Is there a doctor in the house?

So, one of the big hindrances to medical issues like this is finding a doctor that will actually take the time to listen, instead of hearing half your symptoms and throwing drugs at you. I thought I'd found one, and he seemed to be on the right page at first, until I felt like every time I went he was trying to sell me something new. I finally just said no yesterday and left with just paying the co-pay. This was the follow up after the episode a couple weeks ago. I'm still not feeling well, and told him that, but he seemed to think that I was having more good days that bad compared to when I first came in back in July or August. Um okay. So, I told him about my kidneys or liver (who knows which) hurt most of the time and the answer? Neural therapy. My understanding of this is that it's some sort of shot that relaxes and resets your muscles and nerves?? If anyone can correct me on that and has a better understanding that'd be great. Right. Pain in kidneys or liver = neural therapy. Mmmkay pumpkin.

Last week at this time...

I have a bad habit of saying, well last week at this time I was doing _____. Mostly this occurs around the week after a vacation. This time however, I am GLAD it's not last week at this time. Last week at this time I was sitting in the ER while they tried to figure out what in the world happened to me. Here's how it all started...

So after work I was running errands and I was standing at the photo kiosk at Costco running off a mountain of pictures when I started to get hot. Now, if you know me well, I'm a pretty cold-natured person. I then started not to feel well. For some reason, I've never been able to stand in one spot for too long, I'll either have to sit down or walk somewhere else. I started shifting my weight from foot to foot to see if that would help...I was thinking seriously? I only have a few pictures to go! Also, those that know me know I HATE being the center of attention. I knew I wasn't feeling well so all I wanted to do was get to my car in order to curl up in a fetal position. I really just wanted to get out of there. Then my peripheral vision started to get black. Nice. Spots appeared. Even better. I don't remember doing this, but somehow I was suddenly squatted down in front of the kiosk. Okay...time to go. I ran off the receipt and seriously took two steps to my left, put the receipt down, and...nothing. Don't remember anything after that. I'm not sure how long I was out, but apparently I'm weird enough to pass out and stay on my feet. As if I'm not already a freak of nature. I have to say, I've never in my life passed out before. It's really odd. Your body just shuts down. As I started to get some of my hearing back I heard sirens and I remember thinking, I really wish someone would kill that alarm. As I came to a little more, about ten employees were around me. How embarrassing. All I zeroed in on was the statement "don't worry ma'am, the ambulance is on the way". Wait. What? Awesome. Why can't you just drag me to my car and let me put my head between my knees? Please? So then EMS and the fire trucks arrived. Fabulous. Only Andy would have been excited about the fire trucks. I, however, wanted to hide. I then broke my cardinal rule about never being transported to the hospital in an ambulance. Okay, fast forward. Finally left the hospital about 11:30 that night with no real information. Blood sugar was okay, all they found was a slight infection, dehydration, and a funky heart rhythm. I'd learn later that particular rhythm is associated with thyroid issues.

So that was last week "at this time". Went to the doctor yesterday and ordered more bloodwork. I think I should mention about here that I've been seeing an "integrative" doctor. Not the conventional doctor you'd go to; they deal more in holistic practices and listen to the patient instead of to the bloodwork. For years doctors missed all the telltale signs of thyroid issues, or misread information, or didn't test correctly. More on that later. But, in short, I guess I've been out of whack for so long that it's just going to take awhile to get back on track. At least I've tried new things. Riding in ambulances...drawing public attention to myself...ahhh wonderful fun for introverts.

They will run and not grow weary...

So...I haven't written on here in a LONG time. Lots has happened since last year at this time and I've toyed with the idea of changing the nature of this blog a little bit. I had a little trouble finding direction for it in the first place and maybe that's why it fizzled out, but I think I've figured out a little bit about that too.

In short, I am 29 and I am exhausted. Not a "oh I'm tired, I think I'll take a nap" kind of tired, but an all the time exhaustion. To many that may seem odd, and it is. You above anyone know your body and if you think something is not quite right, you are probably right. Don't let people think you are crazy or a hypochondriac. I accepted that for years until I gradually got worse and couldn't figure it out. It was quite by accident that my mom, who has similar problems, brought up thyroid issues out of the blue. All the symptoms seemed to fit. Even the weird ones. Things you wouldn't think about being related. Yes, you need your heart, your brain...but your thyroid is major. It pretty much runs everything. If that thing is out of whack, you can bet you are going to be out of whack.

So, this is the start of something new. I'll keep things posted here on the progress of how it's going but it looks like it's going to be a little bit of a long road. It's a relief though to finally be on the track of finding information and not feeling like you are crazy. Don't take things you can do for granted though. I've always wanted to be a runner. It's sad to feel like you would love to run a marathon and you can't even climb the stairs. Fingers crossed on getting there.


Isaiah 40:30-31- Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

Babe, the Big Bruised Ox

One of my absolute favorite movies is a movie from the 60s called Support Your Local Sheriff. This movie is chock full of classic one-liners. If I could have been a writer on any movie, this one would have been it. One of my favorite lines is delivered by the female lead and it pretty much sums up my life theme. After something else disastrous and off-the-wall happens to her, she yells, "Why do all these stupid things keep happening to me? I don't know but somebody'd better do something about it real soon!" Yup. Sums it up. I've also had this horrible thought that anyone that comes in contact with me unfortunately gets a little bit of that luck rubbed off on them. Completely unintended, I assure you. In some ways I feel like a pariah. Sometimes funny, which is when I choose to laugh about it, and sometimes sad.

Which brings me to tonight's story. A little back story first. Anyone familiar with my hubby knows that he drives a big blue truck. One day not too long ago he comes home from work with his face shining like one who has just had a true epiphany. He's going to name his truck Babe, because it's big and blue. For those of you unfamiliar with this reference, Paul Bunyan's big blue ox is named...you guessed it...Babe. I thought this was pretty clever.

Tonight we decided to make a Lowe's run because we are working on some home improvement projects (stay tuned, once this starts I'm sure they'll be something that will end up on here). As most of you that live around here know, we haven't had rain in quite some time and it finally decided to rain yesterday and today. So, on our way home we're just down from our house when we hear a huge THUD on poor Babe's roof. I wish we could have had a camera mounted on the dash for this one. We both ducked like fools like whatever it was was going to come through the roof. Mentally, that part is still pretty amusing. The rest is not. Who knows what this was-my only guess is that it was a piece of a limb that picked that exact moment to fall on our heads. What are the odds, really? He was pretty quiet all the way home from that point. If a grown man could cry, I think this would have been the moment. Poor guy.

PS-I think Babe will be okay. A little buffing and a little love, and it'll be good as new. I'm also glad we weren't in my car, because at this point I wouldn't be sitting here writing, I'd be writhing in a corner in a fetal position because I would have had to replace a ton of glass. See what I mean though? If he'd been alone that limb would NOT had hit the truck. Sigh.

An Addendum. Already.

Already I am providing helpful lessons from learning them the hard way. That last post was almost cyber trash as I did not save before I hit submit and it disappeared. I did some internet finagling and it somehow found it. So there ya go. Always save. And I'd also like to point out the use of alliteration in the title of this post. Okay. I'm done. Always save.

More background

I was thinking perhaps I should provide a little more background. Not so it'll make more sense, but just so you'll know. You know, where things sometimes just make sense in your head but then you try to explain to someone else and you get that blank stare? This may be like that. Just warning you.

That being said, I was going to explain why the email was called "Plaster letters and pea gravel". I sent myself two links in this email-one on how to make plaster letters you could (ideally) put on the wall, and one on landscaping with pea gravel. The link on pea gravel is self-explanatory and not nearly as interesting as the link on plaster letters. I probably shouldn't consider anything that has an exacto knife and plaster of paris in the tools list. But hey, even after all this time apparently I've still got some optimistic tendencies. To sum it up, you apparently cut out cardboard, shape it in the letter you want, and pour in the plaster. Easy, right? Well, I've had my reservations about making this particular craft, but apparently other people have had more trouble since they felt the need to include this warning in all caps:

PLEASE DON'T POUR PLASTER DOWN THE DRAIN - IT WILL HARDEN AND CLOG IT UP

Seriously. This was definitely on there. Has this occurred to some people as a good idea to get rid of plaster of paris? To be honest, I should probably keep my mouth shut since this blog is about life lessons learned the hard way. But I have to get my kicks somewhere, and at least I didn't do this one.

What am I getting into?

It has been suggested on more than one occasion that I should write a book. I'm not quite sure what I would write said book on, but it has crossed my mind. I should have honestly stayed an English major in college, but as they say hindsight is 20/20. The only problem with this book would probably be an extreme case of ADD. Self-diagnosed, of course. I'll have an idea and won't get more than a snarky paragraph in before I can't go any farther. So, in the spirit of starting off with baby steps, I'm selling out to blogger nation. In other comparisons, this will be along the lines of a 30 minute sitcom instead of a two hour full feature. I think I can handle this.

I'm sure you've at least read the title, or been forced to since the page isn't long enough to have scrolled down enough for you to look away from it. I'll go ahead and supply the answer because I'm sure your life won't be complete and sleep will elude you until you know. Often at work, if I'm bored or on hold with someone who thinks their time is more important than mine, I'll surf around my favorite site for ideas I'd like to do someday. In order to find such idea in my overflowing personal mailbox at a future date (considering I even remember I sent it to myself) I'll put in the title helpful keywords so I can search for it later. One of these such titles was "Plaster letters and pea gravel". I thought to myself at the time this would be an awesome name for a band, but as it ended up it became the groupie instead of the lead singer. So there you are.

I'll just let this take its own course and see where it goes. Please feel free to comment or email anything you'd like. Well, within reason of course.