Saturday, September 30, 2006

Random thoughts and updates. . .

Busy week here, as usual. Friday I was wiped out after the field trip, which was fun up until ride home. I sat in the back of the bus to keep the kiddlets under control there. Bad idea! Those buses have NO shocks. . .or at least it feels that way all the way back there! Then I came home and made dinner and went to our communication class. I wanted to get the house in better shape before Karen and Angela came over to clean this morning. .. but that never happened. It was such a HUGE blessing though to come back home and have the living room and kitchen done. I mean DONE! Not just skimmed over, like I have been doing. I have wanted to mop/scrub the kitchen floor for over a month and was just too sick or weak to get to it. I have been spot cleaning with bleach spray, a towel and my foot. Not very effective.

I have the elementary school newsletter to work on. . .only problem is only 2 people have sent me anything for it, and one of them was just for the website, not newsletter bc the event will be done by the time the newsletter come out! ARGH. Now I have to call and or email everyone . . .again to ask for their submissions and get them all done by the Tuesday afternoon meeting. annoying.

I am having a period now. . .well almost. everything but the bleeding. Sucks. Guess the surgery did not help. ARGH! Will call the doctor on Monday and make an appointment. I knew this was a possiblility but it is still very annoying.

My husband and I have been taking a Christian Communication class for a couple of weeks now. Last week we had to pick a non stressful issue each to talk about and practice with in class. He picked his Crown Vic. He bought another former police Crown Victoria at an auction this past spring. The old one is a blue one and other then packing more power then a regular vic, looked like a regular one. We went to the auction in the spring and bought this new one. Nice and white. With a police spotlight as well as police power. The police decals had been removed however the car still had lots of sticker residue on the doors and back panels. When the car was clean this was not an issue. But, when the car is dirty though it looks kind of like the stickers are still on. So for the past several months (okay all summer. . .and most of spring!) my husband has been driving it like this. He has made several attempts to remove the sticker gunk with several rather expensive chemicals with not much luck. Besides the fact that he has a bad back and the bending does not help. So anyway he used this as his "issue" because it bothers him that it is not done yet, and some of the guys at work make funny comments about it when they go out to lunch together. So fast forward to thursday morning. The day of the field trip and our class. I get up at the normal time of 6 am to get oldest out of bed etc and ready for school. As I start to make her sandwich I discover that there is not enough bread left for everyones lunch so I go down to the freezer to get more. none there. . .of course! So I realize I need to go get more from the store. I made my dd's sandwhich and told her I had to go to store so she needed to leave on time etc. Then I tell my sleeping husband where I am going. Anytime I am running around town I use my husbands car, cause it does not cost over $100 to fill up! KWIM??? So here I am, 6:15 in the morning in sweatpants (with no underwear, not that anyone else would know that. . .), a night shirt with no bra covered up by one of my husband flannel shirts, and my crocs. I was planning on taking a shower before I got the other kids up so no point in getting dressed, right? So off to the local Hy-vee I go. Getting my bread, and of course other stuff. A few minutes later I exit the store and in the parking lot I see another white Vic similar to my hubbys parked back in the parking lot facing me. It looks like someone is in the drivers seat, but I think nothing of it, other then the car is just like the one I am driving, you know how you do when you see a car like one you have or have had right? So I open the trunk and start to unload my cart and the other Vic starts to drive away, or so I thought. The car pulls up behind me and I hear the driver saying something. I look back and it is an undercover police man with a K-9 in the back seat. He then proceeds to tell me that it is illeagal for me to be driving a car like that and I could get in trouble for "impersonating a police officer". WHAT!? What idiot would think that this car was a police car. . .still? What police department is so poor that they cant afford to put stickers on its car? So I played the dumb wife card and blamed everything on my husband! I asked the man several times what we could use to remove the stickers, telling him that we had tried like four things, but everytime he just ignored the question. He did however tell me that the licence plate info had been recorded and they would be "out to check" to see if the sticker residue had been removed. This was just a warning, but the next time. . .well he never said but he implied there would be a next time. He even said some stupidity about his dog could even mistake my car for his and that could be bad. Whatever that means. So I was already feeling like crap that morning this is JUST what I needed, right! After I got home I woke up my husband who went outside after he got dressed and removed the words, "police" and "traffic enforcement" from the car. Took him about an hour and of course was not great for his back! There is still some strips on the back panels of the car, but nothing to even remotely resemble a police car, except the one front hub cap that says "call 911". weird, all the other 3 say "FORD", but this one says "call 911". Funny how God always brings issues up when you start to work on them or talk about them.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

exhausted. . .and tired of being behind in everything!

My surgery was 20 days ago and I was doing well, maybe too well! I tried going to Curves again on Monday and then ran errands. Not such a good idea! Curves usually makes me tired. . .by the end of my 30 minute work out, but Monday it made me tired right away. It did not hurt my incisions, just wore me out. I skipped a few machines that might have caused me problems bc of the bending required and the placement of my incisions. One of them is still not closed up properly. I probobly need to go see the doctor about it. But WHICH ONE?? The one who did the surgery, who has awful bedside manner and is a specialist so my copay is double, the new one I am switching to and saw last week, who is awesome, but also a specialist, or my reg. GP who is good, but I fear he will send me to the specialist anyway and I will have wasted my time and my money, neither of which I can do right now. ARGH!

I am going on a field trip tomorrow with my second graders class. Not sure if that was such a bright idea either after the last few days. I keep having pains in my right side, esp when I get up and I am just so worn out still. About all I can manage everyday is to get the kids fed breakfast, dressed, lunches made, and out the door (on time!) for the bus, and then laundry (cause I can sit down and fold it. . .even though that makes me tired too) and the bare minimum in the kitchen. It is very frustrating to me! I have so much I want and need to do. One of my neighbors offered to come over and clean my house on Saturday with some other people from church and frankly I am happy but also stressed. I am embarrassed by my carpet and the mess that has built up over the past few weeks. I hate not being able to do anything about it. . .I mean not like I am the world best house cleaner on a good day. But, my house is really bad. . .and it annoys me! Oh well, I agreed because I know it needs to be done. I have been trying to take care of myself and this is one way that I can do that. But of course this is still really hard for me. I am not good at taking care of myself. So since the surgery I have been trying to take it easy. That is hard for me.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

I am finally being heard!

Today started out bad with me waking up not feeling well. Coughing achy and generally blah. My husband blessed me by helping get the kids breakfast before school. Then they left and I sat on couch with some hot cocoa and vegged for awhile before I planned on taking a shower and getting ready for my doctors appointment. So I am sitting on the couch finishing watching the Rachael Ray (which is actually pretty good. . .even though her perky personality does annoy me sometime.)show and one of our city water trucks pulls up and proceeds to shut off our water. Apparently we over looked this bill with the whole surgery and just general life with 5 kiddos. ARGH! So I had to go to the water department and pay them what was due, plus a $35 reconnect fee. . .before I could get a shower etc. They are not very forgiving here in our town when it comes to the water bill. No questions no reminders. . .just OFF. So I had to take a check up there and pay them and then wait for the water to be turned back on so I could tak a shower. Then my husband calls just as I am about to take a shower and asks me to have lunch with him before my appointment. That was very nice. I was happy to be able to spend some alone time with him. So I got a little sidetracked with explaining how crappy (with sprinklings of goodness from my wonderful husband) my morning was and I have not gotten to the whole reason behind the title, I am finally heard!

So I get to the doctors appointment and check in and fill in paper work and pay my copay etc. And a few minutes later they call me up to the front desk and ask if it was alright with me if I saw the nurse practitioner instead of the doctor. The doctor was delivering another patients baby via an unexpected c-section and was out of the office still. I had no problem with this and a few minutes later a nurse took me to an exam room and took my vitals and medical history. Then the nurse practitioner came in and she was wonderful! Her name was Bridget. She actually LISTENED to me for about 30 minutes and made me feel like I was worth "fixing" not just annoying and in her way! She even continued to talk to me and not rush me when the nurse told her the hospital was on hold for her. It is so nice to find someone who actually thinks I might have some insight into my own body and care! FINALLY! I will be switching my GYN care to this office for sure!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Greg and Heather's Blog

Greg and Heather's Blog really funny blog. . .glad my kids are not the only curious ones. . .

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Update. . .


Well, at this exact time last week I was having surgery. After a few years of extreme pain that just seemed to get worse with my periods I was finally doing something about it! It was not always this bad for me during my periods. In retrospect it makes sense now to me. I had painful periods all my life and after I started having children it got better. I got pregnant with my first baby at age 19 and then a year later got pregnant again, then 2 years later again, then a year later again and yes, a year later again. That is 5 pregnancies and 5 babies. Now that I read about this nasty thing called endometriosis it all adds up! Pregnancy prevents endometriosis from rearing its ugly head sometimes for a few years. . .not that until after my last baby I gave it that long to come back mind you. Of course I have heard of endometriosis, but I never thought I had it because we got pregnant when we looked at each other it seemed! (okay, so that is a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean right? We never tried to get pregnant, it just happened. Me infertile. . .yeah right!). It seems that other then that fact that I would not trade my children for anything. . .usually. . .they have helped keep me out of the endometriosis hell for quite some time now. Oh, but endometriosis came back with a vengeance to make up for all the lost time!

The past few years have been awful. I was lucky that my period was only 3 days, esp because recently I spent most of those 3 days either in bed or in the bathroom. . .or on the way from one to the other. I'm talking migraines, heavy bleeding, cramps so painful I just want to die, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and extreme fatigue. My doctors tried some meds to help with the amount of bleeding which did not work. Then they suggested I take part in a study they were doing. That medicine actually worked . . .for the bleeding at least. But I still had all of the other symptoms, like clockwork, every month. And I knew that this medicine would not be available to me when the study was over.

Around April or May of this year I was having a particularly bad period and was trying to lay still in bed to help the migraine. The kids had other plans. . .they were across the hall playing and arguing and yelling. . .and basically just being normal kids you know, but I could not take it anymore. When your head is pounding and if feels like someone is shredding your internal organs. . .something just snaps. So I got up and went into the kids room, where 4 of the 5 kids happened to all be (everyone but the oldest girl) and I looked around for a second and then picked up this deflated soccer ball (similar to the one in the picture, but not as deflated at that one) and I squeezed it with both hands and threw it to the ground and stomped on it. Then I said to the kids "This is what my uterus feels like right now, so SHUT UP and let me rest!" As I walked back into the room and collapsed on the bed again, I heard my 6 year old son say, "Whats a uterus?" That is when I knew I had to do something else to get to the bottom of this pain!

So I scheduled an appointment with my doctor to talk about having a hysterectomy done. (time to make lunch for me and grandpa. . .and stretch a bit too. . .still healing from my surgery.)

Okay back. . .a few days later!

So I went to see the doctor and had a pelvic and pap smear done. First of all it was painful, and I have had 5 children. . .so I have had lots of pelvic exams and they were not painful, but this one was, esp when the dr pushed on my uteris! WHY do they do that!! It is not a roll of Charmin here people! He then tells me that my uteris is enlarged and wants me to get an sonogram and see a gyn as well. He is a GP now mostly, he does do OB/GYN stuff and as a matter of fact he is the one who delivered (even though he almost missed the last one) my last 2 kids. But he does not do all the specialized GYN care stuff. So anyway he sent me to see this other doctor. That took a few weeks to get that appointment.

When I saw the GYN, he adviced starting with the D & C and ablation instead of the hysterectomy since that is pretty drastic. So we scheduled the surgery. . .for September! This was JUNE, so that meant waiting for almost 4 months! for some relief (hopefully!). But I had to do something so I scheduled it with him and waited. IN PAIN. I called him almost every month when I was having my period or just after to see if we could move the surgery up or do something else to help me get some relief! Most I got was some Compazine to help me not throw up! So any way a few weeks after seeing the doctor and scheduling another sono to look at what I was told were ovarian cysts again, I was having my period and I just had this tremendous sharp extreme pain, so bad that I could hardly stand up. And fever, and nausea etc. So I called my regular doctor right away who told me to come right in. I also removed my tampon because I thought it might be TSS. When I got to the doctor he examined me and sent me right to the ER because I had what he called referred pain. When he pressed my left side it hurt my right. So I called my husband and then drove myself to the ER.

While at the ER, they gave me drugs. . .so I was not in much pain anymore, just uncomfortable sitting on a hard hospital ER bed with a lovely hospital gown covering up some of my body and using pads instead of tampons ( so I felt unclean...)and waiting. . .and waiting. . .and waiting. . . Apparently there was a HUGE 3 car pile up not far from the ER- it was rush hour when I drove to the ER after all. So my husband got to the hospital awhile later and tests were taken and while we waited for them to do a CT scan we watched the premiere of Hell's Kitchen on Fox. The doctor thought it was a kidney stone attack and said it was prob unnessecary for me to have the CT Scan done etc since I have a history of kidney stones. There was prob a stone cause I had blood in my urine and the fever. Well, duh, I am having my period. When I told him I thought it might have been TSS, he just looked up from his clipboard at me with this look that said, "Oh, another idiot who thinks they know what they are talking about." and said "Are you a nurse or something?" I said no and he then asked me how I knew about TSS and I told him, um I am a woman who has been using tampons since I was in like 5th grade dude. Anyone who has ever seen a box of tampons knows about TSS. Heck I knew about it before I started using tampons cause when I was in the bathroom as a kids I used to read the warning insert to my mom's box of tampons! DUH!!! So anyway, I told him that we were leaving in 2 days to drive to Florida for a wedding and then to Maryland to visit family and I wanted to KNOW exactly what is was so I did not have to worry about it while I was gone. So we did the test and sure enough he tells me that yes, it is a kidney stone. So he sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin and a PAPER strainer to look for the stone. So the next day I went to my doctors office and got a plastic strainer to use instead of a paper one. And for the next several weeks I strained my pee. . .what FUN!! And I had several other times of pain as well. So when I came back from vacation and had not passed the stone I called my Urologist and made an appointment to see him. The day of my appointment I had to fast and do some tests and take the results to him as well as pick up the results from the ER. So I arrive at my Urologists appointment and when he comes in the room he looks at me and says, rather annoyed, "Why are you here?!" And I said I am here because I have a kidney stone that wont pass. (BTW, the last kidney stone I had had me in the ER several times and he finally had to remove it surgically after 2 months of intense pain every week or two!). So he looks at me and says, "you dont have a kidney stone. None of you tests indicate that you have a kidney stone. I think your problem is your ovarian cyst and the ER even said that in their report." So I wasted my time and my money paying a specialist to tell me I was an idiot (and had to pay twice as much to hear it! cause he is a specialist!). So I called my GYN again and after reviewing my latest sono and finding that my cysts had grown even in a few weeks, he added a procedure called a Laproscopy to look at and remove my cysts to my already scheduled surgery. Which of course was still set for September.

Well, we have to head out for a picnic with some friends now. . .if I can wake up my hubby that is. . .LOL. Will finish the saga later. . .

Sunday, September 10, 2006

I am 33 years old and have 5 children ages, 13,12,10 1/2, 7, and 5. A few years after my last child was born my periods got really really bad. Heavy bleeding, 40 tampons in 3 days, and pain that just kept getting worse every month, the whole bowels issues too (even had a colonoscopy last year). For the little over a year I was on a study med here in the US to control the bleeding but it did not control my pain so I opted out of it to see DR and possibly do a hysterectomy or something to help.Saw doctor in May for my normal (albeit a few months late. . .) yearly well woman exam and talk about options. He found my ovary was enlarged. Sono's scheduled and found ovarian cysts. At my consult with the GYN in June he recommended we do a D & C and Ablation, which was scheduled for September 7. A few weeks later, during my period I had such severe pain I thought I was having TSS. Called dr and he told me to come right in (reg, not gyn) he saw me and sent me right to ER. At the ER, I was told it was a kidney stone, which I have a history of. Was sent home with pain meds for kidney stone and told to see my Urologist after my vacation (the next week) if I did not pass the stone. When I came back from the vacation and had not passed the stone I made and appointment with urologist. That day before I saw him I had another set of abdominal and pelvic sonos and kidney x rays etc. When I saw him he looked at me like I was an idiot for being there. He said it was not a kidney stone that is was GYN related. (Apparently my ER records even said that, even though that is NOT what I was told). So I tried to have my procedure moved up with the GYN, too booked to do it. Every period since May has been extremly painful and has had me in bed and/or the doctors office. Finally had my procedure this past thursday. Dr had to remove my whole left ovary and tube because of the endometriosis and says that he will prob have to do a full hysterectomy when I recover from this surgery. I was not diagnosed with endometriosis until Thursday (that was my first laproscopic procedure). I am not surprised by the diagnosis and am glad that finally I know what it is and I am NOT crazy. I go back to the doctor on Monday to talk to him. Of course I have LOTS of questions for him, I was still out of it and he only talked to husband on Thursday. Surgery ended at noon and we did not leave until 3:30 and I was still pretty groggy!