Dance Baby Dance

We went out on our first date last week, 11/11, to see John Gorka play live at the Cedar Cultural Center, with our friends James and Jill. It was a great night. So inspiring for me to see a great performer up there playing his own songs. And so inspiring too, to see Darcy so happy and having fun after such a trying time.

After we got home, we found the kids loved the music just as much as we did. Here's a short (very short) of Amelia dancing to the new CD. I took the video with our old digital camera, so the quality isn't that great, still it's what was at hand. If you need quicktime, click "Get Quicktime" in the menu at the right.

Looking Good

As far as we know, we're through now. The last full body scan on Friday didn't seem to show anything I didn't expect to see, based on what I had been told.

Now, I'm no nuclear medicine specialist. But I think what we were looking for was a bright spot around the thyroid area, and darkness elsewhere, which is just what I saw. This because the thyroid tissue takes up the radioactive iodine, and if it's just in that one area, it has not spread. Plus, if it's bright, it means the medicine was taken up well by the remaining thyroid tissue.

Because I-131 has a half-life of 8 days, it was 50% gone on Friday. According to the rad specialist, they expect 97% of the dose to be flushed from the system in those first few days of seclusion. So, 3% was taken up by the thyroid, of which now 1.5% remains to light up last Friday's scan. And in a couple of days, we'll be at half of that - 0.75% by my calculations. IE, not very much.

Darcy's rebounding very well. Less tired each day. She watched the kids today for the first time since this all began, and she seems just fine, a bit tired, but not bad.

Over the last few weeks, first my mom, Ann, and then my buddy Doug both came out to help, and man were they appreciated. They worked hard to help, and I'm so personally grateful. Here are a couple of pictures from that time, with their little charges in tow.

Thank you for all you've done, I can't even say how grateful I am, cause it's too big for words.

Escape from Alcatraz...

I"m officially "out" of my little cell, i.e. our downstairs guest room. It was interesting to sleep there and to know what it's like to be a guest in this house. Not too bad, but a little chilly. From now on, we'll keep an electric blanket down there. It seems like some form of karma to be made to sleep in one's own guest room. Just glad we don't make people sleep on a futon anymore! (I can hear Bruce saying right now, "what's wrong with a futon?" each to his own, I guess).

I joked with my dad that I was tunneling out of the closet with a spoon and was going to make my escape into the sewer system. In reality, it was nice to have a rest and a chance to do nothing but sleep, read and watch movies. Actually, the morning I was officially out I climbed back into my little cell to take a nap, it was so cozy.

Still feeling tired from the radiation, but getting better every day. It reminds me of climbing up a hill while riding a bicycle. You just keep pedaling and pushing up up up, knowing that eventually you'll get to that plateau where it's a bit easier and you can breathe freely again. I'm still tired, so things seem a little harder than they really are. Bruce is taking good care of me though and I'm officially on the same nap schedule as Amelia ;) Your phone calls and e-mails helped to cheer me up when I started to feel sorry for myself, so thanks for them. I have learned to accept graciously when people send their love to me. In a way, that is such a hard thing to do. I think to myself that it is more than I could ever deserve. When I say this to Bruce, he tells me that I will do the same for him one day - hopefully when we're both old and gray or old and an unnatural shade of auburn on my part! Maybe that's the lesson in all of this, that we are here to care for one another and love one another. That there is no scarcity of love and that when you give it, it comes back to you with interest.

We'll know on Friday if I'm in the clear for awhile and won't have to deal with anymore of this for another year or not. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

love always,
Darcy

The End of the Treatments

Darcy is now freed from her prison seclusion, and is recovering from being hypothyroid for over 2 weeks. She's still very tired (in fact she's asleep as I type this), but seems to be in good spirits, and is getting better all the time.

Doug is due in town this afternoon, to help out with the transition this week. I'm looking forward to challenging him mightily throughout the week with tasks ranging from changing diapers to addressing what can be generously described as a "refrigerator". From the current state of it, that's probably a very generous description. He's brought his guitar, he says, so I suspect a hootenany may be in the offing, as well. It'll be a fun week.

Darcy really had very little reaction to the medication - some small swelling of her salivary glands, but no pain or discomfort to speak of. The hardest part was the boredom from being cooped up, and of course being so very hypo.

I'm looking forward to her recovery and to getting back to the normal business of being a busy family.

My Dear, You're Positively Glowing

Well, we did the second scan today, and no surprises on it too, so good news. As now expected, Darcy was given a quite small dose of Iodine 131 to destroy any remaining thyroid tissue (50 millicuries). We're home from the hospital now, and Darcy is now ensconced in her lair. It's so odd to think she's radioactive. I'm joking she should try experimental photography. Get a large sheet of photo paper and see what kind of exposures she can make!

Anyway, now it's down to waiting it out. She'll be out on Monday, and back on the Synthroid. Almost out.

Mom has been here the last few days, helping with the kids and all. She's off back to NY on Saturday, and I'll be holding down the fort (with help from James and Ana) this weekend. Then Doug's coming out Monday morning to help with the aftermath. But I suspect she'll be feeling great by Tuesday, with the Synthroid kicking in.

One Scan Down, One to Go

We went to St. Joe's to have the first of Darcy's two body scans done today. It was quite uneventful, and to my untutored eye, the scan looks OK. We'll get the official version tomorrow, after the final scan. We go in at 9am. Both Darcy and I were nervous driving in, but in good spirits, and it was a sunny day today. We listened to more "Freakanomics" in the car, and learned what the Ku Klux Klan and real estate agents have in common.

One fine feature of St. Joseph's is the coffee shop, run by local folk hotspot the Ginkgo Coffeehouse. Verrry nice. I think I truly annoyed our Nuclear medicine specialist, David. I kept interrupting him in his spiel with questions I had from my research on the internet. You could tell he didn't like to be interrupted. Eventually, he asked me to sit in the hall. Darcy says it was probably because he was trying to protect me from exposure to the radiation. But I think he was trying to get rid of me.

I did not sleep well last night. Amelia's crib toy was going off around 2:30am and after I got up to turn it off, I was up. I came downstairs and worked on coding my latest software program for a while. I didn't make it back to bed until 5:30. So, I'm pretty ragged right now.

5 small pills in the morning, then a 30 minute scan in the afternoon, both of which were easy. And it was so nice to spend some time with Darcy. We'll be seeing each other a lot less the next few days, it's nice to load up now.

Darcy's cell, er room, in the basement is all ready to go, but for the new TiVo we ordered, which should arrive tomorrow or Friday. Got it for a steal off TiVo's website. If you haven't tried TiVo yet, do so. It rocks. Darcy now can't live without it. How else could she watch 5 consecutive Oprah shows? Dr Phil marathon, anyone?

More tomorrow. Thanks for the well wishes. And, sorry to make you cry, everyone :-).