Living with Graves' Disease

So I know that the title sounds like an oxy-moron but that is my life now. I have Graves' Disease. It really sounds a lot worse than what it really is. Its not deadly. I'm not going to die because of it. It was the Researcher's name who discovered the disease. He seriously could have called it something a bit more upbeat. Anyways, Graves' Disease is a condition where your thyroid produces to much of the thyroid hormone which in turn attacks your thyroid. Yes my body is trying to destroy itself!! Just kidding. I have been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism for over 2 years now and they have been giving me medication to slow down the activity which ended up making me drowsy, gain weight and tend to not be in the best of moods. Once I was diagnosed with Graves' Disease I tried to figure out when this all started. I remember about 5 years ago I was really having a problem with anxiety. I would get chest pains and my body would stress out for no reason. I finally went to the dr. because I needed help! He diagnosed me with anxiety depression and gave me medication for when I was feeling anxious. It felt really weird being diagnosed with that, but I ended up coming to terms with it. So I dealt with having 'anxiety depression' for about 2 years. I then decided that it didn't seem right that I was diagnosed that way because I was not depressed. They even had me take a written depression test and I was clearly not depressed. I went home to Hawthorne the summer of 2006 and that is when they finally diagnosed me correctly. My symptoms were so hard to deal with. I was stressed out day and night. I could hardly stay awake where ever I was at. I was hungry all the time. I lost 20 pounds in 2 months which I know to some people is amazing, but that is way too fast and it made me way too skinny. The doctor in Hawthorne diagnosed me with Hyperactivethyroidism and thats when I started to FINALLY feel some relief! I didn't feel like I was going to have a heart attack everyday and I was able to deal with normal real life situations. Thank you for medication!!!! The only bad part about the medication was that it slowed me down in everyway. Your thyroid controls so many things like your metabolism, moods, and tiredness of your body. So when it slowed down my thyroid hormones it slowed down my metabolism, it made me in not pleasant moods and I would be tired all the time and never want to do anything. I ended up gaining back my 20 pounds that I lost and I gained an additional 20 pounds! This was a really really frustrating time in my life because I was eating healthy and I was working out at the gym 2-3 times a week. So lets move onto more relief!

I finally went to an endocrinologist. Well, I was more forced to go. My family doctor said that they only see people with my condition for 2 years and then they move them on to the specialist. Anywho, that was the absolute best decision that I ever made, or I guess that was made for me. The endo knew exactly what I had and knew exactly how to take care of it! So, in September of 2008 I received Radioactive Iodine treatment. This is where you take a pill of radioactive iodine that kills off your thyroid. Your thyroid sucks up all iodine that enters your body so it sucks up that radioactive iodine. They told me that it would take a few months for it to actually die. I'm still not sure to this day if it is dead. The real fun part was taking the pill! I made Matt go with my to my 7:30 a.m. appt. because it was a big deal to me. I was willingly going to kill one of my organs! I had to sign all the normal procedure documents except one special one that made me a little sad. I had to sign a waiver stating that I would not get pregnant for at least one year. Not that I was planning on it anyway, but being told that you are not aloud to get pregnant kind of hurts. I sadly signed the document. Then the technician put gloves on, made me put gloves on and came towards me with this silver capsule looking thing that she took out of one of those red radioactive hazardous bags. She opened the capsule and there was a small what capsule inside. She told me to open the white capsule and put the pill directly in my mouth and to not let it touch my skin at all! In my mind I was thinking Lady you are crazy! Why can I put something inside of my body that cannot be touched by the outside! But I did it! Before I left they gave me pages of instructions of things that I could and could not do for the next few days. I had to wash any silverware that I used separatly than anyone elses, I had to wash my clothes seperatly, I had to wipe down the toilet everytime I used it, I had to sleep alone for 2 nights so Matt had to sleep on the couch, I had to throughly clean anything that I touched or that touched me. I was not aloud to be around children or pregnant women and I could not be in arms length on anyone. It was actually a really funny experience. I could not do these things because the radioactive iodine is so strong that if i was near anyone it could affect their thyroid. So now I just have to see the doctor every couple of weeks for blood work and medication dosage changes. I am supposed to be completely regulated by the 1 year mark. I am feeling great though! I cannot remember the last time I felt this good, happy and healthy. So the only bad side about this now is that I have to take a thyroid hormone suppliment for the rest of my life and when I do get pregnant I have to see them more than a normal person would and have extra precautions. But other than that, its no big deal. Just one of those things that you deal with in life. I am really grateful for the medical advancement that we have in our country to be able to take care of my disease. And I am very grateful for amazing doctors and a most understanding and supportive husband! Life is great!

Ok, Time To Catch Up!

Matt and I have been super busy lately so I'm gonna try to catch up! Starting with Halloween. Matt and I really didn't have any plans for Halloween except go to our ward's Trunk or Treat which was really fun! Matt dressed up as a hillbilly and I was a white gangsta...do rag and all! Then they night of Halloween we passed out candy at his parents house. It was so fun seeing all the cute little kids in their costumes!

Moving on to Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving week was a total blast!! Matt and I drove up to South Jordan, Utah Tuesday night after work and we stayed until that Sunday. We serious had the best time being with his sisters, brother and their spouses and children. The night before Thanksgiving Matt's sisters and I baked pies! So Fun! We made apple, banana creme and lemon meringue pies. The all turned out beautifully and delicious! The next morning, Matt's sisters and I were already in the kitchen cooking at 8 a.m. All the husbands were up that early as well, but they went and played football with one of Matt's brother-in-laws Elder's Quorum. They had a blast! And I found out that Matt is quite the athlete. :) We baked every Thanksgiving dish that you can think of and it was so fun! I LOVE to cook! Especially with them. :) I received the honor of rinsing out the turkey which was kind of a weird experience. It felt weird holding a dead body. eewwwww. Anyway, we were done cooking by 3, right when it was time to eat. We had the best feast ever! It probably tasted so delicious because we made it all and everything tastes better when you make it! We had around 20 people over for dinner. We did a really sweet and heart warming activity. We went around the table and named a few things that we were thankful for and the spirit was so strong! It felt like testimony meeting but it was all family. I have never experienced something like that before. It was amazing and I can tell you that I am related to the most amazingly strong, kind hearted, nicest, most spiritual people ever. I am grateful for my parents and siblings as well. We were brought up with morals and values and things that have made me a strong and understanding person. We seriously have the best families! The rest of the week was a blast. We hung out, saw The Dark Knight for the 3rd time in the theatre, game nights, shopping, sang Christmas carols and so much more. Matt's family is HUGE into game night. When Kristin and David still lived in town we would go over to their house every Sunday night for game night. When we were in Utah for Thanksgiving week we had game night every night! I love games!!

Since Thanksgiving Matt and I both had our birthdays. Mine was on Tuesday, December 2 and Matt's was on Tuesday December 9. Yes, we are only a week apart with our birthdays, but he is older than I am. So we get to be the same age for a week. We both had great birthdays and thanks to those that wished us happy birthdays! So now Matt and I are in the process of Christmas shopping and all that jazz. Last night we took Christmas photos and they turned out super cute! We are really excited for the holiday! We are going to be in Hawthorne on Christmas day which is something I haven't done in a few years. We have always gone up, but haven't been there for the actual day. We are very excited to be with my family and have game nights and be with them.

So things are goin' just gravy for us. We have decided that we are both going back to school next semester to UNLV. Matt is going to get his degree in English and I am going to get a Bachelor's in University Studies with emphasis on Psychology and Health Science. So we have a busy future ahead of us. Anywho, that's kind of what has been going on in a nut shell. I haven't been able to post pics because our digital camera died on us. We are in the process of getting a new one. So, life is exciting and worth living! I am so happy that I made the right decision and married Matt! He is the most amazing person in the world! I love my life! :)

I seriously have the best husband in the world!!!!!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have the sweetest husband in the world!! Last week we were on vacation in Disneyland and had an absolute blast!!!! But when we left we kind of left our apartment a mess. Matt and I have our own chores that we do and we have our chores that we do together. For example, Matt does the dishes (which I hate doing) and I do the laundry. Well I did a ton of laundry before we left so I placed them nicely on the couch since I didn’t have the time to put them away before we left. And since we were gone for a week I had a ton of more laundry that I did so that was added to the nice big piles on the couch. I was getting a little stressed and overwhelmed last night about getting it done and I also wasn’t feeling good so it was between going to bed or staying up and folding more laundry and putting it away. I feel bad for Matt because I have been really tired the past few months. I have Graves’ Disease, which is a horrible name for something that is not really life threatening. I have an overactive thyroid so it makes me extremely tired and since I have had my Radioactive Iodine Treatment it is killing my thyroid which is making me more tired. (I will write another blog about that soon.) So I am tired all the time which makes me feel bad for Matt because I am not my bubbly self all the time. But anyways back to why my husband is so wonderful......Well last night he told me that he was going to do the dishes and that I should just go to sleep since I was so tired and not feeling well. So I did. This morning when I walked into the living room he had folded ALL of the laundry for me!!! This meant so much to me because doing laundry for two people all the time is a ton of work especially all of the laundry that was on that couch. I seriously felt like a little kid waking up Christmas morning to such a wonderful gift. My husband, being selfless, decided to take that burden off me and did my chore. He is so wonderful!! Then when I walked past the front door I saw something next to the door............ he had written me a note. In it he said that I should not have to stress and be overwhelmed by things that is why he wanted to help. And of course there was some mushy stuff in the love note too. :) I seriously have the sweetest husband in the world. For example, sometimes I get a little judgmental, a flaw of mine, and he says well maybe they were having a bad day or don’t jump to that conclusion because you don’t know that is what they are thinking or what they are feeling. Matt likes to be optimistic and see the good sides of people, even if the bad one comes out sometimes. He is a great example to me of being Christlike to others. I am so incredibly lucky that I was the lucky girl that got to marry Matt. He makes me extremely happy and makes me feel so special and loved all the time. I am so grateful that he is in tune to my feelings and can help relieve some of my stresses, like doing my chore. Him doing the laundry for me may seem like something small to others, but it meant so much to me. I seriously have the best husband in the world.

Families are great blessings!

So we have had TONS of family come into town over the past week. First, Matt's sister Melanie and her family drove down here from Utah to see Matt's other sister, Alissa, at the airport. The next day Alissa came home from serving her LDS mission in Oakland, California. We have so much fun spending time with them! I have never been around when someone has come home from a mission before and it was a really cool experience. We were able to go to one of the members of the Stake Presidency's house for her releasing. That was really cool especially when she bore her tesimony in spanish! This week Matt's older brother, JD, and his family are in town for Alissa's homecoming talk that is going to be this weekend. We have been having so much fun with his family being in town.

Matt and I are really stoked to be seeing my parents and my brother and sister in DISNEYLAND next week!!! Yep! We are finally going on a vacation! We have not gone on a vacation since last August, so we are for surely due! We are driving up on Sunday night and leaving Friday afternoon. I LOVE DISNEYLAND!!!! I am really excited to go on a vacation with my parents and my siblings. It doesn't happen that often anymore, so we are feeling really blessed to have this wonderful time to have so many family members around that we hardly get to see.

For those of you that are interested, my niece Brinley, the precious girl that has Leukemia, has a blog. Well, her parents keep it up since she is two. They always have great stories to share with pictures. They really have strong testimonies and you can feel them through their posts. The address is: www.sweetbrinley.blogspot.com.

Anywho, I just wanted to share the fun that we are having right now with our families!! We truely are so blessed to have the most awesome family members ever!!!! I am so grateful that we have this opportunity to have so many of them around us. :)

My Sweet Niece Brinley

We have recently found out that our sweet little niece Brinley has Leukemia. It was a really hard realization for our family especially for Brinley's parents, Matt's sister and brother-in-law. Brinley is one of the sweetest little girls around and it is really sad that this has happend to her. Throughout this process she has had various doctor visits, scheduled and ER visits, many medications, broken bones, mood changes, new eating habits and still her parents are pressing on. I truly and honestly feel priveledge to know Kristin and David. They are such incredibly strong people. Many people would get mad and cry "why us? why our baby? how could you do this to us?" Kristin and David have taken this situation head on with the Savior right by their side. They are such great examples of charity, patience, and faith. They are dealing with what was handed to them and instead of being angry they are being faithful and know that Heavenly Father has a plan for them and this is just a part of the plan for them. They truly are admirable people. On top of having to deal with a child with cancer, Kristin has two other girls and she is pregnant! Which to me makes Kristin even more of an amaing person! I am so greatful for Kristin and David's examples to me. I am so greatful for the gospel in my life! I seriously cannot express that enough. The gospel is truly beautiful! Heavenly Father loves us so much and it is such a wonderful feeling to have constantly. Before I joined the church I always knew and heard that Heavenly Father loved us, but I had never been encircled by his love before until I joined the church. He truly does love us so much. I am so greatful to have such a loving Heavenly Father. I am also so incredibly greatful for our Savior's love. I have needed his love and his shoulder to cry on various times in my life and he is always there for me. I am so greatful for all of the family members that Matt and I have that are such great examples of charity, patience and faith. Heavenly Father's works are truly beautiful.

How we met....

Hi! So Matt and I are very new to this blogging thing. So sorry if it is a little rough at first. So here is a little back story on us.....We actually met at the end of 2005 when he came back home from his mission. I was living with Misty at the time and we randomly threw a Halloween party. Well Matt was part of a rap posse called The Fabulous Flowells and they performed at our house that night. I thought they were awesome! Matt and I never really talked though. I think that Misty introduced us and we both said hi, but that was the end of that. At the end of the Spring school semester in 2006 I decided to go home to Hawthorne for the summer, but the day before I left I decided that I wanted to see the band Twenty Mule Team that Misty had been raving about. It was an awesome acoustic show!! And sure enough Matt was the drummer, but I didn't think anything of it. I just remember the guys in the band were some pretty cool guys. Then I came back after the summer was over and Misty and I saw that Myspace was giving away free tickets to see the Killers here in Vegas!!!! So OF COURSE she and I and Katie and Katie's lil bro stood in line at Tower Records EARLY in the morning to get our free tickets. Come to find out Katie and her lil bro could not go to the concert and it was that same night. So Misty had already picked Timmy to go with us. But we still had one ticket. In my mind I wanted to ask Matt because he was so intriguing to me. He seemed so nice and he was so gifted with music which is so awesome! Well Misty went down a list of guys that we could take and I was secretly hoping that she would say his name. And the last name she mentioned was his name. And I was like YES!!! Lets ask Matt if he will go!!!! She called him and he said yes. I came to find out later that he really wasn't into The Killers, but he wanted to go because I was going to be there. ;) That night was seriously so amazing!!! It seriously felt so magical!!!! And after that night we never stopped hanging out. Getting to know Matt was simply amazing! He seriously is such an amazing person. We finally started "officially" dating on September 5, 2006. He proposed to me on January 29, 2007 and we were sealed in the Las Vegas Temple on April 14, 2007. I am so greatful that I have Matt! He is so wonderful! I could not ask for a better Husband and Best Friend! Well that is a little bit about our story. More to come in the future!!! :)