns you have balance that with making them feel needed in the family.  Really it is a label that is hard to define.  Love to all my fellow military wives past/present and future!

My son and music

I was just thinking about when my youngest was a tiny little boy, crawling on the floor crying for me to turn on some music.  We had a small stereo on the fireplace mantle and he would crawl under it and point with his tiny little finger.  It took me some time to figure out what he was trying to get me to do for him.  He couldn't walk so he was under one year old.  I would turn it on and his eyes would glaze over.  He loved being carried around cheek to cheek dancing to whatever music I had on at the time.  Funny how things progress over time.

His next phase was his classical music.  He begged for Mozart and the like to fill the air of his world.  Odd for a preschool school child to be so inclined.  During this time we also lived on a military base and I had to often go to military ceremonies.  The military band was always in position and I always sat as close to them as possible.  He would fall sound asleep in my arms at the first sounds of the tuba lol.  We went to a renaissance fare and he wandered off and was found sitting at the feet of a harpist just listening away like a little angel at her feet.  At an outdoor church event he was sitting at the feet of a bagpipe player.  He always just love listening to music.

Over time we bought him different things to play on, keyboards, electric drums, recorders, there were trumpets around here also. 


Moving from elementary school to middle school. He entered the classical jazz phase.  He loved it!  He would actively seek out classical jazz.  He knew the different types of jazz and determined that the one he liked the most was classical.  Starting in 5th grade he played the cello.  I can't tell you how cute he looked carrying that great big instrument around.  Reminded me of a turtle and his big ole shell on his back.  By middle school he had decided to chose a different instrument.  His older two siblings played trumpet in the high school marching band and he wanted to be ready to do that when his time came.  As funny as it seems our high school band doesn't have marching cellos ha ha.

During the weeks leading up to the decision on which instrument he tested and talked about a number of different instruments.  He sort of had his heart set on a saxophone. He requested it but the teacher said too many students had chosen it and he should choose something else.  he decided on the clarinet.  It came in a smaller easier to carry case which was helpful according to him.  He started playing the clarinet and hasn't looked back.

He then started high school and his musical taste changed to techno/electronic stuff I can't stand. I am sure out of adolescent rebelling against the man (aka his father and I). He started the marching band and played many times a week for months.  The marching band is one of the best in the state (maybe country but I am a bit prejudiced).   He was chosen as a freshman to play the base clarinet at the all county freshman band.  Freshman and Sophomore year he refused to try out for band placement so he was put in the lowest band at the school.  Junior year (current year) I insisted that he at least try out.  If for no other reason than to get practice going in front of people.  He made the highest band in the school.  He was also asked to play the contra alto clarinet.  There goes the small case easy to carry part of playing a clarinet!  He loves the low sound of the contra alto clarinet.  It reminds me of the brooms in the sorcerers apprentice.  He looked up the music for me and plays that for me on request. 

This year he also tried out for the all county band and made it.  He tried out for the all district band and he made that also.  There was some mix up with the judges so he didn't try out for all state but he was busy and couldn't have gone to that anyway so it was no real loss.  Listening to all the beautiful music he plays it just makes me think back to that little tiny boy pointing his finger to the fireplace mantle wanting to fill his world with music. 

Anxiety!

I don't like anxiety.  It usually happens for things I logically and intellectually know are no big deal but  it still creeps in when I am not looking.  Yesterday I had my annual exam with my allergist.  Well not exactly MY allergist since mine was deployed (military Dr.)  but a NEW allergist.  Because I had not met this allergist my blood pressure began to rise.  I logically knew that he/she wasn't going to do anything painful.  Oddly just the thought of having to share my medical story with a new person was enough to set me off.

I had my two allergy shots before the appointment.  The young men who give me the shots took my pulse and BP.  I told them I was anxious and thought my bp would probably be higher than normal.  I could feel it!!  So the three of them all in military uniform I might add, stood in a semi-circle in front of me waiting for the machine to finish checking my bp.  I don't think having them stare at me helped lower it any!

It was elevated, not dangerously but it was 135/97.  It is normally lower than that for sure.  All because I was going to see a new Dr.  I did what I could to try and calm myself and I got through it.  I also probably should mention that when I get like that I talk and talk and crack jokes.... It is embarrassing to be sure because it is like my brain has been taken over.  I guess it could be worse, I could get mean, grumpy or weepy to those I encounter.  As it is I think I am a bit of humorous crazy for a little bit.

Being a mom to bigger kids

Being a mom to three mostly grown children is hard work.  I don't think I ever thought of it as being so hard!  I guess I figured that when they graduated from high school they some how magically didn't really need me much.  My daughter is a senior in college.  She is taking 18 credits and is very busy and stressed.  She calls me to de-stress her.  To help her think about something besides her classes, to make her think about more than just today.  My second child is also in college.  He is unsure of where he is going in life.  He doesn't want to need me.  Yet he does.  With one I answer the phone and chat, the other I get on the phone and try to connect. 

My son still at home is the quiet one of the bunch.  He I have to find ways to be in the room with him.  Sit in the same room and make small comments to him and discuss small comments he makes.  With him there are few long conversations.  I learn more about computers/computer networking/modems... than any 47 yr old lady needs to know. 

I keep track of appointments and trust me it isn't easy.  The older two don't live here and I don't make the appointments.  One is so stressed she forgets and the other just isn't in a mental place to even care to remember.  I try to keep track of the cars, the maintenance, the inspection, the oil change, tires....  Class schedules, Spring break, Fall break, how long is Winter break.  Have they registered for classes?  Has my daughter figured out what she needs to do for graduation, class wise and also the actual event?  Have they sent thank you notes for Christmas gifts?  Are they eating properly. 

I do realize that this over mothering thing is my issue and not theirs.  I am working on it.  I would like to know how to turn it off?  Ok, not turn it off but at least tone it down!

Don't ya just hate it when

Don't ya just hate it when you are thinking about something and it is soooo important.  You have to remember to tell someone something or do something.  It is first thing on your mind and you are so happy you remembered it.  AND THENnnnnnn you quickly forget it.  Something distracts you and it flies out of your head.  You remember it was important and that you really wanted to take action on it.  But it is just GONE!  Where do those things go?  Someplace along with the missing socks, scissors, roll of stamps or maybe the tweezers?