There is a lot of hope in my life

I've got 19 minutes until my timer goes off and I have to move on to the next part of my experiement so I thought I would dash out a quick post.

I am absolutely lousy at keeping up with everybody in the family.  It isn't that I don't care, I just can't seem to find the time.  By the time I am done with everything I have to do each day, I am exhausted and just want to crawl into bed and read for a few minutes before I drop off into oblivion.  I do read everybody's blog posts and actually made an effort today to make some comments.

I have lately been reflecting on how important family relationships are in the eternal scheme of things particularly in light of the struggles we are having with one of our children at the present time.  As I knelt in prayer last night, I just turned the situation over to our Heavenly Father because there is absolutely nothing else I can do.  I fluctuate between deep sorrow and great hope. I am very grateful that each of us siblings has remained true to the gospel.  There truly is nothing more important than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

On a brighter note, Caleb's mission call is due to arrive any day now.  Church Headquarters sent it out either Friday or this morning.  We are excited for him.  I feel like a 5 year old on Chrismas Eve.  I am so proud of him for making the decision to serve and look forward to seeing the growth that he will experience in the mission field.

About a year ago, I was approached about maybe, just maybe, becoming the manager of the UI Temporal Bone Lab in addition to my current responsibilities.  It was a big maybe because the woman in the position was up in the air about retirement, finances in our department are tighter than they have ever been in the past, etc...  I didn't think much of it and actually had nearly forgotten it when my boss (Marlan) brought it up again a couple of weeks ago.  There were still some hurdles and as slowly as things happen at the UI, I figured I hear about it again in a couple of months.  Last Thursday, Marlan sat down with me and asked me how much I thought I should be paid for taking on this additional responsibility.  I threw out a number that I was pretty sure would be rejected but this afternoon Marlan called me told me that it was a done deal.  I have no doubt that the Lord had a hand in this. I was worried about how to pay my student loans and help support Caleb but the Lord has provided a way and I am deeply grateful for His ever present attention.

Allergies bite big time

Every year from about the middle of August until the first really great HARD freeze is when I have massive allergic reactions to rag weed.  Every year I think that I will be spared and I won't be sneezing constantly and so almost every year I do nothing about these oncoming allergies until the bulk of them hit.  I was told several years ago that I should start taking the allergy medicine at the beginning of August so that when the madness hits it won't be so very bad and I will be mostly controlled.

Well even with this knowledge that I get so very sick, I didn't start taking my Allegra until two weeks ago when I started sneezing.  Then the craziness hit me this weekend.  On Thursday the 23rd I felt kinda sick and knew I needed my prescription nose spray for that seems to be the only thing combined with Allegra that keeps me from sneezing constantly.  However I didn't have an prescription nose spray left from the prior year so I bought an over-the-counter nose spray (big mistake).

I have been so very sick this weekend that I hardly slept and my race didn't go well, (in my opinion).  I sneezed so much my nose was raw.  Running was super difficult and every step was hard.  By mile 13 my muscles were so tight that I was in so much pain.   I ended up going to quick care on Sunday, but that wasn’t the brightest idea. The PA (physicians assistant) who saw me was super clueless.

She said that she would give me something stronger than Allegra in a prescription and I would dry up.   She took a look at all the medicines I was taking, (I pulled them out of my purse for her to see).  She looked right at my Allegra pill and said she would prescribe something stronger.   Well there isn’t anything stronger than Allegra, nothing at all so she was dumb or MISINFORMED (as I found out later in the morning).

Anyway, not knowing there wasn't anything stronger when she was telling me had my hopes super high, as I've been on Allegra for 15 years and even though it works, it doesn't work alone and I get tired of shooting nose spray up my nose and feeling it drip down my throat, so my hopes for a stronger oral pill were up way high.

She then tells me she will write a scrip for a saline nose spray, a super high dose nose spray, an eye drop and some allergy pill to take at night along with Allegra that will help me sleep, dry me up and help me feel tons better.  Again she had my hopes up super high.

I then leave the Quick Care clinic feeling pretty good about what had just happened and feeling like within a few days I would FINALLY sleep and feel better.

I get to Walgreens only to be told that the scrip the PA wrote for the main allergy pill was Allegra D, the same over the counter med that I was already buying.  The pharmacist said that Allegra D was the strongest pill out there and she didn't know why I would be told that there was something better.  Then she said that since Allegra D was over the counter I would have to pay for it.  I asked the pharmacist WHY would I be told that I would get stronger medicine in a prescription form when there is NONE. AND why would the PA prescribe Allegra when she CAN’T. Allegra is ONLY over the counter now, so NO insurance will touch it or cover it. It can only be bought over the counter. So stupid. So I would have to fork out $40 every time I need the Allegra (for 30 days) and then buy more. That is when I think I lost it when I was told this.

I was so frustrated at Walgreens when I picked up my scripts that I cried and cried and couldn’t get myself under control at all, it was a sad site.  I was irritated that I was so emotional and still couldn't stop whimpering to pull it together to talk.  When I finally did talk to the pharmacist, I blurted out something like this:  I'm just so tired and so weak.  I haven't slept in 3 days.  I need a stronger drug.  How pathetic is that?
THEN to top it off, the pharmacist told me that one of my scripts was called over the HY-Vee pharmacy by mistake and they filled it, so Walgreens had to call them to reverse it, and reverse it with insurance so that Walgreens could then fill it and charge my insurance.  It would be about a 20 minute wait for all that.  I just sat over in the waiting area in a chair and sobbed.

Feeling bad for me yet because it gets worse.

Then I leave Walgreens with my meds, only to realize when I'm halfway home that I don't have all the medicines.  So I drive back to see why and they had forgotten to give them all to me.  GRRRRRRRR

The one I was missing was the night time drug that would help me sleep and dry me up.  This was to be the best one out of all 5 scrips.

So when I finally get home, an hour later, I was pretty confident that I would feel better later on.  I took my Allegra, squirted nose spray in the sore nostrils, rubbed Vicks under my nose, put the eye drops in the eyes, drank water, put tissues by the bed and went to sleep.  Feeling guilty that I was missing church, but glad to get a nap with a quiet house and meds in my system.

I woke up feeling better and hoped I would feel better all day.  When it was time for bed I took my new bedtime allergy pill and laid down to sleep.

I was knocked out, I did dry up, however it dried me up so much that I got a horrible sinus backup and my teeth, all my teeth were in severe pain, massive head pain, massive floating feeling, massive dizziness, so bad that I couldn’t drive to teach my class and I was just plain sick this morning. I barely could walk to the bathroom. I could barely see. I hurt so bad.  I felt dizzy, nauseous, weird and I knew something wasn't right.

I managed to call the Rec center where I teach Body Sculpt on Mondays.  I said in a message that I was so sick, dizzy and didn't feel good from some medicine I took the night before that I couldn't walk and shouldn't drive.  I said I was sorry and I'd try to teach on Wednesday of that week.  Then I hung up and went back to bed.  When I heard Jason stirring I told him that I was so sick and something was wrong and to let me sleep till the last possible second that I could which would be 7:10a.m.  that I needed every minute until I had to go to work.  My head felt heavy and everything was blurry.

When 7:10a.m. came around I tried to get up, but my body just hurt, everything was heavy and sore.  I just couldn't move, it was weird.  I wanted to just sleep the entire day.

Over the next 10 minutes I managed to get dressed and make my way downstairs to leave for work.  My youngest son looked at me and said, "Mom are you okay?" I told him I just didn't feel good and wasn't sure how I was going to drive to work.  He said, "You should stay home then because you don't look good."

I should have stayed home, but knew I didn't have any personal days, vacation time or anything to spare and had to tough it out.
I’m not sure how I made it to work today. I am hurting so bad and I’m so out of it. When I stopped at a couple stop lights I put my emergency brake on, in fear that my foot would slip off if I fell asleep at the light.

Once I put my head back and actually felt myself drifting off.  That was so scary.  I knew I shouldn't be driving.  I felt like I was floating and it was weird. I shouldn’t have driven, it scared me to death. I will never take that allergy bedtime drug ever again, it did something to me that is bad, really bad. My teeth hurt so bad and my head is pounding.
Soon as I got here I bought a coke and I took 3 ibuprofen and only in the last few minutes am I starting to find any relief at all. I hurt so dang bad everywhere, it’s like I have the actual flu. My body is weak and my head and neck hurt. My teeth hurt, my eyes are burning, my throat hurts and I still feel heavy like I’m floating. I think if I laid my head down I’d actually fall asleep at my desk. I’m trying to stay upright.  I want to lay down and sleep all day.   Not kidding. This is not fun. I can’t run yet because I can hardly walk.

I have learned my lesson with medicine and that is to never take something that a doctor says will knock me out because it did and I could have died or hurt someone else while driving.

Iowa State Fair 2012

We have now lived in Iowa 12 years and every year Jason says, "We should go to the state fair." Every year we skip it. This year Jason said, "We are going to the State Fair." I looked into it and found out we could get FREE tickets in IF we got there on day 1 of the fair between 6 and 9a.m. and had a coupon from the paper. So I got up early on the Wednesday before the fair and went to the gas station to pick up the paper with the coupon in it. Because it was the Des Moines Register it cost me $1.00 each. I needed 7 papers so we would each have a free ticket.  Caleb was working and unfortunately didn't go with us.

We ended up leaving Wednesday night and staying at the Drury Inn hotel in DesMoines.  Everyone loved the hot tub and pool.  The next morning we went to the Fair bright and early.  The pictures tell the story.  A great day.

Alyssa and Jason in the hot tub

Scott swimming

breakfast at the hotel the next morning.  Everyone seemed
happy with the abundance of food there.

Scott liked all the animals.  

Me

A giant pig.  This picture doesn't show how big it is, but it was
massive.

I took a lot of pictures of bunnies, this one was really pretty.

Jason and Scott on a giant tractor.

The tractor was so large that I fit inside the wheel.

Scott

The fair had everything you could imagine to eat, even fried
snickers and oreos.  We tried both and we wouldn't do it again.
GROSS

Alyssa's nickname is Bob.  She found her name on the port a pottie
and thought it was funny.  

Jared and Scott riding the bumber cars.

A close up of Jared and Scott.

Daniel playing a baseball game.

another shot of Daniel.  He was sure he could guess his
speed for throwing the baseball, he was wrong.

Walking out of the fair.  It was only 3 p.m. and we were all
exhausted.  According to my GPS watch we had walked
over 8 miles that day.

A family picture.  Everyone is actually smiling.  Wish Caleb was in the picture.

We are cute.

Best part of trips is when the teenagers fall asleep.

Brenden sleeping.

I was worried

For the last few days my hip has been clicking and I’ve been a total wreck of worry.  I did a bunch of research on the internet.  Turns out it could have been a few things, but most likely a super tight IT band at the top near the hip.


So I made an appointment with the sports medicine doctor that I love (he is a long distance runner too) and got in super quick.  This is how it went:

The appointment went super well. He said that there is no stress fracture in the hip (which was my biggest worry) he said if it was I would be feeling the pain in my groin and I’m not. He said my IT band is just too tight and I need to do even more stretching and icing and using that foam roller consistently twice a day or more if I have time.  If you have no idea what a foam roller even is, here is a link. Mine is like the first black round one, except it is yellow. He said he would be happy to give me a cortisone injection (definition of the injection) in the top of the IT band to take away all pain and relax it, but if it was him he would do it two weeks before the marathon.

So I made an appointment for the 5th of September which is as close out to two weeks that I could get from now, and I will do it if needed, and that will be 10 days before the marathon. If all goes well and I can get this loosened up without more pain than I am experiencing now then I will skip the injection. He told me to make the appointment just in case I need it.

He told me that my hip probably hurts for two reasons:

It’s all I have thought about and I’m worried about it so my mind creates pain.

And

I’ve been massaging the area so much that I’ve bruised myself.

I got on the foam roller at his office to show him how I roll out my IT band and he checked my form. He said that I was rolling up too high into the hip and to stop about a hand before the bone. He said to put as much weight on the roller as I can stand.  This hurts to roll out on, but after you are done you feel better.

Today I ran 8.23 miles and felt amazing.  No hip pain at all, but the first thing I did was get on that foam roller when I got home and while I'm sitting typing there is an ice pack on both hips.

I will keep praying all will continue to loosen up and that I can complete the marathon on the 15th without pain or injury.

Adventureland as Alyssa's big present

Alyssa wanted to do something really fun for her birthday. I suggested Mall of America, Six Flags and whatever she wanted. She picked Adventureland and for those of you who don't know what that is, it's basically like a Six Flags, but with 1/4th of the roller coasters and a lot smaller park. We had a ton of fun that day and took lots of pictures and here they are:

Just entering the park.  Alyssa, Jason, Me and Scott.

Alyssa and I sitting on the skylift.

Jason and Scott on the sky lift in front of us.

On a water raft ride.  None of us got wet except for our feet.
Pretty lame ride.

Alyssa on the raft.

We managed to talk Scott into this coaster.  He rode it, but
then didn't ride another coaster all day. I think we scared him.

Jason and Scott sat out while Alyssa and I rode again.  This is
actually our coaster coming down the hill.

Look closely and you will see Alyssa and I
on the coaster.

Scott just won a game and got his favorite
Angry Bird for his prize.

We explored the water park for most of the
day because it was really hot.  Here is
Scott eating an ice cream sandwich.

Jason and Scott.

A very tall water slide that Alyssa rode over and over
and over and over.

Here she is coming down the slide. 

A close up of Alyssa coming down the slide.

Alyssa pretending she isn't tall enough to ride the Dragon.
This was an upsidedown coaster and we rode it at least
twice.

Alyssa and Mom taking a picture of themselves.

On the way home of a very long day, Scott picked
Pizza Ranch to eat at for dinner.  We had
lots of great food!