It is almost the last day of school! Thursday will be the last day the twins spend in seventh grade. That means in a few months they will start eighth grade, which will be their last year of middle school. Middle school goes by so quickly, especially when much of it takes place in a pandemic. Pretty soon we'll be thinking about high school. No, stop, slow down. I can't bear it.
It occurred to me that 10 years from now, two babies could be on their own. They'll be 23, it's possible. It's also possible that the kitties will still be with us. They're 3 and 1 -- cats can easily live to be 13 and 11 and beyond. The kitties might live through the rest of the kids' teen years and into their 20s. They might still be with me (and hopefully Rocket Boy), needing to be fed twice a day and have their litter boxes scooped, after the twins have gone on their way. Such a strange thought.
***
This was kind of a health-focused week -- nothing terrible, just all these tests and appointments and whatnot. They take a lot of time and energy.
On Tuesday morning I finally saw the endocrinologist. I prepared for this appointment by getting all stressed out about my weight and my high calcium level. I imagined the endocrinologist lecturing me about being too fat, and telling me that my calcium wasn't high at all and I didn't need surgery.
Instead, of course, she was very nice, didn't mention my weight, and told me I should probably have surgery. "We don't like to force people, but... this isn't going to get better on its own." She also sent me off to have more bloodwork and urine testing (fortunately, this time there was no problem getting in the building where the lab is).
Tuesday afternoon I picked the twins up early from school and took them to get the first dose of the vaccine, since the Pfizer version was approved for their age group the week before. That was quite a trip. There were very few adults getting shots -- it was all parents and teenagers, parents and teenagers. I got almost teary. I felt like we were doing a very good thing, but I also was so happy that all these other people were doing the same good thing. The twins had sore arms and were tired the next day, but otherwise all was well.
I spent Wednesday collecting my urine for the 24-hour urine collection test that the endocrinologist had ordered. Because I was worried about it, I woke up Wednesday morning around 5 am and finally gave up, got up, and peed at 5:50 am. You don't collect the first pee, but the 24-hour period begins immediately afterwards, which meant that I would have to wake up to pee by 5:50 the next day too. I learned how to use the collecting hat, and grossed the twins out by keeping the jug in the fridge.
Also that day, I called to make an appointment for a bone density scan, but unfortunately couldn't get anything before June 30th.
Thursday morning, even more nervous, I woke up at 4 am to pee an enormous amount, and then finally at 5:50 am went in and peed once more and filled the jug to the brim -- with some left over. No one had mentioned that possibility. What to do, what to do. I decided to flush the extra, but later I thought -- remember, I'd gotten very little sleep for two nights -- no one will believe me that I peed exactly enough to fill the jug to the brim. So I collected another pee, flushed most of it, and put the last little bit in a Tupperware container, which I told the girl at the lab was "what wouldn't fit in the jug." Hopefully this subterfuge (aka lying) will not mess up the results. I really don't want to go through that again.
Later that day, my regular doc's assistant called with the good news that my A1c had dropped down to 6.4, from 6.7 in February. The new number is actually the top of the prediabetes range, so that's very good. I will try to keep walking and eating better, hoping to reduce that number even further.
A few minutes later, the endocrinologist's assistant called with the not so great news that although my calcium level dropped slightly (from 10.7 to 10.6), my parathyroid hormone level is now clearly in the "high" range (somewhere above 65, she didn't tell me the exact number) (5/24 she said it was 75), not "high normal" as before (60). She asked for permission to send a referral over to Anschutz (the CU Medical Center) for surgery and I agreed. So once I get that bone scan, we'll move forward on this. Sigh. No, it's a good thing. But sigh.
I'm still waiting for the results of that 24-hour urine collection, assume those will come in this week. (5/24 my calcium was high normal, don't know if that's important)
Oh, I know what I did, or rather didn't do. I tried and tried and tried to order the twins each a cell phone, and I just couldn't do it. My anxiety level was through the roof. So I finally turned it over to Rocket Boy, who does not have telephobia or whatever it's called, and the phones are scheduled to arrive on Monday. We chose very cheap Motorola phones and we're going to sign up for a very low data plan. It will be interesting to see whether the twins immediately lose or break their phones, or if they just don't use them much at first.
Now that the medical stuff is mostly taken care of, for now, I am thinking about our upcoming trip to St. Louis. The car rental is arranged, the flight back, and the pet-sitters. But there are SO many smaller things left. Still to do...
- Reserve hotel rooms for the first and second nights. I want us to have flexibility, but I also don't want to worry about finding rooms that will suit us. By the third night we may be in St. Louis with Rocket Boy, or we may decide to stay somewhere together one more night. We're dropping off the car in Columbia, Missouri, and he'll meet us there with his car.
- Make a packing list. This should include clothes & toiletries for the trip, supplies for driving, stuff Rocket Boy wants me to bring, etc. Once I have a list, I can shop for what we don't have (maybe a hat for me, snacks, etc.). I'll do a final load of laundry on Thursday, and then pack.
- Decide what bus to take to the airport (either the 9:36 am or the 10:36 am).
- Make more definite plans about what to do along the way, what's open and when, how much does everything cost, etc. Also make plans for our time in St. Louis.
- Have the pet-sitters over to meet the cats ahead of time. Buy extra cat food. Finish writing up the notes for the pet-sitters and go to FedEx Office to print them out.
- Get cash for the bus and for the pet-sitters and for the trip in general.
- My book group comes on Monday -- first in-person meeting since last fall -- so I need to clean up the back patio, wash chairs, clean the house so that when they walk through it to get to the patio, they won't be shocked, etc. We read The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters by Balli Kaur Jaswal, so we are having take-out from an Indian restaurant, Tandoori Grill.
- Deal with what needs to be done at home before we go: return books to the library or renew them, pay bills that will be due before we come back, eat all the fruits and veggies in the fridge, drink the milk. I did already change the milk order.
Instead of cleaning the house, I'm trying to finish a couple more library books, so I can take them back to the library before we go (I took two back today). I read a really interesting graphic novel by Nora Krug about the guilt that modern Germans feel about Hitler. It's called Belonging in English, but the German title is Heimat -- which seems like it should be the English title too. Or else Homeland, but not Belonging, that seems like a strange choice. Anyway. It was very good and I recommend it.
Well, maybe this is enough for today. I won't make a weekly schedule, because it's such a complicated week, so many things to do. On the schedule for this weekend were cleaning the bathroom and vacuuming all the floors -- did any of that get done? No. So that's a bad sign, and I will just have to push myself harder. Knowing that diabetes and hyperparathyroidism cause fatigue does not help. Nor does my lifelong dislike of housework. I will just have to do my best. But now it is almost 5 pm and I'm kind of thinking about a nap. Maybe I should go for a walk instead. Or a nap first and then a walk? The wind is blowing something fierce, so it can't be a long walk. OK, maybe I'll lie down for just a few minutes and then we'll see.
It'll all get done, or enough will get done and we won't worry about the rest.
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