Wow what a crappy day...

Okay, it started out okay. Carlos had to come over to the Valley to meet with tax person about his mom's taxes and I had a light load today so I met him for lunch. But after getting back to the office, I noticed I had a sharp pain in my back, low and to the left just over my butt. It escalated and eventually I felt nauseated and vomited. I still had to see a patient and the pain just kept increasing. I no longer felt I could drive or even walk so good. Urgent care was not open yet so I finally felt bad enough I walked over to Emergency. While checking in I vomited yet again (lucky me made it to the bathroom in time). I then sat for over an hour to see the triage nurse. The pain was horrible, I could hardly sit still. I had the chills. Then it began to ease just in time for triage! The nurse advised me not a good day to be in Emergency and I was in for many hours wait! And I was still feeling better, no more vomiting, nausea, pain much improved. Thank God, but crap, what to do? I called appointment center but no openings with my doctor until 4/11. But I still did not want to wait in Emergency all night when my symptoms had improved. I told nurse I was going to leave and he mentioned I might have passed kidney stone.

I still don't know what to do. I emailed my doctor and we will have to see what he says, and if pain ever returns, I guess. I do feel kind of gassy and was thinking it was a reaction to lunch, but never felt sharp pain in low back before. It felt nothing like heart burn really. It did not really feel like when my gallbladder had to be removed. The pain was actually much worse this time and in different location. With my gallbladder, I could not even really identify location and I did think it was heartburn.

I need to try to move on and hope it never happens again. Wow, is this karma? Is someone trying to help me have even more empathy for my patients with pain? It sure seems like a week full of medical issues.

I Am So Tired!

Okay, I have so much more empathy for anyone with a disability or injury. I am so pooped all the time. Every activity takes twice as long! Every time I have to walk to the car from my office my arms ache from using the stupid crutches. How do people do this for months? Please let me heal and dump these crutches soon. Of course, I say this, but I still cheat now and then and hobble around on my ankle which probably is not good for healing, but how else can you pick up the house or do laundry or anything while on crutches!! I finally broke down and agreed to have the doctor fill out paperwork to get temporary disabled parking for the next month. It is worth it just to cut my walk from the parking lot at work in half!

Ankle Update

I made my way into work today with my ace-wrapped ankle and my crutches and decided I did not feel the medical advice I was given was sufficient to last me 4 to 6 weeks! Walking from parking lot to the office on crutches took forever and the little ace wrap did not seem sufficient to protect me from further injury when i was trucking all over a huge hospital. After my first patient, I checked myself into the walk-in clinic and talked to the doctor on call. He was much more informative. Apparently, I probably tore a couple of my tendons on my ankle (I was advised we have 3 main tendons there.). I really will take 4 to 6 weeks to heal at the minimum and I will be wearing an ankle brace for quite a while, especially if I plan to keep hiking! He said the key to healing a sprain appropriately was to keep ankle at a right angle and avoid future twisting. So I got fitted into a "boot" to keep my ankle fixed in place. This did seem to help me walk a bit without the crutches and once it does not hurt to walk, I can lose the crutches. However, the boot is the biggest darn thing I have seen! It looks like it was made for Big Foot. I hate it but I hate the crutches more and hope it allows me to dump the crutches in a few days.

Happy Easter!

Sort of an uneventful Easter for us unfortunately due to my mobility problems. We had our egg hunt indoors and I made Carlos hide the eggs afyer I had filled them last night. The girls still had a blast and were very excited to find the Easter Baskets the Easter Bunny had left.

After Carlos's sister left for the airport, we all got dressed and drove down to Orange County to visit with Carlos's mom and take her out to dinner...Vietnamese Food! For those of you who are unaware, few places are open for dinner on Easter Sunday...unless you belong to a culture that does not celebrate Easter! Too tied to be more detailed, sorry.

My First All Day Hike

Well back from my first all day hike and things did not go as planned. The day started out beautiful. The weather was clear and sunny. My daypack seemed full of important items yet was not that heavy. I was early to our meeting spot (Starbucks) and had time to get my Venti Nonfat Chai! The drive out to the fishbowls was long but uneventful. However, we neared the turnoff to find the actual road to the trailhead was closed (a fateful sign we ignored). It became clear that many of the trails were closed due to winter and the debate was on over where to go. One member of our group mentioned the McGill trail on Mt. Pinos and we arrived to the trailhead to find it looking open and clear.

We all unpacked and began to make our way onto the trail. At some point we ran into snow at various points on the trail. Unfortunately, this continued as we made our way up the trail until there was a lot of snow. That was when I began to have some problems. I slipped and fell a few times and eventually twisted my ankle. The remainder of the hike was on this injured ankle and that only contributed to the difficulty of hiking in the snow. Some of the snow was fresh and powdery. However, some was hard-packed and very icy. Most was on a steep grade. Some of my fellow hikers had trekking poles and they loaned them to me to help with balance. My ultimate conclusion was that my hiking boots may have been adequate for hiking, but were totally inappropriate for snow. I seemed to have no traction at all. Going up the mountain in snow was pretty bad. Going down in the snow with an injured ankle was worse. Pain was not too bad as i think the ice and cold helped make the area numb. However, being very vigilant about your foot placement, limping at times, and continued falls added to my exhaustion and the trip appeared to take forever. We arrived back to the cars around 1:30 p.m. I advised my buddies my ankle was done and I had no more energy for more, but some of our group was hell-bent on more hiking. Fate was with me when every trail they tried was closed! My carpool finally gave up and we headed back home.

My ankle was pretty swollen and beaten up by then so my husband drove me straight to urgent care after I returned home and I am the sad owner of a badly sprained ankle. I was sent home with some crutches and a lovely ace bandage.

So Excited...

about the weekend! I have my first all day hike planned with my hiking group (the start of our training to hike Whitney in August). We are hiking an area called the fishbowls and it is out past Frazier Park. the snow is supposed to have melted and it will be a nice altitude hike to start getting us used to hiking in high altitude. I found some cool convertible pants at REI on the clearance rack!! And I bought a bigger lightweight backpack. I can't wait to get out there. I am a bit worried about hiking all day and also about the toileting! I have only done trail hikes primarily around Simi and most have been no longer than 1.5 hours (certainly no longer than my bladder capacity).

Rotator Cuff Tendonitis

Well, I am not sure if I mentioned I have had some shoulder pain for months now. Actually, my left arm started hurting in October and i was convinced it was because of my flu shot!! My doctor finally convinced me that it was more likely due to my shoulder and I began to realize that it was quite possible I injured my shoulder while doing the boot camp.

Which makes me wonder if i have ever posted about boot camp? I started boot camp back in February 2007. I had always wanted someone to kick my butt and make me exercise and get in shape. I did like it for a while. By 6:30 every morning I had already completed an hour workout, sometimes even climbing a mountain before I even made it in to work. I felt powerful. The downside was that it was very black and white. Every person was expected to do the same workout and I felt compelled to do things that ultimately were not so great for my body. My knees began to hurt. I had shin splints for several weeks and I am fairly certain using the weights and doing military push-ups are what injured my shoulder! The other downside was that even though I spent about 8 months working out 5 hours a week with heavy cardio, weights, etc., I never lost a single pound!!!! I only gained weight. Ugh. I know that is not the main point, but who wants to work their ass off and be fatter than when you started!

Okay, anyway, the reason this is relevant today is that I finally had my ortho consult today. The doctor was very nice. He x-rayed my shoulder and he confirmed I have rotator cuff tendonitis. The good news is there is no arthritis and no tear, but it just needs to heal more and if it does not they can try another cortisone shot. He also ordered no more boot camp and stated he had three new patients this week thanks to various boot camps!

Why is it so difficult to accept help?

So I had an epiphany today during my massage. I could not really think of anything great for a Valentine's gift so I asked Carlos if he wanted to get each other massages. He agreed but we had to postpone a few times and finally had our Valentine's massages today. I called this guy I had used before for part of Carlos's father's day gift. Carlos thinks he does great massages. I am sure he does, but I had my own issues that interfered. At first, it was just weird to have a guy to a massage. I was a bit shy. Now i am not that experienced with massages, I think this was my 2nd or perhaps 3rd. But the bigger issue was my thought processes during the massage. As I lay there and had my muscles manipulated, I realized that I am just very uncomfortable allowing other people to do things for me. Even if I pay them. Am I weird? I would rather do things myself or go without than have someone do things for me. I realized it is the same with the cleaning service (although necessity and a clean house have helped me overlook my discomfort in that situation, but it is easier to just leave a check for a person you rarely see in person and come home to a clean house!). I like the end result of pedicures, but I feel uncomfortable during with the thoughts that I am requiring someone to care for me feet! Same with the two facials I have had. This is the real reason I have to be pushed to do a lot of things and most i have only done because I had some prepaid gift and was too cheap not to use it!!

Lucky Leprechaun Gold

Carlos is back from his business trip today so we both took the girls this evening to the YMCA's Lucky Leprechaun Gold Hunt. This just goes to show how little it takes to please a child. The girls had a blast. We made Irish hats and pots to collect gold in out of paper bags and some markers! They searched for plastic pieces of gold all over the ground and then turned in their "gold" for a treat (basically Otter Pops). Low cost enjoyment for all!

In spite of the fun, all of the children appeared to be wishing they were inside the YMCA playing in the indoor pool!

Am I crazy or what?

I must be crazy or having a mid-life crisis. I just registered for the Disneyland Half Marathon in August. I have always aspired to run a marathon, which is kind of crazy when you consider my exercise track record and the fact that i hate to run!! But hey, it is at Disneyland and it is only half a marathon (okay which is still like 14 miles, am i stupid and crazy?). I noticed it last year and checked it out this year. There is a 5k family fun run and I should of signed up for that. But nooooo, I said to myself, hey if you can run 5k, you can do the half marathon. I am having registration regret. I don't think I can do it. But I have many months to prepare. You have 3 1/2 hours to complete it so I figure I can walk a good bit of it and still finish. I can not decide if I am impressed with myself for confronting fears and limitations and doing things anyway, or just shocked at my stupidity!!

Potty Training Mysteries

Okay, I must say potty training boggles the mind. Is it me, my daughter, or the stupid day-care? So, if i have not summarized our potty dilemmas in the past, let me start with the fact that Sofia is almost 4. She started using the potty over 2 years ago and was doing very well with the pee. Dry at night since she was about 18 months old. Then the prior day-care started having issues with her not being completely potty-trained prior to moving on to preschool. I know I started to obsess. i think the school was doing some questionable punishments for her accidents, because her toileting became much worse until I pulled her out of the day-care and started her at another one with no toileting deadlines. Things improved. But she still had accidents daily for the next year. I again started to get frustrated that Sofia could be dry at home but seemed to always be in a pull-up when I picked her up from school, sometimes after an accident, but suspiciously sometimes in a pull-up and underwear with no wet clothing. I talked with them and was frustrated by their policy of two accidents in a month required the child to where a pull-up. How retarded is that rule?

But this week, I am again frustrated. I spent 7 days with Sofia this past week and she did not have a single accident!!! i did not always remind her to go either. She usually told me! She even spent many hours in an exciting kids program with many distraction on the cruise and still did not have a single accident. So tell me, do you find it strange that already this week she has had an accident each day she has gone to day-care? I just do not understand who is at fault here, but I am not leaning towards my daughter as the one at fault!

Back from the Family Cruise

We had a fabulous time, but I want a relaxing vacation now just for me!! We did a short cruise to Mexico, with stops in San Diego, Catalina, and Ensenada. The girls loved it but I was kind of surprised that they loved the kid's program and wanted to spend more time there than with their parents! They even wanted to cut short any visits off the ship to return to the kid's program. I even was yelled at once for picking them up prior to closing!

Of course no cruise can start without the standard Muster drill (or the mustard drill as we call it). The girls may not look like they enjoyed it much, but believe me they flirted with all of the staff and the young women standing next to us the entire time.

I may have a few more photos from our room in my digital camera, but I had this one from my phone. needless to say the room was small. However, the girls did not seem to mind and loved the upper bunks (for playing primarily, because many nights we still ended up with extra visitors to the tiny lower bunks!

We ate every meal that was offered in the formal dining room (because mommy likes to be served) and the girls had a great time for every meal. Only one other family showed up each night at our large table and they had a boy and a girl around the same ages as our girls. Every night was a party. (Of course, I brought plenty of paper and crayons to pass any down time.

We skipped San Diego, but did take the boat over to Catalina. here are a few photos from the tender (unfortunately no one cooperated for the group photos). I know I have many more beautiful pictures on my digital camera of Catalina and hope to post some later once I actually upload those pictures!



Carlos and I spent every day at the pool, but the girls only agreed to come one time!!! the preferred to play in the kid's club!!!



One final shot is from our last dinner on the ship. Sofia was so tired from her week of fun she fell asleep on the table before dinner was served. the staff were so nice they made her a bed right at the table with two chairs and some extra linens.