Day 244: Surprises...Bad & Good
One of my bonus granddaughters lost her beloved Lulu yesterday when she got hit by a car. Fur babies are such a part of our hearts and as much a member of the family as their little two legged siblings. It broke my heart to hear her tears over the phone as she is such a strong young woman. I know her heart will heal with time, but Lulu will always be a part of her heart.
We learned of her loss on our way home from Lowe’s. Earlier in the day, I tried to heat up something in the microwave and...nothing. The turntable worked, as did the light and the fan, but no heating. Mr. FixIt fiddled around with it for a while to no avail. Fortunately, that “happy hoarder” had a small microwave out in the building and we set it up on the kitchen counter to make do for the time being.
Isn’t it amazing how you become so reliant on modern conveniences? I use a small 4-cup Mr. Coffee coffeemaker as Mr. FixIt drinks tea. I use a 16oz. Tervis insulated cup for my coffee and by the time I’ve finished the first one, the coffeemaker has timed out and turned itself off. If I decide to have the other half of that pot, I have to put my sweetener and Half & Half in it with the lukewarm coffee and pop it in the microwave. Even knowing full well the microwave was not working, I still found myself automatically opening the door to warm up that second cup. We are such creatures of habit.
So, off to Lowe’s we went. We have a black stove and they didn’t have a black microwave in stock. Some appliance manufacturers have finished producing product for the year and the one we really wanted wouldn’t be in till March of next year! We settled on a Samsung that’s just as good and will be in on December 5th...allegedly. We’ll see. Large appliances are not easy to find these days. Just ask for anyone looking for a freezer!
My biggest news of the day yesterday came in the form of a video conference with an endocrinologist in Texas. I’ve been trying to get answers to a medical issue I’ve been having for the last three years. It started with a sharp, stabbing pain between my second and third toe on my left foot. Then, the pain moved some there else, only to migrate on to a different spot within a few days. Mostly my feet and legs, arms and hands. The pain has caused me to stop exercising like I was, and consequently, my weight has ballooned. Other weird symptoms like insomnia, hair loss, exhaustion, brain fog, difficulty concentrating & focusing, crabby mood, headaches...just a general “I don’t feel good but I don’t know how to explain it”. Honestly, you feel like you’re developing dementia. My calcium was high, my Vitamin D was low, and my PTH (parathyroid hormone) was three times normal.
Most doctors don’t have a lot of experience with parathyroid disease. I’ve read, the average time it takes to diagnose it is three years and ten doctors. Well, it’s been three years and four doctors and I finally have a referral to a surgeon. I’m going to the top...the Norman Parathyroid Center in Tampa. They are the world’s experts in the parathyroid. As a matter of fact...that’s all they do. If you have to have a parathyroid tumor removed, you want a surgeon who does a high volume of cases. For instance, the endocrine surgeons at WVU do an average of 30 parathyroidectomies in a year. The Norman Parathyroid Center does nearly that many in two days.
I know this may be TMI, but if you have these symptoms and a high calcium, go to parathyroid.com and read about this disease. A friend of mine just had the surgery a couple of weeks ago and she said within hours, the pain she has been dealing with for YEARS was just...gone. She is sleeping better, she isn’t cranky, she wakes up in the morning ready to go. It’s amazing. I’m not sure if I will qualify for surgery till I get the work up from the Norman Center, but I am so incredibly encouraged that we are on the right path now. It feels amazing when a doctor actually hears you and listens. Thank you, God!
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“If medicine and doctors may be found in Gilead, why aren't my people healed?”
Jeremiah 8:22 CEV