Kate Stowell

Check out this great podcast from NPR:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13&prgDate=9-8-2009

It’s an interview with two young women who are both cancer survivors (one thyroid, one colon cancer) and covers all sorts of aspects of living with cancer but especially health insurance. Pretty timely topic right now.

I really liked the segment talking about fertility and cancer. To be honest at 16 when I was going through treatment having kids was the LAST thing on my mind. Today there is nothing I am more thankful for than my two little boys.

I’m working again on Wednesday and Thursday but I’m off today. However I need to pick up Ethan early to take him to his 2 year old check-up at Walter Reed. Sadly when I scheduled it for 1:00pm I forgot that it would be right in the middle of lunch and nap time so this could be a cranky, cranky afternoon. We’ll see!

I’m hoping they can do his flu shot today too, and I also want to ask about the H1N1 vaccine. Given that he and Daniel are both in daycare I think it’s going to be necessary. Per CDC the first year an infant gets the flu vaccine they need two doses at least 30 days apart. This applies to the traditional seasonal flu but I’m not sure about the swine flu vaccine. Ethan already had his double dose last year but this will be Daniel’s first year. My poor little pincushion.

This Friday I’m going to see The Time Traveler’s Wife with one of my college friends. I read the book a long time ago and loved it so I hope the movie lives up to my expectations. I also heard today that Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs is coming to the big screen. It’s a great book but the story is so short I can’t picture how they adapted it.

Finally this Sunday is the season finale for Trueblood. Todd makes fun of me all the time about the show and while I do realize it’s raunchy grade B entertainment I’m still addicted and he is yet to miss an episode either ;). I’ll be so sad on Sunday nights after this weekend.

I’ve taken a few days off of posting because I went back to work this weekend. I ended up working Saturday and Sunday 3pm-11pm…it makes me think of that really cheesy Kenny Chesney song “Shift Work”. It wasn’t too bad even though I ended up with a crazy assignment both days. From 3-7 I did charge nurse and then 7-11 took patients. Charge is not my favorite and having babies for only 4 hours isn’t that great either. You do 1 or 2 caretimes and then done, but you still have to do all the notes as if you were actually there for a 8 or 12 hour shift.

My co-workers were very nice and one of them whose wife also had thyroid cancer actually called her and asked her a question I had about a new drug I am taking called Cytomel. Cytomel is a thyroid hormone replacement for T3 and I have heard you are not supposed to drink coffee around taking the medication. The answer is you have to wait at least 1 hour after drinking coffee. Given what a coffee fiend I am that’s good to know!

Tonight we took my parents and the boys out to eat at Joe’s Crab Shack. I highly recommend it when you have small kids. All of the crazy stuff on the ceilings and walls keep them interested, the service is fast (read: less time to melt down), and it’s BYOB- bring your own baby! I think almost every table tonight had at least 1 small person. Daniel had a great time bouncing on Todd’s lap and looking at the disco lights, and I am very proud of Ethan for chowing down on my fish and mango salsa. I finally have someone else in the house to eat sea food with!

I’ve never actually bought anything from Etsy but I love looking at all the pretty homemade stuff. Right now I am really admiring this dress:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=27546271

However it will have to stay admired because A) I have nowhere to wear it right now B) It probably wouldn’t look that great on me and C) I don’t want to buy any more clothes until I lose at least 10 more lbs, and there is no way that is happening until I finish RAI and start on synthroid.

My dad is here tonight which is awesome. Ethan was very excited too. He talked about “Grampa Geg (Greg)” coming to see him on the “Hairpane (airplane”. Tomorrow we’re going to come at snack time and bring cupcakes to his classroom for his birthday.

My mom and I went on Ethan’s fieldtrip today to a nearby park. It was quite a fun time helping supervise 9 two year olds :). They played on the playground, fed some ducks (and ate some duck bread), watched turtles, had a snack and went back to the daycare.

Too tired to update more than that. Have a goodnight!

One last thing for today: For any childhood cancer survivors Vanderbilt is having a free conference in Tennessee this month about survivorship issues of all kinds. If there was any way I could go I would. Here’s the link:

http://www.vicc.org/2009/parents/

I called nuclear medicine today to set up my RAI treatment and I should hear back on Friday when that will be. The receptionist said he’s reviewing my case right now…I still don’t know what the results of my urine iodine were, so here’s hoping I cleared most of the CT scan dye and will get to do my tracer and protocol at the end of this month and not around Halloween. Endocrinology still hasn’t called me back yet, so tomorrow when I take my latest 24 hour urine sample in I will go knocking on their door to get my lab results.

I felt down today, probably because I have felt completely unlike myself this week. I hate feeling so tired. For some reason I’ve also had on my mind the fact that now I won’t be having a third baby. I realize how lucky I am to have two healthy, smart, little boys, but it’s because they are so wonderful that I will always miss having a third. Having three kids was something I’ve desperately wanted but I just can’t justify bringing another baby into the world when my health is such an unanswered question. Plus I’ve read that pregnancy can sometimes bring on a recurrence of thyroid cancer. It’s not fair to Ethan, Daniel, and Todd to risk my health and then possibly leave them motherless and wifeless.

On a happier note my dad is coming tomorrow and in the morning Ethan has a field trip. My mom and I are going to go as helpers…I’m sure they’ll need all the help they can get chasing a room full of two year olds onto a bus and keeping them all in once place at the park! I can’t wait and will take tons of pictures.

This article is from last year but it has some compelling pictures:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/childhood_cancer_awareness_mon.html

Definitely not feeling quite myself anymore.  Normally I’m a morning person but it’s been pretty hard to get out of bed the last couple of days. However I am proud of myself for still making it to the gym today even though I didn’t do much and then going out for a walk with my mom and the dog after dinner. Other than that the only productive thing I did all day was take Ethan to the dentist and do a load of dishes.

Funny Ethan moment of the day…tonight we gave both boys baths, and after Daniel got out Todd drained the water and turned the shower on to rinse off Ethan since usually at least one and occasionally both boys pee in the tub *sigh*. Ethan grabbed the shower head, held it behind him and started yelling, “Ethan washing bottom! Whee!”. I know…you would probably have to be here and at my age I really shouldn’t be laughing at a 2 year old making what amounts to potty jokes but it still cracks me up. The boys are just the light of my life.

Even though it’s labor day weekend I’ll be going back to work this Saturday and Sunday from 3pm-11pm. I’ll then have Monday/Tuesday off and then I think start working 8 hours days 7-3pm. I’m a little nervous to see how my energey levels are but work has been great and I think I will be doing a lot of admin at first and not just diving back into to full assignments with sick babies. It also will be good to get out of the house again and feel useful. Plus I’ll be at work so I can pester my doctors whenever I feel like it with questions :).

I went in this morning for my fitness orientation….let me just say it’s been a looong time since I’ve regularly worked out, and by working out I mean 3+ times a week with weights, breaking out a real sweat, etc. It is sad how out of shape I’ve become. The good thing is the trainer was awesome and really willing to work with me on my goals. At this point in my life I couldn’t care less about fitting into a tiny bikini…I just want to get back into the best shape I can be to be here for my family!

This morning in line with his normal crazy breakfast requests Ethan kept asking for “nana bread” (banana bread). Todd told him he thought grandma had moved it so Ethan ran all over the kitchen trying to find it before deciding on telling me “Go downstairs, get grandma!”. Keep in mind this was 6:30 in the morning.  I told the little devil I didn’t think Grandma would appreciate a 6:30am wake-up call to find breakfast :).

My cousin Justin and his fiance Torey came to dinner tonight. She’s a nursing student at George Mason and they are getting married and moving back to Washington state when she is finished with school. Daniel loved to watch them and I am convinced he was cooing to them in babyspeak that he was ready to go back with them to campus and party. Since I so rarely see any non-immediate family in the DC area it was a great time.

On the thyroid cancer front being hypothyroid really hit me today. As in after I got back working out I could barely get off the couch. I’ve been so tired all the rest of the day and my hair is falling out faster. This is not at all as bad as chemotherapy but still, I am ready for my synthroid already.

I asked Todd if he could post a few audio files he captured from his iphone of Daniel. The first one is a little hard to hear because it was taken under Daniel’s door, but he is in his room talking up a storm. The second one is Daniel laughing along with Todd (which he has just recently started to laugh). Hopefully you enjoy these as much as I do, as it brings a bright note on my day.

[audio:http://katestowell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/daniel-talking-to-himself1.mp3]

[audio:http://katestowell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/daniel-laughs-along.mp3]