Urgent Care...Yet Again...Not for those with weak stomachs!

Frustrated...sick...tired...uncomfortable!!!  This is now my 3rd trip to the Urgent Care since October 7th because I'm STILL sick and feeling like crap!  I haven't had the energy to do anything and I've gotten very

slack with my bootcamp attendance.  By the time I get up and get ready for work I want to go back to sleep, but obviously I can't, so I head to work.  I am not typically a teacher to sit at my desk, I stand and roam the room during classes but not this month, I simply don't have the energy!  For weeks now I have been battling fevers, sore throats, and constantly (at least it seemed) inflamed swollen, spotted tonsils that made turning my head uncomfortable!  So far, on the first 2 visits to the Urgent Care they tested me for Strep Throat which came out negative both times and gave me antibiotics for the tonsil issue.  Each time, about half way through the antibiotics my tonsils would clear up and look normal again but a couple days past the 10 day regime they'd become grotesquely inflamed again!  This nastiness (for the 3rd time) and the fact that something is still attacking my body is what brings me back to the Urgent Care yet again!  The physician's assistant walked into the room and I swear he was carrying a Strep test in his hand and it took everything I had not to explode!!!  I calmly asked him and when he confirmed it was in fact a Strep test I refused to let him use it!  Seriously, did he read my file?!?  I've already been tested for Strep twice with negative results BOTH times and he thinks I'm gonna agree to it again, NO?!?  He looked a bit shocked at my reaction and excused himself from my room.  A doctor returned and I begged him to figure out what the heck was wrong with me and to please test me for ANYTHING but Strep!  At this point he obliged, and took me to get blooddrawn to test for Epstein-Barr virus, HSV1 (a herpes strain?!), and against his will, he went ahead and tested me for Mononucleosis, saying that people my age (over 30) rarely test positive for Mono because by that age you've probably been exposed and built up antibodies for it.  Anyway, he sent me home with a 3rd round of antibiotics and a script for Prednisone (a steroid to help the swelling in my tonsils go down).  He told me they'd call me for a return/results visit in about 4 days.  So guess what, all my tests were negative (thank goodness) except one...yup, this 32 year old girl tested positive for MONO!!!  No wonder I'd been so stinkin' fatigued!   To think I've been living with this for nearly a MONTH simply because it wasn't standard practice to test people over 30 for Mono!!!  It's known as the kissing disease, but can also live outside the body on food and surfaces for a time (if someone has coughing or sneezing symptoms) so I talked to Paul even though he wasn't experiencing any symptoms himself.  He confirmed that there WAS a girl in his office that currently had it right now!  Paul's brother had Mono as

a kid and so according to the doctor, Paul probably had been exposed as a child and built up the antibodies and therefore could spread it to me but not experience symptoms himself.  Who knows, but it's plausible?!?  Lord knows I haven't shared food, drinks, or kisses with anyone else (thanks to Mom...I'm a bit of a germaphobe when it comes to sharing food, drinks, chapstick, etc...probably why I wasn't exposed to Mono as a child or teenager)!  :-)

Urgent Care Visit...Warning, Kinda Gross!!!

I haven't felt all that well for a few days now.  I've been trying to tell myself that I must've caught some type of bacteria from our Lake Buena Vista trip because no one was sick around me and I rarely get sick enough that a dose or two of Nyquil and a good night's sleep doesn't fix!  My tonsils were swollen and my throat was on fire!  I had a date on Saturday and didn't want to feel this terrible, so I broke down,left work a little early (hoping to beat the after work crowd)  and went to the Urgent Care.  They tested me for strep throat but it came back negative.  They gave me and antibiotic and sent me on my way (nearly 2 hours later)!  Fingers crossed it does the trick!

Hard work...Yard work!

 I was over at Mom's house to help her dig out one of her Phoenix Robellini 3-headded palms so that we could attempt to re-plant it a bit deeper.  One of the three heads was starting to fall to the side and appeared to be dying because it was too far out of the dirt and wasn't being supported.  Knowing the plant was way to big and rooted for a simple shovel, Mom picked up a digging bar.  That thing was AMAZING!!!  It sliced through roots like butter and was strong enough to pry that ginormous plant up out of the ground (a shovel would have surely broke)!!!  It took hours of digging and prying but we got it!  We decided to slice off that 3rd head and pot it separately (hoping it would come back to healthy eventually) and just re-set the remaining 2 heads.  Ultimately the planting was successful, but unfortunately we ended up nursing a couple wounds from the ordeal.  Mom hurt her heal from hours of stomping on a shovel, and I bore a whole into my palm with the digging bar!

Yard work and sunburns...April 24th, 2011

The weather had been sunny and warm which leads to lots of outside time.  I was clearly wearing a sports bra under a strappy tank top for my all day marathon event of yard work and the aftermath was a very goofy shaped sunburn!!!  This sunburn took almost 2 weeks to fully snake up and peel off--so gross!!!  Part of the day involved pulling crabgrass for hours which gave me a nasty water blister on my index finger that I had to pop in order to get the water out!  Baylie on the other hand seemed quite satisfied with me being out in the back yard and able to play all day!!!  Sure wish I could teach the girls to eat the weeds then I wouldn't have as many to pull up!  :)

First Bootcamp Injury...January 2011

So...I've been going to bootcamp now for a while and actually really LOVE it!  It is super fast paced and I always leave feeling accomplished with fatigued shaky muscles but this day I left with a little less--skin that is!!!  One of their favorite strength building exercises is called a plank were you are essentially in a push-up position on your toes, body strait but on elbows (usually).  This day we did a lot of different variations one after another!  We had to lift a leg, then add a row using elastic bands, then a rotation--long story short, we were propped on our elbows for a loooong time while we proceeded to grind them into the 1/4 inch mats on the gym floor!  By the end of the workout I don't think it would've mattered if we'd  have been positioned on  marshmallows...everybody's elbows were a mess!  The worst part, was that it took forever to heal because day after day band-aid or not I continued to rip it back open!

Our 1st Visit to the 24hour Emergency Vet.

It was Friday night (10-29-10) after one of the loooonngggeeessst weeks I'd had in a while and it was around 11:00 at night. I was going through the standard nighttime routine of taking the girls outside to pee just before we go to bed but it was crazy windy and the girls were distracted to do their business. So I figured if we kicked the ball around a few times they would quit paying attention to the blowing trees, run around the yard a bit and then pee so we could go to bed. Five minutes into playing Baylie had gone but I was waiting for Ginger (who was finally in the process of sniffing out the perfect spot)...I kicked the ball one final time--and tragedy! The ball took off strait towards my patio pillar and Baylie was running at full speed to get it. Typically the girls are really good at judging the ricochet and they'll scoop up the ball off the rebound. This time Baylie did not wait...I don't know if she thought she could out run it or if her depth perception was skewed by the dim lighting but she dipped her head to get the ball and her eye collided with the stucco covered pillar. At first I figured it was just her shoulder but she came off yelping and I hurried her into the house into the kitchen where I had enough light to check her out and I was horrified! Her whole eye socket was filled with blood and she was bleeding from multiple other spots around the eye. I instantly feared the worst--I worried that she'd hit the corner of the pillar and blinded herself! I started blotting off all the blood, grabbed leashes and got both girls into the car on my way to the Emergency vet...which is across town! Mom was able to meet me there after dispatching for the football games and helped with Ginger while I quickly filled out the paperwork for Baylie to see the Doctor. The vet said he'd need to clean up the wound before determining the need for stitches and said he'd do a special eye wash to check and see if she scratched her cornea. Luckily, when he brought her back in the room he said her eye seemed to be fine, she had reactive pupils, directional movement, and he saw no scratches! The vet said that he really couldn't put stitches in her gash without it pulling down her bottom eyelid so it would just have to heal in itself. He prescribed some antibiotics to help fight infection and told me to keep it clean. He said it'd probably take a couple weeks to fully heal and she will most likely have a scar where the hair won't grow back but I was just relieved to hear that she was going to be alright (especially her sight)! I took the pictures after we got home around 1:30 in the morning and both girls were exhausted so it was strait to bed after that! The next morning Baylie's eye was gooey but once I took a moist rag to it I was happy to see it looking less swollen. Baylie was lethargic all day Saturday so we laid low and she and Ginger slept away the majority of the day. Now it's beginning to scab over and the swelling is allowing her to open her eye better so I think she'll be back to good sooner than later!

Allergy Scratch Test Results...

I have been having crazy eye and skin problems for quite some time now.  The poor skin around my eyes has been everything from inflamed, to swollen, to chapped and raw.  I have exhausted the possibilities that a dermatologist could help with the exception of a steroid cream that helped a little, but was bad for the delicate skin around the eye.  I decided to try an allergist and had a scratch test performed.  Turns out I'm allergic to the outdoors!  Most notably, weeds and grasses!  Luckily I'm NOT allergic to my dogs, because staying away from them would NOT be an option!  I am however, moderately allergic to cats, confirming the day I ended up in the CSUF urgent care after a first date with a guy who had a brand new kitten...my face swelled up, throat closed up, eyes were more bloodshot than anything I'd ever seen!  (Needless to say, we didn't continue dating!).  My allergist suggested that I move to Hawaii to get away from the weeds and grasses of the valley (if only that was an option!?).  Either that, or hire a gardener or student to come take care of my lawns...sadly, this is not a financial burden I'd like to take on at the moment (I'd MUCH rather have a maid anyway!).  Ultimately, we started a regime of allergy meds. and I hoped for the best!  

Baylie's Final Clearance: No More Restrictions!!!

We finally made it! We are about 6 months out from Baylie's devastating knee surgery after blowing out her right ACL back in October. Baylie has had a long recovery and rehabilitation process that was facilitated by friends and family. Our First appointment at VCA-All Care was October 10th, 2009 and our last was this past Sunday March 28th, 2010. My only fear going into this 6 month check-up was to be told that her over compensating for her bad knee all this time had worn down her good one. Luckily the orthopedic surgeon said that everything felt great and her range of motion was back to normal and the x-rays confirmed everything!!! Baylie has officially had all restrictions lifted and now we only need to go back down south once a year for annual x-rays to be sure everything stays perfect! The weather was great and the traffic was minimal for this recent trip...it actually felt like the weight was finally lifted off my shoulders and I can worry a little less and pay off her surgical bills with my tax return and put all of this behind us!!!

Gigantic Sagos!!!!

So my Mom has these 2 GIGANTIC 25-ish year old Sago Palms that flank the front entry to the house and had actually become so overgrown that you'd have to bob and weave to get to the front door without getting poked and stabbed by the big needle-like limbs! My Mom had called a tree trimming company to come and chop out the big torpedo-like seed pods from the queen palms in the backyard that make such a mess in the pool and thought that she might have them do the Sagos in the front the same day. They were supposed to show up at 8am so I showed up a bit after 7am because I wanted to scope out the sagos for big "pups" that I could pop off and re-pot before the guys came and chopped them up. I got started around 7:30 and once I got a couple popped off I could then see what I was doing and was able to make progress much more quickly. With a lot of elbow grease and sweat...I had one full sago stripped by the time the tree trimming service FINALLY showed up which was somewhere around 10am! I must have gotten more than 30 good pups off, ready to re-pot but there had to have been more than 50 total that I popped off. I already had a good blister in the center of my right palm and my poor arms looked like I stuck them into a fire ant hole...those pokey sagos are MEAN! I told mom I'd be happy to attack the dual headed gigantic sago next weekend once my hand healed up a bit but we'd saved enough of the big pups that we'd run out of pots so she decided to have them prune it up. Once they were done and cleaned up I drove home to get my girls and the 2 big bags of potting soil that I had left over in my garage. The girls went swimming while mom started cleaning all the debris out of the pool that were left over from the palm pruning and I began potting the pups...both MAJOR chores! In the midst of all this, Sherry needed a sitter so that she could do some back to school shopping without Carter his diaper bag & stroller! It gave us a much needed break...he got to have a quick swim with "grandma"...then a quick diaper change and bottle later he was down for the count! We went back to work while he slept and just checked on him every 10 minutes or so...the little guy slept 'till Sherry got back around 4pm. They went home but we kept working...I was determined to finish even though by this time sore was an understatement...you name it, back, arms, shoulders, hands...EVERYTHING hurt!!! Once mom got the pool in check she began helping me water the newly potted pups and arrange the numerous pots around her yard. Finally we finished up a bit before 8pm...it was a rough day but like they say, no pain-no gain and we CLEARLY got a LOT done in that 12-ish hours!!! Now I just hope that most of the pups live so that the hard work was not done in vain! Fingers crossed!