In January we saw our local endocrinologist for the first time. He was lacking in eloquence and was quick to condemn the process that we had taken to get to him, however, he assured us that he was going to get Lily to a good place. Since seeing him she has been on a consistent does of thyroid meds in hopes of regulating her body and beginning to feel better. Unfortunately, she's not feeling better. Her symptoms are exactly the same. Dr. W ran two sets of tests. The first included and ANA test which measures whether or not autoantibodies are present. This is the 2nd time this test has been run and for the second time, it is positive. By itself this does not diagnose anything, but it indicates that further testing is needed. You can read more about it here . In any case, his suggestion is that we go back to Seattle Children's. We have an appointment for a full rheumatology and endocrinology workup on April 25. The second set of tests should be back tomorrow. He was t
I started my period when I was 11 years old. I remember going to the nurses office at school that day because my lower back hurt so badly. It felt like nothing I had ever felt before, but was a feeling I would become quite familiar with. Imagine there being a bowling ball inside your body, resting on your tail bone. It causes pressure just sitting there. That was a good day. The bad days were when that bowling ball was being ground into my back - from the inside trying to find a way out. Later, when laboring with Lily, that same feeling was there. Lily was upside down and her head was resting on my tailbone. The contractions that drove it deeper into the bone were killers. So all those years of imagining my inner bowling ball were not that far off! In those first few years of cycling I would often seek out the hardest surface I could find and just lay on it, trying to flatten my back into it. Our living room floor usually did the trick - a cement floor with a thin layer of
Parenting brings obstacles and challenges like none that we've ever dealt with before. My first was when my son was born. He was the most difficult baby I'd ever come across, and I got to be with him all the time . I remember how defeated and discouraged I was, and how I thought to myself, "I can't do this. I can't parent this child, make him happy, stay sane. I don't even want to". I didn't know how I was going to get through his infancy and this obstacle felt like the greatest obstacle of my life. We got through it, I got through it. Time passed and allowed me to forget the depth of the struggle so that when the next challenge arose, that one felt like a new biggest and worst. The new challenge was now the thing that was going to end all civilized thought in my head. Again, we got through. Time and again, challenges, the biggest and worst, have arisen. Each time I have thought, "How? What am I supposed to do with this? Help! Pleas
Am enjoying your blog :-) Am hoping to come visit with Leslie before your contract is finished.
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