May 28th, 2010 by Busy Mommy

It’s happened again- went for a hike Wednesday evening for 1 hour and 15 minutes….still feel great on Friday.  We had so much fun- it was refreshing, quiet, cool, and isolated where the three of us went and just so peaceful and invigorating.  Nolan just loves it…he babble away happily much of the time, and the rest of it he was content to just watch quietly from his perch.

And we came across a couple a cute salamanders…this one musta been cold cuz he wasn’t moving very fast….

May 26th, 2010 by Busy Mommy

I was having some Grandiose Thoughts on Monday.  Namely, I got the sudden urge to try taking a hike with Nolan.  This could have proven very unwise, as with my chronic illness I would crash after such exertion and feel terrible for a few days afterwards.  I’ve only been taking 12.5 mcg of Thyroid medication for 6 days, which is a very low dose to start, but I’ve had the sense that maybe I’m already starting to feel better.  It was either stay home with Nolan and feel bad that he was stuck at home with me, or get out there and try it!  I knew I might be sorry later, but I just had to try it.  I pulled out these:

Not my feet, my hiking boots.  I haven’t worn them in at least 3 years.  I remember crying last time I was cleaning out my closet when I came across them and felt so sad at not being able to wear these where they’re supposed to be worn- hiking.  They were stiff, a bit heavy, and a little snug, but boy did they feel great! I hiked uphill 30 minutes (at a slow pace), with my 20-pound sack of potatoes, er, Nolan, on my back.  By then I had worked up quite a good sweat and it was getting pretty hot outside.  I was feeling good so I figured I better quit while I was ahead.  Headed back down for 20 more minutes.  As of today- I still haven’t crashed!  This is good news.  There may be more of my hiking boots in my future after all….

This is the view from the place I chose to stop my hike…..a beautiful day

We were two happy hikers!

May 18th, 2010 by Busy Mommy

I’ll give you 5 choices regarding the word Hashimoto:

1. Yoshi’s cousin from Super Mario Brothers who never became as famous, thus why you’ve never heard of him.

2. A transliteration of Nolan in Japanese

3. Japanese Hashbrowns

4. The first baby to have a reality show in Japan

5. The physician who first described the symptoms of a thyroid disease

Ding Ding Ding Ding!!!!  You win….Japanese Hashbrowns!!!!  Just kidding.  All joking aside now, I found out yesterday that I have Hashimoto’s Disease, aka Autoimmune Thyroiditis.  For some reason, my own body doesn’t like my thyroid and has been attacking it the past few years.  Don’t ask me why they aren’t friends- they just aren’t.  My thyroid has thus been unable to produce much thyroid hormone for my body.  Thankfully, a little thyroid medication is supposed to make up for this lack and help me feel better.  I truly hope so.  The following pictures were taken of a backpacking trip we took in August of 2005, almost 5 years ago.  I carried 40 lbs on my back and we were out hiking around for 8 days.  That was my last time backpacking.  Not long after this my health started going downhill and I didn’t know why.  All I knew was that I could no longer hike the way I used to without getting extremely exhausted and depressed afterwards.  Over the past few years, the symptoms became more and more pronounced until I couldn’t even walk 1/4 mile anymore without suffering consequences.  Grocery shopping required a 3 hour nap afterwards to recover.  I often look at these photos and really hope that someday I’ll be out there in those mountains again, this time with not only my husband but with my beautiful son as well.

I’ll let you know how I progress with the medication and some other treatments for some other health issues that I have as well.

So thank you Hashimoto for helping to figure out this disease back in 1912 so that I today in 2010 could have a few simple blood tests done to discover a nameless illness I’ve been fighting for years now.  Love that guy!