A Year and Change

It's been just over a year since Ryan and I made our return to the motherland. It's a weird milestone to come to, it's like experiencing the end of our trip all over again! For the past three months, on a daily basis I could think back and wonder what I was doing on any given day. Some days I would look back through my journal, trying to relive the sights, sounds and smells of the places we'd visited, relishing the memory of the twists and turns of travel that made it an often difficult lifestyle, yet one that truly changed my life. Our lives. I will always be grateful for my insatiable wanderlust that took me and my husband to thee continents, 14 countries, and gave me memories I couldn't dream up in a million sleeps. 

I know for certain that once we returned to the U. S. that our adventures didn't stop! Around this time last year, after we'd bought our first car, we were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Hurricane Sandy with Ryan's parents in New Jersey. That was an adventure in itself! 

We visited my family in Michigan, spent two frantic days apartment hunting in Chicago, managed to secure the apartment of my dreams, and the off we whisked ourselves to Virginia for Thanksgiving with Ryan's whole family! We returned to our heatless apartment, set up camp, and slowly but surely set up out new home. 

By the time Christmas rolled around, I remember feeling so lucky to be unpacking my Christmas decorations and putting up our tree in just the sort of place I'd imagined way back in July when I was packing all my belongings up in my New York apartment. It felt like I'd found my home. 

A little work, a little play

I didn't really think I'd have another chance to be back in Europe again so quickly, but here we are! So, I have to say how lucky I feel that Ryan likes to travel as much as I do now, AND that he has a good job that lets him travel for the time being. I've been joining him quite a bit, since I think there's only been one week out of the last two months that Ryan hasn't had to take a deposition. I've traveled with him to St. Louis, New York, Purdue in Indiana (it was his birthday week, but honestly that was the most underwhelming "trip" I've tagged along on) and now we are in Belgium for the week-just the perfect amount of whelm here!

We started playing with the idea of me coming along with Ryan to Belgium a month or so ago. I kind of knew it was a long shot, but originally he was supposed to be here for about a week and a half, and I wasn't quite keen to stay home alone that long, especially because it's only about a week now before my surgery, and since it's a source of anxiety, what better way to curb it than distracting myself with beer, frites, waffels, chocolate, humungous churches, cobbled streets...you know, the uge. :)

Does it surprise anyone that I LOVE it here? No, it doesn't really surprise me. We got in very, very early on Monday morning. Ryan's first dep wasn't until Tuesday, so the plan was to check in to this really adorable botique hotel down the winding streets from the Hilton in the town square (we were supposed to be booked there all week, but the secretary didn't get on the ball, and Justin Bieber and his enterage (you read that correctly) snatched up all the rooms at the Hilton for the first half of the week...damn you Beebs!) Anyway, turns out the De Witte Lelie was the perfect little place to set up shop for a few days. We were taken up the back staircase to a room at the top of the back of an old house, an attic room with slanted ceilings and a beautiful bathroom and giant bed that we feel into immediately following the long flight. It was divine!

I woke up feeling better around 1 pm, Ryan got to work prepping for his dep in our room and I went out to check out Antwerp. First up- frites. I wandered around the Old Town Square area, lined with reastraunts and people dining outside on the sidewalk (even though, I can't say it's quite WARM out yet!). The Church of Our Lady takes up almost the entire backdrop view from this square, which is beautiful and chimes out songs hourly. I sort of just started walking wherever my heart desired, which seems to be the best way ever to see Antwerp! I spent the day snapping photos, finding a frites (french fries, but they were actually invented here, so Belgium fries) in a paper cone, enjoying the views of the river, my mouth watering in chocolate shop windows.  I was still tired, so it was sort of all a bewitching kind of haze or delicious smells, tastes and views all around.  I walked for about 3-4 hours, returning to Ryan to see how things were going and get ready for dinner. The mission for dinner that night was mussles, another Belgian treat. Nailed it! Found a great restaurant that served many different flavored sauces with tons of mussels and the best tasting beer I've had in a LONG time.

A Mystery on the Move

When I was about 7, I began writing the Great American Novel. Sitting on my pink bedspread, I just knew I was creating a masterpiece. It was complete 7 year old babble about a girl taking a train and watching the telephone poles whiz by as she traveled from one place to another. I think it was a mystery, but I can't remember, and I am quite certain my ticket to superstar writerdom (that's not a word, and probably will disqualify me from ever becoming a writer with any merit!) was thrown away at some point by myself or my well meaning mother.

I haven't even thought about that story in oh, 25 years or so, but while taking the train back to Chicago, I've been looking out at the stale snowy roadsides and yards, and yes, watching the telephone poles swoosh by out my window. I don't think there's a mystery occurring on this train at this moment, but I guess one never really knows. I suppose any one of us on here could be experiencing mysteries on many different levels.

The past few weeks have been a little all over the place, and I guess I was sort of experiencing a mystery after visiting the lady doctor at the end of January. During my examination, my dr. touched me neck, apparently to feel my glands, but then she asked me if I'd ever gotten my thyroid checked. She recommended I see an internist to follow up because it didn't feel quite right. Over the course of the following weeks, I had several doctors feel up my neck, and proclaim in varying degrees of concern that there was indeed a very large nodule growing on the left side of my thyroid. Interesting, I never noticed that lump before. Since then, I have learned that it is quite common for people, mostly women, to experience benign growths in their Thyroids. Sometimes it results in hypo or hyperthyroidism, and sometimes the doctor will just monitor the growth. Well, as it turned out, my internist and my new otolaryngologist (say that three times fast!) have since found not only a golf ball sized nodule in my left thyroid, but several smaller nodules in the left side. Maybe a little more than something 'to watch'.

If you were to imagine a butterfly spread out over your Adam's apple, you've got the right idea about your thyroid. For a gland that people rarely talk about, it does a lot of things in your body. It's in charge of communicating with the pituitary gland in your brain and is largely responsible for regulating your metabolism, as well as overseeing many of the other functions and organs in your body. Some of my research might help explain it a little better:

Your thyroid gland produces two main hormones, thyroxine and triiodothyronine, that influence every cell in your body. They maintain the rate at which your body uses fats and carbohydrates, help control your body temperature, influence your heart rate and help regulate the production of protein. Your thyroid gland also produces calcitonin, a hormone that helps regulate the amount of calcium in your blood.

It's a little thing that does a lot, and mine, as it turns out is growing nodules. It's been a long few weeks of doctors visits, and trying to solve the mystery of my thyroid. I've had many ultrasounds, and had to take several blood tests. I didn't know I'd be giving blood up for lent, but it has seemed like once a week lately! Most of the blood tests came back somewhere within the normal range, however, once I started seeing Dr. D, my otolaryngologist, he found that some levels were slightly elevated for someone my age. In fact, none of this is really normal for someone my age. Last week I had what is called a Fine Needle Biopsy (FNA), which is used to biopsy the nodules and determine whether any of them contain Big C cells. Thank God, mine did not show any signs of cancer. It's been sort of nerve wracking to go around with daily life, feeling perfectly fine, except for an enlarged side of my neck, after hearing "it's probably not cancer, but...". True story. So hearing that there were no cancer cells detected made me feel a lot better. The procedure, was not what I would consider "painless", as they tried to make me believe, so I let them poke around my neck with large needles after a little lidocaine numbed me up. Sometimes that stuff doesn't always work the best in me, so after the 5th rather painful jostle around my thyroid, they numbed me again. Made talking a chore, and turning my head for the past week was rather uncomfortable. Oh, and I looked like I'd been attacked by a vampire. Maybe that'd be cool if I were more into Twilight or True Blood. I'm glad my mommy was there to baby me a bit while Ryan was taking a deposition in Connecticut that week.

So, now I know what they AREN'T made of, but what to do with these pesky nodules that keep growing?It seems that the left side of my thyroid is showing signs of Hoshimoto's disease, which attributes to hypothyroidism. Might explain why, even though I've been working out like a fiend at least 5 days a week, I am not seeing the results that the totally fit girl inside wants to see! Might also explain my achy knees and why I sometimes have extremely cold hands and feet. Maybe not, but could be.

Getting back to the next steps: bottom line, the thyroid should come out. I'm a young woman, these puppies aren't gonna get any smaller, it could cause fertility issues, and my mom can't wait for more grand babies forever. :)

Not exactly the outcome I had dreamed about, but I trust my doctor and I'm already noticing the big nodule when I swallow and when I work out. When we get preggers someday, having a functioning thyroid is really important, and it would cause them to grow even larger. No bueno. So, this means that I'm now scheduled to have the little bugger out on April 22nd. Will I be on thyroid hormone replacement for the rest if my life? Yup. Am I a little bit scared? Yessiree! Will it take awhile to find the right dosage for my medication after the surgery?You betcha. Would I rather be dealing with this than finding a new job? Not really. But, after all of that, it comes down to the fact that I can't live with em (the nodules)and I can live without it (the thyroid),so I'm gonna have to put on my big girl neckerchief and go ahead with it.

The mothers are already planning their descent upon Chicago to help me out the week after the surgery. Ryan will be able to work from home (hopefully) that week, so I'll be healing in good hands. I'm thankful for that.

In the meantime, I'll write thank you notes to my thyroid for giving me a a good 30ish years (not sure when these bad boys stated growing) of service. Ryan has many depositions going on the next few weeks, and while no job is currently being dropped in my lap, I might as well keep the adventure streak alive and travel with my favorite man in a suit. New York and perhaps Belgium are on the docket, so we might try to see if I can't catch a ride on the undercarriage. :)

I doubt the 7 year old me really knew much about train travel or real mysteries, but she had the right idea about the telephone poles. They are still fun to watch. They mean movement, they mean communication, they mean life, and carrying on. I have no idea what other mysteries are going on around me in this train traveling along the bend of Lake Michigan, but for now, I've figured out one of mine, and I know what I gotta do. I imagine this story isn't my Great American Novel, but it's a start. Onward!

Uptown and beyond

Welcome in, 2013! It's been awhile since I've posted much, I suppose mostly because settling down isn't nearly exciting as moving across several continents! But, it is what it is, and the day to day has become the norm. The new norm I guess. Ryan is a month and a half in to his new job, and now that things are picking up (which also means later and later hours), he's finding his lawyer sea legs again and feeling comfortable on his team. I can tell by the way he comes home at the end of the day now, because his recounts seem more and more confident, and he has a bit more energy about it all. Saying goodbye in the mornings is still rather hard, but as I wave to him out the window, I know he'll come home happy.

I, on the other hand, am still wading through the application process for Chicago Public Schools, and honestly, as much as I love Kathy Lee and Hoda, I am just not totally digging the stay at home lifestyle. Job is needed. So, I spend my time working on my résumé, searching the web for all sorts of employment, and hoping that all this work will pay off in a timely fashion.

I am also dedicated to a creating a body that is far more in shape than my current one, so I've taken up a work out routine with Jillian Michaels shouting at me to literally kick myself in the a**, and taking frigid walks to Lake Michigan (just because I can). I've learned to pay no mind to the bums under the Lakeshore Drive overpass, they are just looking for a warm place to rest, like everybody else. I can't wait for the summer when I can just grab a towel and a book and go sit on the beach that is literally just a 15 minute walk from my apartment. Central Park? What's that? I've got Lake Michigan now! I'm honestly not looking back! Also, I just realized that I may never want to get a gym membership to use the swimming pool ever again! Yes! I love it here.

Lets talk about the cold. It is VERY cold here, which I can handle, I think, and perhaps in some sick, sadistic way I was always sort of wanting it in New York, but didn't get as much. What can I say, I fricken love snow. Although, I've actually seen more snow in Michigan, by my parents place in Kalamazoo. I also have been enjoying the fact that I can just pop over there pretty much any time I feel like it. Home for Christmas? Yes, please! Friend's wedding weekend, no problem! Miss my nephew and want to just head home to visit for a day or two? Think I will! So, there is an upside to still being jobless, I guess.

Before Christmas, I also added Las Vegas to the growing list of places I've seen and loved. Man, that place is wicked fun, and even more fun because I got to spend her birthday with my dear friend Kelly and her super awesome friends. Bloody Mary's were the signature drink of the weekend, except for in the random club we got into because clubs like it when hordes of women join them for all night dancing under strobe lights. They literally haveGo-go dancers there that just stay up next to the DJ and it's their job to shake there scantly clad junk all night long. Man, Vegas is crazy. My liver needed a break after that one. What a way to break in Vegas though! Whew!

So, I'm back from Starbucks, where I sat and worked on applications and my resume today. The Earl Grey latte was my treat to myself after my 2 mile walk to the lake. Had to break in my new tennis shoes, which I love, and I really wish is gotten before our trip. Alas, feet are still healing. Now, I shall remove said feet from their resting place on our new coffee table (so domestic, new furniture!), and start the dinner for the hubs! Pintrest, you inspire me with your homemade chicken tenders yet again! Maybe if the recipe is good I'll post it later.