#StServatius

[elfpuddle]

My parathyroidectomy, the surgery I’ve been waiting for for years, is today. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

St. Blaise, St. Servatius, and St. Roch, pray for us.

Our Lady, hold us close.

Holy Lord, have mercy upon us.

[elfpuddle]

Did Elfie Leave?

No, no, no, I didn't. Well, not really.

The week before Memorial Day, my parathyroid flared up again. With it came the instant pseudo-gout and swelling of everything. (TMI, but without my bidet, there was going to be no hope of hygiene, because my hips and thighs had swollen enough that tp wasn't going to get anywhere it needed to.) And, of course the pain. The level 10, I'm not human anymore pain. I spent my fiftieth birthday in a wheelchair wishing that I could just get a friend to get this stupid little gland out of my neck. It took more than a week to get a hold of my endocrinologist because his staff is the literal worst. I do have a new doctor, an otolaryngaologist who is both an endocrine and ent surgeon. He's a teacher, a director of an ent / endocrine center in nearby Atlanta, and just all-around welcome member to my medical team.

I see him tomorrow. Please pray for HubbyTMC & my travels there and back...it takes me a solid arduous hour of work just to get from this spare bedroom to the bathroom across the hall. Getting ready to go, into the car, and then driving to Atlanta in the heat wave we're having is going to tax me beyond all my limits. I'm hoping that the next step is surgery, and that it is soon, like "oh, I have an opening today" kind of soon. My body is exhausted, my pain meds aren't enough, and everything except for my right ear hurts, and that's where my tinnitus is coming from.

Yes, I'm offering it all up. It's a huge blessings to be able to unite my sufferings to those of our Savior, and know that it all is being used for someone's good. But just because I endure it for the sake of others' souls doesn't mean I enjoy it or want it to last any longer than it already has.

I'll be back when I can. In the meantime, enjoy the food queue that I've been saving up for probably years. Keep HubbyTMC and all those caring for me in your prayers, and help me endure this for the sake of the souls who need the redemption. Sts. Blase, Servatius, and Roch, pray for us. Our Lady of Sorrows, hold us close. Our Lady of Prompt Succor, stand with us and guide us.

[elfpuddle]

A personal rambling in place of your Robin River Update...

   This is the last queued post for a little while. I’m having surgery on Tuesday, Dec. 8th, and it may take me a few days to get new posts loaded. If you’ve been skipping everything tagged “nonsims”, this is the spot where you want to stop reading. (I didn’t tag this post because I wanted to make sure you knew why there was a break in the queue.) So, a bit of rambling about what’s wrong and what the surgery’s for. (I’d do this under a cut, but I don’t know how.)

Last April, I strained a back muscle by reading on the floor too long. (I know. That’s both very lame and very #HornedSerpent and #EnglishTeacher of me.) It was bad enough that I had a video conference with a doctor, who recommended a few things like anti-inflammatories and gave me a list of “if this happens, see a doctor in person.” That was on a Wednesday. The next evening, my feet ballooned to a shocking size, and HubbyTMC took me to an Urgent Care on Friday morning. It was so painful to walk that I was crying, nearly screaming, just walking from the car to the front door of the Urgent Care. The doctor there couldn’t find anything wrong outside of the swelling and the sore back, so gave me a steroid shot to reduce the swelling and gave me a list of “if this happens, get to the ER.” By Sunday evening, the swelling was worse. My toes had practically disappeared into the balloons that were my feet. Even lightly touching my feet with the bed sheet had me screaming in pain. I went to the ER early Monday morning. I spent the rest of April and May in and out of my doctor’s office and the ER, and being sent to various specialists for a myriad of tests. When I wasn’t doing that, I was commanded to stay in bed with my feet elevated above my heart. I’ll spare you the long list of tests and pains and whatnots and jump to the exciting conclusion.

It turns out that at least one of my parathyroid glands had just up and decided to kill me. I’m on some pretty high-powered meds now, which is the only reason that I can sit at the computer at all. My feet are still pretty swollen, even though I wear compression socks whenever I’m awake. Hyperparathyroidism is my current nemesis and diagnosis. At least one of the four little parathyroid glands has gone rogue. By which I mean that it’s leeching calcium and other minerals out of my bones *and* causing my body to overproduce calcium and potassium. Instead of leaving it in my bones and filtering out the rest, my body (thank you, parathyroid) is depositing the excess on the tendons and ligaments of my feet, and in a clump in the back of my left breast near the rib cage. There’s so much extra mineral going on in my body that my urine is full of crystals...like bitty shards of kidney stones in every drop. The deposits in my feet are causing gout-like constant pain. The parathyroid is also causing depression, anxiety, forgetfulness, and hair loss. I haven’t been this mentally unstable since my miscarriage. I’ve lost half my hair. I had surgery lined up for the beginning of November, but the surgeon’s office didn’t notice what all meds I’m on, and the surgery had to be rescheduled. It’s now Tuesday the 8th, which happens to be the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, so I’m hoping that bodes well for her intercession for me. It’s also the anniversary of the Baptism of two of my Godchildren. It’s a good day for Elves. So, Tuesday, my surgeon will do an exploration of my neck, take out one offending parathyroid, test the hormone levels of the other three, and take out any other offenders. I’ll stay in the hospital overnight, and, God Willing, come home on Wednesday with healing already begun. If you’re the praying kind, I’d appreciate whatever prayers you have to offer. If you aren’t, I appreciate whatever kindness you have to offer. Thank you for reading this long post, and for being my friend. God Bless you. Be well until I see you again. St. Blaise, St. Roch, and St. Servatius, pray for us. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, hold us under your mantle.

[elfpuddle]

Surgery Update

I just sent this long missive as an email to coworkers, friends, and family. A few of you have asked me to keep you updated, so I’m editing it for privacy and posting it here.I hope to get back to the Sims this weekend. Today and tomorrow I’m working extra hours to make up for what I missed earlier in the week. The joys of not earning sick leave! If you’re only here for the Round Robin Legacy Updates, just stopping reading here, and know that I’ll get them up as soon as I can. Perhaps next week, sometime. Happy Feast of Our Lady of Loreto! My surgery of the 8th was deferred. Not canceled, per se, just...didn't happen. I arrived at the hospital at six in the morning, checked in, gave a urine sample, got into my fancy gown and socks, got my IVs, gave a blood sample which was sent to the lab, had a pregnancy test (negative, which is a heartbreak story for another time), had a dose of pre-op versed, and then waited. With a parathyroidectomy, the surgeon removes the parathyroid that's already been determined to be abnormal by previous tests. (Mine's the lower right, according to my endocrinologist.) After removing one gland, the surgeon tests the parathyroid hormone levels in the body. If the other parathyroids are normal, the levels will almost instantly shoot into the normal range. If not, the surgeon will find and test the other glands and remove another abnormal one. That's why it's an exploratory surgery. Each gland is somewhere between size of a grain of rice and a pencil eraser, depending on how engorged it is, and each is mashed in with all the other neck tissues and glands (and spine and throat and...). So, not a surgery for fun and games, either. At nine, my surgeon came into the room. All the levels that have been too high since April were within the normal range. Still at the upper range, but normal nonetheless. My surgeon couldn't operate because he had no measure of when to stop removing glands. He checked with my endocrinologist, and she agrees. For now, we will check my levels every two weeks and see what happens. I'm not better. With hyperparathyroidism and the hypercalcemia it has caused, it isn't a matter of "normal levels=normal ElfPuddle". It isn't the height of the levels that determines health, as much as a matter of how long they've been higher than they should be. But if they aren't higher than the normal range at the time of surgery, we've no measure for removing them.  More than one person has said that we should be grateful for the deferment. Who knows but that something could have gone horribly wrong, and skipping surgery saved my life. I believe that. We say we walk by Faith, and not by Sight. I have no idea why this is all happening the way it is, but I know I don't have to have the ideas. It isn't my plan or my timing. My team of doctors has said from the beginning that everything about this seems abnormal. It's not usual for hyperparathyroidism that my levels would jump so high so quickly, or that the pain would go from 0 to 11 overnight (which sounds like an exaggeration, but is literally how this started last Spring). They have thought that there is something in addition to the parathyroids that is going wrong, and we just can't place what it is. We've been concentrating on those little glands as a first course of action, looking to determine the rest after the glands are fixed. God only knows what it is that's really wrong with me. Perhaps this deferment is giving us a chance to figure it out. Or perhaps not. Perhaps it's yet another auto-immune disorder to add to the list I already knew I had. Perhaps not. Again, I don't know. HubbyTMC and I are tired of my illness, and frustrated by the lack of answers, yes. So, we give it up to God. We've been praying to St. Roch (disease of unknown/mysterious origin and arthritis), St. Servatius (foot pain), and St. Blaise (the throat, and so everything going on in my neck). We've also been praying the Rosary, because obviously Our Lady knows what's going on and, even more, knows what it's like to suffer. We will continue to do so, and continue to hang on to each other, our Faith, and all of you, for as long as we need to. This is a rather long and rambling missive, and I apologize for that. Thank you for your love, your notes, your prayers, the Masses...for everything. More than anything else, this illness has brought me to my knees (metaphorically) not by the pain and frustration, which are both extreme, but by being humbled and forced to ask others for help. I've never been any good at that, and I'm so very grateful that you've all stepped up and offered even before I asked. Thank you. For everything. I'll continue to keep you updated as we wait and learn. And I'll keep you in my prayers, in thanksgiving for your love and friendship. Love, Elfie

[elfpuddle]

28, 30 and 43 for Catholic Ask

28. What’s my favorite liturgical season? All of them? I want to say Advent, but it’s so hard to enjoy the joyous penitential waiting excitement when you’re also combating the “it’s okay to celebrate Christmas early”. Honestly, it’s really hard to separate them since they’re intrinsically tied together...so maybe I go with Advent after all? Why is that such a hard question? 30. Who is my favorite saint? Also a hard one...like picking a favorite sibling! My two Confirmation Saints (long story) are St. Joan of Arc and St. Catherine of Alexandria. The patron saint of my family, to whom we dedicated ourselves and all children at our wedding, is the Holy Family. I’ve been very sick since April, so I’ve been spending a lot of time with St. Blaise, St. Roch, and St. Servatius. I’ll go with any of those for a “must be a canonized saint” answer, but my absolute favorite, the one I go to the most, is my baby. We believe that children who died in the womb are saints, though of a different sort than those who lived among us and worked miracles after their deaths. BabyPuddleTMC is a saint, though he (she?) died before birth, and I ask him all the time to pray for his siblings, his father, and me. 43. Have I ever asked my guardian angel to pray for someone else in need? Yes, for my husband. The two become one flesh, so I’m sure that my guardian angel doesn’t mind looking after HubbyTMC. Thank you for the really hard, but good, questions! Have a blessed day!