The City for Brotherly Love:
Once upon a time, before Andrew and Ellie, I lived in Philadelphia. I got my BSN and MSN at UPenn. I thought that I would never leave my apartment, my friends or my awesome job at CHOP ENT, but then I met the love of my life and how could I not be with him. . .
Anyway, during my years in Philly, I made several good friends. Friends that I would do anything for. Friends that have been with me through the worst and the best times. Friends that I'll always miss. That is why I was so excited that I got to return Philly for my friend's baby shower! Oh to see so many of my friends again and all to celebrate such a happy moment in my friend's life. Of course, we had to watch the Eagles game on TV (they won, of course), indulge in cheesesteaks as well as dance and sing along to Run Around Sue in the middle of 2nd Street. I also finally got around to getting my Down syndrome butterfly tattoo. It's only taken me how many years?
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| Left inner forearm. |
Drew managed to survive the entire 3.5 days I was gone . Of course, the first night away I get a text saying that he couldn't get Ellie's nighttime oxygen on because "she moved". That went on all 3 nights I was gone, because you know, she moved. Uh uh. He also forgot her mid-day meds, but she's alive and that is the important thing! My flight home went smoothly after my flight to PHL was as usual when I fly there, was over 6 hours delayed. I'm not a big fan of American Airlines.
Top Notch:
We have been going to this place that opened back in 1971. They serve the best burgers, fried chicken, fried okra (if you like that disgusting veggie), and milkshakes. They love to host car shows - whether it be VW vans from the 1970s or cars from the '50s. The name of the place sound familiar to you? A scene from Dazed and Confused was shot there.
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| Top Notch: hmm, seems like Andrew is way more into the coloring than Ellie. |
Halloween!
Ellie has this aversion to costumes. I am not sure why, but for the last few years, she wears Halloween pajamas and goes trick or treating at the mall. She'll go to 2 stores and end up with packets of gummy bears and goldfish crackers before charging into the bounce house. This year was no exception and she had a great time.
The Out of Control Thyroid:
With our first visit to the Comprehensive Care Clinic [CCC], her blood work showed high TSH [thyroid stimulating hormone] and a low free T4 [thyroxine]. Both of these lab values suggest hypothryoidism. Treatment is usually taking Synthroid/levothyroxine daily which is to improve thyroid function.
Six weeks after starting her thyroid medication, we got repeat blood work. I fully expected to be still in hypothyroidism since she was still sleeping 13.5 hours / night, having trouble waking up in the morning, and laying around telling us she is going to bed. In fact, her average bedtime is 6pm! Her labs were still abnormal, but her free T4 is now pretty high with a very very low TSH. Essentially, she has gone into hyperthyroidism. She was referred to endocrine and we cut her dose of Synthroid in half. We will recheck a thyroid panel in 4 weeks. The endocrinologist said that good news is that she did respond to the Synthroid.
Say what? More GI issues?!?!
Seriously, what is it with this kid and her gastroenterology issues? Fortunately, this one isn’t too exciting. Of and on for the past few weeks, Ellie has been throwing up her bedtime meds. We even had 3 days in a row where this happened. Now missing the occasional dose of some of these isn’t all that worrisome, but 3 days. . . well that's not good. Interestingly, she was not vomiting up her morning or afternoon meds. I realized that it was related to dinner. If she takes her PM medications within 30-60 minutes after dinner, she was more likely to vomit. So I’m thinking an adjustment to her reflux med is in order.
Otherwise, things are pretty calm over here for once and I am definitely not complaining!
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Whew! Glad things are going well. Beth went through the same roller coaster with her thyroid. First hypo... then meds... then hyper... then med adjustments... They finally decided to give her an iodine treatment to kill her thyroid and it took a while to get the right level of levothyroxine but now it's all leveled out and she's doing well. I'll pray they get Ellie's meds figured out sooner than later.
ReplyDeleteHi Cindy, I am glad that they were able to get Beth's thyroid regulated. Ellie gets her bloodwork done in a few weeks so we will see if she is still hyper.
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