From Huskies To Husbands

The trip down to Denver Monday evening went well and we got there safely.  We met up with the friend we were staying with and ate some delicious Thai/Asian Fusion goodness then we headed over to her house.  We ended up staying up WAY to late chatting and such!

Tuesday was the ultrasound of my kidneys and followup with my GI specialist.  The ultrasound came back with nothing to worry about which is good news!!  Yes, there are some tiny things in my kidneys but they appear to be routine and should not be causing me any pain or problems.

The appointment with the GI specialist was overall very positive.  I do not need to see her again for 1 year unless I start to have GI related problems then she will be sure to get me in for an appointment.  She was upset that the Rheumatologist at National Jewish Health would not see me considering that I see not 1 but 2 other specialists in the complex and they would be able to work together easier.  Not sure what will become of that since I have my appointment with the Rheumatologist in Casper on the 4th of May already scheduled, but it might be nice as a back up or second opinion if needed maybe.  She also was a little peeved with herself that she didn’t pick up on the possible/probably fibromyalgia since now that she thinks back on it and starts adding things up it does definitely make sense.  She actually said that she would be shocked if it turns out that I don’t have fibromyalgia.  The biggest negative was how upset she is with me about my weight.  It seems to just keep going up and up no matter how hard I try to control it with eating alone.  I am back to a much stricter diet again of only 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day until I can begin to exercise more which hopefully will be soon.  Yesterday was hard with being on that restrictive of a diet calorie wise plus avoiding milk products and wheat/gluten.

In other news it is snowing here again.  I am so sick of snow I can’t even begin to tell you!!  At least it is right on the verge temperature wise currently that most of it is melting shortly after it hits the ground so we aren’t seeing accumulation.  However, if the snow continues we will see accumulation overnight with our temperature drops.

Also, I have been looking at laminate flooring.  Because of my allergies my parents have decided that they want to pay for laminate flooring for us to put down in the living/dinning room and office areas of the house.  That will leave just the master bedroom with carpet left in the house.  They also said that they hope to be able to pay to get the flooring for the master bedroom to be done in the next year as well, but with the square footage of the portion we are doing this time and the square footage of the master bedroom it is just too costly to do it all at once.  I really am blessed to have such wonderfully supportive parents!!

Well, we all made it over hump day!!  That means just the rest of today and Friday left until the weekend!!

Maxie at Women Over Fifty graciously has given me the Let’s Be Friends Award!  Maxie’s blog is fun and she talks about her life and so much more!  Definitely go check it out.

The criteria for the Let’s Be Friends Award are:

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to those bloggers who must may choose at least 5 more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

On to my 5 choices…

1.  Anne of Small Town Mommy
2. Tami of Sunflower Seeds
3. On The Verge
4. Michelle of The Giving Tree Project 2009
5. Cindy of Recipes, Reviews, and Gadgets

I have been running around this morning like a chicken with her head cut off!!  My ride down to Denver for my doctor appointment on Tuesday decided to she wanted to leave on Monday and stay with a friend down that way.  Not a big deal but with my brain fog issues I have a hard time rushing around and trying to get everything done.  I can’t remember what I have or haven’t done which makes it difficult when I rush or have a change of plans.  I need a list but I am so flustered at this point that I can’t even make one!  My poor DH has had to put up with extra phone calls from me today while he is at work trying to get him to help me remember what all I need to get done!!  I am such a mess!  I hope that I have everything that I need and that I have done everything that absolutely needed to get done today!

Wish me luck at the doctors tomorrow!  Granted it is just a GI follow-up and a special ultrasound of my kidneys both at National Jewish Health, I am still worried.  I always seem to be worried when I go to any doctor anymore!

Today we celebrate Resurrection Sunday also known as Easter Sunday.  It is a celebration of so much more than chocolate Easter bunnies with their ears eaten off and finding hidden Easter eggs.  Today is the day that we remember and celebrate the fact that three days after being crucified on the cross, Jesus rose from the grave to give us new life.  What a powerful and precious thing to be able to celebrate!

Yes, all the extra things are fun especially for children especially the Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, and all sorts of chocolates.  But it is so important to remember the real reason for this holiday - the real reason that we are celebrating!!

Today we had the privilege of getting to ride as passengers with the UP Steam Locomotive # 844.

Here is a picture DH took of the train pulling into the Old Depot in Medicine Bow, Wyoming to pick us up!!

Can’t you just feel the excitement of the people in the crowd awaiting the train!?!  The woman in the red jacket is my Mother In Law who set everything up so that 46 lucky people got to ride on this historic train from Medicine Bow to Rawlins as part of the Western Heritage Tour that the UP Steam Locomotive # 844  is currently on.  This train ride also was the kick off of the centennial celebration for the town of Medicine Bow with the rest of the festivities being held June 26, 27, and 28 here in town.

This is the conductor who was in charge of the passengers while aboard the train today.

My DH snapped this photo as the conductor was checking tickets.

Riding the train was so much fun!!  The car that we rode in was great and offered a very smooth and quiet ride.  The passenger cars were even climate controlled!  I was shocked by how nice the ride was and how much I enjoyed it especially since it was my first time ever on a train (other than at places like Disney World and such).  I truly am honored for my first train ride to have been with this historic locomotive.

I even got a few souvenirs of the ride from the souvenir car on the train!!   I got this adorable pink UP hat and a very cool long sleeve T-shirt too!

If you want to see the full schedule of when and where you can see this historic train while it is on the current tour then check out the Western Heritage Tour Schedule .  If you want to see more information about and better pictures of this train and the rest of the UP Steam fleet then check out the info at UP Steam .

So for the second time since Wednesday when the sales ad came out I have made the trek in to town in search of an Easter ham.  Albertsons had them advertised at 88 cents per pound for Cook’s brand shank end 1/2 hams.  Well I guess having something advertised doesn’t mean that you actually need to have it in stock!  My first attempt to get a ham was on Wednesday at about noon and they didn’t have any then.  They said to try back later in the week.  My MIL was going in to town today so I went along with her in hopes of getting the seemingly elusive Easter ham.  Again to be met with no hams!!!  Are you kidding me??  No hams to be bought on the Friday before Easter??  Well it isn’t that there weren’t any hams at all available, just not any of the hams that I wanted.  Even if it wasn’t for the sale I still would have been looking for a Cook’s brand ham as I like them best!  I also don’t want a spiral sliced ham which seem to be oh so plentiful at the stores as well.  Maybe it is just me but it seems crazy that there weren’t any plain old hams to be had!

I got a call from the PA today and he had some great news! 

He got me an appointment for May 4th with a Rheumatologist!!  I am so hopeful about this appointment that we will be able to move forward with a treatment plan and I can get some relief!  I really am excited that it isn’t too far out in the future too as everyone else was saying 3 or 4 months to get an appointment.  I will be seeing a doctor up in Casper which is about 90 miles from here but that is much better than most of my other specialists where I have to go all the way to Denver which is about 4 hours away.  Another positive about this doctor is that it seems like she really takes a big picture approach and looks at everything instead of just pushing pills which for me is very important since my body doesn’t react to medications the way they typically should.  It seems like she will work with me to find a perfect plan for me and she also isn’t afraid of working with fibromyalgia patients which it seems that so many rheumatologists are afraid to do.

The PA also let me know that the latest culture came back clear!  So that means it looks like we took care of the urinary tract infection with all those antibiotics I was on.

I am trying to stay positive about things and just keep doing the best I can even though my body still is fighting against me in so many ways.  There is so much more that I want to do than what I am currently able to physically and mentally do which is very frustrating.

I don’t know why but I have been having more migraines than usual lately.  I had a really horrible one again last night and wasn’t able to get up for our free usage with our satellite internet because of it which meant that I didn’t get my drops done for The Dairy-Free Diva or Rebel & Suzy Speak!

Coffee Break @ Today.com is sponsoring an adventure to find her a new coffee mug after hers was fatally wounded

Well since this sounds like a fun adventure to me, I am joining the party!  Plus we all know that I love coffee so I should be able to find a suitable replacement mug for her!

I found so many beautiful mugs!  My first choice for her replacement is this gorgeous mug  

My second choice for her replacement is this more traditionally shaped yet gorgeous mug

Since I just found so many awesome things I am adding a third choice as well in this cherry tree inspired mug   

I really enjoyed getting to go look at beautiful things over at etsy!

It has warmed up quite a bit here today and that is causing all that snow we got over the weekend to turn into slush and puddles.  Everything is a muddy mess including the dogs!  UGH!!  Hopefully the ground soaks it up quickly and we don’t get a lot of freezing temperatures overnight because that would make for some very dangerous icy conditions!

In other news I got everything together for our taxes yesterday in preparation for the appointment with the tax guy tomorrow.  So not looking forward to that meeting at all!  I just know that we are going to have to pay and that just doesn’t make sense to me as we don’t make enough but to just make ends meet.  So not right!!  But what do I know I’m not the government… LOL

Hoping to be able to get a few things at the grocery store in town while I am there to make Easter dinner for DH and I.  I really am hoping that there are some decent sales tomorrow at the stores :)  I would love to be able to have ham, oven baked sweet potato fries, asparagus, and maybe a salad.  Even if it is just DH and I it would still be nice to have a small celebration considering how important of a day Easter is a rememberance of after all.

Well I had another appointment with the PA today…

They had me submit another urine sample to be sent out for culture to determine if I need to go back on the antibiotics or if the urinary tract infection has cleared.  The quick basic results looked positive but we have to wait for the culture to come back from the lab for a firm answer on that front.

The PA and I had the talk - You know the one that goes like this “Stephanie, I think that you have Fibromyalgia and need to see a Rheumatologist to get a definite diagnosis.  Hopefully they will be able to help work out a treatment plan to reduce your pain and allow you to get back to leading a more normal life.”  At first I looked at him in disbelief even though we have been considering this as the problem for a while now.  Then I asked him does this mean that I can’t bear children.  He said that in and of itself it doesn’t mean that but that with the PCOS conceiving probably will be difficult.  I then asked what do we do next.

The PA sent me to look at the Fibromyalgia Network  for the following information…

Common symptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome:

• Pain - The pain of fibromyalgia has no boundaries. People describe the pain as deep muscular aching, throbbing, shooting, and stabbing. Intense burning may also be present. Quite often, the pain and stiffness are worse in the morning and you may hurt more in muscle groups that are used repetitively.  (I have the burning especially , and the deep muscular  aching with throbbing plus more)
• Fatigue - This symptom can be mild in some fibromyalgia patients and yet incapacitating in others. The fatigue has been described as “brain fatigue” in which patients feel totally drained of energy. Many patients depict this situation by saying that they feel as though their arms and legs are tied to concrete blocks, and they have difficulty concentrating, e.g., brain fog.  (I have been complaining of the brain fog more and more and the extreme fatigue just never seems to end.)
• Sleep disorder - Most fibromyalgia patients have an associated sleep disorder called the alpha-EEG anomaly. This condition was uncovered in a sleep lab with the aid of a machine that recorded the brain waves of patients during sleep. Researchers found that the majority of fibromyalgia patients could fall asleep without much trouble, but their deep level (or stage 4) sleep was constantly interrupted by bursts of awake-like brain activity. Patients appeared to spend the night with one foot in sleep and the other one out of it.
  Sleep lab tests may not be necessary to determine if you have disturbed sleep. If you wake up feeling as though you’ve just been run over by a Mack truck—what doctors refer to as unrefreshing sleep—it is reasonable for your physician to assume that you have a sleep disorder. Many fibromyalgia patients have been found to have other sleep disorders in addition to the alpha-EEG, such as sleep apnea (as well as the newly discovered form of interrupted breathing called upper airway resistance syndrome, or UARS), bruxism (teeth grinding), periodic limb movement during sleep (jerking of arms and legs), and restless legs syndrome (difficulty sitting still in the evenings).  (I never feel rested after I sleep and I often say that I feel like I have been run over by a Mack truck after I get up from trying to sleep.)
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Constipation, diarrhea, frequent abdominal pain, abdominal gas, and nausea represent symptoms frequently found in roughly 40 to 70% of fibromyalgia patients. Acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) also occurs with the same high frequency.  (I have documented severe IBS and GERD.)
• Chronic headaches - Recurrent migraine or tension-type headaches are seen in about 70% of fibromyalgia patients and can pose a major problem in coping for this patient group.  (I suffer from migraines that are debilitating.)
• Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction Syndrome - This syndrome, sometimes referred to as TMJ or TMD, causes tremendous jaw-related face and head pain in one-quarter of fibromyalgia patients. However, a 1997 published report indicated that close to 75% of fibromyalgia patients have a varying degree of jaw discomfort. Typically, the problems are related to the muscles and ligaments surrounding the jaw joint and not necessarily the joint itself.  (I have had massive jaw surgery due to TMJ and a jaw misalignment.)
• Other common symptoms - Premenstrual syndrome and painful periods, chest pain, morning stiffness, cognitive or memory impairment, numbness and tingling sensations, muscle twitching, irritable bladder, the feeling of swollen extremities, skin sensitivities, dry eyes and mouth, dizziness, and impaired coordination can occur. Fibromyalgia patients are often sensitive to odors, loud noises, bright lights, and sometimes even the medications they are prescribed.  (I suffer from PCOS and PMDD which is the more severe form of PMS.  I often complain of swollen hands and feet.  I have very sensitive skin.  I often suffer from dry eyes and mouth.  I am very sensitive to odors and lights and have numerous problems with medications that doctors try to give me.)
• Aggravating factors - Changes in weather, cold or drafty environments, infections, allergies, hormonal fluctuations (premenstrual and menopausal states), stress, depression, anxiety and over-exertion may all contribute to fibromyalgia symptom flare-ups.  (I notice that I hurt worse when the weather changes or if I get a chill.  Also, things were greatly aggravated by the urinary tract infection that I have been suffering with.  I also notice that things are worse when TOM is visiting and when I get stressed out and anxious.  I also can’t do as much as I used to do because when I do push to work at the levels I used to my body just rebels even further.)

The PA also recommended that I look up the 18 Tender Points of Fibromyalgia…

I test positive at 16 of the 18 listed at the above site.

The current plan is to continue working to eliminate the wheat from my diet.  He agrees that doing this slowly is probably the best plan right now as we don’t want to shock my body further.  I will be continuing on with the vitamin regimen and working to eliminate anything not natural from my foods as well as other environmental factors.  The PA is working to get me in to see a Rheumatologist and will continue looking into other options that might help me in the meantime.