Thyroid Photo Timeline (and brief catch-up)

This is an odd post, but I figured I'd share it anyway in case someone is going through a thyroid issue and wants to see photos of what to expect. Honestly, it looks worse than it is. I was expecting a scar, of course, but there were some other changes, too.

Anyway, here goes. Starting with a couple of "before" photos, so you can see the large lump in my neck. At that point, I had no idea it was a mass. I thought it was an enlarged thyroid--something that I'd known for 20 years. It got much bigger pretty quickly, though, which is why it needed to be removed.

This is when I really noticed the size increase. I had been taking a photo to do a Wednesday Weigh-In (which I never ended up doing) and was a little stunned to see my neck. (My neck was not the reason I didn't do the weigh in; I just didn't get around to writing it.)

I was taking a pic of my earrings (just to ask someone about a smaller stud length) so you can't see my whole neck, but this really shows the size from what you can see.

After this is when I had the biopsy, which was awful. You can read about that on this post.

This is a hematoma that formed during the biopsy. I felt like maybe I made a huge mistake in doing the biopsy (even though it was necessary)--my symptoms worsened and it looked horrible. It was very painful, too.

A hematoma is basically a pocket filled with blood. Since there is no incision for the blood to get out, it pools underneath.

I didn't realize how serious a hematoma in your neck is until after I got home from the biopsy and it was getting even harder to swallow. If it continues to bleed, it can close off your airway--so it's important to go get checked out. They didn't really do much at the ER (or even my overnight stay) but they said it was good that I went in. If my airway closed, at least I'd be at the hospital.

The physician assistant who did the biopsy told me that I "may have a small bruise that will go away in a couple of days". Well, here is the timeline for my biopsy bruise... the bruise was there for two and a half weeks. The pictures make it look not that bad, but it was very noticeable. I kept forgetting about it until I noticed people looking at it while I was out in public.

In the hospital after removing the bandage. The swelling had already gone down a noticeable amount.

Three days post-biopsy

Five days post-biopsy. The little dot is where the needles were inserted; I think there is one hollow needle and then six smaller needles were passed through that to collect samples. Or maybe I'm just making that up? I think that's what I was told.

Nine days post-biopsy

Eleven days post-biopsy

Meanwhile, I also had a CT scan and saw just how huge the mass was. It was about 5-6 centimeters, which is considered very large (even the surgeons were kind of impressed at the size). It was pressing up against my esophagus (food tube) and trachea (airway) and even my jugular vein and spine. This is why it was so hard to swallow.

I even started to eat softer foods because I'd almost choked a few times. My voice had changed (the voice box is *right* there and I was told there was a chance my voice would change permanently after the surgery (caused from a complication). I honestly wouldn't have minded! I don't like my voice and I kind of liked the bit of raspiness I'd developed.

I think the biopsy bruise was finally gone after about two and a half weeks. Just in time to be replaced by a scar! Hahaha. Thankfully, the biopsy came back negative for cancer!

I had surgery to remove half of my thyroid (including the entire mass). I wrote about the surgery on this post, so I won't write about it again. But here are some post-op photos...

Twenty-four hours post-op. I was horrified when I saw this. After removing the ACE bandage the following day, this is what it looked like. The tape on there is a Steri-strip and it meant to dissolve on its own.

Just another angle at 24 hours post-op.

The next day, I felt like it just got worse. I was relived to be able to shower, though! The adhesive on my neck collected lint and grime and it looks gross, I know. Showering was scary; I was worried I was going to open my incision or something.

Twelve days post-op. There is still some residual adhesive, but touching it gave me the heebie jeebies, so I didn't scrub it.

Thirteen days post-op. I used tweezers to gently pick away the residue from the Steri-strip, and I felt like it looked so much better after that!

Exactly one month later, which is about six weeks post-op.

Another angle. Without tilting my head back, you can see all the loose and puckered skin. I don't know if this will go away or not. It almost feels like the muscles holding my neck skin more taut loosened up or something.

The puckered skin on my neck, along with the puckered skin on my chin (which was from my jaw repair surgeries in 2010), my face isn't looking too good these days, hahaha. They aren't hidden with clothes--even a turtle neck can't cover it up, so I just have to be okay with it. The scar isn't an issue for me, but I really hate the loose skin.

And as of this moment, this is what my scar looks like... not bad at all!

The problem is that it only looks okay when I have my head tipped back. When I put my head down, it looks like this...

I don't want it to discourage anyone from getting the surgery if they need it, but I also want to be honest about what to expect. Nobody ever mentioned anything about my skin (other than a scar) so I was not expecting this at all. I don't know if it will get better over time, but I don't imagine it will.

Other than all of the thyroid stuff, not much has been going on. I'm still not feeling better mentally, but I follow up with my psychiatrist this month about the new medication, so I may just need a higher dose.

I haven't lost any weight, although I do start every day with the mindset of getting back on track with not only my diet, but my life in general. I feel overwhelmed; so far behind on everything. Including email! If you are waiting for a response, I am so sorry. I've been spending as little time on the computer as possible. I've been feeling really nostalgic for the 90's lately; I miss doing things without technology everywhere. So I've been working on that recently.

And still sewing! I've been doing a lot of hand-sewing and hand-quilting lately. My post about recent projects is about a year overdue now, hahaha. I just don't have pictures of things, so I need to take the time to take some pictures.

Noah is living at home again, and I love having a buddy here! Eli doesn't hang out with me like he used to, but Noah has been playing Dr. Mario with me (the old school Nintendo one--I am *awesome* at it, haha), chatting with me about his day, asking me to watch movies with him, show him how to cook things, etc.

I've been working on redoing my bedroom decor as well. The childish theme Jerry and I tried out was fun for a couple of years, but we were ready to move on from the black walls and ceiling! I've painted the ceiling white (and no, it wasn't hard to cover the black--one coat of Kilz and two coats of Sherwin Williams paint) and the walls a sort of medium-navy. They aren't too dark or too light.

My color inspiration actually came from a quilt I am working on right now (I swore I would *never * get into quilting, yet here I am). I bought a bunch of fat quarters (a quarter of a yard of fabric) on Ebay--they are civil war reproduction prints and I absolutely love how the colors go together. (I had to put a safety pin in each of the 806 squares to hold it together while quilting, which is why I have this spread out on the floor!). 

I have a few more things to do to my room (including finishing this queen-size quilt!) and then I'll post pictures. Rose (Noah's "girlfriend"; they broke up but it was very amicable and they are still close friends) loves to decorate and she's been helping me with ideas. I'm still leaving all the cat shelves up; the cats use them so much that I'll never be able to take them down. Most of them are at the ceiling, though, so they don't hinder furniture or anything.

So that's the gist of what's going on with me. As soon as I'm feeling better, I will write a "real" post, I promise!

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A Fun Surprise

I've been wanting to write this for a week now, but I've been waiting for a package to be delivered to the recipient before posting about it...

In my last post, I shared a picture of the cat quilt that I made. Amanda, a long-time blog reader who has always been so kind and supportive, said that if I was to ever make a dog quilt, she would "be first in line to order one". When I read that, I started debating if I should offer to make one. I don't typically like to make things to sell because I'm not super confident in my abilities and I would feel really bad if the recipient didn't like it. Also, I only want to make things that I truly enjoy the process of working on--and if I'm doing it to sell, it would feel more like work than fun.

I mentioned Amanda's comment to Jerry, and he said, "You should make it for her as a gift and give it to her as a surprise!" I absolutely LOVED that idea. There is literally nothing that makes me as giddy with excitement like giving someone a gift that I know they will like and appreciate. (I have such a hard time keeping gifts a surprise, too--I always want to give it to them right away, or tell them what it is, haha.)

I bought the fabric and got to working on the quilt right away. (Here is a link to the pattern, if anyone is interested.) I ended up getting COVID, which wasn't fun, but since I couldn't go anywhere or be around other people, I had plenty of time to work on the quilt. I worked on it every spare moment and I love how it turned out. I used different color backgrounds for each block and I like the color scheme more than my cat one!

I really like the backing, and I did a much better job at the quilting part... my stitches were (mostly) even and it only took me one try (it took three for the cat one).

This dog was my favorite :)

Duck's favorite part about helping me quilt is when I lay it out on the floor to pin it and get it ready to quilt...

I was super excited to ship it to Amanda, but I was also very nervous because I would be crushed if it got damaged or lost in the mail after working so hard on it. I researched the best shipping carrier for something like this and UPS was the winner (the best reputation for getting things to their destination without getting lost or damaged). Also, I didn't really trust USPS because when I made a million masks and shipped them in early COVID days, only about half of them reached their destinations.

I had some leftover fabric from the backing, so I even made a cute little bag for it...

I took it to the UPS Store a week ago last Thursday, and I had them package it for me--again, I wanted to make sure it was done right! Normally, I wouldn't talk about the cost of things when it comes to a gift, but it's kind of relevant here. The shipping was $20-ish, and the box was $10.50(!), "packaging materials" $2.00, and the "labor" of packaging $2.00. I was shocked at the cost of the box and the person working there told me I could send it in an envelope for cheaper, but I told her, "No, I don't care how much it costs--I just want to make sure it gets there undamaged." She asked me what the value of the contents was, and I joked, "Blood, sweat, and tears". Anyway, she reassured me that it would get there safely and it would be delivered last Saturday.

I was SO EXCITED for it to get there. On Saturday, I looked at the tracking online and it said: "Package damaged, returned to sender". I immediately burst into tears. I've been going through a lot of emotional stuff lately (I seriously feel like I'm reliving two years ago) and I couldn't believe this was happening. They didn't include a picture or tell me if the quilt itself was damaged or anything. And it wasn't going to arrive back here until Tuesday. So I had to just sit and wait for three days, imagining the quilt I worked so hard on arriving in shreds.

On Tuesday, it was delivered to the UPS Store, so I had to go there to check it out. When she showed me the box, I was a little relieved because it looked like it was just the box that was damaged. But then I saw the "15x12x10" box I paid $10.50 for, and I was pissed. It was actually two small boxes smushed together and taped. And there were zero "packaging materials" (I'm assuming bubble wrap?). THEN, I was told that they couldn't give me a refund on shipping because I would have to file a claim online. And if I wanted to reship it, I would have to pay the $34-ish dollars again!

This is how it looked when I picked it up.

I said no way, and decided to take it to USPS and hope for the best (if the quilt was intact). First, though, I brought it out to the car and opened the "box". I was SO relieved to see that the quilt was okay. The greeting card, however, was sliced in half--missing the envelope and the other half of the card. I wondered how on earth they sliced the card when it was in the box?! (I thought maybe it started in a different box, which they cut open with a box cutter, damaging the card and then smushing it into the makeshift box? Dunno. Neither did the employee.)

But I stopped and got a new card, then took the quilt to USPS. I bought a box there (the same size as the one I paid for at UPS) and the total for the box and 2-day shipping was only $17. I gladly paid for it and just prayed it would make it to Amanda. The estimated delivery was on Thursday (yesterday).

When I got home from the post office, I went online to file a claim with UPS. I tried for a long time but it just wasn't allowing me to do so. I was finally able to chat with someone who told me that the claim has to be filed by the person who printed the label--which would be the UPS Store that I shipped it from.

I was ready to tear my hair out at that point, because the store had told me I had to do it online. I called the store and spoke with the manager--she was super helpful and filed the claim for me. I haven't heard anything about the claim status yet, but at least it's out of my hands now.

On Wednesday evening, I got a message from USPS saying "Your package was unable to be delivered due to incomplete address..." I almost started crying (again) when it hit me that I get that exact text once in a while and it's a spam text that wants you to click on the link. That was a relief--of all the times for me to get that spam text, that was the worst.

So anyway, all day yesterday I was watching the tracking and my email, just hoping it would get to Amanda. And last night, I was SO relieved to see that it did! Amanda was surprised and thrilled with the quilt and sent me this pic with her two dogs...

It was super fun to work on, and like I said, I love the background colors. I feel like I aged quite a bit in the last week while I worried about it making its way to Amanda, haha--but it made my heart very happy!

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Denim Refashion

Like I said yesterday, I have been working on some fun projects lately--mostly sewing. It all started because I wanted to get better at sewing zippers. When I sew, I usually just alter clothes--I like to buy thrift store clothes and refashion them to my (quirky) taste. I rarely make clothes or put zippers on anything but now that I have room for my sewing stuff (I took over the spare bedroom when Noah moved out), I find that I want to use it more. I watched several YouTube videos for tips about zippers and then made a bunch of small things--mostly bags and pouches--to practice. 

I've been doing a ton of spring cleaning/organizing (even though it's still freezing cold here) and when I was organizing the "craft room", I decided I needed to make a large dent in all of the scraps of denim I have. When I am done with a pair of jeans for whatever reason, I cut them apart and use *every* piece in some way. However, since my weight hasn't gone super drastically up and down for the last couple of years, I haven't had to replace all of my jeans, hahaha. (Notice I said "super" drastically--it's certainly not at the point of being consistent yet.)

All of my denim scraps had been sitting around for a while, so after lots of inspiration from Pinterest, I came up with a couple of ideas to try. And I *love* how they turned out!

The first is a small purse that I started with the intention of making into a fanny pack. And it could be, if I change the strap on it, but I like it as an ordinary crossbody for now. I collected the seams from jeans that I'd cut up and I arranged them in rows.

I wanted to keep the whole purse in shades of light- to medium-blue (no dark denim) and I didn't have enough to do the front and back like that. Instead, I unrolled the hems from the legs, ironed them flat, and used them to piece together a patchwork back to the purse. I added little belt loops on the sides to hold the D-rings (for the strap) and a lining that I thought complimented it. A simple zipper on top. And I didn't want any pockets, inside or out, so that was easy.

It's the perfect size! It fits exactly what I need (including my Kindle, which I like to bring with me to appointments and basically anywhere that I might have a chance to read) without having space for random junk. This is one of my most favorite things I've ever made.

After that, I set to work on the bits and pieces that were literally just small scraps of denim. I wanted to make a large piece of fabric by cutting small squares and piecing them together in a grid (like I did ages ago with my denim quilt). I cut as many 2x2 squares as I could and hoped it would be enough to make a messenger bag. I needed the piece to be roughly 15 inches by 32 inches. I didn't do the math or anything--I just hoped that when I pieced them together, it would be at least that big.

It worked out *perfectly*. I didn't have one single spare square left and the finished measurement was 15.5 by 33 inches. Then I had to decide on what to line it with and I'd had a very large men's dress shirt in with my sewing stuff for a while (once in a while I'll buy clothes from Goodwill for the purpose of sewing later, if I like the fabric). I cut that up to use to for a lining fabric, and decided to leave the pockets on.

Sewing through a million layers of denim is HARD but the end result was worth it. I love this bag! I'm not sure what to do with it, being a messenger bag, but I'll figure it out because I want to use it.

And finally, as far as denim goes, I am putting my denim quilt back together. I took it apart last year with the intention of putting it together differently and then grew bored with working on it so I put it in the back of the closet. This is what it looked like before:

This is what the quilt looked like before

I have all the boring stuff done now (I *hate* cutting fabric) and now I am working on piecing it together. Basically, I just rearranged the squares, cut them smaller and I'm sewing them back together without the frayed edges on top. I had several pieces of denim where I was messing around with embroidery floss, so I cut those into squares too.

And as I'm piecing it back together, it looks like this:

I turned most of the squares to the wrong side for a different look. I want to quilt it rather than tie it when I'm done, but I have no idea how to do that!

I have some other projects as well, but I have to head to Eli's baseball game, so I'll save those for later!

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Friday Night Photos #134

I didn't think I took many photos this week, but I just found a LOT on my camera roll. Lots of random stuff! Here goes...

First, the belt I ended up making for Eli's Han Solo costume. I bought a faux leather bag at Goodwill for $6, then took it apart to use the faux leather. I had NO idea what I was doing--I'd never sewn faux leather before, I know nothing about Han Solo, and I just had to wing it. It's not accurate to the actual Han Solo belt, but that one is much more detailed than I wanted to get into. The main part I wanted was the gun holster. I still have to attach the belt buckle.

I also wanted to stain it darker. From what I read online, you can't stain faux leather; you have to paint it. Well, I wasn't going to go buy paint for this thing, so I tried using wood stain anyway. I loved the color when I applied it!

Unfortunately, even after several hours, it still wiped off. So it's the tan color and I'm not worried about it. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the buckle. The Han Solo buckle basically an elongated silver hexagon. I thought about using 1/4 inch plywood and spray painting it gray. Or covering it with foil. But after looking around the garage, I found a very small piece of craft sheet metal. I can't remember why I bought it, but it was years ago and I'd held onto it. It was perfect!

Because it was so thin and could basically slice open Eli's abdomen while wearing it, I used CA glue to attach it to a scrap piece of 1/4-inch plywood. I cut out the hexagon shape and to keep it from looking too shiny and new, I used sandpaper to scuff it up. Then I spray painted the back and sides gray. I'm kind of impressed with how it turned out!

When I was laying out the faux leather to figure out what to do with it, I just tossed it on the floor (that's basically my "table" when I do projects). I turned my back for a second and the cats proved just how predictable they are, hahaha.

Set anything on the floor and the cats are immediately drawn to it.

Duck was so funny yesterday morning. He "helps" me do the Wordle and Connections puzzles after my run in the mornings by settling himself on my shins for a nap. Yesterday, he sprawled out like this--and he slept that way!

I guess I took a lot of pictures of Duck this week.  These ones were impossible to take without them just being a blur of black cat. Duck is obsessed with spaghetti noodles. He somehow knows when we make spaghetti and then he will literally try to play with it by batting at it with his paws while you're eating it. When you dangle it for him, he likes to hit it hard enough to break it in half--over and over--until you're left with a couple of inches.

Last night, Jerry and I were dangling the spaghetti for him and he was going nuts. Then he got a strand stuck to his head, with just the end dangling behind his ear. He was trying so hard to get it--he was basically chasing himself in circles with his mouth open (like a dog chasing his own tail). 

While I'm on the subject of cats, Noah and his girlfriend made a cat pizza, which I thought was cute! They both love cats and they volunteer at a local cat shelter.

When I was at Goodwill, I saw this little hat with some dog costumes and it was only $1. I thought it would be funny to get for Joey. I had to bribe him with a treat for him to keep it on long enough for a photo.

Becky sent me a super cute video of Riley getting her ears pierced, and she was SO brave. I commented on how cute her outfit was, and Becky sent me this picture so I could see the full effect. I love it when kids choose their own clothes!

My friend Paul, who I went to high school with, plays his guitar at a bar once a month. I've been wanting to go see him, but each time he's playing, we've had something going on. Finally, we made it up there (it's an hour and twenty minutes away). The bar was really cool--I love the mural. And Paul sounded fantastic, as usual.

And last but not least, I went to my mom's today to get these film slides from her attic. My grandpa (her dad) took most of these pictures in the late 1960s and I was very curious to look through them. I put them through the slide viewer and most of them were pictures of different landmarks and things while traveling. There were some pictures of people, though, which was fun to see. There are a few I'm going to get prints of. (What is pictured below is only about 5% of the number of slides!)  Next, I'm going to watch his 8mm films with a projector. I wish I could transfer them to digital, but I'm sure it would cost a fortune. Hopefully my dad's projector still runs ;)

Have a great weekend! xo

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