Friday, November 26, 2004

spa life

MIL & I spent several hours at Aji Spa being pampered and enjoying the peacefully beautiful surroundings. It was a great break from reality, and a wonderful way to destress after all the hectic stress we've been through: MIL retired on the 19th, and she has been working like a fiend to leave things in good order. I, of course, have been running around like a lunatic getting ready for the holiday and the ILs visit, plus dealing with the cancer and RAI and various doctor visits, plus school stuff and kids and all that! It was DH's idea to for us to do this as her retirement/birthday present. Yes, I have the most awesome husband on the face of the Earth!

MIL and I are in total agreement that we could get used to the spa life. Say, a facial plus spending the afternoon in the alternate reality, once a month? Mmmm-hmmmm. Hey, I'd settle for once or twice a year.

Perhaps I talked too much today, or perhaps the angle of my head on the massage table was less than optimal, or maybe it's just more die-off of RAI-affected tissues, but my thyroid "bed" is feeling very odd again this evening. I feel like I did in the days immediately post-op, like there's still something in my throat. This feeling does come and go, but this is the first time I've felt it in a few days. Yesterday I felt completely normal, the entire day. Today was fine until about 4:30 or 5... but I did do a lot of talking today, and I had the facial... so, what's causing it? I don't know. I took a couple of ibuprofen and that took the edge off, but it's still really annoying. Not a pain, exactly, just a swollen feeling, not something you can see from the outside, but I feel it on the inside.

Speaking of not being able to see it on the outside, here's how the scar is looking these days:


Yes, I look goofy (again -- is there any other word for it?) but any shot I took of just my neck looked completely bizarre, so I went for the weird self-portrait effect. As a bonus, you can see one of my new pajama tops.(hee!) Yes, I am blogging in pajamas.

Ahem. Can you even see the scar? The photos tend to flatten out what little residual swelling there is underneath the incision -- if you look at the full-size photo, you can see it. But even at just 6 weeks out from surgery, it is barely noticeable. Way cool, huh?

Now if I could just do something about my hair! Eh. I'll get to it eventually.

DH just polished off the apple pie. I think I'll have to make another one... somehow it's just not right that there isn't anymore, already! You can never have too much pie, no matter what those silly "be healthy" interstitials on Nickelodeon say. OK, sure, an entire pecan pie may have as much fat in it as 12 cheeseburgers or 18 chocolate shakes, but who sits down to eat an entire pecan pie? I know the Nick people are being facetious, and the fake PSAs are pretty funny, but I'm still defensive about pie. In my family, pie was pretty much a once-a-year event limited to Thanksgiving weekend, which if you were lucky enough started on Wednesday evening. My mom always made anywhere from 9 to an even dozen pies, depending on who was going to be around, because we all ate pie for breakfast as well as dessert and snacks and before bed. Hey, pie only came around once a year, and we really enjoyed it! Still do.

Of course if I ran across pie on a more frequent basis I would be a lot more restrained. But given the fact that my pies are sugar-free and provide a good balance of protein, fats, and unadulterated fruits (apples, cranberries) and/or vegetables (pumpkin) and nuts (pecan crusts), I think they make a lovely breakfast... or dessert or snack or supper. Have I mastered the art of rationalization yet? Why am I so defensive about pie? It's just pie, right?

I'm thinking it has to be the nostalgia factor. I actually submitted a MILC column to the LCL people, on just that topic, with my lower-carb fruitcake recipe attached. Still 20g carbs per slice, but seriously? You do not even want to know how many carbs are in a slice of the regular version... ouch! I hope it was not too late for the December issue. They can usually squeeze in another page without too much difficulty. More ad space! Wait, is that a good thing if they didn't know they were going to have it? Oops. Well, I'm almost positive I told them about the cancer thing so here's hoping they aren't all annoyed with me. I'm doing the best I can, really. It still amazes me how much time slips away.

No comments: