Welcome to The-eLPy Dimension

Hello there, how are you? Alright here. Little bit of stress and anxiety, little extra I mean because I had to have a blood test to check up on my thyroid levels. This is a new thing for me. Admittedly I feel strange, like I’m airing dirty laundry talking about it here. I’m thinking about family reading it, like wow that’s personal. But guess you can’t be too surprised seeing as I talk about my anxiety right? And yet… What makes me want to share for sure is thinking about Ritu at But I Smile Anyway and the piece she wrote for the site Cysters. Her piece is titled PCOS-er And Proud! She shares her experience living with polycystic ovaries, how she didn’t know as a teen and then struggled as an adult trying to start a family. It’s a really interesting and eye-opening piece, I encourage you to read it. I knew nothing about PCOS, though I’d heard the words I didn’t know what it can be like for women living with this condition. Her story reminds us, it’s good to share. It’s good to be heard.

So I’m saying it here, I have recently been told I have an under-active thyroid. I don’t really have a story to tell just that this was almost relieving. It helped to explain why I felt a little extra depressed, extra tired all day, and have been having more trouble losing weight than what is my usual experience (my weight fluctuates a lot…my diet fluctuates a lot 😉 Lol.) Of course no one wants to hear your body isn’t doing something right on its own, that it’s kind of malfunctioning but answers are nice. I’m in the beginning of dealing with this situation so we’ll see.

Doctor said start Levothyroxine and get your blood checked again in six weeks. Now that was before Covid-19 took over and the call to stay at home was put in place. It didn’t take me long to say, well I’ll just wait this out and get my blood drawn once it’s safe. But, well you know, this big ole virus situation ain’t such a small ordeal and ain’t going away soon. So I’ve been wondering what I should do. The reason they need to draw my blood again, and probably often if this is a thing, is so they can see if my current dosage is working or if I need more. Today I finally called the doctor’s office and asked if I needed to get this test. Triage nurse said yes. We need to know if it’s working. Okay, thanks. (Anxiety said: SHIT!)

Luckily there are walk-in labs for diagnostic matters, I don’t have to go to the actual hospital, but still. With my mask on I went. Got it done. Nervous the whole time wondering if my mask would keep me safe, if the hand sanitizer would keep me safe, if I should do extra things like take my fleece off before I go home (I did but I think that was overkill). But I thought too about all the women in there (didn’t see any guys, sorry). Soldiers for real. Here I am shaking in my boots for the quick in and out visit I’m conducting. Were there sick people here today? They’re in there every day. They’re in there all day. They see us all. They have to watch us nervous, and probably think how do you think I feel? I stood at check in after questioning my relaxed position in the chair in the waiting room, which was like 10 feet from the check in point. I feel really stupid, standing there like the chair would kill me if I sat in it. I apologized. She thanked me for staying standing. That simple, I felt better.

Now I wait. I wait for my thyroid function cascade panel (something to that effect, the whole shebang) and for time to pass and tell me I’m not going to develop Covid-19. I think about my symptoms (thyroid, not Covid cause I don’t have that). I am still having what feels like trouble losing weight but I’m not quite as tired throughout the day as I was. Nor am I as depressed but my irritability, hm, that’s something that’ll fight you (or me and everything in my circle) like an angry badger. The science me is looking forward to the results, see where this thing takes me. Why? Because what if I do need a stronger dose, if my thyroid is still being lazy (that’s probably not the best way to describe it)? Then they might up my dose. Okay you’re waving your hand, come on what’s the point Elpy? What if feeling better is that close to me? Get it now? Cool.

😀 Okay so that’s the important part of my day. (A small, no his voice is loud. Okay a loud voice in my head, that of one of my characters who recently visited the Saloon at The Carrot Ranch, is reminding me I’m still making excuses for not focusing on my book. He thinks I should mention that to you guys.)

The rest of this post is the light, fluffy stuff I want to share: anticipated reading for the rest of April and May and my recent book haul from Book Outlet! I did not open that box for three days by the way, so I feel good about that, and I sanitized my hands after touching it. 😉 The books are on my shelf now and happy to breathe again. The books I plan to read next are from a Book Outlet haul last year (I recently found them after wondering what happened to all those books…) Oh wait, one book is from Book Depository because it’s an Australian publication and at the time that was the only place I could get it. Let’s get started. I’ll post the pictures then list them with links to Goodreads.

What I plan to read after I finish Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee (really interesting contemporary fiction novel about a character with mental illness) and in the order I show them:

• Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina – 2019 – YA Fantasy, mystery – It was thanks to Books and Tea with Brittany (her blog has since been deleted) that I discovered this book written by an Australian Aborigine and has won awards. Yeah! I am now learning that this book was given a different title (?) in the U.S.: The Things She’s Seen. Apparently because they didn’t understand it? That frustrates me…ugh. But this is up next, it’s short and I’m excited.
• Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor – 2015 – Sci-fi, fantasy – This is the author of Binti (OMG why haven’t I finished that series!) and The Book of Phoenix, both of which I’ve read and enjoyed, especially Binti. Naturally, you find an author you like you follow them and go back for their other stuff. 😉
• Akata Witch (Akata Witch, #1) by Nnedi Okorafor – 2011 – YA Fantasy, children’s middle grade – As I said above, I’m a fan of this author. I saw she wrote this interesting sounding book (nominated for Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel 2012) and I was curious. Curious in part too to see if might be a cool rec for my niece.
• A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic, #1) by V.E. Schwab – 2016 – YA Fantasy – I learnt of this author from her interview on the Writing Excuses Podcast (awesome podcast btw). I’ve also heard her mentioned it seems everywhere else. She is a prolific writer. V.E. Schwab is her pseudonym for her adult work, while Veronica Schwab is for her young adult and middle grade work. This will be the first of her work I’ve finally read. I picked up the box set from Book Outlet last year, so I hope I like it as much as other people because I have the trilogy!
• Stay tuned as I read them in this order!

And these are the books I picked up recently (for cheap!).

• The Art of X-Ray Reading by Roy Peter Clark – 2016 – non-fiction for writers, Charli @ The Carrot Ranch suggested I read this while discussing our joy of dissecting while reading for the sake of writing. 😉 (The first link of title goes to Goodreads, the second to The Carrot Ranch Dynamic Literary Community.)
• Kind of Coping: An Illustrated Look at Life with Anxiety by Maureen Marzi Wilson – 2019 – Graphic arts, sequential art non-fiction about mental health, started reading when I picked it up out of the box. Really great, recommend for anxiety folks and folks who know anxiety folks
• Starfish by Akemi Dawn Bowman – comtemporary YA fiction, mental health – SilverWolfReads talks about this book in her post about 2018 book releases you might have missed out on
• I Really Didn’t Think this Through by Beth Evans – 2018 – memoir, sequential arts, mental health – SchizoWhatNow wrote a post about mental illness related graphic novels that they recommend. I looked them up on Book Outlet and didn’t find any of them at the time but this popped up and interested me. This is also how I came to get Kind of Coping.
• Planetfall (Planetfall, #1) by Emma Newman – 2015 – Sci-fi – Emma Newman was on Tim Clare’s podcast Death of A Thousand Cuts last year I think it was. She was interesting which made her work sound that much more interesting and so, to the TBR it went and now i’m finally going to read it! And while I don’t know if the series is finished I know there’s at least two more books out in this series.
• The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood – 2015 (my paperback, 2016) – Sci-fi, Australia – Here is another Thank-A-Podcaster find. I heard an interview with this author on The Garret and was interested in this book. I highly recommend that podcast, it’s all about Australian literary arts and I love the host, Astrid Edwards.
• Lanny by Max Porter – 2019 – fiction, magical realism – I believe I discovered this book last year thanks to an article on LitHub. I think. Don’t quote me on that. It’s about a tree/forest on the edge of town and that was enough for me, although I did read the synopsis on Goodreads before adding, you should follow the link above. Oh and it received a lot of nominations and is just over 200 pages. Probably read sooner than later.
• Crown of Feathers (Crown of Feathers, #1) by Nicki Pau Preto – 2019 – YA Fantasy – Here is another Thank You to SilverWolfReads for some interesting book introductions. I don’t even remember what this is about except warrior queens and warriors who ride phoenixes! Add to it the hardcover was available for cheap on Book Outlet. 🙂 I have learned just now that this is a trilogy and the second book came out in February.
• Interference (Semiosis Duology, #2) by Sue Burke – 2019 – Sci-fi – Shucks, I don’t recall how I first heard of Semiosis (book 1) but I read it (click for review to left) and I really enjoyed it. It’s a first contact book with a unique concept. She hooked me at…plants. 🙂

So there you have it, some personal updates (I promise to keep you updated) and some bookish updates. Now let’s see if I can get some of MY BOOK work done and hear from my characters. Wouldn’t that be nice, if I could talk about my own freaking book? Yes, yes, be patient little one. 😉

Let me know if you’ve read any of these, plan to or are interested (please don’t leave any spoilers). If you add something to your TBR thanks to me I’d really appreciate it if you give me a shout out for it. 😀 Oh and if you want to partake in some kind of buddy read, let me know in the comments. I hope to start Catching Teller Crow this weekend or next week. Alright, onward!