Hooray!

Hooray on many levels.

For starters I have my left foot back again! Woo Hoo! Goodbye blue ortho-shoe. Well hopefully that is :) I'm able to bend my toes again, and it's been pretty pain free yesterday and so far today. *knocks on wood*

Hooray also because I'm super excited to be able to exercise again!!! I can't explain how stressed out it's made me recently not being able to run and do my cardio thing. So hopefully I'll be able to get right back into the swing of running, biking, and the Eliptical with no pain.

Also the sinus thing seems to be gone thankfully! Guess it was just some drainage? I've been continuing the rinses, Sudafed, etc. Hopkins did call me in some Levaquin as a "just in case" so I feel better about having that. Although I'm planning on not having to use it since I feel back to normal again :)

Another hooray is we leave for Myrtle Beach in less than 24 hours!!!!!! Yippee! We used to go to Myrtle Beach every year for vacation as a kid growing up. So needless to say I can't wait to go back again. It's been about 4 years or so, so I've missed it so much.

So here's to getting back on track with exercising and hoping my foot behaves. And here's to a week at the beach!!!!!

Wednesday's Worry

I woke up at midnight because I couldn't breathe out of the right side of my nose. I'll spare the details, but wow and ew...think I'm brewing a nasty sinus infection :/ Timing isn't great I might add, since we leave for Myrtle Beach in 3 days. So I've been doing sinus rinses, taking Sudafed, and Mucinex to keep things thinned out and decongested. I sure hope this works. Regardless, I'll be calling Hopkins in the morning. My head is so stuffed I didn't even hear a knock on the door earlier, oops.

Here's hoping this passes quickly :)

Tuesday's To-Do's

I have to say this summer has seemed one of the busiest one yet. Not even just traveling, but just working on projects around the house. We leave for Myrtle Beach in 5 days with lots to do!

• Pack...this is something I definitely procrastinate doing for some reason, however when we get home unpacking is what I do immediately.
• Must go to Target and get all those fun last minute beach things...including junk food of course ;)
• Finish laundry so that I'll actually be able to pack
• Go to the library and pick out a book or two for the beach. I'm almost finished the Twilight series sadly..I've enjoyed it so much considering I was never a reader for fun...
• Make a run to pick up my favorite wine incase they don't sell my brand in Myrtle Beach
• Help Scott get the deck completed by the time we leave....almost done it now
• Catch up on all my emails and messages
• Clean the house....there is nothing like coming home to a clean fresh house after vacation
• Check out iTUNES and see if there is anything new that I must put on the iPOD
• Survive the work week with a major case of "vacationitis"
• Get my foot cooperate so I can finally wear a normal shoe on it...sadly my toes still won't bend all the way without pain :/
• And the most important To-Do is to leave the stress behind and get away for a week! :)

Come On Saturday!!!!

Where did the weekend go?

It sure was a busy weekend around here. Friday was a hellacious day at work in every way. By the time I got out it was late and I was exhausted. Came home and worked on the deck with Scott for a while. Beth came over for a while and gave us a hand with a few things. The end of the night was very relaxing on the back porch enjoying a glass of wine.

Saturday we continuted to work on the deck. I felt like i actually helped that day. I was using the circular saw to cut all the wood for the deck flooring, and drilling too. Let me just say that since the foot is still on rest and I've been bummed about not working out......this stuff was a work out for sure! Today all my muscles ache, wow.

Saturday night we had my cousins over for a cookout. It turned out really nice all in all. Granted we worked our butts off all day so I was tired, but it was a great night. Everyone ended up staying until about 2:30 am. That's a good night for sure. I'm happy that everyone is so comfortable at our house and hours just seem to fly by. I also witness a bizarre accident on Saturday while at the grocery store. A guy in a truck towing a boat plowed through a telephone poll, then took out a row of employee cars too :/ Luckily everyone was ok, but that landed me getting trapped at the good old grocery store for a while. Good think I wasn't hungry, I may have eaten the whole store. ;)

Sunday I got up early to meet my friend at Starbucks for coffee. She leaves for Guatemala on a mission type trip to an orphanage for 10 days next week. Afterwards I had a ton of errands to run....Godson's birthday present, Hallmark, Target etc. We decided to enjoy the beautiful day by taking a break from the deck. I'm pretty sure my body screamed hooray somewhere in there. We went to dinner at our favorite Mexican place with our friends. We all leave for Myrtle Beach in a week, so we were able to discuss our vacation plans etc. It was tons of fun. After that we hit our favorite coffee house to relax and walk the historic Main St. Perfect evening indeed.

Today is back to the grind. I must say I'm lacking a bit in the sleep department but it's a good busy. One more week of work then the beach!!!! :)

Photo of the day

Nothing too exciting happening today. All I can say is this week at work has been one of the most exhausting and busy ones ever. Tonight I relaxed with Beth and enjoyed a glass of wine on the back porch. A great way to unwind after such a busy insane crazy week. Here's a picture of my coworkers and me from our work party last night. Good times :)

Denied

Yes sir I've been denied the new upgraded, smaller, more compact VEST. Grr I'm annoyed that I have to keep using the gigantic beast of a vest. I'm grateful to have one, yes, however I see tons of my FB friends who have the newer model and how great it is. I would love to be able to take it with us for when we travel, but I can't at all. This thing is like 100 pounds! So my CF nurse called me and said I could request an appeal. Basically I just have to say something like I'm a "travel nurse" and it's necessary. I don't get it though, they VEST company sent me new tubing and a new vest, just not the compressor. So here I've been this whole time thinking the compressor will be here any day now, and DENIED! So who knows what I'll do. I feel like an appeal is going to be a big pain in the butt. However my vest is over 10 years old, and how come others aren't denied even if theirs aren't broken!? Apparently that's the only way to get a new one, maybe I'll break the thing (kidding).

Last night we had our annual work cookout at one of our doctors house. It was a nice time overall. I was a bit frustrated with a situation, but trying not to be. Why is it that you can't just be a nice person without people taking it the wrong way. Yes I know I'm too nice, a push-over, can't be mean to people, can't stand the thought of hurting feelings, and try to "save" everyone. I just don't understand....

The deck is coming along nicely, Scott is working so hard on it and it looks great! I've been super sleep deprived all week and it's definitely catching up to me now. I've not let myself read "Breaking Dawn" with the help of Scott hiding my book, that way I get sleep :) The foot is feeling so much better in the shoe, and I can bend my toes now! YAY!

Verdict: Sprained Foot and Toe

Yes it's official I sprained the Left Foot and Toe. I went to Patient First this afternoon after work. Some of my coworkers had went there, and I've heard great things so I gave it a try. I loved it and they were great. Within one hour, I was in and out the door. I had xrays almost immediately and saw the Doctor and he assessed my foot. It's very sore and I still can't bend my toes and feel the crackling when I try to bend. It's not broken at least. He called it a sprain secondary to "over-use" meaning hiking. So I get to rock the awesome blue-ortho shoe for a week and then reassess it. He said to rest the foot (hard to do as a Nurse), take NSAIDS for the inflammation, and ice it. This also means no exercise for another week :/ I'm so afraid of losing the great cardio strength I've been building up so much. For now I guess I'll just lift weights, upper body of course and see what happens.

Camping

We had lots of fun camping. It was great to escape the "real world" for 2 days and just hang out in the wilderness. We hung out all weekend with family and just relaxed. Friday night we got there around 5:30 since trafffic was awful as usual. Once we set up our pop-up we joined everyone for dinner. I was going to run out and grab something quick since we got there later than we'd hoped, but to our surprise Scott's family had a TON of left overs including steaks, corn on the cob, salads, bread etc. It was delicious! That night we did the usual hanging out at the campfire and just chatting. It was so relaxing. I just love the smell of a campfire and hearing all the creatures at night in the trees.

Saturday was a cool day temperature wise, honestly this whole weekend felt like Fall to me. I loved it! It stormed a ton on Saturday and boy let me say they were some good thunderstorms too. I welcomed the rain. Honestly it gave me time to relax in the darkness of the storms, reading "Eclipse" and enjoying a glass of wine. To me it was perfect. Saturday night once the rain let up we managed to get outside with everyone and cook dinner on the grill. Again a delicious variety of steaks, BBQ chicken, Mac N Cheese, potatoes, yum yum yum! And dessert for me was of course roasted marshmallows. Glad I enjoyed them while I did because they were used later in the night in a marshmallow throwing war ;)

All in all it was a great weekend. My foot was really bothering me this weekend though. To my surprise it's better today. Hmm, weird. I figured I'd give it until tomorrow and if it's still swollen and sore then I'll go to the Doctors to have it checked out. Overall we had a great camping trip. It was awesome to hang out with my nieces and nephews all weekend too. The campground we were at rents golfcarts so of course they were asking me non-stop to take them on rides. I absolutely loved it too. Of course what my niece and her friends really wanted to go on the rides for, was to look for cute boys! Ahh to be 14 again :)

On a less fun note. One of my sister-in-laws friends asked me at the campfire "Jess when are you going to have a baby!?" I tried as hard as I could to hold it together and not get upset: Mission Failed. I broke down having to deal with talking about the miscarriage yet again. So much for avoiding that topic this weekend. Oh well, moving on and thinking positively...And on the baby topic, we actually had the loudest baby ever staying behind us. Funny overall because the baby was SO LOUD laughing and cackling, but it woke me up both mornings so super early. But how could I be mad at that?

Here's a picutre of Hooper and Me yesterday...Hope everyone had a great weekend too!

Fat and Swollen

Is how my left foot looks. I don't know what I did to my foot honestly. Last week when I was dumb and forgot my hiking shoes and did the 9 mile hike in my flip-flops the only side effect was killer shin splints afterwards. Now the left foot is swollen, and I can't bend my big toe. Hmm this is not cool. I haven't been able to run all week and that is driving me CRAZY! Luckily I'm still lifting my weights and that feels good, but I'm missing my cardio big time. What the heck did I do!? I'm no stranger to broken bones and had a few broken feet, and wrists from sports when I was little. Honestly this toe/foot thing reminds me of that a little bit. With the exception of not having a blatant injury. I'm taking Motrin and going to put ice on it. I sure hope it feels better soon. I can't wait to get back to running and biking.

Well I'm off to pack, we're going camping for the weekend. I'm very excited to be in the wilderness and just relax in the outdoors. And depending on the foot sitution I'd love to hike this weekend. I promise to be smart and wear my tennis shoes. Luckily I have a permanent pair that never leaves our pop-up camper ;)

Resemblance

Is it just me or does anyone else out there see the resemblance between Robert Smith (The Cure) whom I've loved since I was about 13, and Robert Pattinson (Twilight series). Maybe it's the crazy hair. Maybe it's the name. Maybe it's the darkness of their personalities/character. Maybe it's the British accent. Maybe it's the jaw. Maybe it's that I find them both super cute :)

Chill

The last 3 days have definitely caught up to me for sure. All the hiking, sports, ripping out the deck, etc. I have to say it felt great to do everything, but I'm one tired person today, especially after a busy day at work. So I've dedicated this lovely Monday to doing a whole lot of nothing.

I did however make a yummy taco dinner tonight. One of my most favorite things in the world to do is cook. So yes tacos may seem easy, but I made the shells and everything from scratch. Can you say yum!? So good!! :) It was so relaxing and therapeutic to me to just cook and listen to my music. Ahhh.

So yes, me and my shin splints which makes me walk like I'm 80 years old are taking a night off, LOL. Here's to continuing my addiction, ahem I mean my Twilight series of books. I'm on to Eclipse now and am loving every second of it.

I forgot to mention yesterday how saddened I was about Steve McNair's death. We sure loved him here in Baltimore when he was a Raven. So saddening. What's up with all the deaths lately? Very scary.

Anyway a very boring post I know, but it sure feels good to prop up these tired feet.....well legs, arms, head etc. Ha ha ha ;)

Weekend Tidbits

We had a great 4th of July. We went over my brother and sister in laws house for the annual party. We also celebrated my nephews 4th birthday this weekend. We ate tons of food, saw great fireworks, had great weather, and just a nice time with family. We must have played badminton for hours last night. My legs aren't too happy with me today after my brainiac incident of flip flop hiking since I forgot my shoes and then playing hours last night. Shin spints are here to visit today unfortunately. Oh well it was totally worth it :)

This morning we started the day bright and early at Home Depot....well after coffee that is. Our lawn mower decided to die this week. We've wanted to get a riding mower since we have a very big acre yard, and now we had a reason too, yay. We also decided to build a new deck too. When I say "we" I mean Scott, and I'll be happily watching. Ha ha ;) No I do help, but I'm more of the "runner" or the clean up person. So we left Home Depot with a new tractor mower, and a ton of lumber for the deck. We spent the day working on the house mostly. I caught up on everything that hadn't been done all week long. And we also ripped out part of where the old deck and staircase were. So now we have tons and tons of kinling for our outdoor fire pit campfires :)

Overall it was a wonderful weekend and I'm so grateful that I felt back to normal to enjoy it! From our friends getting engaged to being super productive today I'd say it's a good start to a week. I'm determined to make July a good month! I'm officially putting May and June behind me and all the baggage they brought. Granted they just made me stronger, but I'm ready for a new month :)

Hope everyone had a great Holiday weekend!!

Rocky Gap Resort

We had a lovely over night get away to Rocky Gap Resort. We actually went as accomplices to our friend Mike to help him pull off the best secret ever....proposing to his now Fiance. It was awesome! She said YES! :)

I was so nervous Thursday night because after a ton of my lovely Golytely nothing was happening so I was afraid I still had an obstruction. I started to panic at the thought of "what if's" like if we had to cancel, going to the ER again, etc. Luckily everything ended up working out and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The drive to Rocky Gap was just as nice. Scott and I love roadtrips. And we both love to drive with the windows down and the music UP! The scenery was beautiful, mountains, hills, the sky, the cool air. It was perfect, and we rocked out to THE CURE and U2 during and drive up and back. Awesome!

The resort was beautiful! We did a long hike around the resort which ended up being about 8 or 9 miles. Dummy that I am, didn't realize I'd need tennis shoes, so I hiked this in flip-flops. So needless to say I have major shin splints today ;) Oh well it was totally worth it. I can only imagine how beautiful the resort is in the Fall, which is my favorite time of year.

I must say it was a perfect mini-over night get away.

Golytely

Bleck this stuff is gross! So my nurse called to tell me that overall my Xray looked ok. And they found I have a kidney stone hanging around. That's beside the point. However there was still some stuff hanging around the colon and they want me to drink the Golytely. I haven't had to drink this stuff in over 3 years. Funny how just looking at the container made me shudder, ew. They were supposed to call me in the unflavored stuff, but somehow I got lucky and received Pineapple, mmmm (insert sarcasm here) ;) So it's just me, my book, and a gigantic container of Golytely tonight. I know, this is quite an exciting evening!

*Fingers crossed for good results!*

And it continues

I decided to stay home from work today. It hit me last night around 9:30 pm. Scott and I were outside on the screened deck enjoying the rain falling. Every muscle in me ached and throbbed. I know I pulled a ton of muscles with all the vomiting I'd done over the last several hours in the ER. I also broke down and just started to cry about everything. I called my boss and she just said for me to take care of myself and do what I needed to do. I agree that I can be too hard on myself, but working makes me feel "normal." I can't stand it when something holds me back from that. But in reality I needed to take a day to relax since my body has been through hell the last few days.

So this morning I called Hopkins to fill them in the events going on. They decided to send me for a follow up Abdominal X-ray today. I had that done around 5pm. I'll get those results back tomorrow. If they aren't as they'd like them to be then it's time for Golytely :/ My fingers are crossed that my intestines decide to behave and we can bypass the Golytely. We shall see. My CF nurse also told me today that she'd like me to have a colonoscopy in the future. I'm not afraid of the colonoscopy since I'm a GI Nurse, it's what I deal with all the time. I just hate that it's even happening. So tomorrow I'm going to talk to the chief GI doc that I work for and have him give me a recommendation. Obviously I'm not going to the guys that I work for, for something like this. They were concerned about the "intussusception of the ascending colon." They said that a lot of pediatric CF patients have this but not adults. It means one of a few things. Either I have scar tissue or adhesions from previous abdominal surgeries, still am obstructed, or have a polyp? Who knows.

I did meet Scott for lunch today which was nice. I'll admit I was terrified to eat, but I was so hungry! I then decided to relax some more on my day off. I love Starbucks so I got a coffee, and I actually sat outside for a while at Starbucks and read my book New Moon. It was very relaxing and something that I felt really good doing.

I'm hoping that July is much nicer and more positive around here. May was awful with the miscarriage and all. That was foremost in my mind during my ER visit unfortunately. Reason #1 was that I was back at the ER again where I just had been for the miscarriage. Reason #2, they put me in the exact same room as I was in for all the miscarriage stuff. How's that even possible I wondered? The ER is huge what were the chances of me being in that same exact room again?
:( So all those painful memories came pouring back yet again....on top of the bowel obstruction. June has now been filled with yet another obstruction in my history book. I want a fresh start. I want to clear my head and have these things simply behind me. I want to move forward....