the radioactive iodine treatment is set for this monday, the 12th, at 8:30am. i'll be in the hospital for a few hours then come home and hibernate for pretty much the rest of the week. i'm really grateful that it's time for the next step - yesterday and today have been really difficult if i'm being completely honest. i slept for 13 hours last night, worked for 4 hours today, and could easily go take a nap for a few hours. my body just has no pace-making abilities right now so its reaction is to keep no pace at all. it's hard but the Lord has continued to make himself extremely evident to me through Jared, our families, our friends, and His Word. the light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter and brighter, and though we know more tunnels are likely to come throughout our lives, that light will never fade away.
my soul finds rest in God alone.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
monday fun-day #1.
how timely that i would post this right after DUKE WON THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
two weekends ago, while I was at the Dallas Farmers Market and a little grocery store (aka my new favorite place) called Newflower with a friend, i looked down at my phone and saw that he had texted and called me what i'm pretty sure was a combination of five times. i looked at the texts and lo and behold, we might as well have won a million dollars because jared's parents had tickets to the duke game in houston and they were ours for the taking if we wanted them. at first jared was going to go by himself, then with a friend, then i finally just said oh what the heck and we were in the car headed to a rental car place because jared's parents are awesome and wanted to rent us a car for the trip ten minutes later! that was saturday, and sunday afternoon after some fun times with Jared's family we were headed to the duke/baylor game.
jared's middle brother, lance, and his girlfriend, britta met jared's dad and youngest brother, grant, and us in the parking lot looking like avatars....
...and we soon followed suit (though perhaps not as...intensely):
jared and i then headed to our seats with jared's dad (lance, britta, and grant were in another section) and we had a great time, complete with hot dogs (yes i am eating healthy for the most part but you have to eat hot dogs at sporting events. it's like a rule in my head, and one that i quite like.).
so, thank you perrys for giving us an incredible, unexpected, fun weekend - what a perfect escape :). and what an easy first monday fun-day post!
two weekends ago, while I was at the Dallas Farmers Market and a little grocery store (aka my new favorite place) called Newflower with a friend, i looked down at my phone and saw that he had texted and called me what i'm pretty sure was a combination of five times. i looked at the texts and lo and behold, we might as well have won a million dollars because jared's parents had tickets to the duke game in houston and they were ours for the taking if we wanted them. at first jared was going to go by himself, then with a friend, then i finally just said oh what the heck and we were in the car headed to a rental car place because jared's parents are awesome and wanted to rent us a car for the trip ten minutes later! that was saturday, and sunday afternoon after some fun times with Jared's family we were headed to the duke/baylor game.
jared's middle brother, lance, and his girlfriend, britta met jared's dad and youngest brother, grant, and us in the parking lot looking like avatars....
...and we soon followed suit (though perhaps not as...intensely):
jared and i then headed to our seats with jared's dad (lance, britta, and grant were in another section) and we had a great time, complete with hot dogs (yes i am eating healthy for the most part but you have to eat hot dogs at sporting events. it's like a rule in my head, and one that i quite like.).so, thank you perrys for giving us an incredible, unexpected, fun weekend - what a perfect escape :). and what an easy first monday fun-day post!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
rough start.
aaaand i forgot all about monday fun-day. oops.
it may make an appearance later today, or i may just wait till next week.
teaser:
it may make an appearance later today, or i may just wait till next week.
teaser:
Friday, March 26, 2010
more to come...
health update: follicular thyroid cancer was confirmed after my first surgery and my entire thyroid and the lymph nodes surrounding it were removed in a second surgery about 10 days ago. now we're waiting for my thyroid levels to be low enough so that i can do the radiation and then (hallelujah) get on some thyroid medication (i'm really interested in doing natural thyroid as opposed to synthroid - anyone out there familiar with it?) and level out again.
enough with that craziness.
per the request of my sister, hillary, and my own desire to blog more often, this monday will begin the first in a series of "monday fun-day" posts, which will most likely be a compilation of whatever fun things have been on my mind whether it be new music, clothes, places i'd like to go, recipes, whatever - basically it's a way to guarantee myself that i'll post and kinda get me back in the writing groove :). we'll see.
lots of love.
enough with that craziness.
per the request of my sister, hillary, and my own desire to blog more often, this monday will begin the first in a series of "monday fun-day" posts, which will most likely be a compilation of whatever fun things have been on my mind whether it be new music, clothes, places i'd like to go, recipes, whatever - basically it's a way to guarantee myself that i'll post and kinda get me back in the writing groove :). we'll see.
lots of love.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
the Lord is my shepherd.
i've been extremely hesitant to blog recently. there's a lot going on...a lot which could end up being nothing...but a lot for now. i don't want this blog to become a diatribe about the hard things in my life, but the Lord is teaching me a lot about how my circumstances don't need to be a reason to hide in a corner, but rather, when viewed correctly, they become a megaphone for proclaiming how good the Lord is to me...and therefore how good He is at all times, to all people. i'm not upset about what is going on in my life. please hear that before you read further. i have moments where things feel overwhelming, and i have times when i think about how simple things were before life started to spiral...but then i remember that neither of those things are true. i am not overwhelmed, for God is a shield about me. i am not being removed from the simple beauties of my 'previous' life, for God is the giver of all good things. those are the truths that i honestly believe.
let that be the lens for the rest of this post...
a few months ago, my gynocologist suggested that i have some bloodwork done on my thyroid levels, as there seemed to be a nodule on the left side of my thyroid. i had the bloodwork done and all my levels came back normal, but the general practitioner i saw (who sees DTS students for free...talk about a blessing) suggested that i have an ultrasound done on the nodule to discover the size, as it seemed kind of large. the ultrasound revealed that the nodule was 3.4 centimeters, and anything over 1 centimeter is strongly recommended to undergo a biopsy. so, i made an appointment with an endocrinologist who did the biopsy and called me a week later with some pretty surprising news.
we all knew that the chances this nodule represented cancer were 3/100, so no one was really all that concerned. well, turns out statistics don't always mean what we'd hope they do, and my doctor's phone call informed us of that. she said that her best diagnosis at this point is Follicular Thyroid Cancer. i know," cancer," the word practically makes us want to come out of our skin and run for the hills. BUT, while this type of thyroid cancer is less common and more aggressive than most types of thyroid cancer, thyroid cancer as a whole is absolutely the cancer you would want to choose if you had a line-up of cancers you had to pick from. it is usually treatable simply by removing the nodule, which will be happening for me in the next few weeks after a consultation with a neck surgeon tomorrow. if that doesn't remove it all, i'll undergo a treatment called Radioactive Iodine which is much less intense than it sounds. our prayer is that the cancer has not spread anywhere else, if it hasn't, this will probably all be over this time next month. if it has, God is still God, still good, and still the giver of all good things. we are not afraid.
the Lord has surrounded us with his peace and his people in the past few days. we've received countless text messages, emails, phone calls, and knocks on our door - each one strengthening our hearts and minds. i'm going to be using a lot of nutrional, natural methods to strengthen my immune systems and fight this (probable) cancer, and friends who eat gluten-free and vegan have been coming out of the woodwork. my Mom connected me with a nutritionist (who said I should still eat a little meat - my husband probably wants to fly down to Houston and hug him right now) and is assisting me beyond measure in understanding how my body naturally works and what i can do to restore my health if that's God's plan for me. though things are crazy at times and life looks so different than just a week ago, there hasn't been a moment where i couldn't say that God wasn't providing above and beyond our wildest dreams, exactly as He promised He would. friends and family have blessed us with finances, flowers, food, and sweeter moments of fellowship than we have perhaps ever known. this is all worth it. watching the body of Christ surround its members in need is one of the sweetest things i have ever seen. our hearts rejoice in knowing that we are loved.
how fitting that it's 3/3 and the verse resounding in my head is psalm 3:3. "but You, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head."
i'll keep you posted (what a silly pun). please pray for continued peace, strength, wisdom, and discernment, and above all thay Jared's and my hearts would be woven closer together and closer to the Lord...whatever it takes for those two things to happen is beyond worth it in our book. God is good, truly good, and those words mean more to me now than i ever knew they could.
let that be the lens for the rest of this post...
a few months ago, my gynocologist suggested that i have some bloodwork done on my thyroid levels, as there seemed to be a nodule on the left side of my thyroid. i had the bloodwork done and all my levels came back normal, but the general practitioner i saw (who sees DTS students for free...talk about a blessing) suggested that i have an ultrasound done on the nodule to discover the size, as it seemed kind of large. the ultrasound revealed that the nodule was 3.4 centimeters, and anything over 1 centimeter is strongly recommended to undergo a biopsy. so, i made an appointment with an endocrinologist who did the biopsy and called me a week later with some pretty surprising news.
we all knew that the chances this nodule represented cancer were 3/100, so no one was really all that concerned. well, turns out statistics don't always mean what we'd hope they do, and my doctor's phone call informed us of that. she said that her best diagnosis at this point is Follicular Thyroid Cancer. i know," cancer," the word practically makes us want to come out of our skin and run for the hills. BUT, while this type of thyroid cancer is less common and more aggressive than most types of thyroid cancer, thyroid cancer as a whole is absolutely the cancer you would want to choose if you had a line-up of cancers you had to pick from. it is usually treatable simply by removing the nodule, which will be happening for me in the next few weeks after a consultation with a neck surgeon tomorrow. if that doesn't remove it all, i'll undergo a treatment called Radioactive Iodine which is much less intense than it sounds. our prayer is that the cancer has not spread anywhere else, if it hasn't, this will probably all be over this time next month. if it has, God is still God, still good, and still the giver of all good things. we are not afraid.
the Lord has surrounded us with his peace and his people in the past few days. we've received countless text messages, emails, phone calls, and knocks on our door - each one strengthening our hearts and minds. i'm going to be using a lot of nutrional, natural methods to strengthen my immune systems and fight this (probable) cancer, and friends who eat gluten-free and vegan have been coming out of the woodwork. my Mom connected me with a nutritionist (who said I should still eat a little meat - my husband probably wants to fly down to Houston and hug him right now) and is assisting me beyond measure in understanding how my body naturally works and what i can do to restore my health if that's God's plan for me. though things are crazy at times and life looks so different than just a week ago, there hasn't been a moment where i couldn't say that God wasn't providing above and beyond our wildest dreams, exactly as He promised He would. friends and family have blessed us with finances, flowers, food, and sweeter moments of fellowship than we have perhaps ever known. this is all worth it. watching the body of Christ surround its members in need is one of the sweetest things i have ever seen. our hearts rejoice in knowing that we are loved.
how fitting that it's 3/3 and the verse resounding in my head is psalm 3:3. "but You, oh Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head."
i'll keep you posted (what a silly pun). please pray for continued peace, strength, wisdom, and discernment, and above all thay Jared's and my hearts would be woven closer together and closer to the Lord...whatever it takes for those two things to happen is beyond worth it in our book. God is good, truly good, and those words mean more to me now than i ever knew they could.
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