Round Two

To say that Claire bounced back quickly after her surgery is an understatement. She has been incredibly active these past few months, teaching a fashion design club for a local high school and making mountains of Fluff Engine plush toys which she sold at the recent Maker Faire. If it wasn't for the scar on her neck, you'd think the whole "thyroid cancer" thing had never happened.

It did though, and June is the month where she undergoes her second round of treatment. A few weeks ago Claire was taken off her thyroid medication, which means that her energy level has dropped a little bit. She's also on a low iodine diet now, which is kind of crazy, because our culture puts iodine in salt and salt is in EVERYTHING. We have been making a lot of food from scratch, including the focaccia bread you see here!

The idea is that if there are any thyroid cells left anywhere in Claire's body they are being starved of iodine which they really, really want. Then this week the doctors will give her some radioactive iodine, which will wipe out the remaining cells. Claire will be radioactive for about four days, during which she's not supposed to be around anyone else. We're going to set up a little command center for her in the bedroom and I'll be spending my days at the other end of the apartment, working and sleeping in my studio.

Hopefully everything will go well and by the time July rolls around this will all be behind us. The "cancer cloud" has been looming over us this whole year, so we're both glad her second round of treatment is finally underway. Once it's over, I'm hoping we won't have to think about cancer again for a really long time!