Category Archives: Health

big news all around

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So.. Things in my life have been crazy as of late. Here’s why:

- My Daddy had a heart attack a couple of weeks ago. He is ok and doing better. He is eating better, exercising and taking care of hisself. It was the scariest thing ever. As a kid, you feel as though your parent’s are invincible and then as you get older, you realize how fragile life really is but at the same time, it is hard to let go of that notion that Parents and Grandparents should be immortal!

- My Mama is having some medical trouble as well. I’m confident that everything will be ok as long as she takes care of herself and goes to her doctor appointments. If you pray, could you please say a prayer for her? If you don’t, you could send some happy vibes our way.. Either way, we need some good karma and positive thinking send towards our family!

- I am PREGNANT! Crazy, I know! Hah. I just found out recently and I am due February 25, 2011, which means I am only about 4 weeks along. I wont get to see my OB until July 23rd, which seems soooo far away. It is my first time seeing this guy and I can’t wait to meet him.. I’ve heard amazing things about him! I wish there was some way to fast forward through the first trimester. Between worrying about miscarriage and baby’s health and the nausea and exhaustion.. It really isn’t a pretty time at all!

I’m gonna try to get back into the bloggy swing of things here. I’ve been such a slacker lately. I have a 14 month old little girl to blame THAT on. Describing her as a hand full would be an understatement at times ;)

walking and stuff

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I’ve been terribly ill all weekend. It has gotten progressively worse and today I finally went to see the doc. I got a prescription for an anti-biotic to help kick this bad sinus infection to the curb. My husband kindly stayed home and took care of our peanut while I pretty much slept the whole day away. He is the best! After we got around this evening, I was feeling a bit better and we decided to head out for some dinner. We hit up the Souper Salad, which was actually pretty delicious tonight! The little peanut decided to show off her new Walking Skillz while we were there.

The house of SICK!

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Z and I are on the mend but boy this past couple of weeks sure were a doozie. It started with Z being extremely congested and ended with me catching her awful cold. She had a good week long bout of awful sleeping, waking multiple times through the night, and crawling around whining and fussing. Every time she would bump her head, even if it was just a slight bump, she would melt down into hysterics. It was quite the pitiful sight, if I say so myself.

Well, now that she is feeling better, I was finally able to see that her top 2 front teeth are peeking through her swollen gums. I had the biggest “Ah ha!” moment of my entire life when I first saw the white specks on her top gums. Everything just made total sense! The crying, the whining, the not-sleeping, the fussiness and the sensitivity to Everything. That. Came. In. Contact. With. Her. just made complete and total sense to me. It all added up and I suddenly felt enormous guilt for not giving her teething tablets and Ty*lenol to ease her pain. Here I thought she was just battling an icky cold and come to find out she was battling an icky cold on TOP of some hardcore teething. Parenting fail!

Ever since we made this discovery we have been able to stay on top of her discomfort with teething tablets and the occasional dose of grape flavored infant’s Ty*lenol. She is in much better spirits and I no longer feel like I am going to lose my mind. It is a win-win situation, really!

I think the version of Z’s cold that I received was about a bajillion times worse. I got The Cough. It has been awful and even though I am starting to feel a lot better, I still have The Cough. I’ve been taking everything over the counter that I can and I even dug up an old bottle of antibiotics that I never finished (yes, I know, shame on me!) and have been sucking those down as well. Mu*cinex, Del*sym, Extra Strength Ty*lenol, Al*eve, Ny*quil, Day*quil, the list could go on forever. I am so drugged up on OTC medication that I should probably look into a detox program when The Cough is finally gone for good.

So that my friends is my unnecessarily long excuse of why I haven’t been around. I still want to blog more frequently and still have great aspirations to keep up with this thing.

Sidenote: Z is pulling up to standing position on EVERYTHING, regardless of it being a stable surface or not. There is a lot of head bumping and falling over going on at our house but surprisingly, we have yet to get any bruises. She is starting to learn that she can move her feet and I have a feeling she’ll be cruising along the coffee table or sofa in the upcoming weeks. She can crawl pretty fast now and has a love for any and everything that is not a designated toy (for example: the remote, the cell phone, cups, kleenex, shoes, breakable home decor, etc.). I am officially going to pack up all of the pretty decorative stuff in my living room and put it away in the garage until after we no longer have little children in the house. It’s a sad day but I realize that is what comes with the territory. It is either that or invest in one of those baby gate / makeshift jail house things and I just feel bad doing that!

I’m here… but not.

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My back has flared up again. I am having trouble doing every day things but I am trying to get by. There are moments through the day where I feel hopeless and down in the dumps but luckily those are few and far between. I try to keep my spirits up and am trying to take care of myself. Trying to eat less and get some walks in whenever the weather isn’t too cold. I know losing some weight will make me feel better so I am starting that journey.

We took Z to a new pediatrician today. I liked my old one but just didn’t feel like we were getting enough time and attention in the appointments. I actually took her to my pediatrician! The same guy that I saw from birth to about 18 years old when they finally kicked me out and told me I was too old to be seeing a pediatrician. We introduced Z to him and they gave her the other half of her seasonal flu shot. All in all, it was an excellent appointment! She’ll go back next month for the other half of her N1H1 vaccine and then we’ll see them again in January for her 9 month well baby check up.

Z is doing wonderful. She is such a fun and happy baby. Always smiling and laughing. The only time she ever cries is if she gets too hungry or when we put her down for naps or to bed at night. She has learned at a very early age that going to bed is For The Birds. She will usually fall asleep pretty quickly after putting her down. She also still needs a pacifier when going down for naps and bed which kind of bothers me but we still have a few more months before we really need to start the weaning process.

Oh and one new thing is that Z looooves cheerios or puffs. I’ve been giving her the puffs but I realized I could just as easily (and much much cheaper) give her Cheerios! She is still working on her coordination to get them into her mouth so only a few ever actually make it to her mouth (lucky Emma gets all the goodies that fall from the high chair!) which causes the OCD in me to kick in and start hand feeding them to her. I know she needs to learn and I try to stop myself from doing it but I wont lie, sometimes I just can’t help myself.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! I am really excited for Thanksgiving dinner and just spending time at my parent’s house. I’ll be honest, when I first moved out of the house and into an apartment with Gene, it didn’t feel like “home.” I still felt like I wanted to be at my parent’s house a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I loved being able to share a life with him but I just didn’t have that warm home feeling that I did at my parent’s house. So anyway, give or take 5ish years later and I really feel like our home is “home.” I think the day that happened was the day that we bought this house. And I actually like being at my house. I like everything about it and I really feel like THIS is home now. But I also love going back to my parent’s house and hanging out there because in the bottom of my heart, that will always be home.

On that note, I’ll leave you with a picture of my little peanut. Doncha just love her cloth diaper? Too cute to put pants over!

Zoey Elise

The road to recovery is a long, winding one

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So, after 2 weeks straight of awful pain, I am starting to feel a smidgen of relief today. I’ve been holed up in this house for 2 weeks and have spent the majority of it in my bed. I haven’t been able to actively play with Zoey and I’ve had trouble just caring for her basic needs like diaper changes and feeding. It has been an emotionally challenging 2 weeks that I do not wish to ever re-live.

So my spine is curved, my pelvis is tilted, my L3, L4 and L5 are degenerating. Sunday was possibly one of the worst days I’ve had so far. I stayed in bed almost all day and cried on and off almost all afternoon. I was so depressed and felt so hopeless. I literally felt like I would probably be in this pain for the rest of my life and that I had no reason to even keep on fighting it. I wanted to give up so badly. Monday morning I called my Chiropractor first thing in the morning, crying my eyes out and telling him over the phone that I couldn’t take it anymore. Gene came home from work and took me to Urgent Care where I received a cortizone injection in my hip and a steroid pack, I then went to have an MRI done of my lower back and then went by my Chiro’s office to have an adjustment.

This morning I went to my Chiro for an adjustment and he gave me the findings of the MRI. The radiologist said I have dehydrated discs in the lower part of my back, that I have the beginnings of arthritis in my lower back, that my discs are degenerating and bulging and that there appears to be a cyst on the lower part of my spine. BUT, the upper part of my back is in great shape and there is plenty of fluid in those discs! So yay for that, I guess?

Anyway, the good news is that there are no ruptured discs, I don’t need to even THINK about surgery at this point and that the chiropractor is positive that he can get me better. I’m going in for adjustments 4 times a week right now, I’m doing stretches at home, icing it as often as possible and trying to take it easy. I’m trying to change from walking, sitting to laying every hour so that I’m not stuck in one position for too long.

Today has been the BEST day I’ve had in two very long and depressing weeks. I’ve been able to play with Zoey and hold her a little easier. I’ve been able to put her in and get her out of her Jumperoo (she loves that thing!). I was even able to make myself some popcorn for a late lunch. The best part of it all is that I have not cried a single tear today. And that my friend, is what I call progress!

It feels good to be myself again. I am far from being totally recovered. I am still in a LOT of pain. More pain that I would EVER wish on someone. But I am slowly but surely getting there and today I have HOPE. Which I have been lacking for a couple of weeks now. I even opened the window blinds today because I wanted to see the sunshine.

Zoey is doing wonderful! She can sit up for a short time on her own. She is laughing more and she loves both her Jumperoo and the play gym. She loves to play peek-a-boo and loves when I “eat her tummy” and “eat her stinky feet.” She is going to be 6 months old in a couple of weeks and we’ll be starting solids soon. Right now she eats about 6oz every 3 hours during the day and still sleeps for about 12 hours a night.

On what it feels like to miss being a Mother

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So… I am not doing well. At all. I was all gung ho about updating more frequently but I’m sorry to say it’s going to be a little while before I can do that again.

Friday evening my back issue took a turn for the worse and I could hardly even walk. From Friday night into Saturday morning I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore. I told Gene I would much rather have 10 more c-sections and a couple knee surgeries than to ever feel like this again.

So Saturday morning my Mom took me to urgent care where they did x-rays and told me my spine looked straight and wonderful. He gave me 800mg ibuprofins, muscle relaxers and pain medicine. I went home and started taking the medicines. Yesterday morning (Monday) I got in to see my chiropractor. He did x-rays and told me my spine is curved pretty bad and my lower discs appear to be degenerating more and more. He did a light adjustment on my upper back and stretched me a little bit. I’m going back to see him this morning to see what my prognosis/treatment plan is.

I am so sick of being in horrible pain. I am so sick of laying in bed! It hurts to sit up for more than a few minutes and it hurts to walk for more than a few minutes. I haven’t really held my daughter since Friday and I miss holding her, snuggling her, playing with her, etc. Gene needs to desperately get back to work and I can’t take care of Zoey fully yet because I still can’t even lift her without awful pain.

It comes to a point where you’re like.. What in the world do I do?? I have no idea. I am at a complete loss. Right now I just don’t want to be in pain anymore. I want my husband to be able to go back to work. And more than anything, I want to be a Mother to my daughter again.

It’s 4:30 AM and I’m awake because I couldn’t get comfortable. The pain in my back woke me up and kept me from being able to get comfortable enough to sleep. Grrr. I am going to go take some medicine and get my butt back in bed.

My back is broken! Help! Please fix!

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My back hurts extremely bad and I’m having a hard time doing anything these last few days. I can barely lift my daughter to hold her or go change her diaper, let alone clean my house or keep it in order. The trash needs taken out. Groceries from last night need to be put away. Clutter needs to be dealt with. I just can’t do it! Walking is proving to be VERY difficult. I have really pulled a muscle bad in my lower back and it is becoming debilitating and I hate that. I am the type of person who wants to do things when I want to do them and being held down by something like this is extremely frustrating.

Right now I am just trying to take care of Z to the bet of my physical ability. She is spending a lot of time in her bouncy seat and I think she is starting to get really bored with it. This is day 2 of her spending 90% of her time in that stupid thing. I can’t get down on the floor to play with her or practice sitting up with her.

Needless to say, I have been counting down the minutes until Daddy gets home since the minute he walked out the door this morning.