down day

N xxumulRION OD

Oh, that looks kind of cool, huh? That's what "An accumulation of" looks like when your hands are shifted one key to the left and you type without looking at either the screen or the keyboard. (I can't see the keyboard very well, actually, since it is in darkness and the monitor's brightness is keeping my pupils contracted.)

Anyways:
An accumulation of stuff today has left me less than chipper than I have been the past few days. First thing, after dropping DS2 off at school this morning, I stopped by my hair salon to schedule an appointment to have my unruly mane brought under control, only to find that my all-time-favorite stylist has moved on to parts unknown. Now I have to find someone else who understands my hair! This is not as easy as it sounds. My hair is really (really) unbelievably thick. There's tons of it. And I want to keep growing it out, which means thinning and texturizing and all sorts of scissor work so I don't look like a mushroom head... Elizabeth understood this perfectly. I like her so much that I even let her color my hair -- first time ever! And now she's gone forever , unless I serendipitously come across her somewhere else. Bummer.

I did some more research on my upcoming operation, and the reality of it is starting to sink in. It is not a dangerous operation, and the prognosis is certainly good. But it is a complicated operation, and has to be treated carefully. I will be in the hospital at least one night so my blood calcium levels can be monitored and they can be assured that I don't start bleeding out somewhere in my neck. A lot depends on what they find when they open me up (and I'm still having a bad feeling about that), whether they have to do a total thyroidectomy or just the lobectomy and the isthmusectomy (such an improbable word). Will I be able to eat? Will my voice be affected? How soon until I can drive? It will be a while, at least a week, because you have limited head/neck mobility following the surgery.

All of these facts more or less crashed down on me today, so I called my surgeon's office to check on the scheduling (still not final, but definitely the week of the 18th), so then I checked airline flights and talked to my mom and got her booked to come out on Wed the 20th. She's booked to go home Nov 10th, but we can change that for $100 -- even with the change fee, the ticket was way cheaper than buying a fully refundable ticket. I admit I feel better knowing my mom will be here to take care of me. She's really good at it, and she has been around for all of my major medical experiences. It is a huge comfort to me to know that she is with my kids whenever I'm going through something like this.

My fuse was way too short today with the kids (much like DS2's, but he has the excuse of being 3...) but the day ended well with story time and encouraging DD to read some words on her own; she did fine as I knew she would. She is currently obsessed with making paper lanterns, and even though it's annoying it's also charming, and I'm glad I showed her how to do it. At least these days I can look up out of my misery pit long enough to do positive things with the kids from time to time. Certainly not as much or as often as I would like to, but it's way better than nothing.