Progress report

So, back to the beginning, this time with Azar. +252, 81.738, 59 days left.

I'll do an excerpt, because I haven't in a while. I figure anything past the middle would be too spoilery to post.

Finally she saw a familiar figure in dusty orange among the crowd, her grey hair standing out in a sea of black. Azar waved, and her mother turned toward her. She embraced her mother and kissed her cheeks.


“Are you here alone?”

Azar shook her head. “Ayman said he would come after he dropped Zaynab off at his parents’. They’re going to watch the broadcast on their vid at home, so they’re taking care of her and Amal. Where’s Dad?”

Sahar laughed. “He had some business to attend to at the tea house. He’ll be here later.”

Azar looked around. There was no one within hearing distance. “That would be a better use of the day than coming here,” she said quietly. “We’re not likely to get anything but doggerel poetry and a patchwork of recycled slogans.” She and her comrades in the resistance had some recycled slogans of their own. This celebration of an injustice was a good time to make a stand. She prayed it wouldn’t be as disastrous as the last protests.

“Twenty-five years,” Sahar murmured. “I can hardly believe it’s been that long.” Her hand went to the scar on her temple, the permanent reminder that she’d fought against the coup and risked her life for her beliefs.

Azar was just carrying on the family tradition.

Medical stuff

I've been alternating a whole and a half Cytomel 25 mcg tablet for the last few weeks, and it's been going better. I think I'll ask about getting a prescription for 4x5 mcg tablets a day at my appointment in a couple weeks, because the half-tablet days are noticeably more symptomatic. Like right now, my ears are ringing, and they were fine yesterday, and I've got the slightest headache.

Cytomel has a 2.5-day half-life, which is fairly short. You reach steady state fairly quickly (2 weeks), but you also have more fluctuations in the levels throughout the dosing interval. So taking the same dose every day would be beneficial.

I go for fasting lab work on Friday. Cholesterol, blood chemistry, CBC, and thyroid levels. Yay. My white count may be a bit elevated, since I've had a cold for about a week. It's much better, and I feel mostly fine, except I have a stuffy nose and a productive cough. I've stopped sounding like a 90-year-old smoker, at least, though my voice isn't completely back to normal.