Friday, October 31, 2008

Tag: My 8's

So I was tagged by Marissa about 2 weeks ago, and I finally got around to doing this. Here are some of my 8's.


Eight TV shows I like to watch:

  1. Heroes
  2. Lost
  3. The Office
  4. Scrubs
  5. Dancing with the Stars
  6. Smallville
  7. Friends
  8. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Eight restaurants I like to eat at:

  1. The Cheesecake factory
  2. P.F. Chang's
  3. Olive Garden
  4. Applebee's
  5. Chili's
  6. California Pizza Kitchen
  7. Noodles and Co
  8. Caputo’s Deli

Eight things that happened today:

  1. Went to work
  2. Got yelled at by honory patients
  3. Treated a few patients that were in a good mood
  4. Ate 3 bites of my lunch and got sick again
  5. Took my medication
  6. Had a good treatment session with my last patient and was able to chart progress.
  7. Bought my husband some personal training sessions
  8. Took a nap since I was up all night regretting lunch yesterday.

Eight things I am looking forward to:

  1. Discharging my honory patient
  2. When eating no longer makes me sick
  3. Going to the Halloween dance at the Skillet.
  4. Being able to train with my triathlon group again
  5. A weekend away from honory patients who yell at anyone who is trying to help them.
  6. Giving my husband a big kiss
  7. The new Harry Potter movie next summer
  8. My trip to SoCal in December

Eight things on my wish list:

  1. A brand new Honda Accord
  2. Cloths, cloths, and more cloths
  3. A roadbike
  4. Matching furniture in the living room
  5. A Computer Charting System at work
  6. A new stomach
  7. Rock climbing gear
  8. To be on a national swing dance team.

Eight People I Tag:

  1. Sadie
  2. Tammy S.
  3. Becka T.
  4. April B.
  5. Tricia S.
  6. Shellese G.
  7. Nicole R.
  8. Wendy J.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Great Pumpkin Affair

Saturday night Erik and I went over to our friends Sadie and Corey's, for some pumpkin carving fun. We carved pumpkins, made pumpkin cookies, baked pumpkin seeds, and watched Monster House. It was very fun!

I was the slowest one when it came to the carving. I was too busy running my mouth. Sadie and Corey had carved all three of their pumpkins before I was even finished with mine. Sadie even made pumpkin cookies and cooked pumpkin seeds in between. So yeah, I am slow. It was sure fun though. I made a pac man pumpkin while everyone else made scary faces. We spent lots of time trying to perfectly place our pumpkins for the optimal photo. Erik spent a lot of time bossing Corey around, and I had to remind him to play well with others. LOL As far as the treats go, the pumpkin cookies turned out rather tasty, and so did the pumpkin seeds. Kudo's to Sadie!

Here are the photo's from our pumpkerific evening!


Erik going to town with his pumpkin


Sadie looking a little too happy with that knife!


Corey is the happiest pumpkin carver I have ever seen.


Starting surgery on my pumpkin


Erik giving his pumpkin a facial with windex. He likes his stuff to look pretty, and didn't want any marker showing.


Our pumpkins in all of their glory!

Finally a diagnosis

So I went to the GI specialist and found out the results of my procedures. It turns out that I have major acid reflux. I started coughing up blood last week, and then all my food started to come back up after I ate, so that pretty much confirmed it. As far as the pain in my side when I eat, they said I have irritable bowl syndrome. This is the cop-out diagnosis that doctors give you when they don't know what is wrong. I am not sure I buy it, since I neither have had diarrhea or been constipated. Just pain around my descending colon sometimes when I eat. He said that that certain foods will cause my colon to spasm. The trigger foods that cause the pain seem to fit with those of acid reflux and irritable bowl. So who knows. I may have IBS, or maybe I don't. All I know is that I still get pain in my side sometimes when I eat, but it is getting better. I am able to eat a lot more now these days, and can now sustain enough calories to start working out again and train for my triathlon. So hopefully the acid reflux medication will help, and I will continue to get better. Well that is the latest update!

Warren Miller 's Children of Winter

Last Thursday Erik and I went to see the new Warren Miller Ski Movie. Ok so I have to say that it was incredible! I really want to buy it, when it comes out! We had a great time! We went with our friends Rod, Holly, and Rod's family. We went out to dinner at a Restaurant called The Naked Fish beforehand. It used to be called Mikado's. They had the best Terriaky stake I have ever had. After dinner, we went over to Abravenal Hall with all the other Ski and Snowboarding fanatics to watch the premier of the film. It was incredible. I really enjoyed the Utah segment. You don't get powder like that anywhere else. The rest of the movie was fantastic as well. It was hard to pick a favorite segment. Some of those skiers and boarders are crazy. All the flips and crazy jumps they did, I can see how people die making this movie. After the film, I was so excited about snowboarding season, I went out and bought a new coat. Anyway, here are the pictures from the night!


Erik after the movie with his program/awesome ski magazine.


Erik and I waiting in anticipation for the movie to start.


Rod and Holly

Rock Climbing with Sadie and Corey

I am kind of lazy and just getting around to blogging all the pictures in my camera. So here is an activity clear back from August. Erik and I went rock climbing with our friends Sadie and Corey at a popular rock climbing site in Draper. We got there early in the morning to avoid the crowd, since most rock climbers are lazy and don't like to get up early.

The spot we went to was rather shady and nice to start our morning with. All the climbs were named by a dentist so it was entertaining to read the names of each of the climbs. They had funny names like bloody impact, root canal, and names of other dental procedures. It was kind of entertaining. The climbs were mostly 5.7's and 5.8's. There was one 5.10 and one 5.11. I was only brave enough to do climbs up to a 5.8 since it was my first time outdoor climbing. Sadie only did up to a 5.8 since she was 4 months pregnant and didn't want to risk injuring her baby. Erik and Corey were very adventurous though and climbed a 5.11. They almost died a couple of times. Corey almost dropped onto a rather pointy rock. Erik caught him just in time lucky for him. That would have been rather painful! Erik almost had a near death experience of his own. haha, silly men!

It was a rather fun adventure. Sadie and Corey are great rock climbers, and it was nice to have them along to show us the ropes. Erik did a lot of climbing at the quarry back in the day, but had never done any lead climbing, so it was nice to have Corey along. We will be going with them more often hopefully.

Here are the pictures from our adventures. We only have pictures of Sadie and Corey since our camera ran out of batteries before we could get any more pictures.


Sadie making her way up bloody impact



More Sadie


Corey belaying us so we didn't plummet to our death. Corey was the most adventurous one as he did all the lead climbing during our trip.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Looking at the positive side of life....

Well after my endoscopy today, the GI specialist is pretty sure that the problem is in my Colon, so I have to get a Colonoscopy on Thursday. So I still don't know what is wrong with me. I could have ulcerative colitis, diverticulitis, Crohn's disease, a tumor, or a number of other things. Instead of being frustrated, I have decided that I am going to not worry about it and count all the blessings I have. Here are a few of my blessings....

1. My husband Erik! He is the biggest blessing in my life. I am very lucky to have him as my husband. It would take me forever to list all the reasons I love him. All I know is that I look forward to seeing him every minute of every day.

2. My education. Getting my masters degree as opened more doors than I could ever imagine. I have a job which I absolutely love, great patients whom I love working with, a nice paycheck, great colleagues, and being able to go to bed at night knowing I have made a positive difference in someone's life. If God hadn't helped me get into graduate school, and provided me the tools to be successful, I wouldn't be where I am.

3. My back is healed. With help from God and the knowledge from what I learned in school, and working in rehab, I was able to figure out how to get my back better with exercise, and avoid surgery. I still have a herniated disk, but I have able to get my muscles strong enough that I don't even notice it anymore. I am able to perform difficult patient transfers now, without feeling any strain in my back. I have also been able to return to strenuous outdoor activities that I previously enjoyed. Thank you God!

4. Air purifiers. Since Erik bought the Air purifier this afternoon, I have stopped sneezing, and having to blow my nose. Allergies are tough, but they are no match for the air purifier!

5. Great In-laws. A lot of people don't get a long with their in-laws, but mine are fantastic. They are like having a second set of parents. I love to spend time with them. My mother-in Law Lark has a great fashion sense as well as an internal compass that points to sales. She is the reason I have so many cute shirts. She always goes to sales, finds a pile of cute cloths, buys them, brings them home, makes me try them on, pick out the ones I want, and she then takes the rest back. Now that is just cool!

6. The smell of Captain Crunch. My husband loves cereal, and every time he has a bowl of captain crunch, I get to smell it's sweet aroma.

7. The Colbert Report. It makes me laugh! Who wouldn't enjoy watching South Carolina's favorite son with his hilarious political satire? Without him I would never know what truthiness, or wikiality is.

8. Swing dancing. This hobby has kept my sanity throughout the years. It is the thing I love to do most, and the reason I met my husband, as he is also a swing dancer.

9. Great friends. It is having great friends that help me when I am down, and make me laugh. That itself makes life worthwhile.

10. Great family. I love my family, and they help me a lot. I especially am grateful for my little sister who teaches me about kindness and unconditional love.

11. The greatest blessing of all that I have is that God lives, and Jesus Christ is my Savior. The knowledge of Christ's teachings through reading his scriptures has helped me to be happier than I could have ever imagined. To be able to turn to Christ to bear up my burdens and lighten my load is the greatest gift I could ever have. It is this knowledge that has helped me through this trial, more than anything else could right now.

Well anyway, I could keep going, but I need to get up for work. I feel better now anyway.

Monday, October 6, 2008

The mouse that lives in my stomach....

So, since my emergency room visit, things have gone downhill. Pretty much anytime I eat, I get really sick. After I eat, I have to plan five or so hours to recover, and regret my meal choice. So I am pretty motivated not to eat much, unless I get really hungry. My meal choices have slimmed down quite a bit. Basically anything that tastes good will make me sick, so any food that I actually like is off the list. My diet now consists of plain noodles, crackers, chicken noodle soup, bread, and protein shakes. These are the only things I have found that do not majorly upset my tummy, and sometimes even these foods aren't safe. Since I eat a lot less, I have lost 6 pounds in 5 days. It has been a real treat, let me tell you. So tomorrow I get to get an endoscopy and find out what is wrong.

The GI specialist thinks that it is probably an ulcer, but also thinks something might be wrong with my descending colon as well, since I have a great deal of pain there also. I think it is an ulcer honestly, since it feels like a mouse just lives in the corner of my stomach and just is chewing away at the side. I have fondly named him Pinkey. He seems to love to come out during meal time and get a treat for himself. As much as I love Pinkey, it is time for him to find a new home. So hopefully they will give me some medicine tomorrow that will "encourage" Pinkey to find a new host.

I would like to give a shout out to my husband. Poor Erik has spent so much time at the store trying to find food I might possibly be able to eat. That has been a tough job, since my stomach is a very picky customer. He is such a good sport. He deserves a medal! He has bent over backwards to help me feel better. I am so lucky to have him as a husband. You know you married a good guy when he will drive to the gas station at 3am to try to find something to calm your stomach 2 nights in a row.

Hopefully, the test results tomorrow will end all the Drama, and Erik and I can get back to life as usual. I miss food, and I miss my triathlon training group!