Yesterday, I turned 35 years old.
My first reaction is a terrified screech followed by denial and a lot of second guessing, "This can't be right?", "When did I age this much?", "Why wasn't I informed?". My second reaction is reality, that yeah I'm halfway to 40 and that totally freaks me out, but I had a mini meltdown when I turned 30 so I just refuse the number and age anyways. My darling honey got me a cake that said "Happy 29th".
Smart man.
So I turned 35. And over the course of the last week, absolutely crazy and amazing things have been happening to me! I have a theory that I've clung too since I was about 25 that all the best things in my life happen on years when my age is an Odd number. And some kind of crappy and horrible shit happens on the years I'm an Even numbered age. Sounds ridiculous but the facts don't lie. Check out these stats: 26-divorce, 28-bad breakup, 30-went a long period unemployed and broke, 34-got Thyroid Cancer. HORRIBLE BAD THINGS. Now look at the bright side: 27-went back to College, 29-worked abroad at a beach resort as a pastry chef, 31-adopted my beautiful loving dog, 33-moved to a major metropolitan city, 35-well...it just started yesterday didn't it?! But amazing things have been happening already!
Last weekend I attended a Medieval Renaissance Dinner Theatre free. Then I was given 2 free tickets to a musical. Then I went out for a girl's night with my BFF and got free drinks, a free t shirt and went axe throwing (for free! and now unofficially prepared for a zombie apocalypse) I also got free tickets to the home show (hah) and won a donut on roll-up-the-rim at Tim Horton's. That's a lot of great things in a span of like 4 days. I have big exciting plans in the works for 35, some are happening already, some are yet to happen. But 35 is going to be a really great year. I really believe the Odd aged years are better.
Alright, as I said before, yesterday I turned 35. And as my honey and my friends have been having a party month of excitement, I decided to have a calm day of relax and glutton yesterday. Honey and I did lunch at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. It was food-coma-inducing, and delicious. And we had ice cream cake, of course, as is our little birthday tradition.
Yesterday marked one year since my first surgery to have the first half of my thyroid removed. Yep, I spent my 34th birthday in the hospital for two days having a goiter and half my thyroid removed. Didn't I tell you Even numbered age sucks? I definitely started 34 on a craptacular note. It was kind of funny, looking back, because the nurses knew it was my birthday and when I woke up from my surgery they had written "Happy Birthday" on my whiteboard chart on the wall and the entire station of nurses came in and sang me happy birthday. They were really nice. It was a really scary thing, and everything went fine but they were so very attentive and kind.
I also got a wonderful non-exciting trip to my endocrinologist yesterday
morning. I see him every three months for checkup, blood-work results
and general thyroid related doctoring. As of late, my TSH levels are down from my last checkup - great news! My thyroglobulin is 0.09. They want to see it under 0.10 so I'm just under. Ideally they want it to be ZERO. So they upped my dosage again to 200mcg of Synthroid. This is okay because the side effects are that I'll feel more awake, alert, probably lose weight and generally feel good again. I had an ultrasound on my neck two weeks ago for this appointment and it showed "undetermined nodules", meaning they didn't know if they were just lymph-nodes floating around or remaining thyroid or something else. My Dr said he wasn't concerned, but is sending me for another ultrasound and blood-work in June before my July appointment. He said he is very pleased with my results and wished me to "Be Well." The increase dosage of Synthroid will cause my brain to look for thyroid hormone even less which will inadvertently drop my thyroglobulin levels. Win-win. They just have to keep increasing my dosage until my numbers come back perfect. So it will take some time.
It's a really weird thing to think about - considering that I spent all of last year sick with thyroid cancer, and now I am cancer-free and healthy. How long did I have it in me before it was discovered? It can totally take over your thoughts and life if you obsess over it too much. I think about it probably every other day or so. I plan on walking the 5K Thyroid Cancer Walk this year in September. I was going to do it last year but had to cancel since the walk was the day before my RAI treatment and I was pretty much a hypothyroid vegetable by that point. I am really looking forward to it this year, and my best friend was going to walk with me last year so hopefully she'll be on board this year too (I'm sure she will). I'm lucky I have so many who care for and support me. And I love all my weird and crazy family and friends. Being "Odd" is truly the best way to be. Looking forward to all the crazy things this Odd year will bring! Stay tuned.
~Sally
