Beach Therapy

Beach Therapy is a beautiful thing. No matter how much sand gets in my suit, nor how icy the water is, or how windy it gets....or how many black flies there are, how much the parking rates have climbed, or who falls backward into my cooler (don't laugh, it happens regularly)....I need some beach therapy. I can't believe summer is nearly over and that I seem to have missed it again! Last year was such an unusual good/bad tweed with all the comforts of fiberglass underpants and I swore this year I would cherish it more than ever before. Somehow I don't seem to have fulfilled the promises I made to myself and I am closing my eyes and clicking my ruby red shoes to go back to July 1 and get a do-over.

Alas, Christian is traveling again, football is underway, school and CCD are starting soon, cheerleading has begun, and down-time is non-existent - until November or so.

I SWEAR next year will be different. Really. But can I get another day or two of Beach Therapy in before this summer collapses in on me like a landslide? $15 to park seems like overkill but $15 for therapy, now, that's a bargain, right? I'm calling for a Beach Day this week. I can't settle down into fall without a fight...

(and apparently I don't ever want to be photographed in color EVER again...esp at the beach!).

My own Bad Medicine...

I suck at remembering to take my daily meds...no, really, I suck a LOT. (Insert the necessary jokes about it being birth control and having 4 kids.....have a solid refrehing giggle, and carry on)

I have a 1 month filled script here in front of me, and I have a script for ritalin (which I also forget to take (ironic, cause yes, I forget to take my Ritalin - duh): go from giggle to nearly laughing).....which are both full...from a month (or more) ago. This isn't occasional forgetfulness, this is a determination that supercedes anything right or reasonable...the consequences - by all accounts - are "serious" in nature.

My final surgery for thyroid cancer was in June '00 (the first was in April '99). I have, since, occasionally taken meds, and sometimes feel crappy (and then I resolve to take it again...every day, forever) and read up on it to freak myself into commiting. However, it says that your hair falls out, your face bloats and reddens, you begin to take on an appearance like a ghostly character from ScoobyDoo episodes, and parts start falling off. But seriously, I find things like this (and I swear on my kids I am NOT making this stuff up):

"Symptoms
Insufficient thyroid hormones cause body functions to slow. Symptoms are subtle and develop gradually. They may be mistaken for depression. Facial expressions become dull (No, really...I AM smiling...) , the voice is hoarse and speech is slow, eyelids droop, and the eyes and face become puffy. Many people with hypothyroidism gain weight, become constipated, and are unable to tolerate cold. (Can you imagine? Cold all the time? Oh, right, I am....ALWAYS. For no reason. Gotcha.) The hair becomes sparse, coarse, and dry, and the skin becomes coarse, dry, scaly, and thick. Some people develop carpal tunnel syndrome, which makes the hands tingle or hurt. The pulse may slow, the palms and soles may appear slightly orange (What?? ORANGE??? Look at the name of it!) (carotenemia), and the side parts of the eyebrows slowly fall out. Some people may appear confused, forgetful, or demented (ROFL, Yeah, Really - demented. Priceless.)—signs that can easily be mistaken for Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia.

Hypothyroidism

If untreated (If "untreated"....ie, in case those symptoms weren't enough to scare the piss out of you), hypothyroidism can eventually cause anemia, a low body temperature, and heart failure. This situation may progress to confusion, stupor, or coma myxedema coma), a life-threatening complication in which breathing slows, seizures occur, and blood flow to the brain decreases. Myxedema coma can be triggered in a person with hypothyroidism by physical stresses, such as exposure to the cold, as well as by an infection, injury, surgery, and drugs such as sedatives that depress brain function.

So, you see, it's perfectly logical that I might forget to take the medication every day. Who wants legit weight-loss in a once-a-day pill anyway???

Absurd....perfectly absurd. I guess what irritates me is that they SAY all this will happen, but I'm walking evidence that it doesn't (can only speak for my own experience, but hell, is there any other that matters?). So I briefly and unintentionally challenge it...but it's like checking to see if your house is haunted. Tough to pinpoint.

So, again, I vow to take my meds for THIS month...not missing a day and seeing where I stand in 12 - yes kids, TWELVE weeks when it kicks in enough to "see if I feel better". Hrmmmpphhh...now I think we're getting somewhere. Is that not the dumbest thing you ever heard? "I think I'll have a headache or heartburn in November....I better take something now". Dumb. Dumb dumb dumb, Stupid, dumb. 12 weeks. Unreal.

Kick the day off with a good vent...then moving on to something cheerful! In 12 weeks.