Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Blueberries and bumblebees

According to the Wall Street Journal science digest today, mice with triple negative breast tumors fed blueberry extract equivalent to 5 oz of blueberries a day, had their tumors shrink significantly vs controls. No proposed mechanism but a big warning that often cures in mice do not translate into cures in humans. But eating blueberries couldn't hurt.

What does hurt is not seeing that a bumblebee is crawling under your arm until it is too late. I push the bee off maiming it and Dakota narrowly escapes being stung in the mouth. Four hours later, the sting still hurts.

Nice cool, calm weather to run in this morning. Yesterday I did a double workout by going for a long walk in the arb in the afternoon after running in the morning. Lots of trees still in bloom along with the wood lilies and trilliums.

Fifteen years ago, I had my thyroid destroyed with radioactive iodine. Finding the ideal replacement dose has been difficult and all this competing medication for my broken arm and cancer has complicated getting the right dosage. Just when I thought everything was fine, my 'natural' thyroid replacement is no longer available. The FDA is cracking down on older natural products demanding all these bioequivalency studies and no company is willing to do them. So back to the synthetic stuff, which is not the active ingredient but a 'pro-drug' that the body turns into the right stuff. Some tissue is more efficient at this than others. Anyrate, my primary made a huge math mistake in finding the equivalent dose. I am taking what I used to take years ago. I had my blood tested today to see where I am at. I think I got the dose right but have to prove it to them before I am written a new script. Annoying.

It is so strange that so many women I know need Synthroid-most due to Hashimoto's, an autoimmune diesease that destroys the thyroid. I had Graves' Disease, similiar, but the antibodies overstimulate the thyroid.

Naomi and her dog spent most of the day here. So far, no blow ups. We watched some of those birthing baby shows together. She and Dontae will take one of those intensive one weekend class to learn what is going on. She asks such naive questions. I watched with interest that show "16 and Pregnant". Almost all the potential grandmoms were uneducated, single, teenage moms themselves. Not much for me to relate to but there you have it, I am there.Well I guess she isn't 16 (technically now an adult) but still has no idea what she is in for. It is all a pretty pink dream for her. Magical thinking. And her baby is quite easy to see moving around.
So how do I feel about this baby. There is some magical thinking on my part that all will be fine and maybe this won't turn into a huge mistake. I see that I will need to help her. I can't be this 'you made your bed, now lie in it' type of mom. Another life is at stake.

It is so dry here now. I was watering my rock garden, my creeping phlox all in bloom now, and 3 robins flew in to try to get some water and hopefully worms.

2 comments:

Teri Bernstein said...

Harriet Lerner wrote in one of her "Dance of xxx" books about her mom having some kind of cancer when she and her sister were teenagers. Harriet was the overachieving good girl, but her sister was acting out. Years later, her mom reflected that she "had to" get better, stay alive and disease free because the sister "needed her."

My magical thinking is that this will operate at a exponential level in your situation. As I believe you said: When this baby is 18, you will be 75!

Teri Bernstein said...

btw: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUE !!!!!
Thanks for sharing a great part of the last year with me on the trip and with all of us who follow your blog !

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