Transcriptions

I was not going to blog tonight because I had absolutely nothing of worth to blog about.  And then…

Back story.  Dave has spent most of this holiday weekend transcribing drum set parts to play with rock band.  He is phenomenally talented and dramatically focused.  Transcribing involves listening to tunes repeatedly and putting down on paper, in his own code, exactly which drum to hit at what time.  My favorite part is when he mimes playing the drumset.  Headphones in place, he becomes the rockstar and rocks out on the air drums.  I love it.

Well, Gunny does not love it.  Gunny was happily napping at Dave’s feet while Dave was working.  Then the bass drum and high hat needed to be played, so Dave’s feet started pounding away.  *dragon noises*  The feet stopped moving.  Another measure needed “playing” and the toe tapping began again.  *growling dragon gets up and give the evil eye*  The air drums disappear again.  Then the whole tune needed a play through.  *dragon-puppy eyes activity carefully*  Dave’s air drum set came to life… arms and legs were in full swing….*growl, run across the room, jump on Dave*  The headphoned, fully-focused Dave never saw it coming…

Hilarious-ness ensued.

Snow

 

Lovely day for a snow storm.

Cool and Cozy

For most of today I looked at two things.

Pretty.

Chilly.

 

It was a cool and cozy day.

Love to you.

Nuclear Medicine Adventures

Wahoo!!  I am radioactive!!

Okay, perhaps that statement requires some explanation.

I was diagnosed with Graves Disease in 2008.  It is a hyperthyroid condition that overworks the thyroid and pumps too much thyroid hormone into the system.  Thyroid hormone helps keep the metabolism running, so too much makes the metabolism a bit crazy.  My resting heart rate would be 120-140.  It is supposed to be 60.  Details.  Based on my information at that time, I fully expected to be on meds for a few months and then live in remission for the rest of my life.  Well, turns out I have been fighting the roller coaster of pre-clinical hyperthyroidism for three and a half years.  No fun.

So now I am pursuing the more traditional treatment for Graves.  Radioactive iodine(I-131) is ingested and then absorbed by the thyroid, permanently injuring the gland and lowering its hormone output.  Today’s adventure in the nuclear medicine clinic was exciting.

It is an exclusive club.

The radiation safety officers (ha, what a job!!) brought me a whole bunch of paperwork to sign.

It had all sorts of rules about who to be around and how much.  I can only hug people for a maximum of thirty minutes per day each.  Ummm, what?  Ha!  These rules are hilarious.  One of the things that absolutely must be done when receiving radiation treatment is a pregnancy test.  Pregnant women have no business around high doses of radiation.

As evidenced by this lovely sign.  Well, this became quite the issue for us.  It took almost two hours for the lab to come back with the fully expected negative pregnancy test result.  Ugh.  So we waited.

 

Sitting under this sign for two hours is weird.  We sat there so long that I took a picture of it.  Thankfully I had the best company for this weird day.  My sweetheart got off to come to the hospital with me because he knew I was nervous.

Best husband.

Finally when all the tests were done, I got to go back and get my pill.  Wanna see the space age container it came in?

I asked if he was gonna send me to the moon next.  Looks like a space capsule!

So now begins the adventure of what happens when you treat your thyroid with radioactive iodine.  Lord willing, things will settle down and I will be medicine free for a couple of years.  I am so thankful for my husband’s job and the great medical benefits.  This condition needs treatment and I am so blessed to have access to good care.

One of the thoughts

Pensive.  Thoughtful.  Concerned.  Nervous.  Curious.  Grateful.

Sometimes it is kinda busy up here in my mind.  So many things to think about.  On top of my normal overthinking of everything in my life, I was recently made aware of the depth to which modern day slavery impacts this world.  27 million human slaves being abused right now.  I do not own a slave.  I do not have any sort of personal interaction with slaves whereby I might set them free.  But I do use things that are made by slaves.  I didn’t know it.  Goodness, if I had known, wouldn’t I have left them on the shelves?  Heard a crazy statistic.  More than three human slaves have touched my smartphone.  Ugh.  It has to stop.  We have to get educated.  We have to shed the light.  Darkness cannot exist in the light.

Mom posted this website.  Good place to start.  www.slaveryfootprint.org

I suppose this is one of the things I’m thinking of tonight.

Sleep well.

Pinning

I am a recent fan of Pinterest.  It is delightful.  It is inspiring.  It is fun to go through different picture categories.  There are fun recipes, great style concepts, beautiful photography, and hard core workouts.

Well, last weekend I was flipping through little pictures and found this fabulous scarf that a friend of mine had “pinned”.

She seemed to really like it.  I loved it!  I got curious and did a little research and found the crochet pattern for the scarf.  Guess what!  I made it!

It was very fun to surprise my sweet friend by giving her the scarf that she had pinned.

So pretty!!

Honeybadger

I went to the gym tonight.  Going to the gym is not an unusual thing for me.  I love going to the gym.  I like the variety.  I also like the variety of at home workouts.  Boredom is the enemy of good workouts.

Tonight’s adventure at the gym was one minute sprints, weighted and unweighted lunges, weighted squats, abs, and stretching.  So much fun!

Normally I go to the gym in the middle of the day when most people on post are at work.  At that time of day there are very few people around.  In fact there are usually only two – the I-might-be-Mark-Harmon’s-twin worker who is always upbeat and friendly and the senior citizen who lifts serious weights in a costume that probably looked fantastic on them when they were 18.

It was a different story this evening.  The weight room was full of muscle-bound, mid-twenties, tattooed, I-just-got-back-from-fighting-for-America’s-freedom-and-working-out-is-how-I-cope soldiers.  They were hauling about 80 pound dumb bells, grunting, sprinkling sweat in spray patterns, and watching football commentary on tv.  It was different.  Sorta like having a different channel on television.  Substantially less spandex.

Speaking of costumes.  I had an issue.

Can you see the issue?

My pants.  They are too long.

A solution had to be found.

So yes, I became the woman in the gym with the costume that folks like me might blog about.

Dave said the 80’s called and wanted their tight roll back.

Oh well.

Honeybadger don’t care.