Happiness is a new iPod, or how to cheer yourself up before Hypo Hell

Yeah, who says retail therapy can't help deal with stress and chaos? I have been pondering upgrading my iPod for a couple of months since I quickly filled up the old one. This one can hold 4000 songs, and that should work for now. It's purple! Playing now: "Magnificent" by U2.

I'm still taking cytomel and feeling a little loopy at times. Tired but not tired, wired but not wired. I can sleep, but I'm up till 1 or 2am. It's so strange compared to how I was feeling post surgery. I hope I can get that feeling back! Coffee is helping, and I'm kind of eating stuff I know I won't be able to eat on the low iodine diet (LID). No cheese. No dairy. No glazed cruellers. No seafood. No crackers. Lots of fruits and veg though.

I have to get my LID ideas organized for next week since I'm supposed to start on the diet this Thursday or Friday. Did you know just how much stuff has iodine in it? Tons!!! Just in time for a family trip to PA to see my niece dance in her spring musical! I should be ok, but I don't want to be a pain. I'm hoping to get out the breadmaker and see what I can concoct from the ThyCa cookbook, and make a bunch of meals that I can freeze for hypo hell week. I wonder if anyone has ever made up t-shirts for Hypo Hell? I'll have to think about that one--what would be a good design? As for the diet, there are a lot of suggestions out there to get meals and food organized prior to being hypo, which makes perfect sense since I assume I'll be a miserable lump curled up on the couch, unable to maintain a conversation or coherent thought for much of the time. So glad I have something to look forward to, no? It will be over by the end of May. Repeat to self over and over. Playing now: "Clandestino" by Manu Chao.

Happy thyroid cancer stories from yesterday and today: Yesterday, I saw an interview with a mother who was waiting for her daughter to run by her in the Boston Marathon. The mother said, "She's a cancer survivor. She had thyroid cancer." If she can run a marathon after all of this, I think that's pretty hopeful.

Today, I had my eye exam (ran out of contacts), and since the dr. was eyeballing the lovely scar on my neck (it was too warm to wear a scarf), I told him what was going on. He told me, "Oh, my wife had that. She's fine." She didn't even have to have hers removed, just took the iodine drink. My eyes are worse for distance, and I'm at the age where reading is going to become a problem. Not yet, but eventually I will be holding pieces of text three feet away from my eyes. My kids will be happy though--I haven't been able to use whiteboards all year because I haven't been able to read them easily when they hold them up! I'll start using them again since things are now crystal clear. New contacts feel ok so far.

As for the shiny purple iPod (and no, it has nothing to do with my school's colors of purple and white), it is loaded up with about 1200 songs and playing as I type. Next up: "Driver 8" by REM. I wonder how long it will take me to fill it?