Some More Pictures of Disney (Or I finally took the pictures off the memory card!)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Wow what a day. I have the joy of turning 42 and a day off work with the fun of spending it by the bathroom collecting my urine! I forgot to mention the other present from the doctor yesterday was a lab test that had to start with my first morning's urine and continue for 24 hours. So I took the day off work and here I am peeing several times an hour and trying to catch it all in a lovely orange bottle. The only pleasant thing to happen today on my birthday was Carlos making me shrimp scampi for dinner and my Marie Callendar's pie (lemon meringue, why of why not chocolate!!). The girls gave me pretty cards and signed them themselves. Carlos gave my some candy and a gift card to Ann Taylor (but I really really had hinted at a new camera). I think I will go to bed soon and put this day to rest!

My lovely visit with the Pee Doctor

Well, I am back at work after completing my urology consult. Once again, I feel like I am in a long boring movie I would rather not watch. The doctor was sort of dismissive and assured me after showing my the results of the CT scan, that the large white spot on my scan was not actually a kidney stone and he believed I probably already passed it. However, he did make me go get another x-ray done and bring the results back asap. I bring them up dutifully to his office and am directed to sit in his office while he continues to write some notes in someone else's medical chart for about 15 minutes. He then takes my x-ray and puts it up on the wall and says, yes, that is definitely a kidney stone like he had never doubted it in any way? He takes out his ruler and measures it yet again. Ultimately, he tells me I am a lucky girl who gets to wait 2 weeks to see if it will come out all on its own! However, if it does not make its appearance soon, I have 2 options, both painful. They will either blast it with some kind of waves, or he will do surgery and go up my urethra and pull the sucker out.

Oh joy, I can not even comprehend which is the better option since they all involve pain. I know passing it myself is better on the body, but that is the option with unpredictable horrifying pain!!!

Return to ER (I should be a very boring television series)...

Well, last night I started to experience more pain in my lower back. I thought I had a UTI all last week and was just finishing my antibiotics so I was very frustrated to noticed increased urinary frequency and pain as well. I figured perhaps i had a kidney infection and as the pain did not seem to be getting better, I finally decided I needed to return to the emergency room. as i had my 30 minute drive there, initially I began to feel kind of stupid as the pain was not so bad. I figured, i jumped the gun and perhaps this pain did not warrant an Emergency Room. before the drive was over, my pain began to increase and I realized I had probably made the right decision.

By the time I reached the triage area, I was starting to have difficulty talking but somehow provided my info and was pretty quickly placed in a room. Fast forward to 5 hours later...

The end result is that although the doctor was kind of a jerk at first and assured me the pain I was feeling could not be kidney pain but must be joint pain, my urinalysis (which took 3 plus hours to get the results) showed some blood, so they finally believed I did not have joint pain. Unfortunately, I did not have a UTI either. One CT scan later, and I had my confirmation...kidney stones, 3 of them to be exact. I have one in each kidney, and one little darling (well big for kidney stones) in the tube between my kidney and bladder. The pain again had improved after a 5 hour visit in the ER, so I was sent home with some new meds and a referral to urology.

Today, they actually called me and I have a urology appointment for tomorrow morning to hear what happens next (other than waiting and pain!).

Sofia's Big Girl Room

Well, we finished the main part of Sofia's big girl room today and I bought her a new mattress and tonight she sleeps for the first time in her new room! It looks beautiful, but I would love to see it completely finished. We painted it this deep light shade of purple with a sueded paint to try to hide all the damage to the walls from the previous occupants. we also put up wainscoting, crown molding, and new baseboards. Carlos also trimmed out the window so it looks very new. All the trim is in lattice white. We still have to install a closet organizer and get new carpeting. Unfortunately, the carpet is on hold (forever!) until we finish the last few rooms upstairs (the two big $$ jobs, the bathrooms). I am going to try to take some pictures and post them here before I upload this post.

More on Mt. Whitney

( Not a very good picture from the presentation)

Just wanted to blog a bit about attending the Whitney Clinic at Adventure 16 last night. It was actually kind of fun. A group of us carpooled down to west LA and went to the clinic together. They also had some snacks and wine as well. Ken Murray gave a great presentation. I can not say that he presented anything I had not read already in my pursuit of all things Whitney, but he did make it more real and helped me begin to think about gear I will need and priorities (ultra light, anyone).

Afterward, for the first time in years, I went out with everyone from a drink and dinner. I think I would have preferred to go home to sleep, but it was nice to feel like my younger self who used to stay out late and party now and then!

An actual picture of a group hiking Whitney in Winter. We are actually going in August so thank God this should not be a good example of our trek!

Fun-Filled Crazy Day!

Okay, we started the morning very tired, but still managed to make it out to Encino for “TOMATOMANIA!” Who knew there were so many types of tomatoes? But this was Carlos’s only request for his birthday back in March, so we explored tomatoes and finally purchased some seedlings to try to grow in our earth box. Luckily for the girls they also had some animals, so we saw chickens and roosters, goats, pigs, and bunnies, too!

We drove back from Tomatomania just in time for Carlos to drop off myself and the girls to a birthday party for a friend of the girls at a local gym. They played and exercised, while I visited with friends. After the party, we headed back home to get the house ready for our family dinner to celebrate Sofia’s birthday. I purchased her “princess” cake she had requested and Carlos grilled some burgers and chicken and we partied with the Berning half of the family!

Still Dreaming of Disney…

We are back from the birthday extravaganza and I must be honest…I was disappointed. Thank goodness, Sofia and Emma were not. They had a great time. They loved every part of it (except some of the walking). We went to Ariel’s Grotto for the Princess Lunch and they loved meeting Sleeping beauty, Belle, Jasmine, and Cinderella. We also went to the Princess Faire and they had a private audience with Cinderella there too, and Sleeping Beauty told the crowd a story. We stayed for the fireworks and went home late with the girls asleep before we even made it to the car.

Okay, so that was the day from the girls perspective, now here is the real story (as it is all about me!). So from my perspective, the park was crowded as usual. Waiting in lines seriously cut down on rides we actually were able to ride. Well I also have to say they were already limited due to having two kids under the age of 6. All day long, our entire ride list only included: Dumbo, Snow White, Autopia, Buzz Lightyear, Pirates, those spaceship things in Tomorrowland that are a lot like Dumbo, and a few rides in Flik’s area at California Adventure! I was in severe fun ride withdrawal by the end of the day.

Now food was also a bit disappointing. We ate breakfast at the hotel before we went to the parks, and we missed dinner in all the craziness at the end and had to eat on the way home. So the only meal actually at Disney outside of snacks was at Ariel’s Grotto. All I can say was yuck. The food sucked, in my humble opinion. They have a pretty sad menu to begin with, burgers, meatloaf, chicken pot pie, or Caesar salad (and I have mentally blocked out the cost, but I know it was close to 20 per person before tax and tip). The pot pie (my choice) was salty and I left more than half on my plate. Carlos had the burger and was satisfied (but he still paid 20 for an okay burger and crappy fries). Okay on to better complaints.

The real issue that probably led to my disappointment was my mobility issues. I debated quite a bit what to do about my ankle. I could hobble around without crutches at this point but it was pretty hard. We opted for a wheelchair. I was worried Carlos would be exhausted from having to push me all around the parks, so we went for the electric cart. Big mistake. I learned later I could not have anyone ride with me and since we did not bring a stroller, Carlos had to walk with girls the entire day and the girls never did understand why they could not ride with me. And with the crowds and the rude rude people, I spent most of the day stressed I would run someone over, because no one made any space at all for me. They would cut me off or push right into me. All I can say is never ever envy anyone with a disability at Disneyland because they really have no real perks at all and face many difficulties just navigating the park. Most rides do NOT have shortcuts for the disabled. A few let you enter from the exit, but you then have to wait until they allow you to get on which may be longer than the normal line (i.e., Pirates). Most just make you stay in the normal big line and then wait when you get to the front for an accessible cart, so you wait longer!

Anyway, I hope to someday be able to go again without a disability, and sadly, at least once, without children so I can truly have a fun-filled day! I sound like such a complainer! There were some moments that were magical. The fireworks were spectacular. They seem to improve them every year and this year was no exception. They even had fire blasting from the castle so strong you could feel the heat of the flames! The employees as usual were friendly and went out of their way to help. Our private visit with Cinderella was so cool. The girls felt so special. Oh, I forgot to mention that we went to the Mission tortilla factory in CA and Sofia was gifted a whole bag of tortillas and they were so yummy. They taste better than the ones in the stores.

Okay I have been procrastinating on publishing this post because I know I have better pictures still on my camera. However, I am going to post what i have now and post the better pictures later whenever I upload them from my camera!!!

Goofy wishes Sofia Happy Birthday!

Sofia and Carlos on Main Street (note the autograph book, her first...)

Sofia on the Merry Go Round...

My beautiful birthday girl Sofia...

(note the infamous electric vehicle she is posing by)

The girls get Pluto's autograph

The only picture of the blasted Princess lunch I can find on my phone

Storytime with Aurora

Three days to Disney!

My baby girl is turning 4!!! And I talked her into a day at Disneyland instead of a crazy birthday party. I know she is excited but so am I! We have not gone in years. I think Emma might have gone for her 3rd birthday party? I know we let the Annual Passes lapse when Emma was about 2. I am so excited but a little worried it will be crowded and hard to get around with my cam walker. At least, I can get around without the crutches. We are doing lunch at Ariel's Grotto at California Adventure with the princesses. We plan to stay all day and not come home until very late! I hope the girls have a great time. It was easier with the Annual Passes. I remember feeling that every trip was perfect because if we did not do everything we wanted to, we could always come back another day. having the perfect Disney day in one day now seems like a lot of pressure!

Pilates with a Disability

I went back to Pilates for the first time after spraining my ankle. It was kind of harder than i thought but still a success, I believe. Since most of it is done on a mat, I could still do quite a bit. I had to forego any of the exercises/poses on "all fours" position. The rest were doable. however, I realize that the cam-walker weighs about 5 pounds and that added quite a bit of weight to exercises where I had to lift my right leg and foot. My upper body was craving the stretching after using crutches for a few weeks. My left hip is also sore and feels a bit better now. I think because the cam-walker is like 2-3 inches high and if I wear a tennie runner on the other foot, my feet are different lengths and that throws off my walking. I wore a low heeled boot today on my left foot and that seems to be helping a bit.The only down side is that I am exhausted now. I think I will be going to bed soon!

Update...

I guess I passed a kidney stone! Okay, I might have to agree it was almost as painful as childbirth. This was an 8/10 on the pain scale but I still have to give childbirth a 10/10! All I can say today is please let it have been passed and may it be the last one ever.

I am awaiting test results, but they may or may not confirm anything. I really need a day off of work to recover from all of my medical ailments these past few weeks, but alas, I am here at work.