Sick of Being Sick

I've been sick.  Like really sick.  Like go to urgent care, specialists and more doctors trying to find out what is wrong with me.  I've been covered in hives for over a month.  Tired, grouchy, and not fun to be around.  They come and go but mostly they come and stay.  It's so frustrating to not feel good and not have an answer.  It's even more frustrating to go to doctors who have no idea how to fix it so they give you medicine to "cover up" the systems.

My thyroid has been too high then too low and I thought maybe that was it.  I looked at everything possible as a trigger: food, drinks, soaps, lotions, sun, I was going mad.  Nothing was helping.  I had an appoint for my Naturalpathic Doc today and thankfully she knew what was wrong.  I love her.  I've said this many times and I'll say it again, I love her.  Love, love, love♥  She said it was a virus.  She has had three patients with the same thing over the past six months.  It's the same family of virus' as the shingles I had a few months ago.  Great.  So I may get them again in the future just like shingles.  The bad news is that the hives last 6-8 weeks.  The good news is that I've already had the hives for 4-6 weeks.  It will be over soon.  Just knowing what is wrong with me makes me feel better.  I'm not crazy!  Whew.  Well, I'm a little crazy but normal is boring - wink.

My Dr. gave me a vitamin B-12 shot and a tincture to boost my immune system and help fight the virus off.  I headed off to get more blood work to check a few more things and hopefully I will be good to go.  The B-12 has already made me happier and given me a boost of energy.  I may need to get these more often!

Here's the deal.  Listen to your body.  You are they only one who truly knows what is going on in there.  If something isn't right find someone who can figure it out.  It could be the medical route like when I had thyroid cancer and my arthritis or it could be the natural route for hormones, balance and overall health.  I am a big believer in both.  My health needs both the traditional medical and the natural medicines to feel my best.  Thankfully I'm on the road to feeling my best......again.

*Update*
It's Sunday,  I came home on Friday and went to bed.  The B-12 shot gave me a little more energy and the tincture Dr. Jessie made is disgusting but seems to be helping.  I put oils on my feet - DoTerra On Guard  which helps fight off infections and Balance which helps balance everything out.  I woke up on Saturday to NO HIVES!  They came back a little later in the day but it was a welcome relief.  I kept the oils on my feet and Sunday - NO HIVES!  Hopefully my immune system is finally getting a handle on this and kicking those hives to the curb!

Staycation Day 2

Today was another beautiful day in the Valley of the Sun.  They High was 84 and it's still 80 degrees outside at 8pm.  Gotta love it!  I just don't know what I would do with snow.  I had a dream the other night that we moved somewhere and it snowed - A LOT and I panicked.  I didn't know what to do, how to drive in it, shovel it, walk in it.  Yes, I have lived a very snow sheltered life.  In fact I have only seen it actually snow once.  True Story!

Anyhoo.....back to our fun day.  Here is our itinerary and how it played out:

Tuesday
Val Vista Lakes Country Club
(my in-laws are members)

Taco Bell for lunch

Slushies during happy hour at Sonic for a treat

Playing with the endless friends in the 'hood till dinnertime

Gymnastics for Miss Amberly

Baked chicken, salad, corn on the cob and sourdough bread for dinner

Cassidy made her first batch of lemon bars - YUM!

 This place....it's my sanity away from the desert.  It looks like you are in a lush green oasis even though you are right in the middle of it.  The main pool is heated all year and is where we have the girls birthday parties (every other year).  The Lagoon as we like to call the beach area has a zero depth pool with sand, play equipment, fountains and you have the most gorgeous view of the waterfalls!

 Sand castle heaven!

 Yes, we can have a little beauty in vast-land ♥

 We had our wedding reception here and have been coming back ever since. 

Have I mentioned that I ♥ it?

I didn't take any pictures of the flowers but man are they amazing right now!

 The crew

Cass made lemon bars for dessert 

She is pretty proud of herself since this is one of her favorite treats.

We had to do something with all the lemons we have!

And they turned out perfect!

Off the Wagon

I've fallen and I can't get up..........

This has been the worst week as far as feeding my family good, nutritious food.  Summer is very hard to stay on the healthy track.  It seems like my kids always have a popcicle or sugary snack in their hands.  I didn't even know I had so many sugary snacks in the house!  Where did they come from?  The sugar fairy?

(my Mom always blamed the "_____ Fairy" whenever something good happened. there was the cleaning fairy, the onion fairy, the treat fairy, the painting fairy, the garden fairy....you get the idea).

It's bad people.....BAD over here.  I think Monday morning I'm doing a clean sweep and getting rid of all the junk.  It pains me to see my kids eat so bad but summer is so.............hard for that.  What do I do?


p.s. I need help in keeping me from eating the peanut butter M&M's that are hidden in my bottom drawer by my bed.  Shhhhhhhh.

I have always been a healthy eater.  I grew up with a Dad who was the healthiest eater I know.  His one splurge was vanilla ice-cream every night at 8:00pm or "eight-oh-oh" as we called it.  

Since I had my whole cancer thing last year I have been trying to get my family into the same frame-of-mind as my Dad had.  It's hard to get multiple people to think the same.  Tom is easy - he will eat anything I cook and has trained himself to pick healthy foods, Amberly automatically eats fruits and veggies and loves to eat at home.  Cassidy on the other hand hates fruits and veggies and only likes "hot food".  She doesn't like anything healthy.  

I have been cooking a lot.  We hardly go out to eat anymore.  Tom and I will go to lunch (since we work together) have a little lunch date but dinner with the kids is made here.  Most treats are made here and limited to the weekends. Except this week - Spring Break has ruined that.  I have been trying to add/eat as much fiber and whole grains as possible to our diet and cut out as much sugar as possible.  Having cancer is lame and I don't want anyone else in this house to get it including me - again!

Today in my e-mail I got this book recommendation from my Dr.:  

The Full Plate Diet. 

I do want to loose weight - who doesn't but I don't like to diet.  I don't like to exercise either but lets not go there.  Here is what he said about it: 


"Of all the facets to what differentiates a healthy diet from an unhealthy diet, if I had to choose just one thing to focus on it would probable be fiber.  That's what they did in this book with amazing images, simple instructions and lots of advice for eating on the go.  There is even a free audio version available as well." Dr. Christianson

This book is different.  It's not just a diet book.  It tells you what foods have the highest fiber and how to make food higher in fiber.  AND.......they have it for FREE online!!!  Yep, free - no catch.  Seriously why wouldn't you download it. And it's not boring, has pretty bright colored pictures and is simple and easy to read/understand.  I'm so excited.  I had 1/2 an avocado on my turkey sandwich and guess what? That 1/2 of an avocado has 7 grams of fiber.  I had blackberries on my shredded wheat cereal and those berries had 8 grams of fiber.  Also did you know that oatmeal has 50% more protein that wheat and 100% more than rice?

I know I'm going on and on here but I just read 96 pages of the book - online - in less than 20 min and it has me so motivated!  I can eat healthy - I like eating healthy, I just need a little push to help me stay motivated.

Here's the link to download it for FREE!!  The Full Plate Diet Book.  Let me know what you think!

Today.........

This morning I woke up hurting.
Darn arthritis!
Just yesterday I commented on how good I have been feeling to my brother Matt.
Maybe I shouldn't say things like that.
I think I may have jinxed myself.

It also may have to do with the fact that I have run out of my daily medicine and forgot to go pick it up yesterday before the pharmacy closed early. Another Darn! Can I also say that I hate my pharmacy! They are rushed and rude and forget to refill at least one of my prescriptions each and every month. It makes me hate going in there. I think I may have to switch....again. The last pharmacy was shorting me pills. How hard is it to count correctly when that's ALL YOU DO ALL DAY?? It wasn't once either. It was five times in a ROW! Yep - I told them one more time and I'm gone. I guess I didn't mean much to them since it happened one more time. I think I may try Sam's Club pharmacy. Do you think they know how to count and be nice?

Tonight we are taking the girls to a D-Backs game. Their 1st. Tom got great tickets so we are going to go have some fun. I'm sure we won't stay till the end. Bedtimes at 8pm and we have two sleeping beauties to attend to. I'll take some pictures and post 'em.

What are you doing tonight?
What pharmacy do you use and like?

P.S. I'm listening to Peter, Paul and Mary and loving them! Oh the childhood memories♥

Now and Then ♥Cassidy and Jane♥

(Jill, Jane and Cass 2005?)

I can’t believe I don’t have any old pictures of Cass and Jane. I’m sure I do in the boxes of pictures I have in the closet buried under a mass of stuff. I could only find this one on my computer. They are 10 1/2 and have been best friends since they were 2 1/2 and I didn’t get a digital camera until Abby was about 1. So that explains it – I’m still feeling bad about it. I called Suzanne and she’s on the lookout for a better picture. I started watching Jane about 3 days a week when the girls were 2 1/2. It was a win/win because I made a little money and Cassidy had a friend to play with. Jane is like a second daughter to us and we keep trying to steal her away from John and Suzanne but they won’t let us! (hmmm wonder why?) The top pictures are of the girls last week while they were here for a visit. I totally remember wanting to dress the same as my best friend!! We sure had fun while they were here! Miss you Jane and Jill♥

Things

Last night Abby woke up coughing. I took her in the kitchen, got her some medicine and a cough drop and put her back into bed. No sleeping with Mom and Dad when you are a bed hog.

(This is Tom and I with Abby and Flower the cat taking up most of the room- we also can't forget that Tom sleeps with four pillows and I sleep with three! Let's add that up - Two adults with seven pillows, one cat and one five year old. See why I took Miss Abby back to bed?)

I then climbed back into my bed and lay there thinking for a good hour. I always have the best blog posts that run through my head right before I go to sleep. I think to myself - oooh that's a good one - remember that. Then when I get up in the morning it's all a hazy, distant, floating out in brainland memory that I can't quite grasp and bring back. sighhhh

Last night I was thinking about how good I can see in the dark. It's like I have night vision or something. I can get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink, whatever and see pretty clearly everything around me. Everything is in black and white - I love that. It gives things a different perspective doesn't it? Have you ever wondered why there is no color anywhere at night. Just shades of black, white and gray. I'm sure I learned something about this in school but I'm not recalling exactly the scientific reasoning. Let's just say that's it's pretty cool and leave it at that.

Tonight the girls and I watched Just my Luck with Lindsey Lohan. It was very cute. My girls loved it. I was impressed that they said "oh my gosh" instead of the other more profound way. I was also disappointed that they used the S word more than a few times. Why do they have to do that? Anyway - still a cute movie even though I had to say, "um-that's a bad word- don't say that" to the girls. They have to learn the bad words somehow and since I'm not going to be saying them I have to teach them somehow. (I'm thinking positive)


I'm off to bed - I'm sooo tired. I think I did too much today. the sad thing is, it wasn't much! I just keep telling myself that this is MUCH better than a hip replacement and I'm only one week into recovery. Once more week and I'm sure I'll have my sass back!

Night♥

Shots for Abby

Today I had to take Abby in to the Doctor to get her kindergarten shots. I thought I was done but she was missing some and they were going to make her stay home until we got them done.

I told her what we were going to be doing and she seemed fine with it. Didn't really even care it seemed. We had to wait for 1 1/2 hours to get in to the Dr. My appt. was at 10:30 and at 12pm we were seeing the Dr. I'm not sure what was going on but once the Dr heard this she was SO mad! I feel sorry for the girl at the front desk. AND, I did have an appt. It wasn't a same day - I'm sick appt. Seriously.

Anywho, Abby had to pee in a cup and she just sat there and giggled and giggled. She thought that was the weirdest thing I ever made her do! I thought she was being cute about it. Then the nurse came in and brought another nurse to help with the 5 shots. i just sat there praying that these shots wouldn't make her sick. please, please, please don't make her sick, or give her autism, or mess with her brain. I asked if I could do them two different visits and they said it would be fine so I just prayed and prayed and prayed.

The nurses got on either side of her and poked her twice in each arm and one in her leg and do you know what Abby did?

She giggled the whole time! Just giggled and laughed and did not cry. The nurses were floored. I was shocked. Well, kind of shocked. She didn't cry when we got her ears pierced either. Didn't even flinch. She is some kind of super girl. High pain tolerance and the ability to giggle instead of cry. Yep, she's my girl.

When I took her to school afterwards (she was late), she had 5 huge princess stickers all over her shirt, five band-aids on her arms and leg and got to be the superstar of the class. I told the teacher and the class that she got 5 shots and didn't even cry. Everyone thought she was amazing. I thought so too. It was pretty cute.

Her only request for getting the shots were:
"Mom can you take me to the mall?"

Yep, she's my girl alright!

(I'll have to post a picture later)

Monkey Bars

(This picture was taken in Salinas at Central Park8/08)

Today I picked up Abby from school and she excitedly told me,

"Mom I did the monkey bars NINE TIMES and I got a blister see?!!"

Then she held out her hand and showed me her HUGE blister that had popped.

She was beaming with pride.

Oh the joys of kindergarten!

This happened to Cassidy too!

She had blisters for YEARS!!!

Looks like we have another monkey bar professional!

Grossology

***WARNING***

If you do not want to see something gross or do not like feet

DO NOT READ THIS POST!!

Is anyone still there? I did warn you you know!

Last Monday I broke my toe. This is my first broken bone. Yes I am aware that I have 10 fake joints but that doesn't count. O.K. - and I did fracture my ankle in High School but these poor little guys are BROKEN!!!

I'm sure I have made it worse because I haven't stopped walking on them at all and continue to do all I do. I'm also sure it wasn't helpful to go school shopping the very next day. Good thing I am already medicated. It sure comes in handy when there is pain involved. Ü

So are you ready to see my poor foot? It's gross I tell you - an painful - and well.......just plain gross!

So what do you think?