Visionary Art Museum

Sorry for neglecting you all. A good friend was in town over the weekend and we had a great time eating out (Lebanese and French) as well as going to the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. Look at this magnet - isn't it just perfect for me?


I didn't love all the items on display but one artist in particular was loads of fun. Nancy Josephson uses lots of beads and sequins over taxidermy forms and urns - really appealed to the bright sparkly lover in me. The bear and ?gopher? were wearing fezzes, and that was a hoot as well.

I have not had tons of energy, I'm afraid to say. Don't know if it's cuz I'm recovering from surgery or don't have enough thyroid. I have been getting stuff done tho. Made arrangements to get down to Florida on the 16th of this month and have an appointment with an endocrinologist down there on the 21st. Trying to get some addresses changed and I'm sure there are all sorts of things I'm going to forget. Bit by bit, it will all get done.

To clarify my last post, my parents won't actually be down in Florida until January. That's a-ok, gonna have the cats's company for Christmas. I feel much sorrier for my husband who is going to be alone in a new place.

Oooh pretty

Wow, the woman who is our sponsor in Paris got into our apartment to set it up for us to live in (or my husband anyway) until our belongings arrive. Anyway, she took some photos. This is the building:

And I think this is the formal living room: (There is also a family room/sitting room which may just end up my quilting room.)

Doesn't it look beautiful? That floor is gorgeous - I'm really excited. We have loads of windows and even some storage. She sent a photo of the kitchen too, which turns out to be larger than I was expecting. Woohoo. I expect we're going to have a lot more empty space than I was expecting as well. An opportunity to shop!!!

Needed some good news right now. Turns out I don't get to go over to Paris until my medical situation is resolved. I don't know for sure yet, but sounds like that'll take a minimum of 7 weeks. I've come up with a back-up plan tho (staying with my parents in Florida) so I'm pretty upbeat about it, even if my Dad is going to complain about the cats the entire time. It'll be nice to have some sunshine this winter and Florida will have that.

I can't believe how disgusting and lumpy the area is around my incision. It's huge. Guess it's that big inside my throat as well which is why it has been difficult to swallow. Bleck.

Guess what, I started quilting last night! First time since the surgery, so that feels good. Sci-Fi Channel is running a marathon of "Heroes" so I think I may just tune in to that and get some more work done. Unfortunately my quilting callous has come off, but I think I can get it whipped back into shape quickly.

It's also sunk in that I just won't have my Christmas decorations this year. Not a chance. I always figured I could buy some in Paris, but that's not going to happen. If I work up enough energy tomorrow I have a plan for a holiday quilt top. Even If I just get the top done, I could put it up with painters' tape (like Dawn does when she takes photos) and enjoy it that way. This is an opportunity to be creative. As I said, I'm feeling upbeat today. Life is good.

Thank you all for the continuing support and well wishes. I appreciate each and every one of you. Hope you had some sunshine in your lives today too! Thank you.

Oh Shoot

Got some not so good news yesterday. The thyroid was indeed cancerous (Papillary - the "easy" kind) which was not surprising. The surprise is that they also detected traces of cancer in the lymph glands, which means it had spread. Sucky, sucky, sucky.

So now there is an additional test I have to do, in which they send iodine throughout my body and see if cancer shows up anywhere else. Of course I can't do that test right away because I had an MRI with contrast and you can't do this other scan for 4-6 weeks after. Aaagh. It's all this waiting around that's the pain.

Can I convince the endocrinologist to give me the go ahead for moving overseas and having the treatment there? Can we convince the beaurocratic layers at my husband's work that it's okay for me to have the treatments overseas? What will happen? I have absolutely no idea.

As usual, I hate the waiting and the not knowing. I don't like limbo, not a bit.

No News

Visited the surgeon this morning and got my sutures out. Still haven't gotten a really good look at my scar - it remains covered up with tape. My husband has surprised me by being fascinated with the wound. I think it's freaky and avoid looking, but not him. Plus, I swear he watches me drink to see if liquid is going to start leaking out my throat.

Unfortunately the pathology has not been done yet on the thyroid. Guess that isn't surprising because of the holiday. Also, I misunderstood the resident. Turns out that he told me it was the lymph node that was benign. They'd just had to take it out because it was in the way - not because it was cancerous. So don't know what it is up with the thyroid at all.

I'm feeling better. Less fuzzy, which is excellent. Have an appetite back - actually ate pizza last night (pineapple, ham and onion - my favorite). Generally I feel pretty much the same now as before the surgery - no over- or under-active thyroid symptoms. Hope I'm going to be one of those people who easily finds their dosage level.

I finished reading Max Brooks' World War Z yesterday. A novel about the Zombie war. Probably not the happiest reading I could have been doing, but certainly so far removed from reality that I was able to escape myself.

Hubby and I finished the first couple discs of Stargate SG-1 Season 9. I miss Jack, but have been very pleasantly surprised by Cameron Mitchell. Fun character and he has a bit of that Jack levity. Plus it was fabulous to have Varla back for awhile - I hope she makes a return appearance soon. I'm so not into the whole Jaffa thing - hope we don't have too much of their politics - rather boring.

I've become sucked into Sudoku. I bought a whole book with a variety of levels, but the easy and mediums are too boring. I'd rather be challenged and lose badly than do win without making my brain hurt. I've just started doing those again today, so that's another sign that I'm becoming functional.

Lily must think I'm doing better now too. Up until last night, she has slept curled up at my side and not left the entire night. I've been drugged up enough that I'm not tossing and turning, so it's easy to sleep with my arm around her. Very sweet. And Pokey has been extremely sweet - she spent hours and hours curled up on my sweetie's lap while he watched old movies on TCM this weekend.

I haven't quilted in at least a week though. Way back then, I put aside Cranky Witch and started working on Merry Penguins - I want that one finished and up on the wall. I'm doing free hand fans in a spiral around the border, but in the center I'll just go in one direction. I'll show you a pic one of these days. Quilting isn't a good thing for me to do right now. Looking downward is hard - it closes up my throat and makes it hard to breathe. I'll be glad when my throat is back to normal.

Hanging in There

I'm hanging in there. It's taking seemingly forever to recover from the thyroidectomy, even tho I've felt tons better every single day. I just want to instantly be well. No surprise there.

I'm still on pain meds and a bit fuzzy. Not as much as before tho. As I said, getting better every day. I think the resident told me that the immediate tests on my thyroid showed that the nodules were benign. I was a bit out of it when he was talking to me though, so I'll have a much better idea of how the surgery went after meeting with the surgeon on Monday.

Thanksgiving was pretty pathetic here. My darling sweetie ate a chicken pot pie and I was able to eat a couple of crackers, as well as jello and applesauce(during the day, not all at once). Sweetie made me a pumpkin pie (made as in put it in the oven and cooked it) so I was able to have some of that last night.

I put up our limited Christmas decorations. We have our Egyptian applique stockings (to read more about them, go here) which are bright and happy.

I'm having a hard time focusing on this, so I'm going to sign off now. Ya'all take care.