What wonderful encouragement I'm receiving from all the folks visiting this page. Thanks a million!

I decided to add a Guestbook so anyone who wants, can leave comments or whatever for all to read. If you prefer to just send E-Mail to me, please feel free to do that too. Whatever you decide, just keep the communications open.

If you have a personal web page about Graves' Disease, Thyroid Disease, or related subjects, send an e-mail with your address, and I would be more than happy to place a link here. I'd just as soon have a page filled with links to personal pages that show the human factor in this disease.

I finally got permission from a few of my friends and family to place their pictures here. Some are too shy and some want better pictures. So, here are the pictures of the ones who aren't afraid! (at least until they see themselves...)

You'll also find my 1974 and 1987 pictures. It is really something to be ill all that time and not know.... ( You will now find my 1974, 1987, 1996, and 1998 photos on the "Over Time" Page. )

This week I saw an opthalmologist, saw my endocronologist, had another blood test, had my medication increased, and ate some chocolate. My eyes are protruding and ache, but I was told there is "nothing that can be done for these irritating little side affects of my thyroid condition, BUT, I should come back in six months and then maybe my condition will have worsened enough to do something!"

My blood tests (and my pain) show that I am hypothyroid working toward normal levels. In other words, my numbers are all messed up! This is to be expected until my body has had a chance to figure out what it's suppose to do. In the meantime, it will continue to act in an unpredictable manner and cause much discomfort, much like a child who gets mixed messages from adults and has no idea what he or she is suppose to do. So, they do whatever. Anyway, it's still a waiting game, a very slow waiting game.

On the up side, the chocolates were good, and it feels great to NOT be depressed! As far as I'm concerned, that is a miracle in itself! More later...

Just a quick little ditty here. Over the Easter weekend, my sister, Jean and my wonderful neice, Beth (the one who arranged "Appointments Impossible" with hard to get in to see endocrinologists) came for a visit. We were looking at boxes of pictures I hadn't looked at in many years. Take a guess what we found, besides bad photography! As least as far back as 1974, the pictures of me show I had a goiter! Interesting.... There was a definite swelling in the front of my neck that isn't there now, months after the radioiodine treatment. My high school pictures don't show any swelling, and, so far, I haven't found any closeup photos of me between 1968 and 1974. I will be searching, though.

About two weeks ago, I had another blood test taken and was pronounced "close enough" to being hypothyroid to start taking a low dose of Synthroid - Your Artificial Friend. I have been on the medication since then, and at this point in time I'm pronouncing myself hypothyroid. I'm having heart stops, fatigue, and nausea. I have pain where I have no body parts, but not body parts where I have no pain! Funny how that works that way, eh? My next appointment with my endocrinologist is in April. Hopefully, I will have physically stabilized a bit more by then and the medication can be adjusted. I was so very sick for so long that it's better to take it slow and work my way back as my body can take it. I am looking forward to my first twenty-four hours of normalcy, averageness, commonness, and just simple normality! After these many years of living life in a tornado, so to speak, I'm not too sure what that would mean for me, but I am ready to find out! In the meantime, I'll keep doing what I'm doing and hanging in there. Of course, for now it will continue to be in slow motion. Very slow compared to what I'm use to, 27 years of zipping along on a "Thyroid-Hormone High"! Does that sound like a country song to you?

This is where I get a chance to show off. I have worked very hard to put these pages together and place them on the Internet for the world to see. Now is when I get to have a little fun and just be silly ~ or what ever.

First, I would like to say that Graves' Disease is not my only hobby. It was my only hobby for awhile because I had no choice, but it is not the only thing I to do.

I'm a lover of rock music. I'm a big fan of The Stones. Been to two concerts with front row seats. Mick looked at me once! OOOH, Baby, OOOH! Man, are they an UgLy bunch of guys or what? But then, I like ugly when it's cool! I also like Genesis; Neil Young (with or without); Crosby, Stills, and Nash; Journey; Aerosmith; and, can't forget The Beatles, my first love. In other words, I like Rock! As in Duh....

In my younger years, I was a tad bit of a "Hippie Freak". My hair was very long. Paisley print peasant shirts (Say that three times real fast!) and bell bottoms were definitely "my thing". But, now those days are gone. I'm not so self-assured. Now, I find I've changed my mind, and opened up a door. Ah! The good old days just weren't that good, eh?

I live in Central New York with John, my "other" half of ten years, and our little Toodle (poodle and terrier mix), Lé Babé. My son, Shawn, is 28 and works for a great company as Network Administrator, no less! My daughter-in-law, Lisa, was working for her family's business but has decided to go back to college. They live nearby, so I get to see them about three times a year.

One of my sisters, Jean, lives close by, and my other sister, Janice, lives in Florida. I have one brother, John, who lives in New Hampshire, and another, Jerry, who lives in Rhode Island. Family reunions are tough, but when aren't they?

And, now to cut this short. I've already filled your head with enough boring facts to last at least a few years, that is, if you took the time to read this. If not, that's OK too, but you won't know that unless you've read this. So......

You'll find the continuing saga of My Personal War on the Updates Pages below.