another rough couple days...

Lets be honest friends.. I'm pretty transparent with my blogging. so- in honor of being pretty upfront with everything, here's what's been going down in our lives!!

Piggybacking off the last blog- Corey's foot is still sore, but he has been back to work for a few weeks now... they said a piece of the bone did break off, but it wasn't something that could be fixed by surgery or anything other than basically natural healing. They took him out of the boot and also told him he no longer needed to wear the brace - so he tries to treat it like normal.. but there is still some remaining pain.

We took our Alaskan cruise! It was amazing!! We cannot wait to go on another one!! We're thinking maybe 2020!! We already have some ideas worked up for the rest of this year and next year, so we have to push it out a little further than we'd like! ;) But we'll choose a new location! It'll be exciting to find a new place to visit that we haven't been to!

I had every intention in bringing my gym clothes onto the boat.. but the day or two leading up to it, I was having a LOT of knee pain... not sure why.. but going into the first and second days on the cruise I was still experiencing it and decided that there wasn't enough room for it in my suit case, knowing I wasn't going to use it. It meant an additional pair of shoes, extra socks, extra shirts and work out pants.. but - I know myself well enough.  I was a little bummed with myself, because I wanted to keep up with everything - but used it as a break instead.

We did do a lot of walking around though - so that definitely made up for some of it. I did get sick on the cruise however - so that was a bummer... Corey caught a cold and passed it to his momma and I... we still got to do ALL the things - but there was 1 day at sea I didn't do a whole lot or leave the room much - and I didn't really feel bad about it! That's what vacations are for!!!

As most know- cruises are FULL of ALLLL the food. - we definitely did a fair share of eating, too... best meal - King Crab in Juneau!!! SOOOOO.GOOOOOOD. Good news is - I was only up about 5lbs from my lowest weigh in - which I know was just after the dietbet! Speaking of which - I unfortunately did not pass my second bet... I'm not mad - life hit hard about that time.. I was dealing with my HORRID food poisoning - Corey's broken foot, and the stress of life - but - I'll bounce back! Its not the end of the world.. I still lost weight leading up to it!! just wasn't quite where I needed to be! there will be more!

We got off the boat and I headed for Spokane with my parents and little brother to spend time with my older brother, sister-in-law, and niche! We enjoyed the long weekend together (missing Corey back home. :( ) and had some great family time! Got to watch Nora at her ballet class - go to a BBQ at Angie's cousins house where the kiddos ((and the adults!!)) enjoyed the slip-in-slide! and the boys re-painted Nora's playset that they put up 2 years prior.

(peter is on the ladder, timm is inside the house painting with nora, and dad is underneath the set!)

Back to regular life - as we know it - we still hadn't gotten back on track - although I'm maintaining my loss at just coasting along. I needed to get my rear in gear and get going!! However - without fail - you know something happens... because its us!!!! :D

Corey, Snoop and Tipsy's birthday was last Tuesday!!

We went out to celebrate as a big group at Spaghetti Factory (minus the kitties!!) - and the next morning I woke around 2am with some horrid pain trying to breathe... shaking it off, I dealt with it all day Wednesday and finally in the evening just before bed, decided to reach out to the nurses line for guidance. She suggested me going to the ER that night, or - using my best judgement if I wanted to wait and try for an appointment the next morning... Although I have great heath coverage, I didn't really wish to spend the $150 copay for the ER - so I opted to go to work the next day, and call first thing when the doctor's office opened to see if I couldn't get an appointment to go in and see a doctor. I left work early and Corey took me over, and based on my symptoms, which - hadn't gone away... they choose to do an EKG to rule out the heart first. They didn't think it was the heart - so they wanted to do it first and get it out of the way...... unfortunately - they weren't happy with what they saw.

My family has a history of a blog clotting disease - antiphospholipid syndrome - and the original EKG presented what that doctor believed to possibly be a blood clot in my lungs. they sent be directly to the ER - not proceeding with any other testing - because they wanted to know RIGHT away if that's what it is! ((cue in the $150 copay!! bahahaha)) - Once at the ER - they completed another EKG, took LOTS of blood, and ran me through a CT Scan.

            

Everything came back clear. ahhhhh.. no blood clots!! Great news! although.. what they believe was causing the pain...... Acid Reflux. yeah. Acid Reflux.... for REAL?!!!! Worst pain in my life!!!! I cant hardly breathe, and I have ACID REFLUX. - that was 4 hours in the ER to figure out a whole lot of annoying news - but everyone there was great!

Corey and I left there and went and grabbed some late dinner and proceeded home. I fell asleep on the couch for a short period while watching TV and then moved to bed around 1045.... mind you - I had already excused myself from work for Friday - knowing I was in no shape to work, and wanting to get another doctors appointment so they could follow up with me for some sort of treatment. around 1245 I awoke and was in excruciating pain. I couldn't hardly move my left arm - it was somewhat numb, kinda dead weight - and my esophagus hurt so bad I could hardly breathe. deep breaths hurt so badly - that it was just short breathing.... I couldn't even really cry. but I moved to the couch in hopes to get through the night....

there was no getting through the night. just shortly after - my mom recommended me calling the nurses line again - and basically as soon as they heard trouble breathing, chest hurts, numb arm - they wanted me to call 911. Well - my husband was home, could drive me, and didn't have to work - so I didn't want to call 911 and deal with all that - so we got back up, and out the door we went..... another 3 hours from 245-545 Friday morning spent in the ER... 

another EKG, another set of blood... EVERYTHING came back normal AGAIN!!! this was a new doctor, so he checked out a few other avenues before ruling the heart out completely - like inflammation of the heart for instance.. - but again... he chalked it up to be Acid Reflux. At this point we asked more questions we didn't think to ask the first time - like... what those doctors thought they saw on the first EKG (I had a copy of it with me) that they didn't see - which he said is because I have a lot of elasticity in my heart... so it opens more when I breathe in, and less when I breathe out. He said its normal with younger people - and as you get older, your heart has less elasticity so it opens smaller. He said some people see that as an irregular situation, but it wasn't out of the norm. I also asked why my arm was experiencing the numbness - to which he said there is a nerve in your upper shoulder/chest area, which connects your left arm and chest - and when you are in pain there, your brain cannot detect where the pain is coming from.. so at some point, it was sending pain to BOTH areas.... I thought it was cause that's where my blood drawing was from.. but he said he didn't think that would cause it! We also asked if there was something he could give me to help with the pain or reflux since I wasn't going to see my doctor till the next day (IF I could even get in!!) - and luckily he prescribed me with some pain meds, and 2 types of acid reflux pills. one that is supposed to start right away, and another that takes about 5-6 days to actually work... he told me to follow up with my doctor in a few days, since he was getting me started with some medicine so I wouldn't need to run out and see them right away. It made me feel a LOT better - as I was concerned if I couldn't get in to see someone WHAT I was going to do all weekend.


now - I'm on day 4... and still in HORRID pain. Counting down the days till I can go to the doctor and see why I might be getting this - I've never had this before.. and even if I've experienced a slight heart burn, its been more like a little burn and gone after a few hours. Now to think of everything I will no longer be able to eat due to the acid in it!!!! :O - I guess it'll help with the weight loss for sure, but I just don't understand.... How could Spaghetti do this to me?! Of all foods. I thought we were friends. :(


anyway- LONG story blog - and I'm sorry for rambling... but - here we are. still maintaining around that 35ish pound loss.. and now in for a journey ahead to figure out what is going on.... and get it FIXED so I can start working out again... I cant do hardly anything right now except sleep on the couch. the simplest of tasks causes me such a great deal of pain.. walking, picking things up, holding things in my left hand, cleaning the litter box or moving laundry... such simple tasks, and it HURTS to do. It hurts to laugh, to cry, to cough, to sneeze.... I just want things to be NORMAL!!!


Shout out to my amazing husband who is my rock... and was by my side for all of it. Continued to tell me I would be okay... even though we didn't know what was wrong. and has driven me around, since I cant!! and our parents who have been a listening ear and very supportive!


Life has a lovely way of holding us back - but we'll get through this!! We will indeed!!!




If you've made it this far, thank you! I know it was a lot! and I'm sorry for that!! I didn't have a lot to update, but what I did was a bit lengthy!!



:)

love to all
larissa