My Tuner Syndrome Journey Part One

February is Tuner Syndrome awareness month (because it's the shortest of the year!... Badum~tish), so even though I've neglected my blog for well over a year, I wanted to share my Tuners story. It's a post that has been on my mind for awhile now, but I guess I've just never gotten the courage to write it.  I've finally decided to do it because I've heard several stories now about the lack of awareness among doctors, and I've made it part of my New Years Resolution to raise awareness.

Besides raising awareness, the main reason why I'm finally opening myself up to share my experience is because I've thought a lot recently about becoming part of a Tuners support group - not for myself, but to help young girls that have just been diagnosed, and their parents. I want to share my experience with those girls because I know how hard it is to always be the shortest kid in class - and teased for it. I want to share my experience with their parents, to prepare them for the heartbreak they might feel when their little girl runs to them in second grade and tells them excitedly that they're finally taller than the kindergartners. But I want to share my journey with others, not just to prepare them for these things, but to show them that it isn't always difficult. That the short jokes lose their sting, as long as you learn to embrace your short stature. That your daughter may always be small, but it never has to stop her from conquering the world.

I was diagnosed at seven years old, and some of my earliest, distinctive memories center around my diagnosis. I remember my mom buying me the babysitter Barbie doll (the one with three babies that you could stick to Barbie with velcro) because I had to have blood work done for the karotyping test and I was scared of needles.

I remember the day we received the diagnoses.  I remember the conference room we sat in, and I remember that it was the day the Children's Hospital was taking photos for a magazine, and they took mine to be in it.

I remember getting an ultrasound of my heart sometime shortly after The Lion King came out, because I got to watch it during the scan - I guess they thought a seven year old might get freaked out seeing an image of their own heart on a screen.

And I can remember sitting on my brother's lap while the doctor discussed with my parent's starting me on growth hormones so I could catch up to my peers to some degree.  They talked with me about it a little later, and asked me if it was something that I would want to do.  I was maybe eight or nine at the time, so I didn't understand much about it beyond the fact that it would mean a shot every night to help me grow taller.  I must have seemed hesitant, because my mom made the deal with me that if I could be brave enough to start the treatment, she would take me to a Hanson concert.  Well, that was all the convincing that I needed, because the summer before I started fourth grade, we began the growth hormone injections.

And they must have woken up some latent genes because that was when my hair went from stick straight blonde to curly red. We continued them until eight grade, when my height had reached it's plateau and the doctors felt that they wouldn't do much more. Usually around this time, girls would also start estrogen replacement therapy to promote the growth of breasts and hips, but because I have mosaic turners, I luckily didn't need it.

[That's it for part one - I'll post part two at some point later this month!]

A belated sappy, lovey-dovey Valentine's-type post

There are tons of quotes about love - what with all the love stories in books, movies, and TV shows - but I think that I have found my favorite while reading Allegiant.

"I used to think that when people fell in love, they just landed where they landed, and they had no choice in the matter afterward. And maybe that's true of beginnings, but it's not true of this, now. 

 I fell in love with him. But I don't just stay with him by default as if there's no one else available to me. I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other. I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me."

It may not be a romanticized depiction of what love is, but that is what I like about it. I love a good romantic love story as much as the next girl, but it's easy to get caught up in the high expectation of love that's depicted. Often the movie ends when the couple is finally together and they live happily ever after - they don't show that after the honeymoon phase of a relationship is over, you begin to realize that the sun DOESN'T shine out the other's sphincter, and that is where a lot of relationships fall to pieces.

When I look at the unique set of circumstances that brought Dayne and I together, I see God's hand. The two of us had been friend's first online, via his cousin - my friend - and when there was going to be a big group meetup, we both went. My mom didn't want me to go, but I am stubborn, and I knew I needed to go. Of course, I didn't go looking to find my future husband - I went to be with all my friends. But all it took was me smiling across the room at him, and he was a goner. My moment was when we were all at Union Station and I decided I wanted Ghirardelli and he came with me and bought (or tried to, I can't remember) mine for me - I just remember my heart going like crazy while the two of us walked back to the group. So once we were both home, he finally got up the nerve to ask me out, which I'm glad for because I'm a total chicken and maybe never would have spoke up.

So even when the long-distance was tough, and I wasn't sure it was going to last, I still chose him. God brought us together, but we both individually made the choice to stay committed to each other.  Our love isn't like in the movies.  We are constantly disappointing and falling short of each others expectations, but still we persevere.  Because our relationship has never been based on expectations of each other - it is based on love, trust, and commitment - the latter being the most important, because when all else fails, commitment is what keeps a relationship going strong.  So when I look in the beginning of our relationship I can see some uncertainty, but when I think of the future, I know that the two of us can weather any storm together because of that commitment.  And that is a pretty good feeling.

This post didn't go in the direction I expected.  I mostly just wanted to make a post about the quote, but then I guess I went off on a slight digression.  I guess maybe I was just feeling all warm and fuzzy with love. :| So, uhhh....  Love rules!  Peace out.

Goals

I have many long-term goals in life - for example: owning a home, becoming a mother, living a healthy lifestyle, having a uncluttered living space, just to name a few. I've begun to realize, however, that I tend to see the big picture and not the baby steps that I need to take to reach my goals. I have always known that I am a "I want to see immediate results!" type of person (which is why my art is never finished), and I think that is my biggest weakness. I also tend to be my own worse enemy and am so critical of myself when I fail that I just give up altogether.

Since the first step to accomplishing ANY of my goals is to first change this destructive frame of mind, for the month of September, I am going to keep track of the positive things I've done each day. Even if it's just something little like, "Hey, I took out the recycling today!" I'm going to focus on the things that I DID do, not the things I didn't do.

Over-due post

So, over Easter, my friend Rachel came to visit for her Spring Break, and lots of fun times were had! I knitted, she crocheted. We each made our way through The Hunger Games series. We had Tuttie Fruttie for lunch on two different occasions, as well as several meals of Panera Bread - not altogether healthy, but very delicious. The Chipotle Chicken Panini I got was AMAZING! The best meal, though, was at Medieval Times... mostly because Dayne upgraded us without us knowing, and we were in THE FRONT ROW! Rae even got a carnation from it! <.< I think the two of us were cheering and booing the loudest of our section. AND OUR KNIGHT WON!

We also spent a day in DC while she was here - the first time I went into DC without Dayne! I was so proud of myself. We just got on the Lightrail to Penn Station, took a train to Union Station, and then took the Metro from there. Nevermind that it would have been quicker to drive to Greenbelt Metro station, I didn't want to deal with the traffic and parking. >.> We spent at least two hours alone in the Museum of Natural History, touching everything we could, and some things we were supposed to (I'M LOOKING AT YOU RACHEL). By this point our feet were sore, so we walked to the WW2 Memorial and sat for awhile, and I soaked my feet. Oh! And we found out that the Washington Monument was closed off because it had gotten damaged during the earthquake that happened awhile ago. The Reflection Pool was closed off, too, because they're finally repairing it as well. We walked past it on our way to see Lincoln, and once we did that, we headed back to the Metro because we were TIRED.

Another day we took the Lightrail to the Inner Harbor, with the intention of possible going to the Aquarium, but it was PACKED, so we ate Potbelly for lunch and then wandered around the big Barnes and Nobel for awhile, and then headed home. But we didn't care that we didn't do much, because we got Potbelly, and that was worth it. Aaaaaand, I guess those are the big things we did! We also watched a bunch of Marvel movies. Captain America, Thor, First Class, Wolverine, X-Men 1 and 2... it was fun.

Through all this, I ate HORRIBLY, and the week after she left was bad, too, with trying to get back into the swing of things. I am proud to say that I didn't GAIN any weight during her stay, but I didn't lose any either. BTW, it won't be official until tomorrow when I do my weigh in, but I've lost 14 lbs since I started in February!

It'll be awhile before I can watch A Bug's Life again

So the past few weeks, we've had a major ant problem in our apartment. For instance, while cleaning the kitchen, I easily killed 20 in the hour or so I spent scrubbing counters and whatnot. And they were the big carpenter ants, too. So anyway. Last Thursday, I got some ant traps and put one under one side of the microwave, and another under one side of the toaster (so there was no chance the cats could get at them). By the time Dayne got home, it. was. CRAZY! They just went back and forth from the nest to the traps, carrying the poison. We even saw the queen out! It was actually pretty cool to watch, in all honesty. In the morning, each trap had around 20 ants in it, but all the poison was gone.

It's safe to say, after the ant genocide that just took place, I won't be able to watch A Bug's Life in awhile without feeling guilty about the amount of ants I killed.

Insert Clever Title Here

Despite going crazy with my weekly points this last week, I somehow managed to drop 2 full pounds. Clearly, I need to be more liberal with my weeklys and activity points, because this is the biggest drop I've had since beginning. Now, it's not that I feel guilty using my weekly points, because I know that's what they're there for, but I always feel as though I'll lose more weight if I don't use them. Lesson learned!

I didn't exactly make good on my goal last week, so I don't have a new one this week. I'm just going to continue working on last week's... only maybe focusing on just the fruits and veggies for this week. I think my problem was that I was trying to accomplish two different but similar goals at the same time. So this week, I going to continue to work at getting more vegetables and fruits.

I didn't make the decision until after Zumbaing this morning, or else I would have started today, but tomorrow I'm going to step it up a bit, and start doing the 45 minutes "classes" in the game. After three weeks of the 20 minutes classes, I think I'll be able to handle it. I hope. :|

Lastly, I'm going to try to choke down green tea more often. I'm not much a fan of it, but I know it aids in weight loss, and it's just healthy in general. I found some that has a slight blue-berry flavor, and it wasn't awful... still not my cup of tea (get it?)... but bearable. Maybe if I drink enough of it, I'll develop a taste for it.

Why, hello again :|

Yeaaaaaah... it's been awhile. :| Especially since an actual update and not just a Blogging for Books review. Anyway.

I'm on my fourth week of Weight Watchers since starting it again. I've been somewhat disappointed each week when I step on the scale for my weigh-in, but I managed to keep from getting discouraged, since I also started doing my measurements. I didn't do them last Monday, since I started in the middle of the week. But as of this Monday, I've lost an inch from my arms, 2 from my hips, and 2.5 from my waist. So I can at least take comfort in the fact that, while I've not lost many pounds, that at least they're coming from fat and not just water weight.

I think my success is at least partly coming from the mini-goals I've been setting for myself.

Week 2, I made my goal to exercise and to drink more water. Both were a success, and have carried over into each subsequent week. I've been doing at least 20 minutes of Zumba every morning, Monday through Friday. I take the weekends off. :|

Week 3, I made it a goal to take vitamins. I'm taking a multivitamin, a Calcium + Vitamin D supplement, and an Omega-3 supplement. And I've been remembering to take them, because I keep them by my coffee maker.

And this week, I made my goal to get the recommended amounts of dairy and of fruits and veggies at least three days a week. I decided not to set it at every day, since I knew this would be something I needed to take baby steps on. Yesterday I didn't do as well on the veggies, and today I haven't done so well on the dairy, so far. I may have to keep working at this one. I also maybe should have only done one or the other. :| But oh well.

I'm thinking that by setting Wellness Goals in addition to following WW, I'll be better equipped to maintain my weight, once I reach my goal, because I'll have established healthy habits.

I'm also hoping I'll catch the Spring Cleaning Bug, and manage to get this place under control. Right now it is a hot mess. I thought that by giving up video games for Lent, I'd be more inclined to clean, but I still sit on the computer more than I should. :|