I walked into the doctor’s office (7th floor of Mass General), and said to the secretary (with four people right behind me in the waiting chairs), “Hello, I’m here for a shot in the butt.”   And the secretary said “Ah, you must be Robin!”

I swear to god I said that.  Ask my mom.  :)   Megan didn’t believe me!   My mom said that in my medical chart it probably says “smart ass.”

I got the shot in the right cheek, and Dr. Ross said “I just need to see the top portion of your crack so I know that I’m actually doing it into your butt.”  Except I’m not sure he used the word butt.  But I felt a little silly about pulling my underwear/pants down, but I just pressed on!  The shot burned a bit, and I felt a bit nauseated walking into the hallway, but it quickly passed.

I totally should have asked my mom to take a picture with my phone for my blog.  I had my pants mostly up, so it wouldn’t have been totally inappropriate.  I have another shot tomorrow, but I’m going by myself, so I won’t have anyone to take the picture. Curses!

Tomorrow will hopefully be the left cheek.  Perhaps I will greet them with “Hello, I’m here for another shot in the butt.”

Friday afternoon Beers For Good went down to the local am radio station to record an ad for our brew fest. When I get the finished product, I’ll see if I can post it. It was a lot of fun, and made us (me, at least) feel very professional.

Tomorrow starts my week of cancer treatment at Mass General in Boston. Tomorrow and Tuesday I have to go into Boston to get a shot in the butt (insert inappropriate joke here).
I have to go into Boston just to get a shot! One tomorrow and one Tuesday. The shots each cost $2,000, so they are *special* cancer shots.

This week consists of:
Monday - Shot in the butt
Tuesday - Shot in the other cheek
Wednesday - Drink small amount of radiation. Meet with ladies from Hospice center in Waltham to confirm internship!
Thursday - No Boston! Two meetings in Fitchburg, both at Destare (I can’t get awayf rom that place!)
Friday - Whole Body Scan (WBS) which tests to see if there are any thyroid cells still in my body

Friday night - Fancy dinner to celebrate being done with my diet! (unless there ARE thyroid cells, then that’s a whole other story)

Wish me luck! Anyone in Boston wanna hang out any day? Let me know!

I weighed myself this morning, and I’m exactly at 130.  I haven’t lost nor gained any weight.

I’ve been eating TONS of carbs, and also a lot of beef (both burgers and sloppy joes).  It’s weird to go from a month and a half of eating no meat to eating meat every single day.  As soon as I’m done this diet, I will be back to eating no meat.  Sure, I like hamburgers.  Veggie burgers are just as good as long as the condiments are loaded up.  Veggie burgers aren’t juicy, but that’s ok.  I also can’t have anything made of soy, so that keeps me away from my usual vegetarian stuff.

I’m surprised with all the carbs that I actually haven’t gained any weight.  But this diet is very good at keeping me away from chocolate and other sweet or salty snacks.

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day because it doesn’t require any thinking on my part.  I have delicious toast with raspberry jam.  It is delicious.  I have two slices, and if I’m feeling extra crazy, then I also have egg whites for a little protein.

Other meals I’ve had:

French toast (for lunch, not breakfast - too much sugar for breakfast)
Pasta with garlic, basil, and cherry tomatoes
Pasta with Chicken Scampi and garlic bread
Pasta with cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and summer squash
Pasta y Fagioli soup (it was bad - I don’t want to talk about it)
Sloppy Joes
Hamburgers
Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Egg sandwich (toast with margarine, with broccoli and egg whites)
Frosted Mini Wheats with almond milk (that Jay made me!)

I got to eat chocolate for dessert tonight.  I had a Chocolate Brownie bar from Pure.

I was able to eat it because the ingredients are:  Organic Dates, Organic Walnuts, Organic Agave Nectar, Organic Almonds, Organic Cashews, Organic Brown Rice Protein, Organic Cocoa.

There’s no dairy, so the bar is completely vegan.

Very happy that someone told me about these.  It was nice to have a little chocolate treat, and I didn’t even eat the whole thing!

To prepare for my diet, I brought one of our bread machines to Jay’s house (we own two thanks to FreeCycle). I made bread for day 1 of my diet, and then we made shrimp scampi as my last meal (I can’t have sea food). It needed more flavor, so it’s a recipe we will have to work on.

This morning, I put a piece of bread in the toaster and burnt it and set the fire detector off. Not a great way to start my diet.

Reading other people’s experience on their low iodine diets, it seems that there is a constant theme of weight loss.  From what I’ve read, the least someone commented on losing was 4-5 pounds, and the most was around 15.

This is a diet that I’m going to be on for three weeks.

I’m allowed to have:

•Fruits
• Vegetables
• Unsalted nuts and unsalted nut butters.
• Whites of eggs.
• Fresh meats up to 6 ounces a day.
• Grain and cereal products up to 4 servings per day
• Pasta, provided it has no high-iodine ingredients.
• Sugar, jelly, jam, honey, maple syrup.
• Black pepper, fresh or dried herbs and spices.
• Oils. All vegetable oils, including soy oil.
• Sodas, non-instant coffee, non-instant tea
• Beer, wine, other alcoholic beverages, lemonade, fruit juices.

Basically, I can eat fresh (not canned) fruits and vegetables, pasta, homemade bread, and egg whites.  That’s about it.  No wonder I’m going to lose weight!

Last year, I had a hard time with meals, and simply snacked on things.  It was awful.  That’s unsalted almonds, baby carrots, grapes, and celery with unsalted peanut butter and raisins.  That was my lunch one day.  That isn’t lunch!

And so, the question I’m posing to you is:  How much weight will I lose?  I currently weigh 130 pounds.  I am NOT doing this diet to lose weight (not at all - I plan on eating a TON!), but it seems like it is an added side effect.

Anyone want to make any guesses?

My low iodine diet starts on Monday.   Mom and I went to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods today to stock up on salt free items.  We found  salsa, tortilla chips, dried fruit and spaghetti sauce that was all salt free!  I also got Lara Bars as snacks because they are delicious and contain nothing but nuts and fruit.  We also bought Spectrum Shortening so we can make pies that I can eat (I can’t eat regular Crisco -  Spectrum makes theirs with palm oil).  We got two of everything at Trader Joe’s.  I’m going away for the weekend with Jay* and his friends to Cape Cod, and I’ll be on my diet.  This way, I can bring tortilla chips and salsa as a snack, and spaghetti sauce if I get stuck for something to eat for dinner (I’m allowed to eat pasta).

We also bought eight bottles of wine (four for me, four for mom), and a six pack of beer for dad.  We spend around $90!  And by “we”  I mean “mom.”  But I’m very happy about the food we bought, even though this diet is still going to suck.  I’ve been spending lots of time at Jay’s house, so I plan on bringing one of my bread machines there so I always can have fresh bread there.

* Jay is the new guy I’m dating.  We started dating back in September, and then we stopped hanging out, and then we got back together in February.  He lives in Leominster, enjoys doing things outdoors (hiking, mountain biking, snow shoeing, snow boarding, etc.), and he makes me laugh.  Sometimes he calls me “Robo.”  He does not, however, understand my love for Honey Bunches of Oats.  But he’s cooked me dinner, and has let me drive his precious car.   I hope that covers it.

My practicum went really well.  I was there from 9am - 1pm.  We saw two clients for a whole intake assessment (50 minutes), and then another patient of my supervisor’s stopped in for a few minutes to chat about starting counseling again.  I just sat there the whole time, and observed.  I need to understand and watch the practice first, and then I’ll be able to do it myself!  I have to audio record myself in these sessions, and I need people who will allow me to record them.  That might be pretty tricky, and I hope I don’t have problems with it. But I only need to have three sessions recorded.  I need the first one by mid March.

I can’t go back tomorrow, because I have to babysit at 10:30 until 3ish (yay money!)  Unfortunately, my supervisor is going to Aruba on Thursday, and won’t be back until March 2nd.  I’ll have just under two weeks to get my first recording.  I can definitely do that!

After I was done at 1pm, I went home and had lunch.  Then, I went out to run some errands. I went to the Salvation Army, and didn’t find anything that looked good. Then I went to Michaels and I finally bought my yarn and needles for my afghan.  I bought size 50 needles, and the largest ones I have ever used in the past are size 13!

Here’s a picture of me with three sets of needles.  The blue ones are size 8 that were the first ones that I ever knit with (I made a scarf).  The pink ones are the biggest I’ve used in the past, and the huge red ones are the ones I just bought.  They’re called “Speed Stix.”  They’re so large that it makes knitting go faster.  But the afghan will probably be holey. But I think that’s what makes it an afghan.

I’m so excited to get started!  I have eight skeins of yarn that I have to roll into balls (it makes it easier to knit with).  The total of all my stuff came to $43 (I bought a cute pack of note cards for $1 - they have an ‘R’ on them and they’re blank inside).  I had a gift card that I got from Dylan for Christmas, and I figured I’d just front the rest in cash.  After the gift card went through, I only owed $3!!!  Dylan had gotten me a $40 gift card!!!   I called him to thank him, and told him I was able to buy everything with the card. Yay Dylan!

I stopped at the library and picked up 5 books.  One of them is Angels and Demons, which I want to read before the movie comes out in May.  I’ve heard from many people that it’s much better than the DaVinci Code. I think the other four are all memoirs.  I’ve like to read memoirs lately.

On to dinner!  I used the Sloppy Joes recipe that I got from the Low Iodine Cookbook.  My mom and I both give it 5/5 stars.  It is SOOO delicious.  Absolutely amazing.  I ate it on one hamburger bun, open faced, and doubled up on my meat.  It was so messy!

Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef or turkey or Quorn (beef only for LID)
1 small chopped onion
1 small chopped green bell pepper (cut really small)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup ketchup (to make it LID compatible, use no salt ketchup)
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Combine first three ingredients in large skillet. Cook until meat is browned, stirring to crumble, scoop the fatty water out of the pan with a spoon.
Add rest of ingredients to skillet and mix. Simmer 15 minutes.
Serves 4-5.

You know how good it was?  It was so good, I licked my plate clean.

Megan and I have a history of licking our plates, especially if there is pie involved.  I’ve gotten in the bad habbit of doing it even when there is no pie involved.  I physically had the plate up to my face, licking it with my tongue.  I was in the middle of talking to my mom, and she didn’t even flinch.  I think she’s used to it, too.

I would like to try to eat less meat.

I don’t eat red meat all that often.  Hamburgers only, and usually only in the summer when we grill them outside.  I don’t like steak or ribs (ribs are ok) and we don’t eat pork.  But I eat chicken a lot.  This week alone here’s been my dinner the last few nights:

Tuesday - Oven crisped chicken with mashed potatoes and peas
Wednesday - Walnut and pineapple stirfry (with chicken and broccoli) and rice
Thursday - whole grain pasta with zucchini and summer squash and left over chicken that wasn’t used on Wednesday night.
Friday (lunch) - more pasta with chicken and zucchini, squash, and lots of added broccoli

That’s a lot of chicken.  For dinner Friday night, my dad and I went over to Larry’s house.  He doesn’t eat meat (vegetarian for 12 years!), but eats a lot of fish.  He made us a salmon, rice and spinach casserole.  It was pretty simple, but good.  Not too much flavor.  Tonight, we’re having vegetarian lasagna.  My mom asked if I wanted to add sausage to it, and I said no thanks (I used to only eat it if it had sausage).

Because this is a new found thing, and neither my parents nor myself are much of a cook, I’m kind of stuck at what I can possibly eat without meat, and also without having some sort of pasta dish every night.  I really like eggplant parmesan, and I make it sans any kind of pasta.  Megan also introduced me to Quorn, which I found pretty good.  We made Quorn sloppy joe’s, with my recipe from my LID cookbook.  I’d like to eat more salmon, maybe two times a week, and maybe either prepare it different ways, or change up the dishes we have with it.  My dad used to make homemade pizza a lot, but hasn’t in years.  I was never a big fan, but I’d like to try it again. I’ve made a really good chicken pot pie lately, and I plan on making it sometime this week sans chicken.  I figure I can just add more vegetables or some potatoes.  I’m sure it’ll still be just as good.  I’m also interested in making a potato soup.  I’ve had one at Panera, and it was similar to New England Clam Chowder, which I love.  But I would make it without ham.

I know that I can be eating other grains like cous cous or quinoa…. but I don’t have any good recipes.  That’s my biggest problem, I need recipes.  I like seeing pictures of the food so I know what it looks like (that’s how I judge if I think I’ll like it or not - judging a book by its cover? Yes).  I use allrecipes.com, because it has recipes that people have rated, and the people who make it even submit their own photographs of it after they’ve made.

I’m not against eating tofu or other kinds of fake meat (like tofu dogs, or veggie sausages), and I actually found a recipe for a veggie sausage casserole that looks really good.  At Pat and Nora’s Yankee Swap party, she made tofu dog pigs in a blanket for a friend of their’s that is vegan, and they were very good.  I’m not sure what kind of quality food you can make with tofu dogs (or quality food with hot dogs, for that matter - but don’t get me wrong, I love a good steamed hot dog!), but I’ll look into tofu something.

Megan said that I just need to get some vegetarian cookbooks and start looking for recipes that look appealing.  Yesterday I went through all of my old Redbook and Good Housekeeping magazines and tore out anything that was interesting before I recycled them.  All of the recipes that looked good were meat based.  That’s pretty frustrating.  Some were fish, but most were chicken or pork.  And they were weird fish like grouper, or were shrimp (and mom doesn’t like shrimp - but dad does!)

And so I’m asking - Do you have any good vegetarian recipes?

Megan - Could you and Mac start taking pictures of your food and send it to me?  You could do a mini food blog for me!

This is my song for 2008 - It’s called A Drop Filled With Memories (how appropriate!) and it’s from the movie Paprika.  Feel free to listen to it while you read my long post.  (Megan, don’t listen, it’s that song you don’t like).

2008 was a crazy, crazy year.  Absolutely insane.  Let’s review all I’ve been through.

I rang in New Year’s 2008 at Destare.  I came back from medical leave early so I could work. It was a lot of fun, but I teared up at midnight cause Steve was home alone, and I couldn’t spend it with him.  He spent the night playing World of Warcraft.

January 2nd - I had surgery on December 17th, and went to get my results from the endocrinologist and found out that the tumor on my thyroid was cancerous.  Not only was it cancer, but it was follicular cancer, rather than the more common papillary thyroid cancer.  Follicular is a more extreme of cancer, and tends to spread throughout the body while papillary always stays in the neck.  The reason they couldn’t be 100% sure about the cancer from the needle biopsy was because it was follicular, and that one they can’t tell just from a biopsy.  I needed to have another surgery, and I was only two weeks post-op from the first. Seriously, I find out I have cancer on the second day of the year?  That’s not a good start.

March 3rd - Surgery number 2.  I wasn’t really worried about this one (cause I had already done it once), but this surgery was scheduled in the middle of school.  I had to miss only one class, I think because I was still in the hospital when class met (Surgery was always on Monday, and I stayed over night until Tuesday).  For this surgery, I got out, and they put me in the recovery room, but my room upstairs wasn’t ready, so I had to stay in the recovery room all afternoon.  I got out of the OR at 11, and didn’t go up to my room until 5.  I was on morphine which was awesome, but they wouldn’t give me any water, only ice chips.  People in recovery kept getting X-Rayed, so they kept throwing a lead vest on top of me.  I think it happened about 6 times.  If I didn’t have cancer before, I most definitely had it after that. My parents kept coming in and out of the room, but for privacy reasons, they couldn’t stay.  My mom brought me my book and I was reading.  I was most definitely ready to have my own room.  I finally got upstairs and I had my own private room!  I was also really alert and able to hang out with my parents cause I was doped up.  In the middle of the night when the morphine was worn off was when the pain finally hit. I was awake on and off all night, and Steve spent the night on the floor to keep me company.  He kept having to help me move or adjust, or go to the bathroom (I had an IV in, and had to work around that to go to the bathroom).  Notice the awesome pen marks on my ear and neck in the bottom picture.  That is to say “CUT HERE”  and “THIS SIDE.”

Sometime in March - I was really really stressed out and sad.  I broke up with Steve because I felt like I couldn’t deal with anything anymore.

May - Radioactive Girl!  I had to go on a crazy low iodine diet for three weeks, and then go into Boston and get a mini dose of radiation, and then two days later, a major dose of radiation!  It was mixed with strawberry Kool-Aid. Yum.  Any of you ever been tested with a Geiger counter before?

Senator Kennedy was at Mass General the same day that I had my radiation.  I had two appointments scheduled.  I got my whole body scan (me lying down) at 12, and then didn’t go get my radiation until 2pm.  Between those times, we came downstairs to the lobby of the Wang building at MGH (that’s where all my appointments were).  Senator Kennedy was being released just as we were in the lobby.  We got to see him walk out of the hospital, and everyone in the lobby stood and clapped for him.  Here’s my dad live on CNN that day, his twin brother happened to be watching it live on CNN in Ohio, and hit record on his Tivo.  Then, he called my dad, and said:

“Uh, are you at some hospital in Boston?”
“yeah, Robin has her radiation today.”
“Are you wearing jeans and a blue shirt?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“You were just live on CNN!!!”

My dad was also on the cover of the NY Times the next day.

The reason I was having such a hard time with the diet was because I was just picking at food and not eating real meals.  I finally was able to change that after a few days, but here is what I would have for lunch:

After receiving the radiation at the hospital, I had to then come immediately home and be isolated from my family for three whole days.  It was crazy!  I was having trouble sleeping because I was off my medicine, so I had to hang a blanket over my window so it would get completely dark in my room.  I also had my laptop, my pile of books, and my remotes!  Bill let me borrow 30 Rock, which was awesome because I had never seen it before.  This was the first day I was allowed to be off my diet, so I’m enjoying my first bowl of cereal in 3 weeks.  I was so excited about it, I had to take a picture (on timer mode, cause I had to be alone).

July 2 - Turned 24.  Pretty uneventful.  But I went out with friends! (Jeanne, Bill, and Paul)

July 6th - I went to the Boulder with Amy cause her friend Kyle was playing in the band.  It was the last night of the Longsjo, and I met Emiliano! (he’s the one in the yellow and green all the way to the left)

I was sitting on the curb with Amy (the band was playing in the blocked off street), and these guys come walking up to the bar.  One of the Lonsjo volunteers says “Oh, these are guys who raced today!  They’re on one of the best teams”.  I looked up, and I noticed one of the guys had bright yellow socks with weird red suns on them.  I recognized the socks as the state flag of New Mexico, because I used to live there.  I jumped up from my seat, and ran up to him and the convo went like this:

“I’m sorry… are your socks the state flag of New Mexico?”
“Yeah, that’s where our racing team is from!”
“I used to live there!”

“what part?”
“Santa Fe”
“That’s where I’m from!”
“No way!”
“Ok, I’m going to go grab a beer, and I’ll catch up with you later.”

So then I went to sit down, and the older gentlemen who were sitting near us said to me, “Wow, you don’t waste any time, huh?”  He found me later, and we hung out all night, and I just knew that he was this cool guy that I HAD to get a picture taken with, so I ran to my car and grabbed my camera to get some pictures before I left.  He had busted up his hand pretty badly in the race earlier in the day (notice the awesome wrap job).  Emiliano and I have become great friends, and he does my blog for me.  He doesn’t write it, but he does everything else.  Check out his awesome web design site, Pushing Buttons.  Go to him for all your web design needs!

July 25th - X-Files: I Want To Believe came out.  I had waited 6 years for this movie, and Bill and I went down to a midnight showing in Marlborough (a 45 minute drive). I brought my action figures with me.  I was so excited, that we kept having to re-take this picture because my smile was so big I looked like an idiot.

July 27th - Dad and I get caught in the rain while running.  We knew there was a huge storm coming, but I wanted to go for a run anyway.  We were almost done when it started down pouring.  I had my mom take the picture, because I think it shows our dedication.

July 28th - Megan and Mac came home to prepare for their wedding!  They didn’t do so much preparing, as much as they did lollygagging around and picking berries with me.  I love picking berries.

August 3rd -  Megan gets married! Mac and his parents fly in from England, and we have a great time!

At the wedding (and during the receptions) Sally and I went a little crazy, and took hundreds (literally, hundreds) of pictures of us goofing around.

August 13 - 26 - I fly out to New Mexico and hang out with Emiliano for two weeks.  We went hiking, hung out in Santa Fe, cooked a lot, took artsy photographs, watched a LOT of Weeds, and I got Strep throat, and had to go to the ER.  It was an all around great trip.  I got a little really homesick for Megan, and felt bad that she was in the US, but I wasn’t with her.  I think I got a little cranky and sad because of that, but Emiliano put up with me!  To apologize, I will include this picture (on the left), because it is his favorite, and it makes me look like an idiot.  He kept scratching this one spot on my back (scratching it in just one place, so the spot would get raw), and it was driving me insane.  I was still getting over being sick (I spent about 2 full days in bed), and I was very irritable.  This is him driving me insane on purpose so he could take a funny picture.  He looks very pleased with himself.  But seriously, Emiliano, tell them how sick I was!!!  I was incredibly sick.  His step mom was giving me Vicodin to make me feel better.  It rocked.

Emiliano was also kind enough to go on a horribly long car ride with me to Roswell, NM, home of the infamous 1946 UFO crash!  Everything was UFO themed, it was awesome.  We even went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center.  Pretty interesting stuff, definitely worth the 3 hour long ride.  This was also my very first blog post!!!  (I had backdated other cancer related stuff - but the Roswell post was the first, cause that’s when Emiliano set up my blog!)

August 27th - I flew back from New Mexico on the 26th, and the very next day, we flew out to England for Megan’s wedding party over there.  It wasn’t too bad, cause all my luggage was already packed!  I just had to grab fancy stuff for her party.  We had a lot of fun, but we weren’t there for long enough!

September- I got a pedometer, and went a little crazy.  Such as the time when I jogged in place for 2.5 miles to get to 10,000 steps.  I still wear it religiously every day, but I’m only at 4388 now (at 8:45pm), and there’s no way I’m jogging in place for 2.5 miles tonight.

October 1 - 31 - Buy Nothing Month!  It was awesome, and I’m going to do it again this month. (I bought a new laptop September 28th, only days before BNM started)

October 4th - I ran my first 5k!  (I haven’t seen that recycling shirt in a few months.  Uh oh.  That’s why I have to clean my room!!!)

October - I started picking up trash around Fitchburg.  I did this many more times, but I had to stop cause it’s too cold out and there’s snow everywhere.  Niles and I will commence in the spring.  I will try to get more people involved, and to expand the area where we work.  I think we should have T-Shirts made.  Here’s me and Niles celebrating our trash accomplishments:

November - Started to get fed up with Destare.  Started back at Macy*s for the holidays.  Thanksgiving with family friends.  I met with the Brew Year’s Eve crew twice a week to plan BYE.  We decided on our production company name, Beers For Good, and started our own website.  From August through November, I get sick for one week every single month.  It started with Strep in Santa Fe, and continued.  I am immuno-compromised.

December -  More planning of BYE.

Quit Destare.

Huge ice storm hit North Central Mass, and we lost power and heat for 11 days.

I got a 4.0 in my class this semester, leaving me with a cumulative GPA of 3.93.  I have only one class left.  w00t!  (this portion added for Megan).

Megan came home for Christmas.  We got walloped with two ice storms - 18 inches total in 72 hours.  She loved it.

Dec. 31st - Brew Year’s Eve!  It went great, and we had tons of fun.

That’s it.  2008 in a nutshell.

I clearly lost steam after October.  I figured that because I started blogging in September, I only needed to update peeps on the things that happened before then.  Plus, that’s when all the important stuff happened.  But if you want to learn more, read my friggen blog.

I am done.  This post took me 3 hours to write!  It was all the pictures that were slowing me down… but I think they’re great!

I realize this wasn’t a review.  It was a synopsis.  Here’s my review of 2008:  it sucked. Too many bad things happened.  Sure, there were good parts, but there were also not good parts, and I think the effect the bad parts had on me out weighs the good parts.  Disagree?  Too bad.

Questions?  Comments?  Leave ‘em.