Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired!

Last week, I figured that I was getting a migraine from the Celebrex. So I stopped taking it. It took a few days but the skin itching stopped, the migraine went away and everything was peachy. Then Friday, I started getting stuffy. I have a full blown cold that is causing some phlegm in my throat and chest. Our water heater went out last week, too. Oh! And my oldest ran his bike into a light pole, needed three stitches in his face and broke his toe. In all of the confusion, I have been not paying attention to my health the way I should be. But, I decided to weigh in this morning. 156.9!!!! That gives me a BMI of less than 27! I was shocked, and happy. Now I am making sure I don't let it creep up on me. I am ready for bed and it is only 6:15.

What a day!

I had to take Pumpkin home yesterday. I love getting her and taking her away from her less than ideal living conditions, but I hate taking her back. She just thrives when she is here. So yesterday was a bad day as far as that goes.

Last week, my sister-in-law's van broke down. She drives a rural route for the P.O. So does Hubby. Anyway, the engine is shot, needs to be either rebuilt or replaced. She borrowed our van last week and we were a one car family with 6 people and 5 seats. We didn't go anywhere together for a few days. Then we got our van back last week on Friday night, had two nights of late baseball games and a noon game yesterday. Yankee's team lost all three. It was pretty sad. The team had a losing season, but it was the most enjoyable season we have had for many years. Yankee has been playing baseball since 2004. He has had some good coaches, some not-so-good coaches, and one really horrible one. I can say, that hands down, we had the best coaches this year. And because of those good coaches, we had some great fans, and great games. The sportsmanship and grace these coaches taught our boys made this a winning season. I am SO happy!

I have started making gluten-free chocolate chip waffles. Everything is 100% gluten-free as Dimples seems to be allergic to most kinds of grains, so I am very careful of cross-contamination. I will post the recipe another day, though, because it is somewhat involved, and I don't have exact measurements.

Hubby called me today while he was out on a mail route to tell me that the van was running hot. Then he called to tell me it was overheating. Then he called to tell me that the van wouldn't run anymore. So I went out to the rural backroads to find him. I pushed his van for two miles in the rain (by nudging the bumper of the other car to his van).

Sister-in-law drove Poppy's truck to get me and the brakes went out. She put it into park to stop it. A very kind member of our church family brought a vehicle to us to use for hubby to finish his route and then he borrowed a vehicle from a co-worker for tomorrow.

The meds are not helping my knee, but I've only been on them since Friday, so we shall see.

Doctor Visit #2

This week, Brown Eyes went to the doc to get his stitches out. He has been cleared for pond swimming! YAY!

I went to the same doc on Friday. I had more x-rays and the doc decided to try first with Celebrex, a knee brace and some physical therapy exercises. I go back in a month. If that hasn't helped, I will get an injection of some sort. If that doesn't help, I will have arthroscopic surgery. If that doesn't help, I will have a partial knee replacement.

The doc did tell me that I am cleared to run! WOOT! I can resume training as usual. I am thrilled. Anyways, that's my news. Pumpkin has to go home tomorrow. So we will go back to a five member family with no little girls. *sigh*

Enough With The Excitement Already!

I have spent more time visiting with doctors, nurses, physician's assistants, and the like than I care to mention, but nonetheless, I have spent a LOT of time in the last two weeks. I finally had my MRI last week on Thursday. Sunday night, Brown Eyes slammed his pinky finger in the door near the hinge end causing his finger to be severed from the base of the nail bed (removing it from the bone) to the fat pad. It was gruesome! The kid made it through the reattachment phenomenally and watched the whole time. Monday, I had to take him in to make sure that the nail bed had been successfully attached to the bone, and it did. They changed his dressings and rewrapped his finger only for the wrapping to come off the next morning. We went back to the doc to have the finger rerewrapped and it has stayed. I have been given all the stuff to do any rewrapping that is necessary.

Today I went to see my doctor to get the results of my MRI and the results of Dimples' IgG test. Dimples has some major allergy issues! He needs to be completely nut free, gluten-free, yeast free, mostly dairy free (he can have yogurt and cottage cheese), and melon-free. We are hoping that with the elimination of these foods, it will reduce some of his agitation and anger issues. We shall see!

Now for the results of my MRI. I have no tumors! Yay! That is the good news. Now for the bad news: I will most likely need surgery. there is a severe loss of hyaline cartlage at the lateral facet of the patella suggesting advanced chondromalacia. There is a large joint effusion; a Baker's cyst that measures approximately 4 cm in diameter. I see a orthopedic surgeon a week from tomorrow.

What a Week!

Summer is busy! I feel like I have been going non-stop all week!

On Tuesday night, I hosted a girls' night sleep-over at my in-laws' for my niece, my fake niece and my husband's niece. We were having a great night of swimming when fake-niece yells to me, "Look at the sky!" I yelled back, "What guy?" She said, "The sky! Behind you! Up in the air!" I did pick up some eye rolling in her voice, but there was a scary storm coming from behind us (the southeast) when the storms usually come from the west. Well, all I can say is that I'm glad I've been running lately, because that superpower came in handy. I ran around to the other end of the pond to get the girls out and get them into the house just before the storm really started going. We ended up losing power for a couple of hours which gave us the opportunity to play Mad Libs, charades, and 20 questions.

I got the girls to sleep and I slept on the couch. Well, "slept" is too strong of a word. I had one nightmare that I was being sucked up by a tornado and woke myself up doing that moan scream that you do in your sleep. Apparently I woke up my mother-in-law who woke up my father-in-law and very little sleep was had by any of the adults after that. I also at Bis-kit sleeping with me and every time I moved, I disturbed her. Now in my exhausted stupor, I forgot who was the human and tried not to bother the poor cat anymore.

The girls got up bright and early Wednesday morning and I made them some awesome waffles that also happened to be gluten-free. The recipe was my mother-in-laws and I don't know that I can recreate it. Anyway, we then went back outside where the girls gathered eggs. They swam some more and then we went back inside for lunch. Then the girls went out to collect mulberries. Then parents came to pick up two of the girls. Fake niece went back out to the pond to show her parents how she can jump off the pole on the rope swing.

After the girls were gone, I grabbed my niece to take her to Yankee's baseball game. On Thursday, I cleaned my house as much as I could because my cousin was coming to visit and I wanted my house clean for her to see it for the first time. We never made it to my house. On Friday, we went to the hotel where my aunt and uncle were staying. They have an indoor pool there. We swam for about 5 hours with a lunch break in the middle and then took the whole clan over to my in-laws for a cookout. I also rode the elliptical and the recumbent bike while at the hotel. My niece and nephew were there, so there were 8 kiddos and 8 adults there at one point. We cooked brats on the grill, went for a hike in the woods, went fishing and roasted marshmallows. Yankee caught a bass over 20" long!

Oh yeah! On Thursday, I had my MRI. I will know the results early next week and will update when I have them. I am tired just going over my week! Time for another nap... (still under 160!)

New Friend!

I made a new friend this week. Her name is Molly, but she is known by her pen name M. L. Gardner. She wrote a book that I just loved. It is called Jonathan's Cross. It is historical fiction set in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929. I loved this book. Did I mention that I loved this book?

She has a sequel coming out sometime in the next few weeks. I have been dying to read it. So I friended her on Facebook and asked about it. We started chatting through Facebook. I told her about my schooling, my dream to be a famous writer, and a little about my blog. Then, get this, she asked me to preview her new book! Of course I said YES! How exciting is this???!!!???? So she emailed it to me, I downloaded onto my Kindle and will dive into it tonight.

I picked up my niece, Pumpkin, today. She is so stinkin' cute! We have already had so much fun, and I get to keep her for almost a month!

I did some working out yesterday at the Y. I walk/ran for 2.18 miles and rode the recumbent bike for 6.8 miles. My weight has leveled out under 160 (yay) and now I am working on getting below 150.

Doctor Visit

I went to see my family doc on Wednesday. He took a look at my knee, and noticed swelling (when I thought there was none). He then started moving my leg around. He frowned at the grinding behind my patella. Then he frowned at the pain I experienced when he tried to twist my leg in a way it's not supposed to twist. He then ordered an MRI, told me to stick to riding my bike, and we'll go from there. I am REALLY disappointed. I want so much to run. I am noticing a slight increase in my weight (which could also be from AF).

I am still waiting to find out when my appointment is. It needs to be precertified by my insurance which could take a while. The doc is concerned that there could be another tumor (benign) causing this pain and grinding. I'm not too worried, I just don't like anesthetics. I get really sick. It's another allergy thing. Anyway, we'll see what happens. I'll let y'all know.