Week 2

I am still doing fantastically as far as the UC goes, in fact, I think everything is working a bit "too" well. I think it is just the medicines interacting though and we dropped the prednisone 10 mg yesterday so hopefully everything will even out eventually. I have blood tests next week and then go back to the doctor on the 18th. I have gained a bit of weight because I have let the prednisone hunger get the best of me. Time to tackle that and get back on track! 

Robert started a new internship with NAPA across the road from here. He is really excited and has worked 2 days and loves it. It has always been his second home so it is only fitting that he get to spend even more time (not to mention money) there. His schedule is the craziest it has ever been, bless his heart--welcome to the real world! He goes to school at 8 every day. On Monday's he gets out at 12 and goes back at 6, Tuesdays, he gets out at 1, goes to work at NAPA until 5 and then goes to work at the bowling alley at 9. Wednesdays, he gets out at 12, goes to NAPA until 5 and then goes to AWANA and is the "tech dude" for us, then to work at the bowling alley. Thursday's he gets out at 1 and has class again at 6. Friday's, out at noon, work at the bowling alley at 5, and now every other Saturday he will work at NAPA from 7:30-3 then the bowling alley at 5. Sunday is church and he usually goes in to the bowling alley on Sunday afternoons and cleans. Guess he doesn't have too much time to get into trouble this way--at least I hope :-) and I didn't even mention that he is helping my mom with hogs at my uncles.

Today we are planning on moving offices at work. I am going to my new home in Brenda's old office. That will keep me and my assistant next door to each other, Brenda's office was between ours. Now, one of the other ladies will move into my old office, which ironically was hers to start with. I am hoping no more moves for a long time but I have been there 8 1/2 years and this is my third move so we shall see. I am not looking forward to all the moving but will be glad to be settled in!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

My blog friends

Thought I would do a little "advertising" for my blogger friends. I hate how many blogger friends I have lost since the arrival of facebook but I am happy that there are a few of us that still use our blogs.

I thought I would share a little bit about the people who take up the space to the right.

 

 

 

 

At the top of our list tonight is my next-door neighbor Carie, she and her husband Norman have 4 great kids and she homeschools the youngest two. She is also into doing crafts, especially knitting.

 

Next you see the Blond Ambition, this one is hard for me. This is Ashley and although she is a friend, when she was in 5th and 6th grade, she was one of my AWANA girls. Now she is married, teaching and getting ready to be a first-time mommy. Right now she is tracking the weeks to Baby Jansen and I laugh and cry at a lot of her entries. She is going to be such a great mom and she has a great life. It is fun to get to peak into it.

 

The Stewarts in Africa.....definitely from farthest away but with pretty close ties to Jasper county. This is Tim and Alicia Stewart who left almost a year ago to be missionaries in Africa. Alicia's mom and dad are Ted and Debbie Rhoades, her grandma is June Cook who lives at Rose Hill. Ted and Alice Marrs are her great aunt and uncle. I have literally watched Alicia grow up and watching them take this tremendous journey is amazing.

 

Patty's Journey of Faith. Patty is from Olney, she was my boss when I first started at ERBA and I still count her as one of my very best friends. In February of 2011 she was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer. I will never forget the phone call as long as I live and wish it would have never came.  The blog is her journey, her remarkable journey not only with the cancer but with her own faith in God.

 

The Cadence in My Head--this is Amy's blog. Amy and I went to high school together and more importantly were members of the Newton Marching Eagles together.

 

Then there is Rhonda's Ramblings. I count Rhonda as a friend even though I have never met her. The wonders of facebook. Rhonda went to school with Andrew. One day over a year ago, Andrew tells me that Rhonda is a published Christian fiction author--I love Christian fiction so I started finding all her books and I love them! I am reading Groom By Arrangement right now because I won it (yeah me!) I now have two autographed books from Rhonda. My favorite is still What's in Your Closet but they are all good. I am hoping that by some chance we get to go to Andrew's reunion this fall and I might get to meet Rhonda, as well as a couple of other women that Andrew graduated with that I have become friends with myself.

 

So, if you have a little extra time, click to the right and enjoy my friends!

Remission-no question about it

This has been the most wonderful 3 days that I can remember. I went to work this morning and only went to the bathroom twice all day. I got so much done, I feel so great and the only downer is being afraid it will go away. I have always done that--wait for the other shoe to drop instead of just enjoying what I got.

Tomorrow morning I am going to try to hit the treadmill--that is if I can pull myself out of bed. This bit of waking up, going to the bathroom and getting to go back to bed is a little surreal but really, really nice and I could get really used to just staying in bed until time to get ready for work.

For the past two years I have gotten up at 4:30 because I usually have a good two hours of literally running back and forth to the bathroom before I can even get my day started.

So very, very thankful to God and to Dr. Peterson for making this happen. Still unreal.

Day One--Remission??

Sunday January 20th has to be the most remarkable day in the last 2 1/2 years. First off, Saturday night, I went to sleep a little before 10 because I had a headache and they had given me Tylenol so I thought I would just close my eyes and let it work. Crystal, my tech, woke me up at 2 to take my sugar. I thought, "I probably should go to the bathroom" and the next thing I know, she is waking me up at a quarter til 5, to test my sugar again. I laid there in awe of the fact that I had been in bed ALL NIGHT and that I DIDN'T need to go to the bathroom. I can't explain that feeling, but having a constant need to go to the bathroom for years and then it being gone is wonderful. So, I laid there and about a 10 after 5, I thought I'm up so I ordered a cup of coffee. At 5:30, I decided I probably did need to go to the bathroom. What happened next was nothing short of a miracle in my eyes. I have had diarrhea for over 2 years, every time I go to the bathroom. When I went at 5:30 yesterday morning, it wasn't diarrhea and then, to top it off, I ALWAYS go at least 5 times within the first hour of being up. My bowels have dictated my getting out of bed forever. After I went the one time, I didn't need to go again, at all, until 11:30. So, from 10:00 the night before, to 12 1/2 hours later, I went to the bathroom TWICE. I was so excited, I cried. I really thought it was the Imuran kicking in already and I am still not convinced that it didn't help but Dr. Peterson said it was the steroids more than anything but that yes, that is remission. I had never seen remission. I have now seen one day of it and this morning, Monday, I am in day 2, very clearly. I woke up at 5:30 this morning, after sleeping all night, I went to the bathroom and WENT BACK TO BED!!!!  I got up at 7, I have to tell you, it was hard to do that but I feel so good I want to get some things done.

I can't tell you how happy I am just by the prospects of having this change. My first thought was I will get to be in the Alumni band again, something I have dearly missed. I also thought I can really do a 5K now and I can train for it and we can do this.

I know I have only been "in remission" about 36 hours but when you have had a problem as long as I have, 36 hours feels like an opportunity of a lifetime.

So, I have lots of projects on the horizon, including hoping to get to my office today and finish moving stuff from Brenda's office into mine, I am hoping to take advantage of the quiet to get that done and out of the way. I am still moving to her office but I wanted everything organized in mine before we actually just moved the furniture.

I am still figuring out if I am doing Weight Watchers tonight. The high doses of prednisone is wrecking havoc right at moment and I am doing everything I am supposed to, I probably need to go get back into a meeting, because I missed last week, though, even if I don't weigh.

Happy Monday everyone, happy, happy day.

A little R&R, my doctor's style

The last few days could be described as nothing short of eventful. I hate it when I have it in my head the way things are going to go and somebody comes along and changes them. This week it was Dr. Peterson but I have to tell you, right at the moment, I have to be thankful.

As I stated in my last post, I was pretty sure I was going to have to do something. I called the Dr's office Thursday morning and just told the receptionist to tell Kim I was ready to go to the hospital. She put me on hold and Kim came right on the line and told me to get to Memorial, check in, tell them what was going on and let them just do their normal evaluation and then they would probably give me an iv of steroid and get ahold of Dr. Peterson, who was already at Memorial on call this week.

We got up here at noon on Thursday, did all my paperwork and then was evaluated by the ER doc. He was not a nice guy and treated me like I was stupid for even worrying about this. Well, I am bleeding where I shouldn't be bleeding and I am tired because I have went to the bathroom 25 times in the last 24 hours--no, not an exaggeration. As soon as I got in the treatment room, they put an iv in so I thought at least they would give me the steroid to stop the bleeding. Then the ER doc comes in and tells me my blood work doesn't look all that bad, he has paged Dr. Peterson but he will probably just send me home. I was livid! I had wasted all that time, and money to get here and they weren't even going to give me the steroid?? Well, about 10 minutes later, here he comes back, nice as pie. Dr. Peterson ordered a colonoscopy, then he would give me a steroid treatment and send me home. Much better....and what I wanted. Dr. Peterson had been wanting to do the colonoscopy for quite some time and we just hadn't done it so this was killing two birds with one stone. The laughter part comes next--They are taking me to the SPA to have my colonoscopy, yeah it doesn't matter how you sugar coat it, it is still a colonsocopy, but I did find out that SPA stands for Special Procedures Area--which the girls who assisted with the colonoscopy informed me that SPA was much better than what they used to be--the SPU--Special Procedures Unit, I concurred.

So, I get ready for the colonscopy, being rest assured that I would be put out, the way I like. Dr. Peterson comes in, tells me the same plan, colonscopy, since I'm here, a dose of iv and home. I was a bit concerned about doing the colonscopy with no prep but I hadn't ate all day and there is a suction on the end of their scope--so I didn't even have to do the awful Miralax prep--a definite plus. Anyway, I wake up from the colonoscopy in the recovery room with Andrew, who tells me I'm staying. Apparently things were worse than Dr. Peterson imagined so he thought he better keep an eye on me while I took multiple doses of the iv steroid. My worst part of that was Andrew had already mentioned we would stop at Red Lobster on the way home. In a matter of a couple hours, I went from getting Red Lobster for supper to getting beef broth and jello.

So, today is Saturday, we have the bleeding stopped, we have the "I have to go to the bathroom NOW" stopped and we have me started on my new medicine. The long term goal is to stay off the prednisone. When Dr. Peterson and I first started talking about alternatives, he said there was a new drug on the market but it was a bit pricey, when I asked how pricey, he said "$1,000 a month", I said, "Yeah.....no". So now I am starting on Imuran. It has been around since 1968 and was originally used as an anti-rejection drug for kidney transplant patients. It has been shown to have really great results for complicated Crohn's and UC patients too though and that would be me. It can take up to 3 months for the drugs full effects to kick in. Apparently, according to the research I have done today. The inside of my colon is so messed up that my body thinks the insides needs to get out---which makes perfect sense as to the urgency of the diarrhea I have. This drug makes my body not see the bad stuff in my colon so it stops trying to get rid of it. We are going to PRAY it works. If it doesn't, we have a Plan B but this is our first try. I would absolutely LOVE not having to worry all the time about finding a bathroom or carrying extra clothes in case I have an accident.

So, this afternoon I got to eat a real cheeseburger and it went well. I have walked the halls until everyone is probably sick of seeing me and of course, I am wearing my activelink and counting my points because my Weight Watchers is part of my life now so I just worked it in.

Andrew has been staying at Sis and Richard's in Lincoln and that has been a godsend, his back couldn't make the two hour trip here and back each day and even though he could get a room, I would rather spend money like that when we could at least both enjoy it.

As far as everything looks right now, I get to go home tomorrow afternoon--hopefully with a stop at Red Lobster on the way.

So, I mentioned on facebook that it is only fitting that I have a view of the Hilton and the Captiol from my room as I always love having a view of Memorial and the Capitol from my room at the Hilton when I get to stay. I'm too lazy to go take the picture of the Hilton, but here is what I see sitting in my bed

Hmmm.....

Okay, so I have had a little problem with the UC the last week, actually, things haven't been great since the 28th of December but since last Wednesday, it has escalated to "full blown flare".

This whole post is probably going to be in and out of GRAPHIC ALERT, so I am just labeling the whole thing as one big, giant, GRAPHIC ALERT.

I have a spot, his name is Wilbur, he has lived right on my anus for the last year or so. He gets big and little depending on how bad the UC gets, to be technical, he is a skin tag, not confused with a hemorrhoid, he doesn't itch or burn and he is a direct result of having to go to the bathrooms more than 10 times a day, a little piece of skin got folded the wrong direction one day and got inflamed, when it was time to get "un" inflamed, there was too much skin left, hence Wilbur. We live quite well together most of the time but before Christmas, I started feeling like Wilbur was giving birth to a little Wilburette, and this was making life, well, a bit more painful than normal. So, I called the gastro and he said call your gp, who said see the surgeon. I saw the surgeon on the 28th, his prognosis--the shape you are in, bathroom-wise, if I cut there, it will never heal. Long live Wilbur, Doc Reid did give me a cream to put on Wilbur, to help him not hurt as much, get this, it is nitroglycerin. Now if you now that Nitroglycerin was the precursor of TNT (it is an explosive liquid), you will understand the jokes that my guys have put through themselves. Anyway, on this little tangent, the nitro is actually shrinking Wilbur, the docs doubt he will go completely away but I won't miss him if he does.

That day, at the surgeon's, I also had an endoscopy, I NORMALLY get put all the way out for procedures such as these, but not that day. Here I sat in the table with my knees on one plane, leaning over a vinyl armrest with my butt up in the air so a scope could be put inside to see if Wilbur had any friends or if they could see any cuts that would be causing Wilbur to yell more than usual. The scope itself was one of the worst things I have experienced in quite a while. I am sorry, I cannot imagine anybody letting anybody else purposely put ANYTHING up there!!! Ok, gonna get off that subject before I get on it. Anyway.......ever since then, I have been bleeding again. Oh and no little Wilbur friends and yes, there were cuts, those too from the inflammation and constant bathroom usage.

Last Wednesday, it got worse, much worse and I started taking 40 mg of prednisone a day to try to stop it. This normally works but as of today, it hadn't touched it and I was running out of prednisone. So, I called the doctor.

I called, got the receptionist, told her I needed a refill on my prednisone and she said she would get the nurse to call it in, I got off the phone and thought I had gotten by with that pretty easy. A half hour later Kim called.  Kim is my favorite nurse and we are a lot alike, running 100 miles an hour 24/7 and loving every minute of it. However, Kim is also a bulldog and knows I try to keep things going on my own. So, she started out with "What's going on?" and as I told her she said you need to just come to St. John's to the ER. I said I was 2 and a half hours away and couldn't do that. I told her I used to be able to go to a friend of mine who was a PA and have an IV of prednisone and get over it, she said that is what I needed this time. Unfortunately, my friend no longer is in the area. I told her I would compromise and if we could work something out at the Effingham hospital I would go, otherwise I couldn't possibly come to Springfield before Thursday or Friday. She went and talked to Dr. Peterson and called me right back. Try 80 mg of prednisone today and tomorrow, if we don't see a big difference by Thursday, I am going to Springfield. I agreed. Oh, and as ALWAYS, I have to take a sample to Effingham to test for C-Diff. The girls at St. Anthony are so used to me doing this that they sent home extra supplies so I don't have to make a separate trip over. So, Andrew brought the "hat" to catch the sample and my bottles and I had a sample ready by 1:00. I had a conference call at 1:30 and then I ran my specimen to the lab. I know I don't have C-Diff, I feel okay, except for spending way too much time in the bathroom and starting to feel weak because of the iron and lack of blood thing.

For those of you who work with me, you aren't getting rid of me that easy. I feel fine to go to work and I will continue to do so. Sitting at home and 80 mg of prednisone is a dangerous combination, especially on my recent weight loss. See the prednisone causes a little weight gain just from water retention ( I was up 3 lbs this evening so I planned on running to Casey to WW, I didn't do it to myself because that will go away when the dosage comes down) However, prednisone also makes you feel hungry. I know this and don't buy into it, but if I was sitting at home watching tv and feeling sorry for myself, I would be eating so we aren't going there. Life goes on, and I will too.


It is what it is.

Surprise!!

I knew I had been good this week with my Weight Watchers. I have, for quite a while, had mini goals of losing 5 lbs every 3 weeks, not too fast, not too slow. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, it took me all of December to lose 3 lbs, but it was 3 lbs that I have said goodbye to forever and that's what counts.

So, my goal this week was to hit right in around the 36-37 lb mark, then next week, the 38-39 and the next week push it over the 40. When I got on the scales this morning here at home, I had a nice surprise, I went over the 40 mark! Now, you have to understand that of course, I don't get to stand on the scales at WW in the same "non-clothed" state as I do at home, so I was still thinking I was going to have a really good week and I might hit 38 lbs this week. Even I was stunned, 39.2 lbs--less than a pound away from 40. Guess y'all know what my goal is for next week now.

I had told Andrew my new goal is 50 lbs by Valentine's Day and for the moment, that is still the goal but I may adjust it if I have another really good week.

My ultimate goal is still over 100 lbs away but I am inching closer to it being "just" 100 lbs away. By the time I get to the 100 lb mark though I will have lost approximately a third of all the weight I need to lose. That makes it be a big accomplishment too.

I am having a bit a of problem, I KNOW I have every size clothing upstairs from size 10 to size 24 but I went up this morning to look for a pair of size 18 pants and I can't find any or I couldn't this morning anyway. I am wearing 20's, and am still wearing 22's that my mom and I took in on Columbus Day but I am always and forever pulling my pants up so I am a little anxious to get some 18's out and see just where I am.

The deal is still a size 12 to get my car. Robert just bought himself a new kayak, I am thinking about buying one myself this spring......

2013

So, this year has started out so crazy that some of my friends are already wanting 2014 to get here. Personally, for our family, life has been pretty calm compared to some of the ones around us. There are some crazy things going on in our family too but nothing real major and nothing I can share yet, I will when the time is right.

Sunday afternoon though, we packed up the van and headed for Louisville for our annual "Great Escape", Robert got to go this year because his work schedule let him. I am always excited when he gets to go because I know those days are obviously numbered. We took in the Megacavern's Lights Under Louisville Sunday night. That was after we checked into our room, accidentally was given a room that hadn't been cleaned and received our money for the first nights stay. I didn't think that was necessary but Drury Inn insisted and I wasn't going to argue. I had already got a really good promo deal so we were getting a two room suite for less than a hundred dollars a night. Getting our money back for one meant our stay actually cost us $49 a night. You can't beat that with a stick.

Monday morning I got up, worked out and drove to Clarksville Indiana to weigh in. Down a pound!!  Whoo Hoo!  That took me to 35.8 lbs lost. I looked back at December and realized I only lost 3 lbs and that was a bit discouraging until I remembered that I LOST 3 lbs instead of gaining 10. The biggest thing is, I learned a lot about myself. I learned a piece of fudge can make me just as happy as eating half the pan, I learned that I don't have to make all the junk and have it in the house for my guys to be happy. I learned that I can keep track of what I am doing and be responsible for my actions. I learned I AM in control......that is the biggest part.  Anyway, that made me very happy.

We were so late getting around to breakfast the the Drury was out of stuff on their free breakfast. I told the guys, especially since we were $100 in the green that eating at a restaurant would be easier for me anyway so we went to Bob Evans right in front of our hotel. It was easier for me, I was able to get 2 eggs over easy, an english muffin, fresh fruit and lowfat yogurt. The guys of course pigged out. It was almost 10 by the time we ate though and so we ended up only having two meals that day--another plus. We headed to the Frazier Museum, this is mainly a weapons museum and Andrew loved it last year and wanted Robert to see it. Now, you can imagine, it was not really my cup of tea but low and behold, Diana, the exhibit was also at the Frazier for a limited time. I got a ticket for it, the guys got tickets for the regular and away we went. I loved the Diana exhibit, They had her crown, her wedding dress (yes, I was awake that morning between my 8th grade and freshman year to watch the fairytale wedding), tons of her dresses, and just lots of things of hers that were priceless. The guys would have been bored to tears so some museum curator knows what they were doing when they sat this up. We left there about 3 and went to find a bowling alley. Of course one of my goals for 2013 is being more active as a family. Sunday night, we went swimming, Monday was bowling. So we bowled and then went to Buckhead Mountain Grill for supper. It was New Year's Eve so I bought sparkling cranberry and blueberry cider to celebrate in the room, I was pretty sure we wouldn't last until midnight but I figured somewhere around there would be close enough. We came back to the room about 8:30, Robert laid down on the couch, Andrew laid down on the bed and I sat in the chair. We apparently all immediately fell asleep. At about 10, I woke up, told Robert to make out his bed and I went to bed. Robert apologized for sleeping through our New Year's but I had to tell him we all did. That was the point. We NEEDED the rest and the getaway. Things have been just downright crazy especially since Junie died. So no regrets that we got some much needed rest bringing in the new year.

Tuesday we hit IHOP and I again got to have a really good breakfast. A swiss and turkey bacon omelet, and yogurt. The guys, of course had pancakes.

Okay, just went to insert pictures and it won't let me......oh well.

We took in the Kentucky Flea Market after that, made a few purchases and started heading for home. We stopped in Evansville at the Acropolis, our favorite Greek restaurant and ate dinner and made it home by 7:10. We got everything put away and had a chance to just unwind before bed. I would say it was a pretty perfect trip.

Wednesday I started my new position as the LIHEAP coordinator for ERBA. I have been fortunate to work under Brenda McDade, who retired but in the last couple of years has let me do a lot of the program myself getting ready for this day. So far, the transition hasn't been bad. It has been crazy busy so I really haven't had time to even think about the fact that anything changed. Honestly, the main thing that has changed is I have more responsibility and less butt coverage but that's okay.

So now we are to the first Saturday of the year and I have plans out the wazoo. My stove came FINALLY!! so we are going to get it this morning, I need to buy groceries and do the Walmart thing, I need to get my tree down and the decs I put up (this is where I am happy I didn't go overboard this year!) and a million other little things I need to get done.....with that being said, it is time to move on.

Happy Saturday and Happy 2013!