New mobility scooter

I got my mobility scooter, and the one I was looking at (the Pride Victory), which has a weight limit of 400 lbs, isn't heavy-duty enough for me (I don't quite weigh 400 lbs). According to the salesman, you need to take your weight and the weight of the scooter into consideration when you're looking at weight capacities (not to mention the amount of weight you plan to carry in the front basket and the optional rear basket).
I ended up buying the Pride Maxima, which has a weight limit of 500 lbs, weighs 180 lbs fully assembled, can be taken apart without any tools, comes with a headlight, tail lights, turn signals, and one rear view mirror on the left handgrip. It also has a flag so I can be seen in traffic if I decide to drive it in town (like I need to do that, I have a minivan that I drive around town......lol). I suppose it would come in handy for parking lots, etc, when we're traveling.......

We didn't by the ramps from MedCity Mobility, they were an additional $300 (did I mention that the Maxima normally costs $3,375 and we got it for $2,868?). So we took it apart and put it in the back of my Kia Sedona minivan. Um, yeah, taken apart, it takes up most of the back of my minivan when the very last row of seats are folded into the floor (the Sedona has stow'n'go seating for the 3rd row seats). So I looked online and found ramps for less than $140 and bought them. Now the Maxima only takes up less than 2/3 of the back of the van, and the ramp folds in half length-wise to slide in next to it, leaving us room for luggage or groceries, etc (I also found out that the middle row of seats in the van fold up against the front seats for more cargo room in the back, and for access to the back row of seats when you're using them - who knew? Pays to read the manual that comes with your vehicle, folks.....). So my 7-passenger minivan is down to 3 passengers when we're traveling - one of the middle seats has to be folded up against the front seats so the ramp will fit in the back of the van. The length from the back of the middle seats to the back liftgate is only 54" and the ramp is 69" long. The ramp folded in half is too tall to go under the seat, and it won't fit diagonally between the seats to the liftgate either. There's nothing in the Sedona's manual about how to take the middle seats out completely, but I'm going to ask our mechanic if he can figure out how it's done (if we remove one seat completely, that gives us more room when we're traveling for a cooler behind the front seat, plus luggage and the ramp).
So for anyone considering buying a mobility scooter, these are all things you need to consider :
1- What weight capacity do I need?
2- How will I get it in and out of my vehicle?
3- If I use a ramp, will the ramp and the scooter both fit in my vehicle?
4- Can I do the loading/unloading of the scooter alone?
5- Do I have room for it in my house or is it going to spend the entire year in my vehicle (mine will, and can be charged there as well, by plugging the charger into a heavy-duty extension cord).
6- Can I afford to pay for it myself if insurance won't? (Craigslist/eBay is an alternative if you can't afford a new one, but when you're buying used, you don't know what you're getting or how long it's going to last - no warranty)
There are probably other things to consider, but these are the ones I think are the most important, once you've made the decision that a mobility scooter will improve your quality of life.

Biting the bullet - looking at mobility scooters

It's come to the point that my mobility issues have gotten bad enough that my walker just isn't working out when we go sightseeing on our weekend trips/vacations. So I'm looking at mobility scooters and I'm finding out that when you're a person of size, finding one that will support your weight, hold a charge for a reasonable amount of time, and be able to handle a variety of terrain - well, it's not easy and they don't come inexpensively.
I looked at the TravelScoot, but the information on their website leaves a lot to be desired. When I contacted them for more information, all they could say was to refer to their testimonials from satisfied customers. Yeah, I don't want hear how satisfied they are with their TraveleScoot, I want to know can the damned thing haul my fat ass for 10 miles of sightseeing over pavement/gravel/grass/up inclines, how long does the charge last, how easy is it to charge, how long does it take to charge it, how comfortable is it to ride for more than an hour or two, etc. I also asked if there was a dealer in Minnesota and that question was totally ignored. Yep, you really want my business (/sarcasm).

This is the TravelScoot and I just don't think it can be made strong enough to hold my weight, and I don't think it would be stable on rough ground. I could be wrong, but without having a store in Minnesota where I can go look at one and try it out, I'm just not willing to order it, only to have to return it if it doesn't work out. And it's $2,195, before it's beefed up to hold my weight (who knows how much extra that would cost).
Then I looked at the Hoveround, and the chair that would support me is just way out of my budget. Insurance won't pay for it unless you need it to get around inside your home, which I don't, yet. Insurance could care less if you can't get around outside your home without one, just stay confined to your house, you don't need to be able to go anywhere if you're disabled, after all (/sarcasm).

This is the Hoveround chair that would hold my weight, and it's $3,395 (cash or credit card). Hoveround also makes scooters, but their weight limit is just shy of being able to handle my weight, so those are out of the running.
The Hoveround is more than we can afford.
The one I'm really considering, and will be going to look at next week when we go to Rochester, is the Pride Victory 10 mobility scooter (this one). It comes in a 3 wheeled model as well as a 4 wheeled one, and it will hold my weight. It has a top speed of 5.25 mph, weighs 175 lbs, will fit in the back of my minivan without being taken apart, has a battery charge range of 15.5 miles, and can be had for less than $2,000 (which is less than half of what the comparable Hoveround chair would cost, and is less than the TravelScoot would cost).
Funny story about going to check it out in Rochester. We were there to see the Soldiers Field Veterans Memorial and Mike's parents' graves. When we drove to the cemetery, we passed a medical supply company that had a huge model of the Pride Victory scooter on a platform display as advertisement. So when Mike and I were talking about checking into me getting a scooter, he said we should talk to them and I should do a search online to see if I could find out what medical supply company it was. So I did, and I found them, and emailed them to see if they had the scooters in their store in Faribault (they have stores in Faribault, Rochester, and Austin). I figured if they had them in Faribault, we could go there as it's closer. I was expecting an emailed response, but instead they called me. Yes, they do have the scooters in the store at the Faribault location. But we're going to check them out in Rochester anyway because Mike wants to go back there and get some better pictures of the veterans' memorial now that we have a better camera. If Med City Mobility can answer all my questions and the scooter suits, they'll probably be the ones who get my business - they bothered to call me back, they wanted to know what I was looking for in a scooter, what did I need to know, and how could they help me. That's good customer service, and I appreciate that. I also checked out their website, so I know they carry a variety of scooters and they have more than one that will handle my weight and that are in my price range.

This is the one I'm really considering, and it's only $1,829 (the 4 wheel version is only $1,929).
I do wish that health insurance thought that disabled people deserved to be mobile outside of their homes, not just inside them. Because not every place that I go has mobility carts available and if mobility carts aren't available, I'm not going to be shopping there, sightseeing there, spending money there. Not to mention that being confined to one's home most of the time definitely impacts one's quality of life, and not for the better.

Mini vacation in South Dakota

DH and I took a short vacation to Rapid City, South Dakota the beginning of July to see Mount Rushmore. Neither of us had ever seen it, and we both wanted to, so DH took some time off work, we reserved a motel room for 3 days, and off we went.
We stopped at the Pioneer Auto Museum in Murdo, SD on the way to Rapid City and took a look at some of the old cars there. There were also displays of old toys, tools, smoking pipes, pinball machines, etc. We took a few pictures:

This is the original General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard movie, on loan to the museum (they wrecked 13 of these cars making that movie).

This car is made out of wood and it's absolutely gorgeous - I'd definitely be afraid to ever drive it.













This was on the 4th of July, we had hoped to be able to see the fireworks over Mt Rushmore, but they were cancelled again this year due to the dry conditions and the high risk of fires.
We got up bright and early on the 5th and headed out to see the Crazy Horse Monument. It is going to be huge when it's finished. There's so much to see that you really need to take a whole day just to see that. We did get a few pictures there, and we saw the movie about how the monument came to be - it's very moving, and informative. The monument isn't funded by the government at all, it's strictly donations from the public and admissions that are allowing this monument to be built.

This is the front of the visitor's center, where you can see the film, buy souvenirs, and see all the displays of Native American art and artifacts. We took pictures inside with disposable cameras (the memory card on our digital camera was full) and the lighting wasn't the best, so those pictures didn't turn out the greatest (and when they were developed, they were cropped so that what I saw when I took the picture is not what showed up in the picture - some of the items are only half there :( ). The visitor's center was very handicapped accessible, and they had wheelchairs available for people who have mobility issues.

After we left Crazy Horse Monument, we took the scenic route to Mt Rushmore, and it was a gorgeous drive. I wish we had a video camera, I'd have taped that drive for the scenery alone.

Mt Rushmore was pretty cool, and it was very handicapped accessible - there was an elevator so that if you had to park on the lower levels, you could get up to the level of the monument without having to climb stairs. There was also a ramp for wheelchairs/strollers, but I don't know how easy it would have been to navigate that ramp with a mobility scooter as it curved a couple of times (maybe if you took it slowly).
On the way back to Rapid City from Mt Rushmore, we stopped to go through Bear Country USA. They said at the gate that it takes about an hour and a half to go through the whole park, and at the end there's a building where you can see the bear cubs, and there's a petting zoo, a souvenir shop, and a cafe.
We saw several varieties of deer, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, arctic wolves, cougars, buffalo, and OMG! the bears!!!! Remember in that Yogi Bear cartoon where Yogi is saying he wants to leave Jellystone Park because he's tired of the same old thing every year, the tourists always coming and they always say "Look at the bears, look at the bears, look at the bears."? Well, when we got to the part of Bear Country (at the end) where the bears were, that's exactly what DH and I said: "Look at the bears, look at the bears, look at the bears!" and laughed our asses off. There were so many bears, of all colors and sizes, and they were walking everywhere - in the road, across the road, next to the cars, sniffing the tires, inspecting the vehicles and then just ambling off like they owned the place (they do).

This bear was so close, it was almost rubbing on the side of my van - that's the best pic I could get of it with the window rolled up (don't even think about rolling the windows down in this part of the park).

More bears.....lol













After Bear Country USA, we hit the Reptile Gardens, another interesting stop on the way back to our motel. Not all of those pics turned out as well as I would have liked, but some of them are pretty good.

If I had known there were birds not in cages in this section, no way would I have gone in here. I'm fine with birds in cages, but birds flying free in enclosed spaces terrify me (it's a phobia of mine). I managed to walk through the whole area and get pictures, but I was nervous the entire time and couldn't wait to get out of there. Not one of my more enjoyable moments...........










We headed back to the motel room after that to take a break before heading out to find some dinner. Let me tell you, after dinner, I was ready for some TV time - that was one full day and I was exhausted by the time we had seen everything.
On the 6th, we headed out to Wall, SD to see all the sights at Wall Drug. That's another place that you need to take a whole day just to be able to see everything and do it justice. It was interesting, to say the least.

It's really difficult to get a good picture of the front of Wall Drug because of all the cars parked along the street in front of it, but I tried.

This was outside and back of Wall Drug, you could sit in the wagon and pose for pictures in it (we saw several families do this).

This was next to one of the eateries in the Wall Drug complex - this room was set up to show what an old-time bar looked like, what a poker game looked like, etc.

A miner and his pack mule. There were a lot of these kinds of statues all through the place - saloon girl, Annie Oakley, Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock, and other historical figures from the old west.











After we left Wall Drug, we headed off to the SD Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth AFB. That was very interesting, and there was a trip you could pay to take to go through a missile silo (we didn't do that one). I did manage to get pictures of all the planes that were sitting outside, and then I got pictures of most of the items inside the museum. DH told me about some of them, the ones he knew about from when he was in the Navy (like the missiles that were on one of the ships he served on).

This is a cutaway of a jet engine, interesting to see the inside of it and how it works.

This was a short day, we only saw Wall Drug and the Air & Space Museum before heading back to Rapid City.
We left on the 7th to head for home, and stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace, another interesting place.

After we left the Corn Palace, we headed over to De Smet, SD to see the Ingalls Homestead, of Little House on the Prairie fame. I wasn't impressed with it - the buildings were all spread out and the only way to see all of them was to pay to take a horse-drawn wagon ride around to them (not handicapped accessible) and it didn't seem to stop at the various buildings so you could get down, go inside and look around and take pictures. It's also a campground, so if you want to get pictures of the covered wagons, you have to settle for getting campers' tents in the pictures with the wagons (not something I really cared to do).

This is the schoolhouse, and we parked to next to it at first because we came in the back way. We then drove up to the visitor's center/souvenir shop to find out about the other buildings and how to see them.











All in all, it was a great vacation, but there was so much we didn't get to see that we wanted to see - we decided we're taking two weeks next year, probably in September, and we're going back to see everything that we missed this time. We'll probably revisit a few places so we can see things that we didn't get to see the first time around too.

Julian Bakery Smart Carb Bread review

I've been looking for a low-carb, high-fiber bread for us for a while now. Most of the stores around here just don't stock anything like that. The closest I've been able to get is Wonder's Light Wheat, 2 slices of which have 80 calories, 18 grams of carbs, and 5 grams of fiber (net carbs is 13 grams). The flavor isn't bad, if you like wheat bread (I don't care for it unless it's toasted).
Then I found Julian Bakery with a whole line of low- to zero-carb breads. They also have gluten-free breads. So I checked to see if there were any stores in Minnesota that carried this bread, even though it's expensive (at almost $8 a loaf, that's damned expensive for bread). HyVee in Mankato, Rochester, and Owatonna are the only stores in Minnesota that carry it.
Since we were going to visit my son in Faribault last weekend, and Mankato is only 45 minutes away, I thought we'd make a run over there and pick up a loaf or two (of different varieties) to see if it would be worth ordering online. Well, there's also a HyVee in Faribault, so I thought I'd stop in there and see if they had any, just on the off chance that someone had wanted it and they had ordered it for them (stranger things have happened). Lo and behold, the HyVee in Faribault did have two varities of the Julian Bakery low carb bread - Smart Carb 1, and Smart Carb 2, cinnamon raisin. So I picked up a loaf of each and could hardly wait until we got home to try them.
Now, the Smart Carb 1 has 109 calories per slice (wow!), 13 grams of carbs, and 12 grams of fiber (for 1 gram net carbs). The cinnamon raisin has 137 calories per slice (another wow!), 15 grams of carbs, and 13 grams of fiber (for 2 grams of net carbs). While this is great for someone who is counting carbs for blood sugar control, I have to say that the flavor leaves a bit to be desired. Both breads are really bland, even toasted and buttered, and the cinnamon raisin one? Well, I can't tell it's supposed to be cinnamon at all - there's no cinnamon flavor to it in the slightest (but I have that complaint about every cinnamon raisin bread I've ever bought, so this isn't a new thing).
I like the fact that the breads are made with all natural ingredients, and that a lot of them are organically grown. But for the price I paid for the bread, I expect it to have more flavor. It's also very dry and not something that makes a good sandwich - it's too heavy (a 1 lb loaf has 15 slices, and that includes the heels). I don't know if it's the combination of ingredients that makes it bland, or if something is lacking in the recipe, but these two breads are not something I'll be buying again. And for $7.99 a loaf, I'm not willing to try the other varieties either.

ClearWire SUCKS!

I will never recommend ClearWire as an internet provider to anyone, ever. We've had them for the last 2 years, and it's been nothing but hassles from day one. We've been paying for 2 MB service, but have been lucky to get 1 MB. I haven't been able to watch a news video yet that hasn't taken me at least 10 minutes to watch the entire way through - and that's a video that's less than 3 minutes long (because it has to stop every 5 seconds or so to buffer before it will play for another 5 seconds or so). Don't even try to watch a YouTube video, it ain't happening with ClearWire unless you have all day to watch one short video. And forget about streaming anything, that ain't happening either. If it rains, you lose your internet. If you have a router so you can have more than one computer hooked up (which we do), you can't have the router within 3 feet of the modem or the modem only works part of the time - and they didn't bother to tell me any of this until we'd been having problems for over a year. Every time I called because we lost our internet connection, they never even asked if the router was close to the modem (until a year ago, after we'd had service with them for a year). Then they tell me the router has to be at least 3 feet away from the modem. Gee, thanks for that little bit of information.
When I called the other day because we lost our internet connection, the service rep asked me if I had unplugged the modem and the router. I told him yes, I'd done that 3 times, gotten the internet back for 1 minute each time and then lost connection again. He said, "Well, I'm showing you have a strong signal, you should have 5 lights on your modem." I said, "Yeah, I have 5 lights on my modem, but I still don't have any internet." Then he asks me if the modem is facing the tower. DUH, asshole, the modem is sitting in the same position it's been sitting in for the last two years, facing the damned tower, otherwise, I wouldn't have 5 fucking lights on the damned thing. So he says "Well, let me put you on hold and I'll see if I can find out what's wrong." He comes back 5 minutes later and says "There's a problem with the tower in your area and it could take anywhere from 2 to 24 hours before your internet is back. Is there anything else I can do for you today?" Yeah, ya dumb shit, you can tell the crew to get my internet back online for me, why the fuck do you think I called? Geez louize. I told him no, thanks, and hung up. And every time there's an outage, that's the scenario we go through. I realize they have a script they have to follow, but some initiative on their part would be nice (I really don't think they know how to think outside that box they're given to work within).
When I called the first time to cancel service, they wanted to know why, and I gave them the list of reasons, and they wanted to know if I wanted to upgrade my service for another $20 a month. Right, I'm paying $50 a month for 2 MB service now that I'm not getting, so why would I pay another $20 a month for faster service that you aren't going to be able deliver? Do I look like I have "STUPID" tattooed on my forehead or something? Yeah, I don't think so.
So when we decided to change providers, I called to set up cancellation of our service. Now, our billing cycle ran from the 26th of one month to the 25th of the next month, and we were having cable internet installed on the first of June, so I wanted to have ClearWire shut off on June 2nd. Sorry, they told me, no can do. Have to call on the day I want it cancelled, and have it shut off then, and any overpayment will be refunded to me within 24 - 48 hours. So I'm thinking okay, I'll pay the $50.32 on the 26th of May, have it shut off on the first of June, they'll refund me the balance due from June 2 to June 25 and we're good. Nope, not happening. I called and was told that my ClearWire internet can't be cancelled until the billing period ends on June 25 because ClearWire doesn't refund any money, ever. When I told the service rep that wasn't what I was told, he told me that no one would tell me I would get a refund because they don't do that - essentially saying that either I'm a liar or whoever told me I would get a refund was lying. Oh, and we've been leasing the modem, but we don't have to send it back, we can keep it. WTF am I going to do with it? Use it as a doorstop? Use it as a paperweight? It's a worthless piece of equipment to me - I don't have wireless internet anymore, I'll never have wireless internet from them ever again, so why the hell would I want to keep their modem?
So I highly recommend that if you have ClearWire and ever decide to switch to another internet provider, be sure you set it up so that your new provider installs your service the day (or 2) before your ClearWire billing period ends so you can call and cancel it before they charge you for another month of service you won't be using. And if you don't have ClearWire, I wouldn't advise considering them as an option.

Finally bought a Kindle

Well, I finally broke down and bought a Kindle. I have a Nook, but don't have a lot of books on it. Barnes & Noble used to notify me when they had free ebooks - usually a new one every Friday, but they quit sending out emails, and I don't have the time to go to their site and sift through every free ebook they have looking for the new ones. The Nook is also a little heavier than I like to hold in order to read - which is why I bought an easel cover for it, so I could prop it on the desk/table to read. But it's also really slow to start up, and I don't like the fact that it's easier to download the ebooks to my computer, and then I have to manually transfer them to my Nook by hooking it up to my computer, opening up Adobe Digital Editions or Nook for PC and moving the ebooks from those apps to the Nook itself.

I looked at the basic Kindle online, and then I noticed that they had them at WalMart, and WalMart was offering a $30 gift card with the purchase of the basic Kindle ($79 with the advertising when you aren't reading a book, I can deal with that). Since Mike works there, we get a 10% discount, so between his discount and the gift card, my Kindle ended up costing me $41.10 (and that's a deal I couldn't pass up). So I got it, took it home, hooked it up to the computer, it found our wireless internet, I registered it, and voila, all my ebooks that I had gotten from amazon were on it without me having to do anything at all. And all those free ebooks I get every day from the groups I've joined on Facebook? Not only do they show up in the Kindle for PC app on my computer, they're also on my Kindle, automatically. So I can either get the ebooks online from my computer or I can shop from my Kindle, whichever is easiest for me, and I have the books in both places, to read wherever is easiest for me.

Sorry Barnes & Noble, if I had known all that when I bought the Nook, I never would have bought the Nook. Amazon just has a wider variety of books for ereaders than you do, and a lot more free ebooks than you do. I already have 450 books on my Kindle and I've only had it a week (of course, I've been getting books for the Kindle for PC for a couple of months now, so that could have something to do with it). But I've had Nook for PC for a couple of years, and I've had my Nook for over a year, and I have less than 100 books on it, so that tells you something about the availability and affordability of books between Amazon and B & N. Of course, most of the books I have for my Kindle are from new authors, but they're still good books, at least in my opinion (and I think I should know, I've probably read 4 or 5 thousand books in my lifetime).

So, if anyone is looking for an ereader, I can highly recommend the basic Kindle, especially if all you want to do is read books.

Catherine's store closing in Mankato MN

DH and I went to visit the grandkids in Faribault last weekend - took them swimming at the motel while my son and his fiancee were on a bike ride to Wisconsin. But before that, DH and I went to Mankato. I wanted to have the van detailed at a carwash there - they wash your vehicle, vacuum it out, wash the floor mats, wash the windows inside and out, clean the dashboard, and even put in your choice of scent (don't know what it costs now, used to cost $20 when I had it done 10 years ago). But it was raining and the place was closed. So we went to Long John Silver's for lunch (we don't have one near Sauk Centre) and then I went to Catherine's to check out the clearance racks (I used to hit those clearance racks all the time when I lived in Le Center and worked in Mankato). Imagine my surprise when I found out the store was closing! The saleslady said it was due to the economy - not as many people were buying clothes, what with the economy being as bad as it has been for the last few years. Well, I can understand that, what with DH losing his job that paid $15 an hour and having to take a job a WalMart that pays less than half that (and is only part-time, to boot). I'm thinking that one of the big reasons women can't afford to shop at Catherine's anymore, unless there's a sale, is that their tees are priced at $48 to $53 and tank tops are priced at $36 to $40. I'm sorry, I worked in a garment factory and I know what it costs to make a tee or a tank - and those costs don't justify the prices we're being charged for clothing. If I have to pay $48 for one shirt, exactly how many times am I going to be able to buy shirts in a year? If I'm not making at least $100K a year (or married to someone who's making that much), I might be able to afford one or two new shirts a year - and that's if I don't need new shoes, or new bras (and don't even get me started on how much bras cost that will support my rack of doom), or new slacks, or new underdrawers. Women who don't wear plus sizes can find all kinds of clothing at reasonable prices, but once you get above a size 12 or 14, forget it - be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for anything that looks halfway decent and will last more than 6 months (and be prepared to make it last for years because you'll be lucky if you can afford to replace it any sooner). If stores that cater to larger women want to stay in business in this economy, they're going to have to figure out a way to give us what we want at prices we can afford so we can buy more often. Lots of women buying one or two items once or twice a year is not going to keep a store open - you need to have lots of women being able to buy several items every couple of months if you want to keep your stores open (I know this because I researched opening a store catering to women my size about 25 years ago - things haven't changed in the years since then on how to keep your business open and thriving).

Thyroidectomy went well - should have done this 4 years ago

I went in on the 13th to have my thyroidectomy. Dr M scheduled 3 hours for the operation, but it actually took 4 1/2 hours because my thyroid was larger than we thought it was. It was almost wrapped around my wind pipe and esophagus, so required more time to find it and get it all removed. So much for it being nothing to worry about when you first told me it was enlarged 4 years ago, right, Dr W? According to Dr M (my wonderful surgeon), my thyroid should have come out when it was first diagnosed as being enlarged.
At the time, I asked for a referral to an endocrinologist to have my thyroid checked, but Dr W refused. Her take on it was that I was using my thyroid as an excuse for being fat (even though my TSH, T3, and T4 results came back normal), so there was no need to see an endocrinologist. Silly me, I listened to her, until I talked to my dad and he told me that my grandfather (his dad) had had an enlarged thyroid that was cancerous. When they went to remove his, it was so large that they couldn't get it all - if they had, he wouldn't have been able to talk or swallow because they would have had to cut the nerves on either side of his neck that controlled those functions in order to remove all of his thyroid.
When I got home from that vacation, I found an endocrinologist myself, and then told Dr W she would give me a referral to her or I would find another doctor that would - that with a family history of thyroid problems (my mother also had problems with her thyroid), I didn't think it was anything to mess around with. I got my referral, got an ultrasound, it was enlarged all right. Dr A (wonderful endo) referred me to Dr M, we discussed surgery, decided to wait 6 months and see if my thyroid was still growing or staying the same.
Had the 2nd ultrasound in July and it showed that my thyroid was getting bigger, so we decided it needed to come out as soon as possible. Scheduled the surgery, had it done, and I can't believe the difference it makes already.
Don't let anyone kid you, an enlarged thyroid makes swallowing difficult. I didn't realize how difficult it was until my thyroid was gone and I got to eat an actual meal in the hospital - I was on a liquid diet for supper and breakfast after surgery, had a chicken breast and rice pilaf for lunch and swallowing it was so easy. Taking my pills is easy, they don't get stuck anymore and I don't have to eat something to push them down and/or drink a huge glass of water on top of that.
I am so glad I had this done, but damn, I wish I'd had it done 4 years ago when I was first told that my thyroid was enlarged. The surgery might not have taken as long, and I wouldn't have had 4 years of difficulty swallowing food and pills.
Dr A started me on Levoxyl, she said no generics, has to be brand name. The reason for brand name only is that the FDA is happy with generics having a 25% difference in the amount of hormone between batches, while the brand names don't have any difference in the amount of hormone between batches (much better quality control, according to her). And when you're trying to regulate your TSH, T3, and T4, you want to be sure your dosage is the same every time you refill your prescription. You have a much better chance of that with name brand than with generic (and if my insurance wouldn't cover the name brand, it's only about $200 a year for the dosage I need). Luckily, TriCare will cover the name brand and the co-pay isn't high at all ($6 for 2 months' supply).
I have an appointment in 6 weeks to have TSH, T3, and T4 checked to see if the dosage needs to be adjusted. Dr A said if it does, she'll adjust, check in another 6 weeks, then if no more adjustments, check again in 3 months, then in 6 months, and then once a year unless I have problems (or unless I lose or gain a substantial amount of weight - dosage is based on weight, didn't know that until she told me).
Just got the call from pathology - no cancer!!! So even though it was a multi-nodular goiter, it wasn't cancerous - just enlarged. Thank Maude I don't have to worry about that.
So, my advice to anyone who is told their thyroid is enlarged but it's nothing to worry about - if it's your general practitioner telling you that, get a referral to an endocrinologist, get a second opinion. It's nothing to fuck around with, I can testify to that.

Eat to Live - Another "lifestyle" change?

So I had an appointment with the surgeon today to schedule my thyroidectomy (it's gotten larger, ultrasound in July said it's bigger than it was on ultrasound in December). Not a problem, I figured it was going to have to come out, I'm prepared for that (surgery is scheduled for Sept 13).
What I wasn't prepared for was the surgeon telling me that there's a program at the hospital that I might be interested in, she and several of the staff are following it and are really pleased with the results. It's based on the book,Eat to Live, by Dr Joel Fuhrman. From what I read of the reviews on Amazon, it seems like another diet to me, disguised as a "lifestyle" change. It claims to be able to cure type 2 diabetes, help fat people lose lots of weight in a short amount of time (and maintain that weight loss), and cure the other diseases that are correlated with being fat. Sound too good to be true? Yeah, color me skeptical. I've heard it all before, done it all before, and none of it has worked for very long. Now I'm not averse to trying something that might help with the fibromyalgia and the digestive issues I have, but a "lifestyle" change that tells me I have to limit the amount of meat I eat, increase the amount of fruits and vegetables I eat, and eat more beans/legumes/whole grains when eating those fruits/vegetables/whole grains means I'm going to be spending the majority of my time in the bathroom - sorry, it ain't happening. Yeah, that kind of "lifestyle" change will help me lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time because I'll be shitting my brains out and dehydrating myself with diarrhea (those digestive issues I have from the VBG). Not exactly healthy, in my book.
When I explained that to Dr M (the surgeon), she said I should try modifying it to what I can eat without issues and see how I feel in 6 weeks. Ok, so for 6 weeks, I'm going to basically eat very little meat, very little/no dairy, no fruits/veggies/grains (digestive issues), and beans/legumes/rice. Sorry, that's not much different than how I eat now, except that I do occasionally eat veggies and deal with the issues they cause (oh, and I eat more meat than she thinks I should; sorry, not giving up my pork/chicken/shrimp/fish/steak/roast).
What is it with doctors that they think they have all the answers and have to dispense them, even when their patients aren't asking the questions? I didn't ask her for a "lifestyle" intervention, or a way to lose weight, or a way to lessen my pain from fibromyalgia or arthritis. All I want her to do is take out my enlarged thyroid. Once that's done, I'll probably never need to see her again - I'll go back to my endo for any follow-up care I need, like thyroid hormone replacement therapy. If she's following this and it's working for her, for whatever reasons, fine. But please, she doesn't need to be proselytizing to her patients about it unless they ask her advice on weight loss or how to improve their lives with diet (she even wrote the name of the book and author on her card, gave it to me, and told me I could find the book at Barnes & Noble if I wanted to look through it before I bought it!).

I'm not a poet, but this is inspired by this.

NO

Yes, I'm fat....
But no, you will not shame me.
No, you will not make me hide
nor will you take away my pride of self.
Yes, you can cat-call me but I will not
allow you to make me run away. I will walk
tall and proud through life no matter what
you do. My NO shows that my life
has meaning, shows that I deserve respect,
shows that I deserve the dignity
that all humankind deserves. My NO
demands that respect and dignity, and I will have it.
My NO is adamant!