2009 August | A Mama's Blog

The Curse of Elmo

August 29, 2009 By A Mama's Blog 3 Comments

When Ryan was being potty trained, my sister bought him the DVD, Elmo’s Potty Time. It worked wonders- it was a dream come true. After watching the DVD, in a few days he was fully potty trained.

The second time around with Cole, I figured it would be a breeze. I already had trained one boy, how hard could potty training a second one be, especially when I had my secret weapon- Elmo, on my side?

Evidently, Elmo has a curse. He will only work his magic on one child. What is even worse, is he comes back to mock you. Elmo’s curse started like this:

Right after my cancer surgery I decided to potty train Cole. He had just turned 3, and we had been working with him off and on, but not on a regular basis. Since I was recovering at home, I thought it was the perfect time, and we’d have it down in a week or two.

I did all the other steps too, and Cole was doing pretty well, but he still had accidents. It was time to bring out the big gun- Elmo. Cole, like Ryan, loved the DVD. He was singing the songs, and one of his favorite songs is a song called Accidents Happen. The song’s theme is it’s okay to have accidents, and they happen while you are learning. One of the lyrics say, “accidents happen, and that’s okay.”

One day right after watching Elmo, Ryan called to me, “Mom, Cole went pee on playroom table.” I was in disbelief. He had NEVER done that before. He at least tried to make it to the potty before. When I got to the playroom, Ryan was right, and I had a three-year old grinning at me ear-to-ear. Our conversation:

ME: Cole, why did you pee on the table?

COLE: It was an accident.

ME: No, it wasn’t. You didn’t even try to make it to the potty. Remember Elmo- he tries to make it to the potty?

COLE: Accidents happen and that’s okay!

The curse of Elmo. Cole quotes that line now every time he has an “accident” that really isn’t one, and yes I know the difference. No matter what angle I approach it with Cole, I get the answer which is the curse: accidents happen and that’s okay!

Two months later, Cole is still having “accidents.” They are getting fewer and farther in between, and he stays dry for the entire night. During the day, he doesn’t want to stop what he is doing to go potty, and he has an “accident.” I am now making him stop every half hour, and that seems to be working better. We don’t watch the DVD anymore. Elmo’s curse is still alive and working here. Hopefully it won’t haunt us for the rest of our days.

If anyone has a suggestion on how to break Elmo’s curse, I’d love to hear it.

Filed Under: Cole, Mothering, Parenting Tagged With: accidents when potty training, Elmo's potty training DVD, potty training

Easy Tortilla Pizza & Caprese Salad

August 25, 2009 By A Mama's Blog 3 Comments

Taking a break from school and health updates, I am totally stealing my friend Amy’s (Crunchy Domestic Goddess), blog post, but adding another element to it.

Amy wrote a blog post today about a very fast and quick lunch idea that another one of our friends, Melissa (Nature Deva), passed on to her. It is tortilla pizza, and it is a brilliant recipe. I have been wanting to make pizza for a few days now, but have not been motivated to make the crust from scratch like I normally do. I hate the store bought dough- it doesn’t do pizza justice. I saw Amy’s blog post today and decided to make it for dinner.

This recipe calls for using tortillas for the crust. The “crust” came out crispy and light, and you can use whatever kind of tortilla you want. I love that I could make individual pizzas without a lot of extra work. Cole loves pizza and will eat any topping. Ryan doesn’t care for pizza, because he only likes pineapple as a topping and he does not like the tomato sauce. I make a special section of pizza for Ryan, but he always found that one mushroom, or stray topping and wouldn’t want to eat his pizza. This recipe solves that problem. An added plus was the boys liked helping me make the pizzas and got a kick out of making their own. Ryan wanted his pizza with very little tomato sauce, and topped with a little basil. Cole wanted his pizza with normal sauce but no basil, and I made mine topped with fresh basil.

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I also made a caprese salad for me, and it made the perfect size meal. We each ate only half of our pizzas, so we have lunch all ready for tomorrow! Thanks Melissa for the recipe, and thanks Amy for blogging it first.

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To make the pizza, place one tortilla on a cookie sheet. Prepare tomato sauce. (I make my own sauce using tomato sauce, garlic, dried oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste). Spread tomato sauce on the tortilla, and top with cheese. As Amy recommends, if you want to add some toppings, they should be cooked first, and you really don’t want to load up these pizzas with toppings, since the “crust” is very thin, and the cooking time is so fast.

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Place pizza under the broiler in the oven for about five minutes, but keep your eye on it, since it can cook very fast. (I put our pizzas on the bottom rack for a few minutes to make sure the tomato sauce got hot, and then put the pizza on the top rack. )

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That’s it for the pizza. To make the caprese salad, slice tomatoes (ones from your garden are best!) and drizzle extra virgin olive oil on them. Add salt and pepper. Then put a slice of the best mozzarella cheese you can afford on top of the tomato slices. Add fresh basil to the top. I drizzle more olive oil on top, and then let it sit for at least 10 minutes to let the flavors absorb.

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Enjoy these fast, healthy, and kid friendly recipes. Amy has some other ideas and pictures for these pizzas, and you can read her post here.

Filed Under: Cole, Cooking, Health, Mothering, Ryan Tagged With: caprese salad recipe, easy meals, easy pizza, kid friendly meals, pizza recipe, tortilla pizza recipe

Thyroid Cancer- Body Scan Results

August 21, 2009 By A Mama's Blog 7 Comments

I received the results to my full body scan on Wednesday- and it is very positive. My doctor said the scan was clear- the only place cancer cells were still showing up at, were in my neck. But she said this was expected because surgery alone can’t remove every cancer cell. She said the radioactive iodine will continue to work over the next few weeks, and I will have another blood draw in about a month to measure my thyroglobulin level.

The thyroglobulin level measures cancerous thyroid tissue in the body. For someone who doesn’t have thyroid cancer, that level will be at zero. Before my surgery my level was at 38! My surgeon said that was very high, and he said it was unusual for the level to be that high. That translated into I had a lot of cancerous thyroid tissue. Yesterday the doctor told me what my level is now, just taking the surgery into account, and it is down to 4! She said it was rare that the thyroglobulin level drops that much just from the surgery. She said the surgeon did a remarkable and thorough surgery.

So in a month, when I have the level tested again, it will be after the radioactive iodine has had a chance to work so the thyroglobulin level should be even lower. My doctor said everything else looked great- there was no traces of any cancer elsewhere in my body.

For now, I can take a deep breath and relax a bit. I am pretty much cancer free, and have an excellent prognosis of remaining cancer free. It seems a bit surreal, but I’ll take it. I still have to have my thyroid replacement hormone dosage tested in a few weeks, and twice a year check-ups to make sure the cancer hasn’t returned. My shoulder is still recovering from the surgery, but I am through the worst part of it, and am so happy the prognosis is so positive. I couldn’t have asked for better news.

Thanks once more for all the support, prayers, kind comments and e-mails, well-wishes, and love. I wouldn’t have made it this far without them. Again, thank you to all my family and friends, who put their lives on hold to help me during these last few months. I am looking forward to getting my life back to normal, and celebrating with all my family and friends in the coming months.

One of these celebrations will be very special. I never thought by sharing my experience on my blog, it would lead another mom to me who underwent thyroid cancer surgery the same day as I did, who had the same recovery time, who underwent radioactive iodine treatment at the same time, who lives about an hour away from me, and who has also been given a clean bill of health. This is my cancer-fighting partner in crime, and we are finally going to be meeting each other soon, and celebrating that we helped each other beat cancer.

This weekend the boys and I are going camping with my family- grandparents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The last time we were all together was when I was in the hospital during my surgery. It will be great to put that chapter behind us, and and start a new one- cancer free.

Filed Under: Cancer, Family & Friends, Health Tagged With: beating cancer, family support while battling cancer, friends support during cancer, recovering after cancer, thyroglobulin, thyroid cancer, thyroidectomy

The First Day of Kindergarten

August 19, 2009 By A Mama's Blog 1 Comment

It doesn’t seem possible that, this day is here already- Ryan’s first day of school. How did five and a half years pass so quickly?

Ryan was so excited to start school. He has been asking everyday when school starts. The other day he said he wished he could stay home and play with Cole, but he had to go to school. He said it in such a grown up voice. Yesterday he was sitting at the kitchen table with his backpack on. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was practicing riding the bus to school.

We went yesterday to meet his teacher, and Ryan got to sit at his desk, and get a feel for the classroom. He is going to school two and a half days a week, and there are 19 children in his class. His teacher, Mrs. G., seemed wonderful, and was very organized. All the children seemed nice, and I am positive Ryan will have a great year.

From the day Ryan was born, I wanted him to be confident, and happy when new experiences arise. I was painfully shy as a child, and the first day of school every year filled me with dread and anxiety. So I am very happy Ryan was so excited and confident to take this next step.

But as a mother, it is bittersweet. This is my baby and starting school is a very real reminder that, well- he isn’t a baby anymore, and never will be again. I knew this day was coming, but yet- it still seemed very far off- other people’s children grow up and go to school. There is a part of me that wished Ryan (and Cole) could stay little forever- there is nothing in the world like a baby. If you are a parent, you know what I am describing.

But every milestone your baby reaches, brings them closer to this day- the day they go off to school and start their life more independent from you. When Ryan was born, a friend gave me a book- mediatations for new mothers. In those early days, as I sat for hours rocking and nursing him, this passage stuck in my mind- for every milestone Ryan took as a baby, and today:

“Yes, it hurts when buds burst, there is pain when something

grows.”–Karin Boye

I shed tears of joy when Alexander first crawled across the

floor. I clapped and cheered. Moments later, I realized that life

with him would never be the same. His baby days were over, he would

soon be a toddler. Then I cried again as a sense of loss washed

over me.

We provide support and encouragement for our little ones. we

help them learn to crawl, to walk, and to stand. Yet, with every

accomplishment, there is a twinge of sadness. Maybe our children no

longer need us? They do need us, but they must keep growing,

developing, changing.

(From Meditations for New Mothers by Beth Wilson Saavedra)

Ryan waved good-bye to us as he walked into the school- not with me, or his dad, but by himself, following Mrs. G., I silently said good-bye to my baby, and hello to a confident, independent little boy. This is the way it is supposed to be, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Here are a few pictures from the last five and half years:

Ryan in Feb. 2004- he was just barely a month old Ryan February Batch 004

First day of pre-school- Sept. 2008 008

Yesterday, at Meet the Teacher 008

Cole says good-bye to his big brother 019

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First day of kindergarten- Aug. 2009

Filed Under: Activities, Cole, Family & Friends, Mothering, Parenting, Ryan, School Tagged With: children growing up, first day of kindergarten, first day of school, School

Thyroid Cancer- Tired

August 14, 2009 By A Mama's Blog 4 Comments

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I have been on synthroid and cytomel for just over a week, and I am feeling so much better! I feel like I am in my thirties again- not my nineties. I know I am not back to my “old self,” yet, but I wonder if there is such a thing.

I don’t think mentally, I will ever be back to my “old self.” What I mean by that is, I don’t think I can ever go back to that time before I had cancer- that time was an innocence. I didn’t have to think about being sick. I didn’t have to worry about how my boys were handling my cancer. I didn’t have to think about taking medication the moment I woke up every morning. I didn’t have to worry about doctors, lost time at work, on-going medical and health care, medical bills, insurance denials for some of the care I need, and the one worry that will always be in the back of my mind- what if the cancer comes back?

I had my full body scan today. They look to see if there is any remaining thyroid tissue in your body- to see how effective the radioactive iodine treatment (RAI) was. If there is no remaining thyroid tissue, then I will be essentially “cancer free.” If there is remaining thyroid tissue, I believe I will be given another dose of RAI.

Right before my surgery, I had a PET scan to see if the cancer had spread to any other areas in my body. Fortunately, it had not. But I don’t like being scanned. The machines make me claustrophobic. The machine today, looked more spacious than the PET scan machine, but after they started the machine lifted me up, and there was a screen just millimeters away from my face. I started feeling very panicked, and almost called the technician over to stop. But I closed my eyes, and just tried to imagine myself somewhere else.

It worked, and I calmed down after a few minutes. Then, after about fifteen minutes, the screen moved away from my face. As I was lying there with my eyes closed, it just hit me how tired I am of all of this. Before being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, I was so healthy! I would catch a few colds every year, but that was it. It kind of just hit me, that this was my future. Ultrasounds, scans, and blood work.

I am very grateful and happy most days that the cancer I have is so treatable, and basically curable. When I was first diagnosed with thyroid cancer, every medical person told me if I had to have cancer, this was the kind to have. I thought it was no big deal- I’d have the surgery and move on.

Cancer is cancer, and no matter which kind you have, it is still a major intrusion and interruption into your life, and the lives of your family. There are side affects, mentally, physically, and emotionally for not just the patient, but for everyone in their circle. There is no such thing as a “good cancer” or a “better cancer” to have.

Two months ago, I wouldn’t have written this blog post. I would have been trying to stay “happy” and “positive.” While I still feel I have a very positive attitude overall, some days are hard, exhausting, scary, lonely, and isolating. For me, it is important acknowledge this and to mourn the loss of the care-free health that I had previously. I believe it is okay to feel this way at times, and more importantly it is healthy to allow yourself these feelings.

Every day is getting better, and I hope to have the results of the scan early next week. If I am declared “cancer free”, then that is it for now- other than having my synthroid medication adjusted. I will have to go in every six months for an ultrasound and blood work to watch for any signs of reoccurrence. I am starting to picture my life in six month blocks. Six months where I don’t have to take it one day at a time. Six months means I can make plans and start living life again.

Six months- I know that is a gift, and a gift I will gladly take. There is a saying, you don’t get a rainbow without rain, and I find that very true for cancer patients and survivors. For every rainbow you receive, you’ve endured a lot of rain. I am tired of the rain, and am looking forward to the rainbows.