God is SO good!

first off, thank you so much to everyone who sent up prayers and sent good thoughts and positive energy my way for my surgery. i was so covered in prayer, that there was really no way anything could have gone wrong! i had probably the best surgical team in the world. seriously! they took it upon themselves to discuss my case beforehand to decide what would be the best thing for me to make sure they saved my voice. i'd gone to the voice center and had some recommendations from the voice specialist that i really thought i was gonna hafta fight for, and they'd already taken all of that into consideration and come up with a plan that was best for me, and not just easiest for them! totally awesome!

so, needless to say, everything went fabulously. my surgeon ROCKS! if you're in the pittsburgh area and need to have a partial or total thyroidectomy, i HIGHLY recommend Dr. Adrienne Melck. she looks about 12, but she assured me she's not *smile*.

and i thought they were smoking crack when they told me that i wouldn't need anything stronger than regular tylenol after the surgery, but they were right! it's 4 days after the surgery, and i've only taken 1 dose of tylenol today! even the day after, i didn't take it every 6 hours because i simply didn't need it! WOW! i've had 2 babies, 1 the regular way, and 1 cesarean, so i know pain. this is awesome!

and i went to church and sang today, which was amazing! when my surgeon came to discharge me, i asked her when i could sing, and she told me to rock on! it felt so good to be able to sing bedtime songs to my kids. tuesday night, it was all i could do not to cry when i thought that might be the last time i could sing. my kids would definitly not understand why mommy couldn't sing at bedtime anymore. it's such a big part of our lives. i'm so grateful that i didn't have to give that up!

but my voice is tired today. they told me that it'll get more fatigued more quickly now as the healing begins. but just being able to sing at all is a blessing! i really couldn't imagine my life without it. and i'm glad that i don't have to! *smile*

thank you!

i just wanted to thank everyone for their prayer and well wishes. we're about to leave for the hospital, and the surgery is scheduled for 8am. i feel so completely covered in prayer that i'm really not nervous. i know that everything will turn out the way it's supposed to *smile*. plus i got to take a shower and brush my teeth and take my meds, so we're all good! *smile*

...and the countdown begins...

well, it's 2 days til my surgery. i'll get the call on tuesday to let me know what time i'll need to be at the hospital on wednesday -- probably at the butt-crack of dawn. i've had all of my testing done, so now there's nothing to do but wait. and unlike childbirth, there's no joy at the end of this tunnel. and i don't have to have a bag packed *smile*. but i am hoping that my new bag from my sister gets here in time. she did kinda promise that i'd have it in time to take to the hospital with me *smile*.

once i met her, i googled my surgeon. she looks like she's 12, but she's done extensive research in thyroidectomies, so i feel a little better. and she's Black, so that's kinda cool. she's canadian, though (i think), so i didn't want to say african-american *smile*. she was really straight-forward in the consultation, and that really put me at ease. she didn't sugar-coat anything, but wasn't brusque and unfeeling either. and apparently they do a lot of these.

i also went to the voice center and had my throat scoped to take a look at my vocal cords. that was really nifty! it was awesome to see my cords working, although i could have gone without having something shoved up my nose and down my throat *smile*. but now i know how everything works, and i'm hoping it'll all work the same way after the surgery.

there's only a 1% chance that they'll nick either of the nerves that control my singing during the surgery, but there's a greater chance of jacking things up with the breathing tube, so i have to be firm with the anesthesia team about what i want, and hope that they do what's best for me instead of what's easiest for them. i can't go on disability if they mess anything up and i can't sing! *smile*

and i'm really excited cuz my mom will be here today! it's always a good time when nana's here. the kids are over the moon that nana's coming. they just don't know why. but i feel so much better knowing that she'll be here with them while chris and i are at the hospital. especially since it'll likely be all day, and not just a couple of hours. plus, what sitter would show up at your house at 5am and stay until 6 or 7 pm? you'd hafta pay an arm and a leg! :)

ice cream for dinner? *smile*

of course! i strive to be the cool mom who gets her kids to eat! i was talking to my sister today, and she was making sweet potato ice cream, and i thought it sounded delicious, so i'm making it, too, but as a side dish for dinner. the kids are over the moon at the thought that we're eating ice cream for dinner, and i even let them help making it. alexander's bored already watching the machine go around and around, but i had to tear isabelle away. she's being patient, she told me *smile*. well, i hope they like it. it smells delicious! lots of brown sugar and cinnamon. yum!!!

shopping with children -- the husband edition

so, i do about 95% of the shopping for our household, for the things that we use everyday from food to clothing. and i pretty much only shop before rest time, cuz the rest of the day is pretty unpredictable. if it's not done before 3pm (preferable 2pm) then it doesn't need to be done. my husband takes care of all the outdoor and home repair stuff. but every once in a while he decides that we all need to go to the store together for whatever we need. usually it's a big lots shopping spree, but tonight it was a trip to target. after dinner at the restaurant (eat n' park *smile*)

now, i love target. they've got the big carts with 2 seats for bigger kids, and that's awesome! i'm all about confinement for my 2 little ones. and when we got there, i found an appropriate cart and got them both strapped in, and they started whining about getting out. i'm a firm believer in confinement, but my husband told them that if they were good they could get out. i stopped to check out the jewelry (for inspiration *smile*) and the next thing i knew, they were both out of the cart, and the madness began!

i really don't know what he was thinking. our children have not yet grasped the concept of looking with your eyes and not your hands. they don't understand that we need to use our inside voices when we're inside. they don't understand that they can't just go look at something just cuz they want to, even if we're not going over there. they want to look at what they want, and not what's on mommy's list. hence the need for confinement. but my husband's got isabelle on his shoulders and alexander by the hand, and they're both talking a mile a minute while i push this ginormous cart that's completely empty. i found everything on my list while he went to look at bikes and toys and whatnot, and was forced to explain that they both already have bikes, so we're not taking the princess tricycle home. did i mention the need for confinement? *smile* by the time we were ready to check out, he was ready to leave them both in the store. it was after 9pm -- past their bedtime on a late night -- and we were both frazzled. they were both jazzed by being up late, even though they didn't get any popcorn, and they wanted to sing all the way home. needless to say, they're both asleep and i think my husband is too. they're exhausting on a regular day, but let us try something new and different, and i need an adult beverage! maybe next time he'll remember why they need to be confined in the store!

prosthetic vocal chords

i had no idea that i know someone who's had a complete thyroidectomy and has a prosthetic vocal chord. wow! she had the procedure done some years ago (in a military hospital, as she was active duty AF), and could barely speak for over 2 years before she was implanted with a prosthetic vocal chord. I would never have known, cuz her voice sounds fine to me. i should have asked her if she can sing with her prosthetic *smile*

but it kinda made me feel better, cuz if there's only a 1% chance of nicking one of 2 nerves that controls vocal production, then knowing someone to whom it's happened makes the chances of it happening to me that much slimmer, right? *smile*

i still need to make an appointment with the voice specialists to get scoped so they can see the condition of my chords prior to the surgery. i also tried to get my surgeon to do the procedure at Magee, cuz they've got excellent food, but no such luck. hopefully i won't hafta be there over night. if they only need to remove 1/2, as they plan, then i'll be able to come home that evening. i'll only need to stay overnight if they end up needing to remove my entire thyroid. and based on my recent ultrasound, there are no nodes in the right half at all, and the radiologist said the other side looks beautiful. my friend who had a complete removal said that she had nodes on both sides and they were exhibited very rapid growth. in the 6 months or so that i've been traveling down this path, mine haven't grown at all. every ultrasound i've had shows them pretty much the same size as they were when they were found.

my word can she scream!

isabelle is a screamer. i mean, a serious screamer. she reminds me of the little girls i saw on a 20/20 about young girls who were severely schizophrenic. *smile*

now, i know that she's just 2 and is just finding ways to express her anger. she's not schizophrenic. or possessed. usually i just tell her that when she's ready to settle down and use her words to come find me. but christopher tonight stayed with her until she settled down, which really prolonged the situation for an extra 1/2 hour. it gets to the point where i'm really surprised she has a voice. i don't know how anyone can scream for 1/2 an hour or more 3 or 4 days a week and not have serious vocal issues! wow! she'll be a great gospel or musical theatre singer *smile*

but i can really see how parents can have their young children diagnosed as bipolar. one second she screaming like she's possessed, and the next minute she's cuddling with me asking for the babies she's thrown all over her room. absolutely exhausting *smile*