Update:
I am having lithotripsy (?) on Monday afternooon to blast the one in the left kidney. I will likely have the one in the right kidney blasted the following week. It's outpatient, no big deal, but I will go under general anesthesia. I can go back to work the following day as long as I am off pain meds (which I should be). The good news is that I passed the one from yesterday, at least I think I did b/c I have been without pain meds since early this afternoon! Yay! Please send positive thoughts/prayers my way if you can! Thanks!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Water anyone?
As I approached the small town about 20 miles south of here this morning, I began having this dull ache in my lower back. I often have lower back pain in part due to poor posture, in part due to the way I sleep, in part due to my, uh, not-so-small chest size. It remained in my lower back but also moved around to my lower abdomen too. The nagging turned into sharp, twisting pain and my mind began racing as I thought "What IS this? Appendicitis? Muscle spasms? Food poisoning?" Walking around, stretching, taking an antacid, taking Ibuprofen, NOTHING was helping and it was getting worse.
I called D and told him I was cancelling my appointment and driving back home because something was wrong. I called the mother of my client, explained that I had to return home and I, or someone, would call later to reschedule the evaluation. As I drove home, the pain became unbearable. I pulled over to the side of the highway, turned on my hazard lights, and vomitted. Can I just say, that if you see a car with hazards on parked on the side of the highway, GET OVER IN THE LEFT LANE. I was amazed at the audacity of people flying by me, just feet away from my open door and my head hanging out, at 70 miles per hour. Gimme a break, people!
I called D again and told him to just meet me at the ER as that's where I was headed. He said, "Is it a kidney stone?" Ahhhh, yes. That must be it! I vaguely remembered the same pain/vomitting/nightmare one early winter morning when I was 23. I was at D's apt after a night of partying and we had had a huge ice storm. I was in so much pain, I left his apt and drove/slid my car down the hill to the ER, where I promptly vomitted on my new winter coat.) A kidney stone! I thought to myself, "Please just let it be a kidney stone" b/c I knew that while this was the most pain I was likely to ever experience, it would be easily fixed. Just. Get. To. The. ER. Fast. Do. Not. Crash. Your. Car. On. The. Way.
He called me 10 minutes later to check on me and was at the ER waiting. I pulled into the ER parking lot, opened the car door, and vomitted again. Too much information? Sorry.
Lo and behold, I was determined to have a kidney stone. Actually, Three. I was passing one that was too far down to see on the CT scan, and there are two more - one in each kidney. When the doc showed me the CT scan, I thought I was looking at bilateral tumors on my kidneys. Nope. Just stones....7 mm long. That's BIG people. HUGE.
So, after some IV naseau medicine, a nice shot of Dilauded, I was headed back home. Dan got me tucked into bed, set me up with my water, water, more water, pain meds, and a strainer next to the toilet to pee through (to catch the micro pieces of sand that are kidney stones).
Tommorrow I am off to the urologist. We have to come up with a "plan of action" to deal with the two tumors, uh, I mean stones that have yet to come out of my kidneys. Gotta love the hard water down here! (The "experts" say that the fact that our whole county is built on a limestone quarry has nothing to do with the insurgence of kidney stones in our local community. All I know is that I know of no less than six people in my close circle of friends who had kidney stones before the age of twenty-five. Coincidence? I don't think so....)
Have you had one? OMG. Drink more water!
I called D and told him I was cancelling my appointment and driving back home because something was wrong. I called the mother of my client, explained that I had to return home and I, or someone, would call later to reschedule the evaluation. As I drove home, the pain became unbearable. I pulled over to the side of the highway, turned on my hazard lights, and vomitted. Can I just say, that if you see a car with hazards on parked on the side of the highway, GET OVER IN THE LEFT LANE. I was amazed at the audacity of people flying by me, just feet away from my open door and my head hanging out, at 70 miles per hour. Gimme a break, people!
I called D again and told him to just meet me at the ER as that's where I was headed. He said, "Is it a kidney stone?" Ahhhh, yes. That must be it! I vaguely remembered the same pain/vomitting/nightmare one early winter morning when I was 23. I was at D's apt after a night of partying and we had had a huge ice storm. I was in so much pain, I left his apt and drove/slid my car down the hill to the ER, where I promptly vomitted on my new winter coat.) A kidney stone! I thought to myself, "Please just let it be a kidney stone" b/c I knew that while this was the most pain I was likely to ever experience, it would be easily fixed. Just. Get. To. The. ER. Fast. Do. Not. Crash. Your. Car. On. The. Way.
He called me 10 minutes later to check on me and was at the ER waiting. I pulled into the ER parking lot, opened the car door, and vomitted again. Too much information? Sorry.
Lo and behold, I was determined to have a kidney stone. Actually, Three. I was passing one that was too far down to see on the CT scan, and there are two more - one in each kidney. When the doc showed me the CT scan, I thought I was looking at bilateral tumors on my kidneys. Nope. Just stones....7 mm long. That's BIG people. HUGE.
So, after some IV naseau medicine, a nice shot of Dilauded, I was headed back home. Dan got me tucked into bed, set me up with my water, water, more water, pain meds, and a strainer next to the toilet to pee through (to catch the micro pieces of sand that are kidney stones).
Tommorrow I am off to the urologist. We have to come up with a "plan of action" to deal with the two tumors, uh, I mean stones that have yet to come out of my kidneys. Gotta love the hard water down here! (The "experts" say that the fact that our whole county is built on a limestone quarry has nothing to do with the insurgence of kidney stones in our local community. All I know is that I know of no less than six people in my close circle of friends who had kidney stones before the age of twenty-five. Coincidence? I don't think so....)
Have you had one? OMG. Drink more water!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Carnival pics
It was K's first time on a ride outside of the Stuart Little car in the mall. I was nervous for her but she did great! She even gave me the look like "Gaaaawd Mom. Stop waving at me. You are so embarassing!" She played it cool as only she can, and gave into a few smiles here and there and said "I yuvvved it!" when we asked if she had fun. J hung out in the stroller and took a loooong nap. So I have fewer pics of him. Next year, big man! Next year! I posted two blogs tonight so keep reading....
Summer fun
It's been a fun time at our house this past week. We've been swimming in the back yard, hangin' out on the deck and visited the local carnival this weekend.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Pure fluff
Reason number 48237 that I KNOW I got it right when I chose my husband:
http://www.cookingwithdanoskids.blogspot.com/
http://www.cookingwithdanoskids.blogspot.com/
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Can I get a canoe and oars please?
Yep, that's us. Right there on CNN.
I was working in a distant town this morning ... about 1.5 hours from home. I knew the typical low-lying areas would be flooded as I headed east. We've had tons of rain and already had flooding issues earlier in the week. The next county over, a beautiful tourist destination, is always the first to flood around here. And we live very close the the county line. I made it halfway there and called D to ask about the looming clouds that appeared to be ahead. He checked the radar online and reported, just rain, no big deal. (We've had tornado sirens here 3 out of the past 7 days/nights so I was worried about severe weather) When I made it to the town, there were a few interesting detours as there was more flooding than I was aware, but I made it safely to my destination: a nursing home just outside of town. While heading to the nursing home, I had to get through a couple of "not so easy" puddle areas and was thankful for my SUV. I called D upon my arrival and told him that the evaluation I was conducting would take a couple of hours and it was quite possible that I would get stranded in that nursing home for a few hours b/c some of the roads were flooded and it was pouring buckets outside. No big deal. I'd wait it out.
A few hours later, everyone in the building shared stories about roads closed, Indianapolis flooding, the National Guard using tanks and Humvees to get people from their homes due to dams breaking. A pharmacist managed to make it to the facility and when I heard he was leaving, I asked to follow him. (He was from the area and was in a sedan, so I knew if he could make it through, I could for sure in my SUV) As we ran into road closure after road closure, I ended up separating myself from him as I remembered what side roads I had accessed earlier to get through. When I ran into the main road I had used earlier, it looked like the mighty Mississippi. Seriously. I gasped when I saw people helping other people get their kids out of houses that were flooded beyond waist high water. It was scary and surreal.
I managed to find my way back to the nursing home, just beyond the road closure and headed east towards Ohio. Completely the opposite direction from home. Meanwhile, I was talking to my husband on the cell phone asking him to watch the news and let me know what roads I could access from there. He looked and looked and found no news coverage. Anywhere. I had the radio on and kept hearing about all the closing around Indianapolis, but they weren't covering much about where I was currently or where I was trying to get to.
Eventually, I got to a small town that led me back to the interstate and back to the same town, but on the other side. I was worried it would be closed, but hooray! It was open and I headed back home. About 10 miles later I was stopped as I approached another city. Cars backed up for miles and people walking around talking about flooding. So I turned around and backtracked. I headed south on another highway b/c what the heck else was I gonna do?
I called D again and he still had no idea what I was talking about. No news coverage. It was sunshiney and happy at our house. As I continued wandering around Indiana in a strange state of confusion, worry, and annoyance, it occurred to me that all this water in Indianapolis must be impeding my ability to get home as well.
Finally, my mom calls me b/c she lives not terribly far away and she had trouble getting through to her home. She saw on the news that our county was under a state of emergency as were all of the places I had told her I was working this morning. Finally! A contact with the outside world!
To make a long story, well, it's too long to call short at this point, I finally made it home by accessing my city from the south. About the only road open. Had I left that town a little earlier, I am quite certain I would be stranded in another town, along with the flooded streets, hotels, schools, stores, and hospital. And where do you go in a situation like that? Away from home? When city streets are suddenly drowning in 3 feet of water?
As I am watching the coverage on the news, it occurs to me that my annoying situation which cost me about an extra $20 in gas and 3 hours in time, could have been much, much worse.
(And our house is fine. We live on top of a very large hill, and while there is a creek behind our house, it is at the bottom of a large ravine that would take (as my husband put it) "a flood of biblical proportion" to get to our house, I bet lots of those people who lost homes today thought the same thing at some point.) It was such a strange thing to see. I thought the flooded "mighty Mississippi" street was just a fluke thing, but now I see it was practically state wide. The water came on so suddenly and with the dams breaking, I am sure there will be loss of life. That's heartbreaking and please take a moment to keep those in your thoughts and prayers.
I hope you are all well out there. And if you live where I do, stay close and take it from me NO DRIVING outside of our little city!
I was working in a distant town this morning ... about 1.5 hours from home. I knew the typical low-lying areas would be flooded as I headed east. We've had tons of rain and already had flooding issues earlier in the week. The next county over, a beautiful tourist destination, is always the first to flood around here. And we live very close the the county line. I made it halfway there and called D to ask about the looming clouds that appeared to be ahead. He checked the radar online and reported, just rain, no big deal. (We've had tornado sirens here 3 out of the past 7 days/nights so I was worried about severe weather) When I made it to the town, there were a few interesting detours as there was more flooding than I was aware, but I made it safely to my destination: a nursing home just outside of town. While heading to the nursing home, I had to get through a couple of "not so easy" puddle areas and was thankful for my SUV. I called D upon my arrival and told him that the evaluation I was conducting would take a couple of hours and it was quite possible that I would get stranded in that nursing home for a few hours b/c some of the roads were flooded and it was pouring buckets outside. No big deal. I'd wait it out.
A few hours later, everyone in the building shared stories about roads closed, Indianapolis flooding, the National Guard using tanks and Humvees to get people from their homes due to dams breaking. A pharmacist managed to make it to the facility and when I heard he was leaving, I asked to follow him. (He was from the area and was in a sedan, so I knew if he could make it through, I could for sure in my SUV) As we ran into road closure after road closure, I ended up separating myself from him as I remembered what side roads I had accessed earlier to get through. When I ran into the main road I had used earlier, it looked like the mighty Mississippi. Seriously. I gasped when I saw people helping other people get their kids out of houses that were flooded beyond waist high water. It was scary and surreal.
I managed to find my way back to the nursing home, just beyond the road closure and headed east towards Ohio. Completely the opposite direction from home. Meanwhile, I was talking to my husband on the cell phone asking him to watch the news and let me know what roads I could access from there. He looked and looked and found no news coverage. Anywhere. I had the radio on and kept hearing about all the closing around Indianapolis, but they weren't covering much about where I was currently or where I was trying to get to.
Eventually, I got to a small town that led me back to the interstate and back to the same town, but on the other side. I was worried it would be closed, but hooray! It was open and I headed back home. About 10 miles later I was stopped as I approached another city. Cars backed up for miles and people walking around talking about flooding. So I turned around and backtracked. I headed south on another highway b/c what the heck else was I gonna do?
I called D again and he still had no idea what I was talking about. No news coverage. It was sunshiney and happy at our house. As I continued wandering around Indiana in a strange state of confusion, worry, and annoyance, it occurred to me that all this water in Indianapolis must be impeding my ability to get home as well.
Finally, my mom calls me b/c she lives not terribly far away and she had trouble getting through to her home. She saw on the news that our county was under a state of emergency as were all of the places I had told her I was working this morning. Finally! A contact with the outside world!
To make a long story, well, it's too long to call short at this point, I finally made it home by accessing my city from the south. About the only road open. Had I left that town a little earlier, I am quite certain I would be stranded in another town, along with the flooded streets, hotels, schools, stores, and hospital. And where do you go in a situation like that? Away from home? When city streets are suddenly drowning in 3 feet of water?
As I am watching the coverage on the news, it occurs to me that my annoying situation which cost me about an extra $20 in gas and 3 hours in time, could have been much, much worse.
(And our house is fine. We live on top of a very large hill, and while there is a creek behind our house, it is at the bottom of a large ravine that would take (as my husband put it) "a flood of biblical proportion" to get to our house, I bet lots of those people who lost homes today thought the same thing at some point.) It was such a strange thing to see. I thought the flooded "mighty Mississippi" street was just a fluke thing, but now I see it was practically state wide. The water came on so suddenly and with the dams breaking, I am sure there will be loss of life. That's heartbreaking and please take a moment to keep those in your thoughts and prayers.
I hope you are all well out there. And if you live where I do, stay close and take it from me NO DRIVING outside of our little city!
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Money!!
Five years ago I started this consulting job and gasonline was around $1.65 per gallon. I clearly remember it passing $2.00 per gallon and saying to my former boss, "I'll need more money for gas mileage since it is so high now." Ha. She didn't give me more for another 6 months and now my job doesn't reimburse me mileage at all. It is supposedly "built in" the payment I receive on each report. Yeah. A load of crap. It was "built in" as of 1 1/2 years ago when gas was high, but not FOUR FRIGGIN' DOLLARS per gallon. ho hum.
It has filtered down to groceries and the few cents here and there that I scoffed at six months ago has now turned into anxious panic. Seriously. D often does the grocery shopping for us. I went for the first time in about a month last weekend. OMG. I was floored at how much everything has increased. When I went out to my car (which I filled up for $53) I seriously felt anxious.
I am taking unecessary trips in the car less, piling up errands so that I do them all at once rather than over a period of days, we eat at home a lot more, and are making a few other changes here and there.
I assume we are not the only ones feeling the crunch of the nose-diving dollar. What are you doing to save money/cut costs?
It has filtered down to groceries and the few cents here and there that I scoffed at six months ago has now turned into anxious panic. Seriously. D often does the grocery shopping for us. I went for the first time in about a month last weekend. OMG. I was floored at how much everything has increased. When I went out to my car (which I filled up for $53) I seriously felt anxious.
I am taking unecessary trips in the car less, piling up errands so that I do them all at once rather than over a period of days, we eat at home a lot more, and are making a few other changes here and there.
I assume we are not the only ones feeling the crunch of the nose-diving dollar. What are you doing to save money/cut costs?
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Neglect and Purpose
One thing about blogging is as you experience funny/unusual/scary/interesting things in your day to day life, you often think "Oh! I'm going to blog about that!" Then, it never happens. At least for me. Sorry I haven't been blogging much, I haven't felt very inspired lately.
Do you ever feel like there is something missing? From your life, I mean? I have been feeling that way. A sort of unsettled nervousness, like I should be getting ready to go somewhere or do something, but am not sure what it is.
Perhaps it is this age (33), but I have been feeling unfulfilled lately. I mean, I am so thankful and blessed for my beautiful, healthy, and big-hearted children. I get to stay at home with my kids 5 1/2 days per week, a luxury I know most women do not have. I am lucky enough to say I am still in love with my husband, after being married for five years and together for ten (WOW! Can you believe that, honey?). I am furtunate to have a flexible job where I can do most of my work sitting up here on the balcony of my bedroom during naptime or after the kids go to bed. It pays me well and I do enjoy it, especially meeting all the people.
Yet, there is still something gnawing away at me. I feel like I am supposed to be doing something different. I worry that in a blink of an eye, my kids will be grown, and I will be left wondering why I hadn't taken the time to figure out my "purpose". A journey I don't want to necessarily begin when I am fifty.
I am trying to quiet my mind right now. Take some time away from my work, my kids, the tv, music. See if I can hear the voice that tells you where you should go and what you should be doing.
Does anyone know what I am talking about here? Has anyone found anything that has helped them center their lives a little more?
Do you ever feel like there is something missing? From your life, I mean? I have been feeling that way. A sort of unsettled nervousness, like I should be getting ready to go somewhere or do something, but am not sure what it is.
Perhaps it is this age (33), but I have been feeling unfulfilled lately. I mean, I am so thankful and blessed for my beautiful, healthy, and big-hearted children. I get to stay at home with my kids 5 1/2 days per week, a luxury I know most women do not have. I am lucky enough to say I am still in love with my husband, after being married for five years and together for ten (WOW! Can you believe that, honey?). I am furtunate to have a flexible job where I can do most of my work sitting up here on the balcony of my bedroom during naptime or after the kids go to bed. It pays me well and I do enjoy it, especially meeting all the people.
Yet, there is still something gnawing away at me. I feel like I am supposed to be doing something different. I worry that in a blink of an eye, my kids will be grown, and I will be left wondering why I hadn't taken the time to figure out my "purpose". A journey I don't want to necessarily begin when I am fifty.
I am trying to quiet my mind right now. Take some time away from my work, my kids, the tv, music. See if I can hear the voice that tells you where you should go and what you should be doing.
Does anyone know what I am talking about here? Has anyone found anything that has helped them center their lives a little more?
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