February 8, 2010

Nothing too exciting to post about recently, really. I had a doctors appointment today. Nothing really to write home about. No new treatments or anything, just checking tabs on me really, and getting blood work done to test for that immunological disorder I mentioned a bit ago. Although today my doctor did tell me to get a plastic baseball bat and beat a pillow every day for fifteen minutes. I kinda laughed at him and he told me he meant it – that they’ve done studies about how this helps and how I need to work through the anger and hurt I have built up inside of me. I told this doctor today for the first time about my divorce and the grueling details of it that I don’t discuss openly on here. Needless to say, my doctor was less than pleased, being that he’s been my doc since I started dating my husband and he didn’t know until today. His heart broke for me. He knows just what marriage means/meant to me. Anyway, it is certainly interesting when a new person discovers my pain all over again. Almost too much for words.

My sister-like friend took me to my appointment today and we had her twenty-month old son with us. A new experience dragging a toddler to two doctor’s offices with me. He did amazingly well and I was very proud of him. I treated him to lunch out for being a good boy – and then he pretty much refused to eat his food! lol Par for the course I guess.

Thank you Samantha for driving me around and putting up with me post-blood draw with no food for 12 hours. You know you love me. Oh, and thanks for the shirt…and not letting me wear your sweatshirt because you “don’t wear sweaters”…someday I will get you back. lol We should have gotten pictures of that!

Anyway, that is my day in a nutshell. Yes, I do lead an exciting life, don’t I?

Installment 1 – February 6, 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about writing more about myself, not only as a self-reflection but to allow my readers, and friends, a glimpse into my life. My goal in this is for me to grow as a person, and hopefully allow this to stengthen the relationships I have with people. Some of what I write may sound odd to some, but I assure you all these little things I write about are what makes me, well ME!

Today as a status update on Facebook I wrote “thinking of taking  a shower. been lazy today.” One friend wrote “good for you” and another “maybe you should, it may make you feel better…”. What most people don’t know about me is that I dread getting ready each day. Reason being: Many times because of my illnesses, by the time I shower, get dressed, and do my hair and make-up I am exausted. It literally takes all of my energy I have just to get ready and many times do not end up making it out the door to do whatever I had planned. Because of this, I don’t plan on leaving the house often and most days when I do not have plans I stay in my pajamas or comfy clothes. I try to shower in the evenings so that if I wake up and feel good one morning, my hair is not so oily and I can just get dressed and go out. That helps with saving energy on getting showered and everything in the morning.

So, there you go. Installment 1 of Understanding Me.

January 29th, 2010

I don’t believe I have posted a health update this new year yet, so here it is. I was waiting until I had this doctor’s appt. today to write another update.

Recently it has seemed to be “two steps foward, one step back.” Over Christmas I started to get a little better. I started being able to keep small amounts of food down and gained some energy. However, there were and are still times where I am fine one minute and then without warning my body shuts down, pain peaks and I am doubled over to the chair/couch/floor, whatever. One instance over Christmas Vacation, mom and I had just arrived at Elika’s parents home ready to start the day. Suddenly I was struggling to breathe and everything was dizzy and I felt like I was going to throw up. I ended up just going to bed to lie down for awhile, which turned into the entire day, so that is frustrating.

The last few weeks I was able to eat and keep food down without much of a problem, and then all the sudden in the last week, I have begun to start puking again when I eat. Not everytime, but more than it had been for awhile. So once again I am having to be very, very careful with what I put in my body. On top of this, my stomach pain has been thru the roof and I am struggling to function.

I saw one of my doctors today and he is making some changes in medications. He believes some of the combinations of medications I am on could be causing my nausea and since the main pain med I was on doesn’t seem to be controlling the pain he is changing it to a new drug. This drug just came out on the market and is a combination drug that should control the pain. For privacy reasons I do not discuss the names of my medications on my blog. This new drug is a once a day drug and then there are two other drugs I normally take for breakthrough pain. We changed the plan of what to take when, and taking the stronger of the two more and trying to stop taking the other one for now, or maybe just one a day if I really need it.

Aside from medication my doctor is running several labs testing for some other diseases, including an immunological disorder that he is concerned I may have. I have to fast for these labs so I will do that some time in this next week. Yeah for being poked with more needles! So over it.

My doctor is also concerned about the emotional component of what is going on with me, given the surrounding circumstances I face in my life, and has made some suggestions/plans in a course of treatment  for that. Because some things in life are not for the world to know, I am choosing to keep the details of that private. However, I would welcome prayer for discernment and wisdom in this area. I am not entirely sure of what I plan to do in this aspect.

I see the doctor again in four weeks and will give you another update then, if not sooner. Once again thank you for your love, prayers and support. I certainly would not get through some of my days without them. I am grateful for all of you out there who have and are here for me.

Blessings,

Diane

January 27, 2010

Blue Duvet Cover from IKEA

I’ve had a down comforter for awhile now, but never had a duvet cover on it. You can only dry clean this blanket so using it without a cover is not exactly the smartest thing in the world. But, I just never wanted to spend the extra money on a duvet. However, after dry cleaning it fairly recently and then my cat getting sick on it, forcing me to clean it AGAIN…I started searching for an inexpensive duvet. I had found one online for $30.00 and had planned on ordering it. Life happened and I never got it ordered. Alas, I arrived at IKEA last week with my bestie Sara and found that they sold duvet covers in an array of prices, colors and materials. I will admit there was a purple duvet there that I would have loved but it was $60.00 and I can’t afford to pay that price. So I settled for one that I liked and found this blue one. I liked the price even more…$25.00! Can’t beat that.

My mom and I went back to IKEA on our way home from her picking me up in Fresno. I showed her the duvet I had picked out and she was nice enough to purchase the matching sheets for it. So tonight I sit in my nice clean bed, freshly washed linens, all matching, sheets, duvet cover and pillow shams. I must say I feel pretty special at the moment. Finally something fun to blog about!

I go back to the doctor in the morning, so be looking for a health update blog tomorrow! Until then…nite friends!

Yes, I know it is almost the end of January and I am writing another post about Christmas Vacation. The thing is, I am just so far behind on blogging that there are so many things I wanted to share and document on this blog that I have not gotten around to. So you will have to humor me and indulge in my catch-up posts. This blog really is as much a diary of sorts for me as it is a way to communicate with my family and friends the happenings in my life.

Another highlight over my Christmas trip to Minnesota was getting to see my Aunt and Uncle and Cousin and his family that I do not see often and that I had not seen  in a few years. They live in Iowa, but were able to travel the couple hours up to Rochester to see us. It was a half-way point for all of us. Just a quick blog to post this pic. Here I am with all the family!

Of course I was holding the baby!

I love you Knoll Family and wish I could see you more. Thanks for traveling to see us. I know we all enjoyed our time with you!

January 22, 2009

I was lucky enough to be able to drive down to Fresno with my bestie Sara on Tuesday. She had been in town for her grandma’s funeral over the weekend and stayed a couple extra days to spend time with me. I had some obligations in town Tuesday morning so I asked Sara if she’d stay until I could leave town and then I could go home with her for a few days. It had been almost a year since I had seen her son Ethan, who is 27 months, so he didn’t really remember me and it took him awhile to warm up to me. So I really wanted to be able to go to Fresno and spend time with Sara and Ethan so he could build more memories with me now that he is a little older.

Playing with the Pooh Tree House with Ethan

Ethan warmed up to me once he was at my house staying with me and things were quieter with less people around. That made me feel much better. Sara has pictures of me up at home and always points me out and says “that’s Aunty Di” so she says he knows who I am, but I was sad at first when he wasn’t warming up right away. By the end of the time in town he was a complete love, but I still wanted to go home with he and Sara and make lasting memories with him. I don’t get much time with my bestie and it is important to me to be a part of Ethan’s life. On the way to Fresno we stopped in Roseville to get Sara’s ring serviced, so while it was being worked on we went to the Galleria and shopped a bit. We let Ethan run around in the play area so he could get some excercise and use some energy too. We had rented a stroller at the mall since Sara didn’t have her own in the car with having so much luggage and stuff for the trip.

Ethan's favorite flower in the play area

Ethan seems to enjoy me being here in Fresno. Aunty Di plays rough with him, letting him tackle me in the floor. Mom has a baby in her belly so she can’t do that with him and dad is at work during the day, so he is enjoying a ittle bit of extra play time with his aunty! I brought along a hot pack for my tummy, which is actually a neck wrap and Ethan has enjoyed stealing it from me and wearing it around the house.

Cheese!

I do not have as many pictures from this trip as I would have liked because my camera battery was pretty much dead and I forgot to pack my charger. The lesson to be learned from this is that I need to keep my charger back in my computer bag like I always have. I usually keep all my “media” items in my computer bag, but for some reason have recently been putting my camera charger in another drawer at home. If I would have had my charger in my bag like normal, I would have had my charger for my camera without even thinking about it because I most always bring my laptop with me wherever I go! So, lesson learned and luckly Sara snapped a few pics of this trip with her camera. Otherwise I wouldn’t even have these few to post on this blog.

So, that has been my week. I’ve enjoyed my time with my bestie and nephew. Sara’s husband has been awesome as well. Thanks for putting up with me for a few days Marcus! Sara, I have enjoyed spending the week with you. We don’t get to do it often enough. Ethan, I love you!

January 13, 2010

We arrived in Minnesota late Christmas Eve night. Mom and I got to the airport first, and then had to wait two hours for my brother and his fiance to fly in to the same airport. Then once they got there, Elika’s parents picked all of us up. So, mom and I got to the house we were staying at around 1:30am I believe. We got settled in and got to sleep probably around 3am. Since it was late and we were all tired, it was decided we would all probably sleep in and mom and I would call when we were ready to be picked up. So, Danny and Elika and her dad picked us up around noon on Christmas. When we got to their house, mom and I had some presents we needed to wrap.

Christmas Elves!

Danny came down to try to snoop, covering it up by saying was just “taking pictures” of mom and I.

Merry Christmas!

After wrapping presents I went upstairs to get pictures of the Christmas Tree. Mom and I did not get a tree put up at our house this year, so this tree would serve as my Christmas Tree this year. I couldn’t imagine not having tree pictures for Christmas 2009!

The tree was beautiful!

Then I got some pictures of the two love-birds!

Aren't They Adorable!?

Then we opened some presents…

Group-shot during gift time!

Elika opened her present from mom and I…

Ruby Necklace, can you see it?

Her favorite color is red. Since she is officially becoming part of the family now, mom and I wanted to get her an extra special gift. So we picked out this very nice necklace. She seemed to love it! That makes us happy.

After presents were opened, we moved onto “supper.” It always cracks me up to be in the mid-west, where “dinner” is called “supper” and “soda” is called “pop.” This evening dinner turned into the engagement toast for Danny and Elika. I was bummed I didn’t know because I didn’t have their engagement card with me! That’s okay though, they got it later.

We toasted with champagne.

Only the best!

And did a little dance…

Happy Engagement Dance!

We had dinner and then played games the rest of the evening. Many of us got games as presents. Including Dutch Blitz, which is the game that brought Danny and Elika together, and how Danny proposed to Elika…

Will You Marry Me?

Forgot to mention that this was my first White Christmas!

See the snow outside?

We all had a great Christmas 2009. I was very happy I got to spend Christmas with my brother afterall!

I love him!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

January 9, 2010

Well as promised I am now explaining the picture of me in the snow. My brother got engaged, as you saw in the previous post on December 19, 2009. He was planning on spending Christmas in Minnesota with his fiance which meant he would not be home for Christmas this year. With me being ill, mom and I had not made any plans for Christmas so we were planning on just staying home and having a quiet Christmas, just the two of us. Well just a couple days before Danny got engaged mom and I randomly got invited by some friends in Minnesota to spend Christmas with them. When we realized they lived only 40 minutes from where Danny would be, we thought it’d be kind of weird to be back there so close to him but not see him. So, we talked to him and told him that we would like to see him if we were going to be back there.

Fast forward a couple days and Danny ended up engaged. Then Elika started talking about wishing mom and I could be out there to go wedding dress shopping with her and her mom. So, Danny and Elika ended up talking to her parents about mom and I being out there, and her family graciously invited us to spend the holidays with them as well. Elika’s brother let us stay at a house he had bought to flip, but is not sold yet, so that we were not all crowded in one house. So, mom and I flew to Minnesota and spent Christmas and New Year’s with Elika and Danny and Elika’s family.

Elika’s family is super sweet and we could not ask for a better family for Danny to marry into. We had an amazing time! Here are some pictures from our trip!

Fun times with Mom!

House where Mom and I stayed

Me, Mom and Elika Christmas Morning

January 8, 2010

Every week Pampering Becki hosts Fingerprint Friday. These posts are based on the song “Fingerprints of God” by Steven Curtis Chapman. Several of us bloggers blog about a picture we find each week that we see God’s Fingerprints on. You can check out her sight for more details.

I have not gotten Fingerprint Friday posts up in a long while due to my illness, but since I am trying to catch up on my posts and my life, this is actually the perfect opportunity to blog about a picture that God’s fingerprint are ALL OVER and make a very special announcement!

Danny and Elika

 

MY BROTHER IS ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs.

My brother asked Elika to be his wife on December 19, 2009. She said yes and they will be married this summer! If you know this couple you know that God’s fingerprints are written all over them, which is why I picked these photos for Fingerprint Friday. Both Danny and Elika honor God with their lives and have put God FIRST in their relationship. Their love story is special and unique and the love of God is intertwined in it all. They will do so much for the Kingdom of God as a wedded couple and I am so very happy for them.

Congratulations to my brother and Elika! I love you so much and can’t wait to share your special day. May God richly bless you both as you journey through life together.

Love you,

Sis

January 7, 2010

I had my follow-up appointment with my GI doctor today. I was supposed to see him in December, but the day I had my appointment I was too sick to even get out of bed, so it got moved to today. Anyway, this doctor is super nice, but is at a loss at how to help me anymore. Once again he said I’ve had tests done that most people never have done and that nothing is pointing at any answers. He says obviously my brain is processing pain signals from my gut that most people would not even be sensitive too. My gut is just really sensitive to pain receptors right now. His advice is to follow some dietary guidelines that would give my gut the best chance at functioning the best it can. These guidelines are to eat from the earth, avoid meat and processed foods and bad fats. Our bodies were made to process the food from the earth, and not so much of the processed foods we as Americans indulge in. This makes sense to me because it has been that fruits do not seem to hurt my tummy. I have been able to eat tons of fruit without pain. So I think he may be onto something.

So this doctor had prayer with me once again and told me how proud of me he was for my faith, and my efforts in pushing through all of this I’ve gone through and making the best of it. I do not see him again unless I feel like he can do something that I think of and call him. It is kind of frustrating to be released from doctors care without answers. My general doctor basically said the same thing last time I saw him too. So now my pain specialist and OB/GYN are the only ones following up with me still and they are not the tummy specialists! Kind of crazy.

The basic update on me is that I am able to eat small amounts of food at a time now without throwing up. I have not puked in awhile now. These are huge praises. I do however have horrible stomach pain most days still and can be bed-ridden in minutes without notice. One day over Christmas Break I was suddenly dizzy and gasping for air within seconds of having felt fine. I just had to go to bed the rest of the day after that. Some days I wake up and my entire body hurts so bad I can hardly move and have no energy. Those days I end up sleeping all day. I am still on heave doses of pain medication, which make me unable to drive still. I have not driven in nearly four months. It is so weird! Hard to be my age and not be able to be independent.

Next week I see my OB/GYN and my Pain Specialist. I will write then and update everyone on what they have to say. For now please continue to pray for the pain to lesson and for me to gain my strength again. I really want to get back to fulfilling a life’s purpose. Thank you all who have been supporting me. I cherish my friends and family.

Blogs to explain this picture to come later!