Suuuu Weeee

Swine Flu. A ton of schools locally have been closed until mid-May because of this new strain of flu. The Catholic dioceses is urging church members to stay home, Mayfest in Fort Worth has been cancelled, and almost all sporting events and extracurricular activities involving children have been cancelled too. However...Trader's Village is running commercials like they are going out of style for this weekend. I don't get it.

New Meds...New Me

Let me just say I am not embarrassed by this post at all. Obviously. Why would I post it if I were? I have been on different medications most of my adult life. I, like thousands of others, take anti-depressants. I have taken Prozac, Effexor, Wellbutrin, and now Zoloft. I think I finally found something that works. The others seemed to work, but not in every way I needed them to work. Zoloft seems to do the trick. I have more energy, balanced moods, and I feel good. I actually feel more chilled out than I am used to. I went to the doctor a few weeks ago because I just needed a change. I had reached my breaking point. It was hard for me to be happy. Poor Frank...I have been putting him through hormone hell. It was having a negative effect on everyone around me. Based on my symptoms, my Doctor thinks it could be partially hormone related. He did blood work to check my hormone levels and did give me a low dose hormone shot. So it's hard to tell if the hormone shot is making me feel better or if it is the meds or both. Regardless, I am happy.

Fertility Update

Since I had my surgery in January, I have not had a chance to truely "try". Timing was wrong in January because of the surgery and February I had a bad stomach bug when it was time to "try". So March will be my first time to really give this a go. I want to see if I can do this the natural way now that I have been cleaned out, so to speak.

Post-Op Update

I had my post-op appointment yesterday and everything looks great. I am all clear to start fertility treatments in just over a week!

Revolutionary Road - PSA for Anti-depressants

I saw Revolutionary Road last night and it was AMAZING. I really didn't know what to expect going in and I was blown away. It is a drama in every sense of the word. I am not going to give anything away or tell of the plot, but I will say that it was very authentic and true to its time period. In no way is the movie about anti-depressants or drugs, but it made me sure appreciate them. God bless modern medicine.

Body Brushing

I heard about body brushing about a year ago on an XM radio show. I bought a body brush at Origins, but never ended up doing anything with it. Body Brushing is a process that helps stimulate blood and lymph flow to eliminate toxins from the body. When done on a daily basis it has more long-term effects:



~helps combat cellulite
~removes dead skin cells
~strengthens the immune system
~tightens the skin
~tones the muscles
~improves circulation
~helps digestion

There are some good websites with more information, how to's, and types of brushes.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art46858.asp

http://spas.about.com/od/skincare/a/skinbrushing.htm

Cabin Fevah

Today is the 4th day of laying around doing absolutely nothing and I am losing my mind! I was hoping to go back to work tomorrow, but I can't go back until Tuesday. I think we are going to try to get out for a little while today. I would just like to put on shoes and be a part of society for a little bit. How do shut-in's do it?

I get my stiches out Monday afternoon and go back to work on Tuesday. Between now and then, I need to get back on a somewhat normal sleep schedule. I have ignored clocks since Thursday morning and have been keeping strange hours since.

Recovery

I had my surgery yesterday and everthing went really well. They did find endometriosis and got it all cleaned out. I have 3 small incisions on my lower abdomen. One at the belly button, and one on each side above the pelvis. I am definately feeling more pain today than yesterday, but I hope it starts to subside over the weekend. I get my stiches out Monday and go back to work Tuesday. I am already stir crazy!

Please Bear With Me!

I am trying to update my blog with new backgrounds and headers. I am learning how to create new headers of my own, etc. I also will be posting about my surgery soon. In the meantime, I will be swtiching from sleeping to frustrating myself trying to figure out this new blog thing. OK, time for pain meds and a nap. See ya!

Surgery

My long awaited surgery is just over a week away. I have had 3 doctors tell me I need to have this surgery and I am finally doing it. This exploratory laparoscopic procedure is to look for and clean out endometriosis and any other problems they might find. It could help my chances to conceive but will also take away the excruciating pain I have every month. I am not sure how I am going to approach fertility treatments after the surgery. I don't know if I want to just see what happens over a couple of months or just go straight to the Clomid and/or IUI. More to report on this after next Thursday.

Surgery Scheduled

I scheduled my surgery today! Never thought I would be excited about such a thing. This is the laproscopic surgery to look for and remove edometriosis. Which, will hopefully, resolve my infertility problems. The surgery is not scheduled until January, but I was told they schedule a couple months out in order to get the date you really want. It's really only 2 1/2 months away. Hopefully it will go by quick!

Test Results

I got the test results back from all my labs regarding the stomach problems I had been having. Everything came back clear. So, that's good. I thought about perusing it with another doctor, but I have not had any more episodes. I am thinking most of it was stress related. The worst part came at a time when Lucy was having surgery and we didn't know what was going on with Todd and all his hair loss. So unless anything else happens, I will not worry with this anymore. I feel goofy for getting tested and going through all of this for nothing to be found, but that's a good thing.

Another Health Update

I previously posted that I would have an appointment wih a specialist about my stomach problems. I went for my appointment today and got some good news, mixed with potential bad news. The good news is that the Doctor does not think I have Diverticulitis. The bad news is that it could either be an ulcer (not so bad) or Gall Bladder (can be bad). I did some lab work and will need to have an abdomonal sonogram then go back in a couple of weeks to find out what's up. If it's gall bladder, I might have to have surgery. Ugggg. If it's an ulcer, then I don't know what...but I am sure it's not a big deal. Stay tuned, more to come.

Health Update

My family Doctor has referred me to a specialist. I made my appointment today and I go in couple of weeks. At that time, they will schedule my...sigh...colonoscopy. Uggg. I feel like I am too young for this, you know? I just wish I could get it over sooner than later. I hate having to wait, let alone for something I don't want to do.

My Tummy Hurts

I have been having some stomach issues off and on for a couple of weeks now. About 2weeks ago, I was in pain from about an hour after I woke up until the next day. My stomach was cramping above my bellybutton but under my ribs pretty badly so I went to the Urgent Care facility down the street Friday night. They tested me for an ulcer (which came back negative) and basically told me to schedule an appointment with my family doctor and go buy some Maalox. Since then, I have had problems off and on, not as severe though. So today I went to see the doctor and he thinks I might have a small case of diverticulitis. He prescribed some antibiotics and wants me to schedule a "procedure" within the next couple weeks...let's just say my other option is a colonoscopy and THAT sounds better than this. With the colonoscopy, at least I would be sedated. That is all I know right now. I don't know which test I will have to do or when I have to do it. I just know that I have 2 weeks of this medication and I need to modify my diet. My doctor did tell me some foods to avoid and ones to eat. So, bye-bye salad, salsa, seeds, corn, broccoli...sigh...I am sure there are a lot more foods, so off to the web I go.

Lucy's Recovery

Lucy is still recovering from her back surgery 2 weeks ago, but she is doing GREAT! We still have to crate her, but when we do let her out to go potty, she tries to play. She has a lot of energy and I stopped her pain meds a few days ago. She is still wobbly and she has a hard time with her back footing. Last night, we let her go into the kitchen to "vacuum" up some cheese Frank dropped on the floor and she nearly flipped right over! It looked like she was flipping over her handle bars. I caught her before she finished the flip thank goodness. The Vet says it was probably because of her back legs not being 100%. She goes for her surgery follow up visit on the 23rd, so hopefully after that, we can stop crating her when we are home.

Home Sweet Home

I returned from Shannon's this afternoon and was very happy to see my little Lucy Pie (and Toddler and Frank too!). Lucy is doing really well. She will stay in her crate for the next 3 to 4 weeks, but gets to go outside to potty with us having to carry her to the yard. We have her crate out in the living room so she can be with the rest of the family. She doesn't mind being in there as long as she can see us. She is getting a lot of much needed rest also.

Here is a picture of our little Frankenlucy (it's hard to see the staples down the middle of her back. She looks like a little football.)

Lucy Comes Home Tomorrow!

Lucy gets to come home from the doggy hospital tomorrow. Frank will pick her up in the morning because I will be en route to see Shannon in Wichita, KS. I feel bad I won't get to see her until Monday. But with everything going on, I really do need to get away. Todd started his Thyroid medication today so hopefully with that, and Lucy coming home, things can start (slowly) getting back to normal.

Todd Update with a Side of Lucy Pie

I got Todd's blood work back today and it looks like he has a Thyroid problem. I only spoke to the vet tech, but I will get more detailed info from the Vet tomorrow(she wasn't in today). The good news is that it is easily controlled with medication. But geeze...this is insane. It can only get better from here. I am stess eating and I am exhausted over all that's going on with my babies.

Lucy is doing well after her surgery. She is urinating on her own and ate some chicken today in doggy ICU. She will be taken off the pain IV tonight (which will stop her drooling hopefully). They told me she has a little landing strip shaved down the middle of her back. I can only imagine it looks sad and cute at the same time.

Lucy Pie Update

Today I took the day off work and took little Lucy pie to the Veterinary Neurologist in Dallas for her exam and evaluation. Just as we thought, they wound up needing to do a myelogram which is an x-ray where they inject a dye into the spinal column to see what's going on. They were able to see that something was wrong, but needed to do a cat scan to see further. It turns out she had 2 herniated discs in her middle back and some spinal bleeding. They had to put her under for the x-ray, so they called me with the results and after my ok, they went directly into surgery. About an hour and half later, the Vet called and said the surgery went well and she was recovering as expected in doggy ICU. She will spend the night in the doggy ICU and they will call me tomorrow to let me know how she is doing. They said she will be there for about 3-5 days. They will not let her come home until she is going potty on her own and eating on her own. It's been a hard day with lots of tears early on, but I am very happy she is going to be better. It will take some time, but I am glad she will not be in pain anymore. Her problem is congenital and has probably been bothering her for a long time, which explains why she has been so standoff-ish and anti-social for a while. Frank and I thought she was just socially deficient. I will post again tomorrow when I hear from the vet. Oh, and the Vet is some French dude who I can barely understand. He went to school in Switzerland, did his residency in the States, went back to Switzerland to teach, and then moved back here to work. He also has several publications and does lectures. So...I feel like she is in good hands. :)

And not to leave Todd Monster out of this, he had blood taken at the vet the other day to see what's going on with his "beyond shedding" hair loss so we should have the results back tomorrow to see what's going on. The Vet thinks it could be a Thyroid problem or he's just getting old. She said when dogs get old their hair thins and they shed even more. He is 6 years old, so that could be it. We will know for sure tomorrow.