Punday 2/24

Man Plans and God Laughs

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The picture isn't really related, but I thought it was funny and couldn't find one that was related that I liked as much. Last week I talked about my plans for the next couple of weeks, then promptly got sick and didn't do anything. Josh went to the doctor and they said he had a sinus infection. I didn't go to the doctor because I don't need excuses for work/school like he does, but I figure I had something similar and suspect I've developed bronchitis (which I have a history of). I planned to talk to the doctor at my blood work appointment yesterday but she wasn't in yet, just the nurses. There have been a few times I really could have used an inhaler but I've been managing okay with over the counter stuff and lots of cough drops. If I haven't noticed a pretty big improvement by my appointment next week it's definitely something I'll bring up, but other than getting an inhaler there's not much a doctor can do anyway.

So we didn't do anything for Josh's birthday, we didn't do anything for Valentine's Day, and we couldn't go visit my friend for her birthday. I figured out yesterday I've known her for 18 years! That is so crazy. There are people in the military who were born after we met. That's 69% of my life. I don't feel old enough to have known someone that long. I'm blessed to still have her in my life even if we can't spend as much time together as I'd like.

Early early yesterday morning (like 3am) I started having a LOT of pain. It felt like it does during the heaviest part of my period. I didn't even know if I was going to make it to my blood work appointment. TMI for a second: I haven't had anything more than spotting, but a lot of CM so I feel like my body is trying to have AF but there just isn't any lining to shed. That's good because there's not supposed to be. Yesterday was CD42 and when I started bleeding last time it was 35 days after my lupron shot so it's been about the same amount of time. It's really weird because I've never been this "regular" in my life without the help of provera. Anyway the good news is because I was in so much pelvic pain I could hardly feel it when they stuck me three times and dug around for a good while each time before getting all the blood they needed.

If you follow my Facebook Page or my Instagram (which you should) you've seen already that I've started doing something I'm calling puppywearing. It's like babywearing, but with puppies. Our dogs, Dobby especially, love to be held when I'm at the computer. Dobby likes it when you cradle him like a baby. If most poodles are like him I can understand how they got a reputation for being spoiled! I don't actually own a wrap or sling or carrier and can't really justify the purchase, but as long as I'm sitting down zipping him up in my hoodie and tucking the bottom under him seems to work pretty well. The other day he fell asleep that way and it was so cute! If this makes me one of those crazy people who try to turn their pets into children because their desire to mother is so strong then I'm okay with that.

Endometriosis Awareness Coupon

Found out today shipping went up 25¢ so I'm starting this promotion early! All bracelets are on sale, not just the endo ones. Proceeds go towards my treatment and hopeful embryo adoption. If it's not something you're personally interested in it would mean a lot if you would share it with those who might be. Here's a link to my shop so you don't have to type it in. 

Punday 2/17 - Animal Edition

The Spoonie Olympics

I'm sure everyone knows that the Olympics are taking place right now. I feel like I'm competing in the Olympics myself, only instead of a gold medal doing well means surviving until the finish line.

For those not aware, people who have chronic (often invisible) conditions are called spoonies in reference to the Spoon Theory. The basic idea is that everyone has a certain number of spoons. Every action you take uses up a spoon, until you have none left and are stuck in bed unable to do anything. Healthy people usually have enough spoons to not worry about it, but sick people have a severe lack of spoons and have to use each one wisley.

February is always a busy month around here. I wrote in my last post about attempting to start being more active by using my peddle exerciser and learning I wasn't up to that yet. This was the beginning of a chain reaction and an even bigger mistake than I thought because I had no time to recover. That was on a Tuesday. Thursday I had a therapy appointment that took a lot out of me. I had to come home and take a four hour nap and didn't get out of bed much the rest of the day or Friday.

Saturday was Little Sister's birthday and birthday party. Thankfully her birthday fell on a Saturday so we didn't need to celebrate twice. I have mentioned being anxious about this but overall it went better than expected. I'm not sure everyone realizes, but those with chronic conditions learn how to fake it. There were moments when the facade came down and I grimaced and such, there were times when I took a moment to myself, but I don't like calling attention to my illness and I think I was successful. My friend J's son was there and he wanted to go play Candy Land in a back room right at the time I needed to get away which was perfect. My friend R and I worked out a hand signal in case I needed to leave but we ended up not needing it. I had to bring out the big guns pain med wise but I have been saving the few I have left for situations such as these. There were enough people there that I spent very little time around my older sister or her DuH so that worked out great. Afterwards I slept for over 14 hours and am still recovering.

Today is my husband's birthday. We are going out to dinner tomorrow as he has a late meeting today, but not to anywhere fancy. Friday is of course Valentine's Day. I don't think we are planning to go out anywhere but I got us subscriptions to Star Wars: The Old Republic and I know he will want to play together as much as I am able. We have played a bit together already and I can tell my reaction times are suffering. As a healer that can be a bit problematic and stressful, but he understands and isn't angry when he dies. I think I'm harder on myself in that regard.

A week from today is my friend J's birthday. They live about two hours away so we plan to meet halfway on Sunday and go to dinner at McGuire's which is one of our favorite places. Traveling is hard for me so I expect I'll need a lot of time to recover from that. R's birthday is the 26th and normally I'd like to get together and do something but I know she won't expect me to if I can't. My BIL's birthday is around there too but I refuse to celebrate it anyway.

I also have three doctor appointments, one on the 18th, one of the 25th, and one on the 3rd. I need to call and reschedule one I had to miss so that could be four doctor appointments depending on when they can get me in. My second Lupron shot should be around the beginning of March as well but I don't have an appointment, they are just going to call when it comes in. My birthday is the 6th and I have no idea what we are going to do for it. Possibly nothing more than cake at home if I'm not well enough to do anything else.

Thankfully that's it for a while. They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, so after all I've been through I should be strong enough to get through everything. My goal is to not be completely bedridden again by the end of it, but I think it's definitely a possibility. We will see if I have enough spoons for this. Funnily enough, our dog Dobby found a plastic spoon and was attempting to eat it while I was writing. No spoons for you, I need all the ones I can get!

Punday 2/10 - Valentine's Day Edition

Two Month Anniversary

Yesterday marked two months since my lupron shot! Hopefully this means the worst is behind us now. I get my second shot next month, I think right around my birthday (the 6th), and I'm hoping it won't be a repeat of my first month this time around. It's already in my system and the baby maker has been shut down so I shouldn't have to go through that awful transition phase, right? Lord I hope so.

As I mentioned in my punday post things are ever so slowly starting to improve. I finally stopped bleeding at the end of January which was a huge relief. Since then I've noticed a slight improvement in pain. I'm having less moments where no matter what I feel like I'm going to die (or hope that I would already). I've spaced out my prescription pain meds a bit but still need 800mg ibuprofen on top of that. I'm halfway through a book which is awesome because before I felt so terrible all the time I couldn't concentrate on reading. I've sat out the last few From Left to Write books but finger's crossed I can sign up for the one in April.

Little Sister's 15th birthday party is on Saturday and I am a bit worried about that. Anytime I come out of sloth mode I pay for it later. Yesterday I decided to use my pedal exerciser for two sets of 15 minutes at a very relaxed pace and can tell it's definitely taken a toll today. I'm quite introverted so being around people can be exhausting all by itself, never mind doing stuff. I've finally gained some ground and I'm afraid of backsliding. Also as I mentioned before Older Sister will be there and I'm not looking forward to that. Josh's birthday is three days later but I think we're just going to go to dinner so it shouldn't be too bad.

My newly pregnant friend that I wrote about before is still doing well. They officially have a heartbeat! I'm still excited for them and not feeling jealous. This is the best I've taken a pregnancy in years, actually. I hope they are able to come to the party but I also hope I don't accidently let the cat out of the bag since they haven't announced yet!

If you've visited the blog recently you may have noticed something is wrong with my blog design. There is some kind of bug with the template and it won't let me fix it. I'll basically have to start over and put a new generic template on the blog and then edit it to a new design. I'm not sure when I'll feel up to doing it but this is just a heads up in case you visit and it looks funky lol. I think I'm going to change it from blue and pink for babies to orange since that goes with my blog name.

Winter Wonderland

I think I've mentioned before that I live in Florida. It hasn't snowed since 1989 and sadly I was too young then to remember it. Apparently we went sledding on cookie sheets. Well it still hasn't snowed *insert sad face here* but we did get about 1/2 and inch of sleet and freezing rain! That hasn't happened since I was old enough to remember either. Everyone here got a lot more excited about than most people probably think is reasonable lol. We had two snow days! It happened overnight so I don't have any pictures of it actually sleeting (although I did stay up all night just to make sure it didn't turn into snow) but we do have some from the next morning. 

This is our bridge which as you can see they shut down completely. I think it was actually closed about 24 hours. We don't have any salt or anything so they tried dumping sand on it from the beach.

Little Sister in front of the palm tree in our yard with ice on the ground. It was about 30 degrees when it's normally about 60 so she just wanted to go inside, but we made her take a picture because she'll probably want one later. I wish I had pictures of us as kids when it snowed but no one knows where they are!

Here's a pretty good picture of the ice. It was so slippery! Obviously if you think about it ice is going to be slippery but I didn't expect it to be that slippery. It was such a weird experience.

And lastly here is Scotty in the backyard having a great time. Dobby wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get a good picture of him. They loved running around and chasing each other through the ice. About 10 minutes after being out there Scotty started sneezing though so I made them come inside.

Punday 2/3

Punday is back! I'm hoping to make this a weekly thing again. Things are starting to improve ever so slowly so I think I'm up to at least attempting a regular posting schedule again.