RAI Uptake day...Should be under heading of PURE FRUSTRATION

I know. I dropped off w/ the menus I was doing for the low iodine diet. Honestly, the things I ate were all the same almost every day. The only difference was dinner. To date, I've lost about 5-6 lbs on the diet, which is cool, but still a PITA since it's so restrictive.

My pure frustration of the day: Damn Labs leading up to RAI uptake...oh, and my doctor who told me to do one of the labs on the wrong day.

I got my kids up early this morning (5am) so that we could get my labs done early. This was to get my kids to school on time and then get to my RAI uptake on time. The labs included a TSH blood draw and a urine (TMI) pregnancy test. People, I know this is a precaution, but seriously, I know there's no way it would test positive.

Anyways, that's what's holding up my uptake. The damn pregnancy test. Ladies, if you have to do uptake, be sure you doctor orders the test for the DAY BEFORE your RAI Uptake. This is royally screwing everything up. Quest told me the results would not be ready til TOMORROW MORNING! WTF???? So, I go in to Nuclear Med. The tech, who is wonderful and trying to help me out, tried another urine test so that we could get on with it. Unfortunately, the test showed up positive/ negative.

What this means for me? Yeah, I had to run up to the lab IN the hospital this time, for a blood draw (ick). I just found out around 10:30am, that those results will not be in until 12:30-1pm!!!! In the meantime, I can't eat ANYTHING until I can take the RAI capsule. So now, I'm tired, super hungry (haven't eaten since 6pm last night) and also a bit queasy from the Thyrogen shot of the last 2 days.

AAAAAARRRRGHHHHH!!!!!!!

I'll update later...hopefully w/ the news that I have finally taken the RAI.

Low Iodine Diet: Day 3

Ok. I skipped my blog one day. Here's my Food Diary from Day 2 and 3.

Day 2:
Breakfast
Bowl of Irish Oatmeal w/ brown sugar--wasn't sure how I was going to feel about oatmeal sans milk, but this stuff was good! There's a hint of apple. I wonder if that's the nature of Irish Oatmeal.
Naked Juice Berry Blast

Lunch
Tabouleh Salad w/ lettuce

DinnerSplit Pea Soup

Snacks
Nuts
Pumpkin Seeds
Veg sticks (celery, yellow and red bell peppers, carrots) with homemade hummus

Day 3:

Breakfast
Naked Juice Mango

Lunch
Stew
3 Strawberries

Snacks
Nuts

Low Iodine Diet: Day 1

It's been a busy weekend. Raqtoberfest 2010 on Saturday...met an amazing group of men and women who shared their drumming and dancing talents with all of us. Had a great time doing henna for all...also shopping ;-) Henna at Bernardo Winery on Sunday...this got pretty much spoiled by rain. HOWEVER, best part was hanging out w/ Kimberly and Monica. I've known Monica for years from one of my forums.

This was the first time I got to meet her since she's currently in CA for a job. She's pretty cool and totally tres Ya-Ya :-) We had coffee and yummies for breakfast, and later on in the day, when we realized how dead it was, went and did a bit of wine tasting.

So, after that weekend (the above description being a VERY brief summary), I didn't really have a huge amount of time to prep for my low iodine diet. In fact, I just got back about an hour ago from shopping for food stuffs. Can I just say? I LOVE Sprouts! I found quite a few things I CAN eat, but a lot of things I was hoping I could eat have unspecified salt content in them. This means I wasn't sure if it was iodized salt or not. MUCH of the salted products use sea salt, as well, so that got nixed immediately. (People, you can just forget about even tortillas, wraps, pita, bagels...best learn how to bake your own bread.)

Not one to be discouraged, I headed for the fresh produce. You really can't lose with that. I loaded up on all kinds of veg and fruits. Some will be sliced up to munch on throughout the day. Some will be put into a nice Tabouleh salad. I like this on top of fresh lettuce. Fills you up and tastes great. Best part, it's low fat and loaded with all kinds of good stuff.

More cool snackies: (all unsalted...love that Sprouts has this option) cashews, pumpkin seeds, raw trail mix.

Oh, and tahini. I bought some tahini to make hummus with. Yes, the garbanzo beans are canned. However, I've been told it's ok to have a few canned things, just not A LOT. I plan on rinsing the beans before I make the hummus.

Breakfast:
Naked Juice...Green Machine

Snack:
Handful of Raw Trail Mix

Lunch:
Tabouleh Salad on Romaine Lettuce

Snack:
6 Sliced Strawberries

(4:10pm...I'm STILL hungry! ugh)

Back home from a ceramics session. Good times. I just threw a keeper of a bowl today. Granted,there's going to be a little fixing to do come next Monday, but it's a bowl!

Dinner:
Stew made by Chris :-)
Munched on a handful of pumpkin seeds, too.

Dis-like...or "Crap...Low Iodine Diet, again???"

I'll just jump right into the thyroid-fun. Don't worry, though. I'll end this with some fun art news.

So yes, it's that time. Time for another dang Thyrogen scan. On the upside, I WILL be getting thyrogen injections, which means that I DO NOT have to be off my meds at all. The downside, is that I have to follow a strict low iodine diet for 2 weeks.

In my Pollyanna mode, I will just tell myself to make it easier and become a rabbit. As in, mostly fresh fruits and veg, maybe some meat (I'm allowed 6 oz per day). All the other stuff I'm allowed to eat is just such a PITA because, as stated before, anything store-bought and ready-made has to be closely scrutinized for iodine content. The lazy in me just says f-it. Plus, this chunky frame could stand to lose some weight.

Stream of thought: Maybe I'll write a daily journal online of what I ate. This might be interesting. I wonder if any other thyroid patients would want to see that. Who knows.

Overall health. Meh. I've been feeling really off lately. It started around the time my doc lowered my dosage to 112mcg...generic this time. Levothyroxine, which is generic for levoxyl. Ew. Seriously. Several things began to happen to me: fatigue (but oddly enough, still restless), memory loss, one of my eyes is acting all weird (I can't keep my left eye open sometimes) to name a few.

My last thyroid panel showed that my levels are STILL high. Weird. So this time around, my new primary care doc put me on SYNTHROID 100mcg. I do feel a bit better, but my memory is still off. It's really bugging me because, for example, how do you forget that your 'uncle-in-law' passed away last year. WTF??? Honestly, there are days when I really feel like I'm losing my mind. My eye is better, but still does that weird half-close thing when I'm stressed or upset. However, my ultrasound showed that there are enlarged lymph nodes. hmmm

Good times.

Ok...art news. I've been unusually busy with henna. Actually, life all around has been insanely busy. Between kids' senior year, and all that goes with it, the family in general, and my business, I'm always on the go seems like.

Coming soon: Henna at Raqtoberfest in Pomona on Saturday, 10/16 and the Arts and Crafts Fair at Bernardo winery in San Diego on Sunday, 10/17.

Art: I've finished a few paintings for my oracle deck. YEAH!!!

Shows: Working on getting a group show going for HGofSC. So far, it's been about scouting out possible venues w/ my friend, Paula.

I'll be updating more event info as I go along on my Facebook Page:

That's it for now.
Peace out ;-)

I'm in the newspaper again! :-D

I have been blessed with amazing opportunities this year. I've mentioned the Ellen Show and then also a photo in the OC Register from the Haiti Relief effort. On Monday, the OC Register ran a story on pregnant moms getting their bellies decorated to celebrate the upcoming births of their babies. My interview and photos along with Monica's hennaed tummy were heavily feature. SO EXCITING!!!!

Here's the article: "Belly Painting Popular for Pregnant Moms

Andy Templeton was the talented photographer, who took some great pics of me doing henna on Monica. I'd love to link the main image, but I think I have to get permission from the OC Register first. Courtney Perkes, the writer, did a great job on the article. She's awesome!

Thanks, Christy at Belly Sprout for making the initial connections possible. You rock!!!

As Seen on ELLEN

Thank you so much, Ellen and producers for having me on your show. I had a wonderful time! Ok, wait. That came out wrong. It sounds like I was a guest...on stage...being interviewed. No. Not quite. That would have been amazing, but no, I was in the Riff Raff Room doing henna on the audience in there.



So, now you can tell your friends: Henna Body Art by Lernie...As Seen on the Ellen Show. ;-)

Wow...Lernie is officially a slug. WHAT UP???

Nah...just kidding. I'm a slug when it comes to updating my blogs. Now THAT I'm completely behind in. I mean, here it is, February 25 and I haven't even posted anything now.

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT???

Ok, that would be because yours truly is busy doing a bazillion things at once. Here's my official list of things I am focusing on doing this year with my Paintings and Henna work:
* Make a YouTube vid featuring me doing henna (close-up on hands)
* Complete a new Henna Slide Show also on YouTube
* Create Henna Design book...Subject matter TBA in case someone else is thinking of these particular designs
* Photograph Henna Crafts, etc and post these on ETSY
* Work on Sketches for Oracle/Tarot deck.

That last bit is bold because it's imperative that I start work on these. I've been talking about doing this for awhile. I need to start work on this project ASAP. Why? Because think about how awesome a series of paintings would be around this. Again, it would be with my "Soulmate" painting style.

I'm typing all this out to hold myself a little more accountable in my goals. It makes it even more official in my head since I'm not just telling those close to me about this list. Now the whole net...rather those 2 or 3 readers out there...know.

It's been busy already. There've been a few henna gigs here and there. Lots happening with the family. My cousin got married in LV recently to what I see is the love of his life. Not only was it an amazing (but hectic) weekend, but I also got myself a brand new cousin, who, quite frankly, I think is pretty rad! There were a couple of pics of R and K from the wedding that I'm planning on creating some paintings from.

AND for my knitting friends...I'm FINALLY knitting up a project for JUST ME. The last few months have been all about knitting up presents for everyone else but me. So, it's my turn. I'm knitting "Alene's Wrap" (pattern) for myself. I'm about 2/3 done :-)

That's it for now. Check back at some point. I'm hoping to post pics from the above when I get the chance. It could be today, it could be next week. I'll surprise ya. ;-)