The MOVE: Chris and I left the kids on Sunday and got back to the rental house that night. We went to bed knowing that we needed to rest up for a BUSY week of packing and moving. And BUSY it was! While Chris was at work, I got the rest of the house packed up and he helped me in the evenings when he got home. It was easier in some ways than our last move because a lot of our stuff was already in boxes. We started piling packed boxes in the garage to be ready for the movers and make room for packing empty boxes. It was harder in other ways though, because we only had less than a week with both houses instead of nearly 2 weeks! Plus we had to go back after we moved out and get everything clean for the next tenant!
Closing was on Tuesday the 23rd around lunchtime and we took 2 carloads over to the new house afterwards to get started! Then Chris helped me get a couple more carloads loaded up to take over later. The rest of the week we worked on packing up the rental house and getting everything ready for the movers to come on Friday. They came (late, of course!) and had 2 trucks and 4 guys to get all of our stuff!
The movers worked late into the afternoon getting everything unloaded and put together. We were so exhausted after all that but so thankful to be in our new house!
Boxes everywhere!
That Saturday we worked like crazy trying to get everything put away and set up before the kids came back that night. I especially wanted their rooms done since I knew we could work on the other rooms while they were sleeping. Plus we needed to set up the guest room for Chris’ parents who were staying the night when they brought the kids back.
We were VERY excited to see the kids and it was fun to see what they thought of their new rooms. Caroline loved her new purple room and Luke liked his new big boy beds.
Luke did great sleeping in the twin bed with the rail – we were worried he’d try to get out in the night or after he woke up in the morning, but we talked to him about it and he seemed to get it and did great!
Caroline loved our new backyard and couldn’t wait to climb the trees:
It was so fun to have them back but we were SO tired and there was still SO much to do!! Little did we know that 4 days later, I would have to take my RAI pill and be gone from the kids again!
The PILL:
I tried really hard (meaning I stuck very strictly to my low-iodine diet) to get my thyroid levels (TSH) down so that I could take my radioactive iodine pill during our move while the kids were gone. Because I couldn’t be around people for a few days and children for a week, we thought it’d be best to take it while they were gone anyway. But, my levels weren’t at the right place before the move so I had to get them checked again the Monday after. I had been feeling fine, just normal tired from moving, but Sunday it hit me! I could hardly get out of bed but I’m so task-oriented (and OCD) that I just had to get up and unpack more. I could tell my levels were up and the nurse called me Tuesday morning and said that my TSH was in the 160s! The goal was 50 so I was WAY higher than I needed to be and really needed to take the pill right away. The hospital no longer gives them on Thursdays or Fridays like I had hoped, so I had to do it the NEXT day (Wednesday). So we had to quickly arrange child care for the next 2 days until Chris could take off work on Friday and help over the weekend. Chris’ mom was so sweet to come the next morning, then my parents came Sunday and stayed the rest of the time during my “radioactive” period.
I went to the hospital to take the RAI pill on Wednesday morning – I wore my Joy Wonder shirt because you never know if you’ll be a superhero when you become radioactive!
They took me back to this small room with lots of Caution signs – it was a little intimidating and seemed so dangerous, but I knew it was for the best!
The pill was in a vial inside this lead container in a black bag and the nurse had to use tongs to get it out:
You mean I have to swallow this thing I can’t even touch?!
Anyway, the pill-taking was fine, but by that time I was SOOOO tired and couldn’t really do much more than drive home. Except home had to be our old empty house that we were waiting to rent out. Chris had helped me load up a mattress and a table & chairs the night before so I could go straight to our old house and get set up. It was all I could do to make up my little bed on the floor and go to sleep! I was so cold (that’s part of being hypothyroid too) and tired that I took a long nap. I felt some better afterwards but it was SO hard to get up! I just had no energy the next couple of days and my mind was so sluggish too that it was hard to read the books or work the puzzles I had brought with me. So I just did some online shopping on my phone. I didn’t feel nauseous or anything from the pill, for which I was thankful, and I sucked on sour candy every now and then to keep my salivary glands protected. Overall it wasn’t a bad experience other than the isolation and extreme fatigue!
Over the next few days, I tried to get out of the house and run errands when I had the energy and just tried to avoid people and long lines. I was SO ready to start taking my thyroid medicine again so I could get to feeling better. Little did I know that it would take a LONG time for that to happen!
That Sunday, I was able to be around adults again so I came back to the house while Chris and the kids were at church. I stayed in our room when they got home and came out during their nap to talk to Chris and get everything ready for my parents to come. They arrived just after nap time and we showed them around the house a bit before I had to go back to my room to get away from the kids. The next day the kids had their last gymnastics but since I couldn’t be that close to Luke to do the mommy & me class, my mom just stayed home with Luke and I took Caroline to her class and tried to not get too close to her for too long. Then by Tuesday I could be around the kids more and we took them to the library and to get Luke’s hair cut:
On Wednesday, I had to go back to the hospital for a full-body scan to make sure all the radiation went to my thyroid and not anywhere else! All looked normal so that was a relief; I’ll have another scan in 6 months and in 1 year.
My mom was a big help with the kids as well as helping me get things unpacked and decorated and hung on the wall! We got a lot done in the kids rooms while she was here and it all started to look more like home!
They love DeeDee & Grandaddy!
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