No cut needed for this one. Everything's great. My hips are mostly pain-free (who knows why; I'll just take it where I can get it). My numbers were perfect last time I checked. My heart hasn't done that annoying thing more than once since I stopped stressing about my nonexistent heart disease. All is well. (Also, oddly enough, my perfect heart tests may have killed the last vestiges of food anxiety I had. I no longer have even a trace of angst or worry when I eat food that's not, strictly speaking, "good for me". I think getting rid of angst and worry is a good thing.)

Mom, however, has a double hernia at her surgery site. Not a huge deal; she'll need surgery, but it's fixable. Still, I wish she could catch a break. I'm going to try to go down there when she has it done; we'll see how it works out.

Three FOUR! bits of good news, all so excellent they probably don't need much elaboration:

1) My hips don't hurt.

2) I got my first choice of public high schools for wtfpotatoes, and she's gonna look into starting internet high school.

3) I got a job offer today from The Best Temp Permanent Job Ever, and I said yes. A little more money per hour, flexible hours, lots of time off, and full benefits.

4) Mom's biopsy came back, and she's fine. Nothing's wrong.

One more post, this one with good news:

The thyroid doc says I'm doing fine. He is tweaking my dose a little, but everything's good, and he doesn't need to see me until my one-year checkup in November.

So now, just one more medical appointment (followup with the GP next month) and I'm DONE. Yay!

Spoke to the cardiologist a couple hours ago. The echocardiogram was perfectly normal. I don't need any more tests. I do not have heart disease. My early beats (which feel to me like skipped beats) are something everyone has, and are not in themselves a sign of heart trouble. So, basically, I'm done.

For those keeping score, this brings my current diagnosed illnesses and/or health issues to 0, unless you count a little contact dermatitis on my hands from our dishsoap, and some mild-to-moderate joint pain that all but disappears if I don't eat dairy products.

I have spent the last 5 years dealing with one or more moderate-to-serious health issues. This feels better than I can even express to you in words.

I think I may just go squee in a corner for a bit; don't mind me.

Almost forgot another bit of good news: Now that my blood pressure is normal again, I get to go back on the Pill. Woo-hooooooooo!

So my cardiologist stopped just short of telling me my GP is on crack for prescribing me all those heart meds. ;-)

( Want to post this while it's fresh in my mind; may not be organized well. )

So the short version is that I have two more rule-out tests to take, just to see for sure if the minor abnormality on my last test is a false positive, and I left the cardiologist's office with the recommendation to take zero heart meds.

Not bad, huh?

someotherguy's zucchini marinara, which I'm eating cold right now, is, to date, the best thing I have ever tasted in my life. Of course, I haven't eaten in almost a day because I got the mother of all migraines yesterday afternoon, but still. YUM.

The good:

Fuck euphemisms (thanks for the link, gramina.)

Ikea Hacker

Munchkin The Elder had a shitty week and dealt with some problems with great strength and maturity. Yay!

( The bad: [Nooks, you might want to look away. This is the closest I get to blogging about blogging] )

( The mundane: )

You all ROCK. I woke up this morning, read 40 messages full of love and sympathy and optimism and reality-check, and then went and took my thyroid medicine.

I have *such* good friends.

Thanks, y'all.

This will be a busy week. I'm trying to get ahead on all my stuff (paid work, housework, NaNo novel, etc.) so I can come home to a clean house and no stress next Friday. someotherguy will help, and I'm giving myself permission NOT to get it all done, so there's no added stress.

Anyway, my goals for today:

1) Finish at least 2000 words on the novel (I'm not too far off!)
2) Do the billing for job #1
3) Finish the report for job #2
4) Clean the kitchen and one other room

Wish me luck!

---

Words today so far: 1581
Word goal today: 2000
Words total so far: 1581
Word goal total: 50000

I met with the surgeon today, who, not surprisingly, wants to do surgery. They figured out what kind of tumor I have, and the best recommendation they give is to take out the thyroid lobe. Next Thursday morning, I'll go into the hospital for the surgery, and then they'll admit me to watch me overnight. Should be fine by Monday, and they'll do pathology stuff on the tissue they remove, to make sure there's no cancer. The odds are low, but not zero, that cancer's what we're talking about. I'll let you know.

Update on the big lump that lives in my neck: (I should name the damn thing -- what does one name a pet tumor?) They did the ultrasound today (mildly ouchy and weepymaking), and a week from Thursday is the biopsy (severely ouchy and weepymaking; stonebender accompanied me last time, the darling; it's someotherguy's turn this time).

I read the report that accompanied the last set of ultrasound films while I was transporting them to the new lab. I then went and did some internet research (of course) and it made me feel much less worried. The chance that this is anything really dangerous is very low.

More updates when I have 'em.

1) Still not ready to turn on lights or increase the brightness on my computer screen, but after about fifteen hours of varying levels of agony, I'm starting to feel human again. I will probably still be feeling the effects of this tomorrow, but at least I can form semi-coherent sentences now, and whimpering is not my main mode of communication.

2) Had a not-exactly-a-date with a person I met on OKCupid, but who has known me for some time from local listservs on which he mostly lurks. We had a misunderstanding early in our correspondence that I thought would be a dealbreaker, but we managed to work it out admirably, and we met in person a week or so later. He shall henceforth be known here as Secret Agent Man, and I like him a fair bit. My boyfriends are having a bit of fun teasing me about this, but that's okay. My boyfriends are the best boyfriends in the world, so they're allowed a lot of leeway.

3) I did nearly no work today, so if I ignore you all for the next couple of days, you know why.

4) Did I mention what good boyfriends I have? Today, they really were the heroes of the revolution. Without them, I might not have eaten at all, my kitchen would be a wreck, and I would probably be huddled in a corner somewhere crying for my mommy. I don't need much tending most of the time, but every so often I do, and I got it in abundance today.

5) Oh, and loracs. She rocks, and she put up with my utterly ungrateful reactions to her attempts at taking care of me today. It was not her fault my headache was making me feel cranky. She is a darling, and I don't deserve her.

Everything hurts. I am exhausted but unable to sleep for long (see "everything hurts"). I have a lot of work to do but no motivation to do it. My kitchen looks like rabid weasels had a food fight in it.

Yet I'm happy. Go figure.

I may spend the day online, because sitting in my computer chair is about the only thing that doesn't hurt. Be very afraid.

At least I have a ton of soup to keep me company.

Maybe I'll see how many of my seldom-used userpics I can go through today.

Good stuff today:

• Work is going really well. I know what I'm doing; I'm doing it well; I'm caught up on the things that need to be caught up on; the problem client is happy with me.
• My kitchen is clean enough. For the past week, it's looked like mad gerbils set upon it and threw everything everywhere. Now I can cook in there without feeling grossed out.
• someotherguy brought me fun/interesting food: the slightly spicy coleslaw from Bakesale Betty, and some gluten-free coffee cake (yum) from the Mariposa
• After months of intending to join GreenCine, I finally did it. Only two at a time, but added to Netflix, that'll be 5 total, and GreenCine has a better selection of old schlock, as well as porn, which Netflix doesn't offer. I've never seen some of the classic porn films (Debbie Does Dallas, Deep Throat, etc.), so it'll be fun to check them out.

Hard/bad stuff today:

• Still feeling a bit off. If it lasts longer than today, I'll have trouble attributing it to Tuesday night's almost-migraine. My thyroid thing hurts; I have a strange, disconnected feeling all over; I keep wanting to go lie down.
• Must've thrown an oily potholder in with the laundry. One load now smells like stale cooking oil. *sigh*
• Still not king

A few hours of proto-migraine (nipped in the bud, but leaving its chemtrail in my brain) has made me this odd mix of peaceful and restless. It's an altered state, it is. There's a pleasant-ish buzz in my brain, and it makes me feel one step removed from myself.

I think what happened is I got too much sun (someotherguy and I walked a few miles today in the sun -- I think I need a sunhat). I tried to watch a movie with my sweeties, but I started getting nauseated, so I took a break and some aspirin, and it helped, but it's left me feeling alternately drained and high. I must say, I don't really mind this particular residual effect of my migraines. Plus, migraine time is really the only time I can consume caffeinated stuff and feel *better* instead of worse.

In my brainiac haze, I figured out some of my NaNo novel. It's going to be called "Living without Consequences" (the title came when I misheard "Anna Begins" -- "then I'm gonna have to think about the consequences" became "...live without the consequences"), and it's about a woman who is surprised when the geographical cures she seeks bring her closer to her past instead of taking her away from it. I'm going to start musing about this a fair bit in here, I think, but I'll put it under cut tags.

"Every time she sneezes, I believe it's love..."

I asked the following question of stonebender just now, and I'll ask y'all, too:

The insurance company is denying the thyroid stuff until I've been with them 6 months (that will be October 1st). Trying to decide whether to just try to pay for the biopsy myself, or wait until October. I've waited 3 years already. 4 more months probably won't make much difference, especially since the thyroid guy thinks it's benign. What do you think?