4 weeks later... still sick (long sorry!)

The day of my last post I decided to go to the ER that night. They sent me home after 10 mins which was a crock of crap. I went in with severe pain in my right upper quadrant of my stomach and 5x (sorry for the TMI) blood in my stool since 11 am. The doctor said I pulled a muscle coughing (I had the coughing stuffy nose crud week before) and a hemmorhoid and to follow up with my doctor a week later and prescribes me a LAXATIVE... no blood tests, no CT to look at stomach, nothing. Did this man not listen when I said I'd had FIVE that day??? Two days later I call my doctor's office because I can't get out of a ball the pain is so intense and the nurse (she's a total biotch on the phone and so nice to me in person because she recognizes me from the lab) says the doctor agrees with the ER report and to go to the walk in clinic or back to ER if it's "really that bad" in a snotty tone. This was at 3:45 in the afternoon and I called her at 8 am when they opened! How rude! So off to walk in clinic I go.

Dr. Reeves at walk in decides it's my gallbladder and orders a med 3x a day with food. I can't keep food in me at this point and it makes me feel like my stomach is going to explode. Orders pregnancy test, urine culture, and gives me a prescription. Tells me to hold out for Dr appt the following week and orders an ultrasound to take with me to doctor. Ultrasound comes back normal, just some granulomas in the spleen (sign of infection). My primary doctor cancels appt until after I get in for the ultrasound and because his office is so friggin busy it's yet another week before I can be seen there.

Next week I decide I can't wait, the pain is getting insane and go back to walk in because my doctor can't budge to get me in. I'm pissed off and frustrated because it's been 2 weeks of not eating and intense pain at this point and yet to see my own darn doctor. This is Dr. Porvaznik who says no it's not your gallbladder or you'd have a stone I think it's an ulcer. Has me drop the other meds and gives me new meds. Orders a CMP, Amylase, and CBC labs. The girl blew a vein because I'm so dehydrated and I'm normally an easy stick. I'll be seeing my doctor in a few days. I'm down 10 pounds. from appt week prior. Dairy is the worst thing to eat. I ate ice cream my boss brought me and spent 2 days in bed feeling like I could puke at any second.

I meet with my doctor and he says no he doesn't think it's an ulcer it sounds more like gallbladder based on pain and symptoms. Discontiues ulcer meds and orders a cholescintigraphy and EGD scope down the throat for last week while he's gone in case that's normal.

Fast forward to last Monday. I go for the cholescintigraphy. The guy can't get a vein anywhere other than palm side of my wrist and blows it. Test ends up coming back normal. I go to walk in clinic because on Sunday I noticed I have a lump pop up in my left upper abdomen. This makes me really start to panic. I had a friend who had metal rods like mine and he had random infections start popping up after battling sinuses and bronchitis for a month and his body had started fighting his rods... it was a mess. This doctor says it's my lymph nodes and I clearly have an infection somewhere (no fever, in fact i've been in the 97s most days) and orders a barium swallow CT for Friday. I go back on Tuesday because my hands and legs feel weak and shaky like when you first get out of the shower and I'm anxious and crying. I'm frustrated because I want answers and to know if I should keep going to work. Like am I getting sicker going to work and being around the germs? Am I putting patients/coworkers at jeopardy by being there? This doctor says she's not even sure why I'm there because they can't seem to help me and wants to send me back to ER... remember what happened a few weeks ago? No thanks and you already took my copayment biotch! This doctor says it's not my lymph nodes, she thinks it's just pockets of fat popping up since I'm losing so much weight (WTF lady????) and they hurt because I can't keep my hands off my stomach so I'm making them hurt. I'm an emotional wreck and scared to talk after this because she made me feel crazy :( Orders the EGD my primary doctor has pending for Thursday.

Thursday comes and I go to IMA Endoscopy for my scope. Dr. Selo performs it. He's really nice and actually listens and so did his nurses. He doesn't see any ulcers but takes biopsies for H Pylori tests and he also suspects Celiac's Disease. Why had anyone else not thought of this? Googling it I have 9/10 gastrointestinal symptoms, along with the shaky limbs, messed up menstral cycles, sudden lactose intolerance, etc. I'm still waiting to hear back on biopsies.

Friday I do Barium CT (wouldn't recommend it ugh) and I hear back yesterday that I have a 1 cm lesion in my liver. I have to do a repeat in a month to track it.

So here I am, no official diagnosis. I've had to drop a class because I was missing a test last Thursday and going to have to take a 0/100 on both lab and lecture tests. He would only let me make it up this Monday and I had Federal Jury Duty so he recommended I withdraw. 11 weeks of class down the drain. I'm down a pants size and still want to do nothing but sleep and hug a pillow. Yesterday was 4 weeks. So I guess we'll see if I'll be living a gluten free life after these final biopsies come back.

So I failed...

Sorry about that. Let's see I'm sick currently. Last week I had the city come to inspect the hell hole we pay $700 a month to rent to try and fight our landlord to fix it. Now we just play the waiting game. I'm going to be honest, I've never been happy to hear someone is getting divorced, but I cannot wait until my landlords' is final and someone decides to do something to help their tenants not the pocketbook they are fighting each other for. Plus they have 4 kids who are constantly stuck in the middle and that's not cool at all. Here's a 3 picture teaser (there's over 40 pics and a complete notice to the Landlord on facebook if you're interested).

The awesome yellow stains that cover ALL my linoleum on the ground floor. Former tenants' had 3 dogs and were 3 single young men... I can only guess what I'm stepping on.

We're pretty sure a small child died in our living room... we were told to put our couch over it.. no thanks!

We have two doors like this... It's awesome NOT!

Courtney asked about weight loss. It's sort of plateaued. Once I switched to night shifts I've started living on chocolate and caffeine, but I only seem to eat a meal a day. I ordered my dress and can only lose 10 lbs or I'll need alterations. I'm weening myself off regular Mt. Dew slowly but surely and will get back on track. I just want to look good in honeymoon pics and not feel like a whale. I've lost more size wise than on the scale. I'm starting to realize that I'll never be happy with what the 3 little digital numbers say, I never have been and just need to feel happy with what I see. My "girls" however seem to have picked up all that was lost in the waist area so I had to order a bigger dress no matter what. Call me a late bloomer I suppose!

Shane has started his new job at For Bare Feet in Helmsburg. We'll be part of the Brown County scene now and hope to run into Mrs. Clowers soon! I'm over at BC HS for anatomy classes twice a week. He's a Network Administrator and gets to wear jeans to work, I think that's a favorite part! Well besides mandatory week off between Christmas and New Year's. That's an amazing feature for any employer to do and impossible to see these days. Everyone I've met over in Brown County talks about what a wonderful company it is and how much they care about their workers and so far so good. I get a discount on super cool socks and am now considered a "local" discount when shopping over there, I love it :)

I work Tues-Sat 10:30p-7a in Medical Records at Bloomington Hospital now. It's been an adjustment to say the least. I feel myself learning more medical concepts though and was proud of myself recognizing cholesterol clusters in a photo last week ha! I get to wear scrubs so I'm always comfy. I hated to leave my job in the lab. I absolutely loved that job, but wanted full-time benefits. I feel like I never get to do anything fun though because I sleep during the day and am stuck there at night on the weekends. I knew this going into it and was willing to make the sacrifice. It'll get better once all the other new people are trained and can cover alone so I can ask off. I'll be working on Halloween AND Thanksgiving this year. Probably the night of Christmas too.

And just because everyone loves pics of kids, I'll finish with my sisters!

3 months... oops

I really didn't mean to let 3 months slip by sorry folks. We've just had so much going on that perhaps I'll promise to do a topic a day and journal over the next week. I'll go ahead and give you a list of the highlights so you can see what's coming in the days ahead.

• We moved
• I've been dress shopping a few times
• Shane got a promotion
• School started for the both of us
• I switched departments at the hospital and now work full-time
• I've created a wedding website, still working on it.

That's all I can think of for now. We also had a little wedding party drama, but I don't think I need to write about that :( For the record, I've been logging in and keeping up on everyone else's lives though!

Whoops!

So I'm went missing sorry. I'm back I promise!

First off before you get bored and leave, I'm giving all you ladies a challenge in my weight loss journal. www.whatsmyweightagain.blogspot.com if you've not checked it out. I've also been slacking on there too.

Second, why I've been slacking. We've been everywhere looking at wedding venues and I'm pretty sure we've found the one. I just need to meet with the banquet coordinator. Shane's mom went into the hospital last week. She had to have a pacemaker put in, but is home and doing well. Probably bored not driving, but doing well! Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts, they were appreciated. I've also been working extra hours at the hospital and CB so I really just have no free time sometimes. I swear I'm reading everyone's stories though, just not having anything to say myself!

Third, I dropped my summer class. It was going to be awkward going to class on Monday & Wednesday 2-5 to where I couldn't pick up more work at either job. Plus trying to schedule appointments to plan the wedding, and hit the gym. I'm just going to take it in the fall.

Ok I think that's it. Told you all I'm boring!!! In all seriousness, I'm going to be doing this challenge even if I'm alone so please check it out!

So sorry for the hiatus...

I've been so busy it's crazy. I thought I was suppose to enjoy my time between classes but apparently not. I'm still not sure where I want my wedding to be. I have two places I like, but it's not like when you find a dress or something and say oh that's the one and just know it. In the end I think it'll be a lot of DIY stuff to make it how I want it to look or feel. Anyone want to volunteer to make lots of tissue paper decorations lol?

Lauren had her 3rd dance recital. I forgot my camera in the other car. Mom's camera wouldn't work (that happens when you drop it!) and my cell phone pics were crappy so I'll post a pic from her professional ones when they are back. The outfits were flipping adorable! Black and hot pink whick I love together! She tapped to Zippidy Doo Da! and was the tallest in the back row of her class just like her old sister ha!

I've been considering for awhile applying for overnight jobs at the hospital just to either get more hours or get more money. Plus I've been told you can do homework at most of them. I use to be more of a night owl than I've become (could be 7:30 work helping that) and I'm still struggling to want to get out of bed that early. I don't know. I guess that leads me to my next and final point since I'm starting to ramble....

Does anyone else ever feel like something is missing? I don't neccessarily feel unhappy because I like where I'm heading. I've been doing the jazzercise and weight watchers for the weight. I've cut and highlighted my hair recently. I've bought a few summer outfits that are a lil more dressy in an attempt to dress up a bit more. I just feel like something isn't there that I need to be but I can't figure out what it is that I'm searching for or what I think I need to feel. But in all seriousness it's not that I'm unhappy so I can't figure out what my deal is. Am I just a weirdo?

Summer Vacation?!?!

In the words of Shane, this isn't a vacation at all! He took 3 days off this week so we could go to Evansville and all we've done is go, go, & go! Joni Jetta is racking up the miles this week! We went to Indy and up to Ft. Wayne for a wedding Saturday. Wednesday we headed to a concert in Evansville and back up through Washington to see Amber & the kids in Plainville yesterday. Today we're heading down to Lake Monroe and over to Brown County to look at wedding venues and then back to Bloomington for dinner with both our families. Tomorrow we have his mother's graduation in Ft. Wayne at 11a.m. and I'm leaving from there to come down for the Relay for Life benefit for Team Andrea in Washington.

Oh and if you haven't looked on facebook, I chopped all my hair off and put some subtle highlights. I figure I have this summer to be carefree and then I'll grow it out starting in the fall. Lord knows this thick mop will grow back in a month or two easily!

Weight Watchers...

I'm starting a Weight Watchers blog if anyone is interested in following it. It probably won't be that exciting until later. Being as I'm on week 1 and not to my 2nd weigh in yet, I cannot promise you'll be waiting on a twitter update anytime soon!

Catching up....

Greetings! We've officially decided on June 26, 2010 for our wedding date. We want to be able to honor the memory of Shane's father and that would be his birthday weekend. Plus we're hoping for amazing weather. Now we're deciding on what kind of wedding we want to have, church or not church wedding. I'm torn but we don't have a "home church" up here and I don't want to use a church just have one.

I'm going into Finals week next week. I'm going to be so glad to have this semester over with! I'm going to use my extra time between now and summer classes to start sorting through our mass of belongings and hopefully have a moving sale in June. So much to do and not a lot of time to do it seems to be my problem. We seriously have something to do every weekend between now and July and it's usually out of town.

Tonight I'm starting Weight Watcher meetings in person. I've tried online before with some success, but my goal is high and I need someone to hold me accountable. I know Shane loves me no matter what, but I feel like I need to be in love with myself when I look in the mirror. I've had 2 people ask me if I'm having a baby in the past 2 weeks (granted an older man and a 3 yr old child but still!) and it irritates me! Plus we're doing the Indy Mini Marathon this weekend so it'll help my activities points! We're walking but still. I hate when I tell people and they are like oh you're just walking? Really?!?! You get up and walk 13.2 miles and tell me how easy it is!

Ok hope everyone has a great week! Unless I have something super fantastic to report, I doubt I'm back until after finals to post myself!

Engaged!!!!

Sorry for the delay in the blog! If you've been hiding under a rock or just do not follow facebook or myspace I AM ENGAGED!!!!! Shane and I were going to have a "date night" Tuesday after my class at Malibu Grille. It went really well and the cheesecake was amazing. We came home and I found these pretty red roses waiting on the bar.

My first question and thought was why on earth are you getting me more flowers after I got the pretty ones last week???? He then reaches in his pocket and says that's not all I got you and well the rest is still a blur but next thing I know he was on one knee and I was saying yes!!!! I just kept asking Really??? This is for real right??? Ha!

The center stone is the famous Cushette from Goldcaster's so no matter all the tricks everyone is telling me I can't catch it very well. Must be all those facets (and I love seeing it in light ha ha!)

That's both the rings together. Basically the wedding band will match my band now. It's the perfect ring set for me, it truly is! But most of all, he went to get it during the big Bridal Expo show and picked me up all the info from the vendors!

Such a loving and caring man! I couldn't asking for anyone better! No set date yet, but we're thinking next summer. We just need to get through finals then we will worry. I'll probably start a wedding blog so it doesn't consume every post on here.

As for the delay in blogging, I went to stay with Jeff and the girls after it happened. I had to take Lauren to school on Weds. Well Jeff told me she fell in the toyroom and would have a bruise on her face in the morning if I wondered what it was from. Well it was more like a big purple bump beside her eye and into her eyelid. Long story short she ended up vomiting out of no where on the way to school (and all over my car and books in the backseat) and couldn't stop. We got into the doctor right away and had to go to the hospital to get a CT scan. It came back normal but she never ran a fever or anything like it was the flu. Since she complained of a headache all night and morning they gave her nausea medicine and she was back to normal by dinner and ate! Too bad Joni Jetta got covered 4 different times in the process but thank goodness for Southern IN Peds letting us borrow a bucket to avoid more mess! You can never be too careful with a head injury but she was not acting normal and could not stop getting sick. Mom was on travel and panicing by phone the whole time (which was about 4.5 hrs by the time we got back home) and I went through it alone! Needless to say my best 24 hours ever, turned into the worst and I'm emotionally drained this week.

Have a good weekend! I'll be home this weekend for girls weekend and hope to show off my ring in person!

TGIF....

I came home from lunch today to these beautiful flowers on my doorstep from Shane! I've been so stressed and grumpy the last 24 hours that he sent me flowers out of the blue to say he loved me! Everyday with him is such a blessing and keeps me looking forward to several tomorrows!

Have a great weekend!

The past week in a nutshell...

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter! Unfortunately I spent the day working 10-3 at Cracker Barrel, but was able to eat leftovers at my mom's after my shift. Considering I had dreamed about deviled eggs twice in the week before, I was more than ready to dig in! I did get to see the girls do an egg hunt. Claire was over it after I helped her find 4 eggs. I wish I had remembered my camera, but I did get a couple of shots on my phone of Claire after her blue ring pop prize!

As you can see, she also had to have a pair of my sunglasses on her head like mine! They were also covered in blue sticky mess!

This was when she was checking her blue tongue out in the mirror. She thought it was hilarious! Shane went up north to Ft. Wayne for Easter with his family, but came home around 7:30 to get his basket from the Easter Bunny at mom's house.

Monday was such a gloomy day I decided to go the tanning bed and starting getting a lil color before we open the pool later in the month. Horrible decision! Either they changed the bulbs or my skin had a reaction to the new lotion I tried! I have never been so burnt that I can recall! I only did an 11 minute stand up. My under arms and sides are still lobster red, but my face has a nice bronze tint today. Needless to say Jazzercise is being put off until Friday because it hurts to move my arms or wear deodorant.

In other news, my poor car! It's in the shop because whatever is in the catalytic converter was low, but it's under factory warranty so it's being replaced for free. Upon taking it to the shop last night I discovered a good 8-9 inch scratch down my rear passenger door with a door ding at the end of it! It wasn't there before parking in the employee lot at the hospital yesterday and it makes me angry. I don't understand how people can be so careless with other people's vehicles! I've been parking way far away from other cars at Kroger and Cracker Barrel to avoid these! Plus it's good exercise right?

I forgot to say that I snuck down home last Weds for a couple of hours. I had to come meet Braxton! Congrats to Craig & Kayla Neidigh on such a handsome lil man! I forgot my camera, but his Aunt Melissa got some neat photos. I could not believe how high all the rivers were already so I can only imagine how many more roads are closed after the rain the past few days! We also got to enjoy some Mi Pueblo's and man oh man do I miss that place!

Other than that I'm back to the boring life. I posted a link on facebook about my program Radiation Therapy if you're curious or just don't get what it is.

Have a good week!

Oh my aching legs...

As you can guess from the title I'm so sore! Jazzercise is going great and I look forward to the classes! I'm skipping one right now because I can barely lift my legs, but plan to pick up Friday and Saturday. Everyone thinks of it as a bunch of old ladies in spanex, but I can tell you ladies if you miss dance you'd love it. There's such a variety of music (even the annoying Not my Name song ha ha!) and most of the steps are fairly easy, it's all the kicking and arm weights that did me in this week! I'll have to go low impact and work my way back up. If you're in the area and interested, the site is www.bloomingtonjazzsite.com

If you follow my statuses on facebook, you'll recall me talking about those patches for your feet as seen on tv. I still love them, and wake up happy. If you can sleep in socks I totally recommend them, but I hate socks so I've cut back just because I get hot. Last night was the first time I wore the patches in a week (in an attempt to suck the toxins out and relieve my sore thighs) and well it was gross but hey that shows it's working. I wish I liked tea so I could detox in other ways. I'm still considering doing the Master Cleanse, but perhaps this summer when I have more time at home.

Simple little blog, just to state that I'm feeling great and ready to get back into shape and feel better. This weather is doing a number on my sinuses, but that is what April is suppose to do in Indiana right?

Shane's Birthday

Monday was Shane's birthday. Finally he turned 24 so I don't look like a total cradle robber ha! Sunday my family made a brunch and Shane's mother Cindy came down to visit. As usual, the food was amazing! Lauren helped me pick out Shane's present over her Spring Break 2 weeks ago and kept the secret! I was so impressed because even at Christmas she was dropping hints to people if she knew the presents! He's so hard to shop for but he loves watches so I got him his first "bling" from me, a Citizen watch. It charges off of light which is amazing! Monday he spent a majority of it with friends, but I had an Anatomy test last night and a Trig test tonight to study for so it worked out. They played Magic the Gathering in the other room and I studied then took pics to show my haircut off finally! We went to Malibu Grille for dinner as a group and enjoyed Martini Monday. He says it was a great birthday! The rest of the album is on my facebook account!

A typical Friday...

Fridays are typically my day to relax, and by relax I mean work on homework. I always meet Shane for lunch at 1 though! Wednesday I was able to meet him for lunch and he surprised me with Daffodils he bought for Daffodil Days. They really started to bloom last night so I had to get a couple of pictures this morning! Then I decided to crack the blinds to perk them a little more and I like this pic from this afternoon! Most Fridays I go home and catch up on my DVR at my apartment (I have AT&T so I can DVR 4 shows at once, totally recommend it if available in your area) but today I'm spending it with my 2 best friends, Jordan and Murphy. Jordan is Shane's roommate Mike's dog, but she thinks she's my 2nd lap dog. There's no convincing her she can't fit on it sometimes!
They were jealous of the pics I was taking of my flowers, and no I'm not kidding!

I went to bed last night with a bad headache at 10:30ish and slept until 11:15 this morning! I really only woke up because Murphy was nose to nose with me asking to go potty! It still aches but I can open my left eye which I could barely do last night. I think it is from stress. Cracker Barrel keeps having me close both Friday and Saturday nights as a cashier the past 3 weekends. I HATE cashiering there. Every manager but the one in charge of retail has asked me if I like it and I express it. She never listens if I do talk. We have people who work a day a month but she told me she'd keep me on after the holidays for a night a week, sometimes maybe none and I'm getting 2-3. I don't need them or want them and people who do are mad they aren't getting hours. If I close i'm there until 11-midnight depending on when the last tables come in. It's ridiculous! Plus we've been slow so the others get to leave 2-3 hours early so I'm stuck alone and unable to even go potty or get a drink. It will only get worse when another girl goes on maternity leave so I think I'm going to tell her give me my retail shifts back or accept my 2 weeks notice. I've been ticked off since I was informed last week that it was inconvenient to let me off to go to Andrea's viewing since it was Friday night fish on Spring Break. Really when is a funeral for a 29 year old convenient? I honestly thought I was going to get fired she was that mad! Last I checked I didn't need permission, I was going whether she cared or not! Perhaps it'd be different if it was my only job, but it's 3rd on my priority list. School is first, Bloomington Hospital is 2nd because well it pays way better and pays for the school and then Cracker Barrel. I like the extra money but I'd like the extra time with my boyfriend, family, and friends, especially in the summer. We're not broke, I just liked the people I'd get to talk to in retail so I stayed to get the easy cash. Oh I forgot to mention I make less on the hour cashiering than I did in retail. How that is when its triple the responsibility is beyond me.

Ok sorry for the rant but I'm just upset. It's Shane's birthday weekend and I have a huge anatomy test on Tues, and trig test on Weds so I already felt like I couldn't give him the time I should. Tonight I'll be going into CB at 6 (right when he gets off work) til close, wake up to work at the hospital 8:30 to 3, then back to CB 5-close tomorrow. We bowl on Sundays but we're going to do a brunch with his mom and my family. Monday is his actual birthday and I have class, but he wants to wait for his present until then. I guess I'll give it to him at Malibu Grill when we celebrate with friends. I've informed them I can only afford enough time for dinner then it's study, study, study!

On a happier note, I received a card in the mail about a free Jazzercise 12 week program. I called and I'll have to pay for the $29 a month for classes (which I was considering anyways) but I'll get a free personal nutritionist and fitness coach to help me every week. It's a 249 dollar value for something I was considering joining anyways, so ROCK ON! They are just looking for people to provide testimonials and if it works, I'd be more than happy to do it! Pam Thrash seems to love it from what I hear on the radio so I'm excited. I go this Sunday for my first fitness assessment and inital weigh ins. I should say they offer classes 7 days a week so it will work with my seriously too hectic schedule. I'll write more once I meet with the coaches and go to a few classes.

Ok everyone have a great weekend and enjoy some relaxation for me! It sucks to say I will be GOING to work here in a little over an hour while most will be getting home and cooking dinner.

Beginning our blog...

So allow me to first apologize because I am new to the blogspot world. It's been awhile since I've played with HTML so I'm sure I'll be changing it in the near future, but this will do for now. Shane will tell you that I've perfected "stalking" everyone else's blogs and pages so I'm pretty caught up on what's going on with everyone else. I'm currently working 2 jobs (well if you count 4-6 hrs a week at Cracker Barrel a 2nd job, I call it getting paid to socialize!) and going to school full-time so we do not get to go out and do much. I love reading about everyone's kids on here! We just have a furry kid named Murphy, our Shih-tzu boxer mix (box of sh!t as we joke) but he goes to daycare and gives us heck like a real boy ha! We've signed a lease for July to move into a 1400 sq ft townhouse (I'd post the pics from the site, but I think I'll wait until it has our touches) and will have room for visitors (this means all of you!) in our 2 spare bedrooms. We just made our first two major purchases together, a 42 inch plasma LG Scarlet and a 2005 Volkswagen Jetta for me to drive. Well I should it's intended for me, but he asks to drive it everytime we go somewhere so far! Here's a few pics for those new to us or not on facebook or myspace.

Feel free to follow our blog and I'll promise to post at least once a week, even if it's boring!