So, I have labrynthitis.  I hope I spelt that right; my screen is about 45 degrees out of whack for me right now. I've had to take the week off work and a day off school (you know it's bad when I can't go to class).  All I've done this week is stagger around the house, bumping into stuff and knocking things over and feeling very queasy.  The meds make me sleepy and I hate losing a day to sleep.  The first morning I took it, The People's Court was on and I was looking ...

I had some shots into the nerve roots alongside my spine yesterday, in an effort to reduce (or perhaps eliminate entirely) the amount of sciatica I've been having. It was painful, yes.  I had to lay on my belly, which causes me pain anyway.  Then the doc numbed up my skin with some local anasthesia (6 shots, 3 on either side at three diffeent levels of my spine)- and when that had started to work, he placed needles right into the nerve roots (under x-ray so he could see where he nee...

Ever since I was a teenager I've had issues with my reproductive organs.  I didn't start menstruating until I was 14, and when I did I lost so much blood each month that I was perpetually anemic.  I had ovarian cysts that I was hospitalized for and was in so much pain that at times I couldn't walk.  It was miserable.  I thought that having babies would straighten my hormonal issues out.  I was wrong.  It got worse.  My body, instead of settling down, betray...

It's true.  I'm thinner.  It's all the walking that does it (2 1/2 mile 5 mornings a week and another mile and a half every evening). I'm smaller, but I dunno by how much.  I'm not weighing myself for fear I'll get depressed at the numbers and then will want to self-medicate with chocolate, thus starting the whole process off again. No scales for me, thanks, but I do know that my clothes are baggier and looser. Yay!  I'm thinner!  

I spent yesterday and last night in the hospital.  I was in the shower yesterday morning (I had just completed a 2 mile walk with my dawgs) when I felt a pain in my chest.  I spread out from under my sternum and whilst it was excruciating, it got my attention.  It only lasted a minute or two, then it subsided.  I didn't think anything of it and continued on washing my hair and shaving my legs. When I was drying off and getting dressed, I had the pain again.  ...

I've gained some weoght over the last year.  It started when I had spinal fusion surgery and wasn't able to do much physical exercise afterwards. I don't like being this big.  I don't weigh myself - I have a lot of lean muscle and it makes me heavier than I look.  For example, when we moved here to Illinois I was wearing a size 4 or 5 pants, but I weighed 130lbs.  I prefer to measure my weight loss in terms of clothing size. Right now I'm wearing a size 12 or 13.  ...

I've been given a brief reprieve from the migraine that's kept me in a darkened room all day today, so I thought I'd come and tell you about Jake's test results. His glucose levels are in the high end of the normal range.  We have to keep an eye on him and if things change we have to go see the doctor again. In the meantime, I'm going to monitor his sugar intake and see if I can't reduce it somewhat. Thank you all for your good thoughts and best wishes.  It's really been a com...

Our daughter Shea has mononucleosis.  She was diagnosed last week and the pediatrician (who is simply the best pediatrician we've ever had, period) told her she needed to rest and take it easy. She has been, but all week long she's been complaining that she doesn't feel ill and that she's sure she doesn't have mono.  It's been a trying week for me, having to keep her relatively inactive. Today, I was getting ready to take the dogs for a walk and Shea asked if she could come with ...

I'm having a hard time sleeping again. Ever since dad died I haven't been able to sleep for more than a couple of hours at a time.  I'll wake up at regular intervals during the night and it'll be hellish trying to get back to sleep again.  I'm starting to yearn for that deep REM sleep that everyone around me seems to have no trouble achieving.  I'm jealous that Dave can just drop off to sleep and manage to stay asleep all through the night.  I'm on Elavil at night, but...

I'm frustrated to the point of anger with the military medical system. I called YESTERDAY to see if I could get a blood or urine test ordered for Jake so we could put this 'does he have diabetes' thing to rest. I hadn't recieved a reply 26 hours later, so I called back.  I didn't understand what was so fekkin' difficult to understand about my request that it took over 24 hours. After 30 mins on the phone and three people later, I'm no further forward.  ALL I WANT IS TO BE ...

I, like a lot of other mothers, am able to instinctively know when there's something not right with my child.  I knew that Jake had ADD before he was diagnosed.  I knew that he had broken his arm despite the triage nurse telling me there wasn't anything wrong with him (I made her apologize to him for making him wait to see the doctor when he was in pain with a fractured radius and ulna).  I just KNOW when there's something not right with any of my kids. My mothering instinct is...

I took Shea to the doctor yesterday because I thought she had strep throat. She does. But according to the doctor who just called with the results of her blood tests, she also has mononucleosis. I'd already disinfected the house with Lysol after her rapid strep test came back positive.  Now, however...she's not allowed to engage in any kind of contact sports or roughhouse with her brothers for 8 weeks.  Mono causes the spleen to become temporarily enlarged and therefore easier...

Yesterday I went to the dentist to get a broken tooth yanked out and a my new partial fitted. As usual, the extraction didn't got exactly as planned.  First, what was left of the tooth broke off, so the dentist had to cut my gum to get at the root.  Even then the little bugger didn't want to come out so he had to break out the drill and remove the bone that was holding the root in.....and it STILL wouldn't come out, so he had to use an instrument called an 'elevator' and try to leve...

I'm sick. I've been peeing fire for over a week now.  I went to the doctor last Friday, but they failed to spot that my urine sample wasn't the cleanest of catches and sent me home telling me there wasn't anything wrong with me. Saturday evening Ii started feeling off color. Sunday I was dragging ass.  Sunday night I was on call and had to go sit vigilance with a patient (sat next to his bed and half-dozed my way through the night, listening for his breathing to change or to c...