Being skinny's not all it's cracked up to be

This is my new favorite outfit for Cayden. Complete with purple Corban shirt and baby Adidas.

I think Cayden will be getting plenty of practical use out of those shoes, as standing is he new favorite thing (supported of course). She still prefers to stand on her toes. 

 She has also mastered crawling in the past few days and is into everything! Below shows how our coffee table has become a favorite. 

 And we tried pigtails yesterday too!

And right after I took these pics, she tried to grab something under the table (while standing) and banged her head on it. There was a visible line on her head and plenty of tears, hence, the binks.

 

On a different note, there is other news in the household....I am going to have surgery to fix this.

If you can't figure out what needs fixing, you are blind, or just ignoring the skeletor shoulders/arms. When I saw this photo (taken in late October), I realized something was wrong.

Gaining only 19 pounds during my pregnancy was great. Losing that 19 pounds right away was also great. What was not so great is continuing to lose weight until I was down to 113. I usually weigh 135. All my muscle is gone, I am constantly eating, and my pre-pregnancy pants don't come close to fitting.

So I went to the doctor a month ago. She wasn't worried, but did bloodwork. They found out my blood levels showed my thyroid was working overtime. Your thyroid basically regulates your metabolism, and mine is not doing a good job.

I had to get more tests done and then I went to see an endocrinologist in Salem today and he gave me a couple of options.

Basically I can destroy my thyroid with radioactive iodine or remove it with surgery.

Option #1:
Radioactive iodine takes 3-6 months to work, I can't be near babies or pregnant women for 7 days, and I can't get pregnant for a year after the iodine. So I would have to take thke the radioactive (REALLY? this is safe?) iodine after Christmas because I don't really see a week going by in December without being in contact with my pregnant sister-in-law and countless pregnant women at church, especially during the holidays, not to mention not taking care of Cayden for a week!

So January, maybe.

Where would I go for a week?? And if I waited that long, then added a year (January 2013) to get pregnant again, and add 40 weeks, we are looking at a birthday of baby #2 around January 2014, making Cayden nearly 3 years older than baby #2.

This is not preferred.

Option #2:
Surgery. They go in and basically take out my whole thyroid. Two weeks after the surgery, hormone levels will be down and I will have to take a tiny pill every day forever to replace my hormones because my thyroid no longer can.

Risks? Yes. In <3% of these surgeries, the nerve along the trachea that goes to the voicebox gets nicked, resulting in a hoarse voice. Another risk is hypoparathyroidism, when the parathyroid glands in the neck do not produce enough parathyroid hormone (PTH), due to being damaged during surgery. PTH helps control calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D levels within the blood and bone. Hypoparathyroidism is also a risk factor of the radioactive iodine treatment (option #1).

 And why? Why did this happen?

The doctor thinks it's Graves' Disease. I thought it might be Postpartum Hyperthyroidism, but the endocrinologist said that would have resolved many months ago, so this is not fixing itself, and he was very clear that it would not be safe to wait much longer. Graves' Disease, the most common cause of hyperthyroidism, is caused by an abnormal immune system response that causes the thyroid gland to produce too much thyroid hormones. The cause is unknown, but I'm blaming pregnancy. 

So worth it.