Oh Blast

Getting ready for RAI (Radiation Ablation) on Wednesday and today I woke up with blocked tear ducts and swollen eyes. This has not been happening to me. I have read all the horrible things that happen to other people with this Cancer but all it has done up til now has terrified me and also made me happy at every step of the way that I live in Seattle and have managed to get good Doctors along the way. I have had relatively few adverse side effects. Sure my voice is still screwed up enough from my surgery that Maui my Macaw is still not sure that I am really me. But it seems to be getting better. The Low Iodine Diet has been annoying but not impossible to deal with. The worse thing being no dairy no soy so no Latte's I just don't like black coffee that much. Going off the Thyroid hormone has made my core body temp freak out and made me stupider and more tired. But I have been able to deal with it ok.
Well today I woke up with great swollen eyes from blocked tear ducts. Not sure if it is from being Hypothyroid or just getting over a head cold, or the scan dose of radiation on Friday. Or all of it at once. Many people on the thyca alias have had this type of thing happen but usually after the Ablation dose of radiation, not the scan dose. Oh well warm compresses, eye drops and hope it goes away - Also made a LID (Low Iodine) compliant version of hot and sour soup to try to get my eyes watering.... I don't think it worked.

Quote of the Day: Dared to dream

Engineers and Designers dared to dream when, in hindsight, they probably should have stayed awake.
-From the Smithsonian Channel Unbelievable Flying Objects.

Post Op and Doing Fine!

Went in today for my 1 week plus 1 day post Surgery checkup.
Got my bandage off and snipped the stitches. (OH BOY I can take a real shower again!!)

She had the pathology results. She had removed the whole thyroid plus 2 bunches of lymph nodes from either side of the thyroid. The left side bunch was no cancer, from the right there was 1 - 1mm bit of suspicious cells. So it appears that we managed to get the thyroid out early enough to keep it from spreading.

I am doing very well. One amazing thing is that there does not seem to be any numb spots around the incision When I had my ACL repaired on my knee I ended up with a big patch where the nerve was cut and so I do not have feeling but the neck is all good. I find that pretty amazing since the incision is fairly large About 2.5-3 inches. Shouldn't leave much of a scar it will probably end up looking like one of the creases in the neck.

Out of Surgery

And here I am - out of surgery and doing fine. I am quite hoarse which was expected. I can talk well enough to know that my vocal cords came through ok. But I still have a pretty hoarse voice - not great for phone conversations at the moment. I go back in to see the surgeon on Wednesday and Endocrinologist on Tuesday - I will probably be off work most of the week - or maybe I will work from home. I actually am quite comfortable. Surgery went very well and I was never in any real pain. Had a bit of Nausea problem the first day but that was the worst.

Cancer is a big word...

Next week I go in to surgery - No big deal just Thyroid Cancer. Yes it is confirmed yes it is treatable yes I am really really scared. I don't know how much is going to have to come out. I don't know how I will do I don't even know if I will have a voice after wards. Yep Cancer is a big word....

Quote of Day: Not minding

Cry
after cry
after cry of joy---
Not minding
the hair
turning white.

Cancer is Such a Big Word

So I had a really harsh pain in my neck and my chiropractor sent me to get an MRI. The MRI returned nothing surprising about my neck - I have some old injuries that have not magically gone away and not gotten too much worse. However the MRI people did see something suspicious on my thyroid and asked me to return for an Ultrasound and needle biopsy. Chiropractor wrote up the order and called my regular Doctor to set me up with him since Thyroid is not her field of course. (She is really quite good at making sure one gets all the right tests and care one needs and that one's insurance does not balk at it!) My regular Doc agreed and off I went.

I'll tell you right now needle biopsies of Thyroid bits are not fun! Especially with a sore neck....

Anyway while in San Francisco on Vacation last week (Had great time, enjoyed fog and 70 degrees while Seattle was 103!) I got a call from my Doctor. You know that when the Doctor calls you himself and first chats (Presumably to make sure you had not answered the phone while climbing a mountain or something and so won't fall to your death when he gives you his news.) that it is not going to be great news. Turns out I have Papillary Thyroid Cancer. (Cancer is such a big word isn't it?) Not the worst Cancer in the world to have if one must have it - very treatable and not something that spreads fast or easily. My Doctor referred me to a Thyroid specialist surgeon and I went to an endocrinologist and got a bunch of tests done yesterday. She said that they would be taking both lobes of the thyroid out as I have suspicious nodules in both sides and confirmed cancer in at least 1 of the nodules. None of the Nodules are huge. They would not have found them if not for the MRI. They do not know if it has gone anywhere else. It is not a high probability. If the cancer goes anywhere else it tends to Lymph, Lung and bones I think more or less in that order. Again not a high probability. About 97% of cases have full recovery after treatment. Treatment MAY include my taking a radioactive substance and then staying away from people for a couple days cause I will be glowing in the dark but I would not know whether they will do that until after surgery. Not sure how that works either - Do I have to take my bed to the nuclear waste site afterwards or what??

The Endocrinologist (thank god for spell check- I have not gotten that one spelled right once yet. ) said there was no need to rush the Surgery.

I am fine - no symptoms other than my usual bitchiness which is probably unrelated. Seems Thyroid issues might run in my family. The endocrinologist also said I should not neglect my Mammograms since there seems to be a slightly higher incidence of breast cancer in those with Thyroid Cancer. There is a higher incident of Thyroid problems in those who lived near Hanford, WA (I have not) but the Doctor was not aware of any correlation with the Trident base which I did grow up next to. I also was over on the black sea in Trabzon after Chernobyl - brought back some radioactive hazelnuts. Who knows....

Life gets TeeJus Don't it!?

Quote of the Day: When were your spirits at the lowest...

"To the question, "When were your spirits at the lowest ebb?" the obvious answer seemed to be, "When the gin gave out." -Sir Francis Chichester 

Quote of the Day: no such thing as bad weather...

"There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes." -Old Norwegian Adage 

Yep it's Another Monday!

Quote of the Day: Men in a ship...

"Men in a ship are always looking up, and men ashore are usually looking down." -John Masefield

Quote of the Day: The pessimist...

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." -William Arthur Ward

Quote of the Day: Boats, like...

"Boats, like whiskey, are all good." -R.D. (Pete) Culler 

Little Boat Sailing

I have always sailed on cruising boats - The only dinghy I owned had no sail, I rowed it all over Hood Canal. This last week though I have had a couple opportunities to muck about with sailing dinghies. It brought out my long term wish to have one of those fast little buggers! 

Last weekend a good friend of ours invited us out to do some drifting and when the wind approved of it some sailing on his 18' Sol cat. We mostly drifted but if the wind puffed that boat moved well!

Thursday I did my Volunteer Duty onboard the CYC Committee boat for Thursday night dingy racing. It was a grand night and they had 18 Lasers, several 505s, I14 and Stars out! For the most part I was kept pretty busy writing down finishers but I did manage to take a few shots of the boats. 

There was one Moth out having a hooting good sail around us. Now that is a boat I would love to be able to race but I think I will set my sights a little lower....

Spring is Sproinging!

I am heavy into bicycle training and work right now so have not been doing as much boat stuff as I really want to. I have tried a variety of methods to strip the old Cetol off the teak - So far I have not found a really good method. I think my plan of a little at a time with lots of elbow grease will be what does it. I tried a chemical stripper which sort of worked. Heat gun did not help at all. 

Since the weather has not really been good for lounging about outside working on teak I have been doing inside work. 

I bought a small shop vac that takes drywall and soot sized filter bags and completely cleaned the diesel stove. That job has not been done since the stove was installed and was a messy but satisfying afternoon's work. I am attacking the galley counter now which is in need of sanding, cleaning and refinishing. I think the wood is strips of oak that Dad got out of a surplus deal somewhere. 

Once the weather is a little more reliable I plan to start on the topsides which are in need of a sanding and paint job.

I am still pondering plans for new sails but I think this year we will be limited to maintenance and electrical work. 

Meanwhile I am getting some really fun sailing in on a raceboat "Corvo" I just joined the Wednesday night crew onboard last week and had a hoot! It is quite a different boat to sail than Attitudes. 

Mucking About in Boats

There is nothing half so much worth doing as mucking about in boats. In them or out of them, it doesn't much matter. - The Water Rat, WInd in the Willows.

Attitudes at New Home

Attitudes meets tanker wake.

Well today was the big day. Attitudes got to go to her new home in the big city. Unlike most of my other boat moves it was a lovely day - not freezing cold. There where a few clouds out and the temp was crisp but it was a very nice day. We had Esra drop us at the Bremerton Ferry and took a taxi from the Ferry dock to Brownsville marina. I have to admit that after so many years at Brownsville it was a little hard to leave. It is a wonderful marina with many friendly people.  I am going to miss having a boat there but it will be very nice to be able to leave work and head to the boat for a little downtime in the evening every once in a while..... I am looking forward to getting some maintenance work done on it also. There are so many things on a boat that just take frequent short squirts of work to keep them done. I want the boat to look loved and carried for again.  My first item on the list is teak. Gonna get the teak stripped and refinished. I figure I will do a little section at a time. But first gonna spend a day at the boat show tomorrow.