Freaky Friday ~ Dealing With Crazy Neighbors

I have not done a “Freaky Friday” post in quite a while. Recently, I was invited to be a featured blogger on Wellsphere.com when they ran across my Freaky Friday ~ Will Wonders Never Cease.

The following topic is on Schizophrenia, it and other mental health disorders, are serious illnesses and should be treated. This post is not meant to make fun of anyone except for the two people mentioned in this post. You will find helpful links and articles at the end of this post.

Now, to dealing with crazy neighbors, I don’t know how we wound up with two…and I really don’t have any answers to this problem (wish that I did). My daughter has always called our neighborhood the “Twilight Zone” because of all the strange people in our neighborhood. We have had our house for about 12 years, almost from day 1 we had problems with the woman across the street. She has Schizophrenia, her main issue has been that she does not like people parking on her side of the street. I could understand this if her house faced ours but, you see she has a corner lot and our house faces hers. She has major issues with people parking on the street on the side of her house (or in front). In the past she has gone as far as calling the police on our friends and family for parking there (or, throwing eggs and putting the water sprinkler over the fence so that they cannot get into their cars). I am not talking the “non-emergency number” but 911. The police have come out I don’t know how many times and every time she tries her hardest to convince them that her property line extends 6 feet into the street. We and the entire neighborhood have dealt with her for years. Overall, she is pretty harmless other than the fact that she loves to call 911 for just about anything. Good news though finally about four years ago she started leaving us alone along with pretty much everyone else. Well, except for the second crazy neighbor.

The second crazy neighbor lives directly next to us, he too is schizophrenic. Although, he pretty much leaves us alone, we still have to put up with his antics. His main issues are with basically anyone of color (any color). When he first moved in, he had a run in with neighbor #1, over the parking issue. One day I happened to look out the window and to my surprise, I saw neighbor #1 walking across the street headed my direction. At first I thought that she was headed to our house, then I saw that she was headed to neighbor #2’s house. With her cell phone in hand (and I am sure with 911 pre-dialed on her phone) she started up his steps. The next thing that I knew, I heard neighbor #2 yelling (at the top of his lungs) at neighbor #1. I thought “oh, geeze!” what is he thinking??? So, I call 911. When the police come out they first stop at neighbor #1’s house and talk to her (by now they know the drill) then they come over to neighbor #2’s house…and what does he do? He starts yelling at the police, loud enough that I can hear him in my house over the TV. All of this was about a year and a half to, two years ago. Then out of nowhere, about six months ago he starts in on anyone and everyone of color? Yelling that he is going to kill them all, that they are all going to hell, etc. Sometimes, he even looks like he is yelling at no one? With all of this yelling and threatening, the police have not once taken him in?
Now, being a mother of a child with autism and mental health issues I know about “being a threat to yourself or others”. There has to be something that can be done about neighbor #2?
Here are some links and articles to understanding Schizophrenia:

• Medicinenet
• NIMH
• WebMD

And finally on a lighter note, a music video of the song that I think of every time things get crazy in my neighborhood. Metallica’s “Sanitarium” Welcome Home, somewhere that I think that #2 may need to spend some time. Metallica, please don’t sue me, I found this on YouTube. Not to mention I am a big fan =)

Freaky Friday ~ Will Wonders Never Cease

I have posted before that every time that I go to the doctor, I get a new diagnosis. Well, earlier this week I went to the doctor to see about my fibroid issue. I was hoping that I would qualify for a fairly new procedure for fibroids called “Doppler Guided Uterine Artery Occlusion” I included an article about it from the Oxford Journals. Anyway, the doctor told me “I have good news and bad news,” that is never good. The good news was that my fibroids had not grown any in the past two years. The bad news was that I need to have a hysterectomy and re-constructive surgery. He said besides the fibroids and the cysts, I have Uterine Prolapse. And to think, I was worried about my boobs or my bum falling later in life. Years ago, I worked with a woman that had this and had a hysterectomy. But, she is the only person that I have ever known with it. It seems like that she was in her late 30’s? I am really starting to hate going to the doctor.

The “hysterectomy” itself doesn’t bother me as much as the surgery does. I don’t do pain well and there are not many pain killers that I can take either. When I had my thyroid out, it took the surgeon and the anistegeoligist to come up with something for me to take. It worked “ok” after the swelling went down before that the pain was unbearable. The swelling was due to my bruising problem, I bruise at the drop of the hat. I always have bruises and never know where they come from. The other thing that scares me is the numbness that goes along with surgery. When I had my thyroidectomy, it took just about a year before the feeling came back in my neck. Oh, and I can’t forget my fear of something else not working after surgery. I don’t do well with percentages, when I had my biopsy for my thyroid they told me “don’t worry, only 5% of these ever come back anything.” It came back follicular thyroid cancer. Then the doctor told me only 1-3% of people that have a thyroidectomy have their parathyroid quit working. See, I am not very good with percentages.

The past few days I have been looking for information on hysterectomies and now I am more confused than I was when I started. I have found a few good patient friendly pages. One is a personal blog called “One Girl, No Uterus” and Hyster Sisters, which is an online group. Let me tell you, it was much easier finding a surgeon for my thyroid. With hysterectomies there are so many options, it is starting to make my head spin. Laparoscopic (LSH), TLH, Laparoscopic-assisted (LAVH) and Total Abdominal (traditional). And those don’t even cover the “re-construction” part.

If anyone has any good links or information please post them here or if you would rather Email Me. I have a second opinion lined up and I hope that I will be able to put this off until this summer. When school is out and I will not have to drive anywhere.

Freaky Friday Medical Fact ~ Thyroid Cancer

Freaky Friday Medical Fact ~ Thyroid

January is thyroid awareness month. For my first “Freaky Friday Medical Fact” I chose these interesting facts about thyroid cancer.

• Thyroid cancer is the most common endocrine cancer. Thyroid cancer is a cancerous tumor or growth located within the thyroid gland.
• Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that has increased in incidence rates over the past several years. There are expected to be 11% more new cases in 2007 than in 2006 in the United States.
• The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 33,550 new cases of thyroid cancer in the U.S. in 2007. Of these new cases, about 25,480 will occur in women and about 8,070 will occur in men. About 1,530 people (880 women and 650 men) will die of thyroid cancer in 2007.
• Many patients, especially in the early stages of thyroid cancer, do not experience symptoms. However, as the cancer develops, symptoms can include a lump or nodule in the front of the neck, hoarseness or difficulty speaking, swollen lymph nodes, difficulty swallowing or breathing, and pain in the throat or neck.
• There are several types of thyroid cancer: papillary, follicular, medullary, anaplastic, and variants.

Several years ago I was diagnosed with Follicular thyroid cancer. As far as cancers go and thyroid cancer and specifically, follicular thyroid cancer is one of the most treatable cancers. I had stage II verging on stage III, the cancer had spread outside the thyroid but it had not spread into the lymph nodes. The treatment was a total thyroidectomy followed with radioactive iodine therapy. For more thyroid cancer information either click on this link Thyroid Cancer Survivors.