October 2008 - Posts
I went from feeling just fine Sunday morning to having a nasty cold in literally hours. I don't recall colds taking hold this quickly. Here's hoping it leaves just as quickly as it came.
After spending Sunday morning cleaning my house (oh, does it feel good to clean...well, maybe as you enjoy the final product), we left as a family for two birthday parties. First one was at 2pm and by the time we left around 4:15pm I noticed my ears were clogged and I couldn't clear them. I yawned and swallowed, and drank with no clearing.
We arrived at the second birthday party around 5ish, and by 6:30pm I knew I was in for it. My nose was clogged and I was blowing my nose trying to catch it before it ran down my face. Welcome the cold.
Usually I wouldn't be nearly as bummed (I'm used to this cold after all of my colds with the second pregnancy), but we were hosting a Halloween playdate for 10 of our playgroup families this morning. Alas, I spent about an hour last night calling everyone and trying to figure out when we could reschedule. I feel just awful it didn't happen today...and that people had already made their potluck dishes for lunch. Here's hoping they hold until Friday, as that seems like the best day for everyone.
My husband actually talked me into canceling last night. I was going to wait until this morning, but he made a good point: better to let everyone know...and to not spend any more time preparing for something that was just going to be canceled anyway. So I put on my pjs and we went to sleep.
On a positive note, I think the medication is finally working for my littlest one...he slept nearly 7 hours straight, got up for a change and a feeding, then went back down for another 3 hours. He sure picked a good night to let me sleep!!
So much for my return to the treadmill. I finally was in a groove of running nearly every evening before dinner and then this hits. Will probably be another few days before I can get back on for some exercise. Oh well, took me 9+ months to put the weight on...will probably take me 18 years to take it back off!
Did anyone catch tonight's episode of House..."Lucky Thirteen?" If you're unfamiliar with the tv show House, it's about this nasty, totally un-PC physician at a NJ hospital named Gregory House. He has the knack for diagnosing all of those cases that no one else can - the medical mysteries if you will.
After watching tonight's episode...about this woman who had a bunch of unexplained symptoms including seizures, clotting problems, cysts on her lungs, massive fatigue, and other complaints, I was a bit shocked to hear her diagnosis...Sjogren's. Huh? Yes, she was diagnosed with the autoimmune disease not by all of the above mentioned issues, but because her lips were dry and she couldn't cry. House actually cut an onion and held it in front of her face...no tears. What they didn't show is that you still have that nasty stinging reaction though. Tears almost make that better in some sense.
So, the medical mystery for tonight was what I deal with every day. Kind of strange to see it played out on television, boiled down to symptoms that could fit a number of different diagnoses (including one where they told her she was going to die). Interesting I wasn't aware that seizures and cysts on my lungs were possible ailments associated with Sjogren's. Seems I have some more research to do.
In the meantime, I've started counting the cracks on my knuckles where I'm bleeding because my skin is so dry. Had 6 on one knuckle, think that's a record. If you can't laugh at it, you'd go insane. Funny thing is that while I was sewing my youngest son's Halloween costume tonight and my knuckles stuck to it the thought ran through my head, "boy, I sure hope I didn't get blood on the dog costume." Time to buy some of that NuSkin.
As if my elephant skin hands weren't bad enough, in the past two days I've developed little splits on my knuckles that are now bleeding. This is with multiple applications of super thick hand cream throughout the days. Think I'm going to have to go buy another bottle of that skin glue (yes, they really sell it to seal up your wounds) and dip my knuckles in. Wonder if it will hurt more than the splitting itself given it's alcohol based??
I had my appointment for a cleaning (just a few weeks late given the birth of my second son) this past Monday. Feels great to have those squeaky clean teeth...until your next meal. Prior to getting pregnant the second time I had requested that they update my x-rays as I knew there would be about a year or so before I could technically have them again. I made the appointment, they took the x-rays, and at my next cleaning I was pregnant. That's when they told me that the x-rays they take every 3-5 years needed to be updated. Huh?
Yup, the x-rays they took at the specially scheduled x-ray appointment that I went out of my way to make were just the normal bitewings they take each year. Someone didn't read my chart properly...and who was I to question how many x-rays they should take. The procedure seems to change every appointment.
So this time, they said it had been over 6 years since my last full panel and they'd recommend I take the extra 10 minutes to update things. Good thing. Although I have nearly perfect teeth (the hygenist always compliments me on what a nice mouth I have), the few "spots" they've been monitoring have increased so they're going to have me back in to seal those areas before anything more serious develops. Ah, Sjogren's.
In addition to fixing these two areas, they're also going to fix the front tooth (well, second over on the top) that I chipped. Both the hygenist and dentist got a kick out of how I answered their separate questions concerning whether I knew what I had done to chip the tooth...kissing my husband. Yup, that's a good memory. Go in for the kiss and misjudge proximity. Funny thing is, my husband doesn't remember this, but I can tell you where we both were at the time...probably because the next words out of my mouth were, "my Dad is going to kill me." My parents spent a fair amount on a perfect smile (aka I had a bit of dental work to get the teeth straight), so chipping a tooth was almost a slap in the face.
Anyways, good visit and I'll get these things taken care of before they become anything more than just a spot. Now if I could only heal my elephant skin. Given I wash my hands about 3 times an hour between diapers and the potty training 2 1/2 year old it makes it tricky to get the cream on, let alone get it to work.
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