Just to be clear, I’m not complaining about any of this - I know I have a TON to be thankful for in my life, and I truly am. I want to write about this though more as a way to keep a record of what is going on with my health, and as a reminder to others to take care of themselves.

The fun from the ER visit on November 20th continues. We still can’t get my blood pressure below 150/100. I’ve spent the past 10 years running at about 140/90 - 130/85, so while this is up, I’m not surprised. I just wish something would bring it down. I had a follow-up appointment with the Cardiologist/Internal Medicine doctor (Dr. Has-a-Clue) today because the last medicine she gave me was producing crappy side effects. From August - November 1, I took Micardis. This may be a great medicine for a lot of other people, but for me it causes a LOT of fluid retention. So much that my other doctor was ready to schedule carpal tunnel surgery on my left hand, and I actually don’t need it. Once we switched my medicine to Toprol on November 1, my hand problems decreased on the right and all but went away on the left. (The nerve tests revealed “mild to moderate” carpal tunnel, but not enough to cut my hand to repair.) After the ER visit, I saw Dr. Has-a-Clue the next day. She gave me Diovan, in the same family as Micardis. Guess what? Yep. Same reaction. Within 2 days, I felt like crap, my hands were numb when I woke up in the morning, my joints ached. Stopped the medicine on Monday and the symptoms were gone by today. So now we are starting me on a new drug tomorrow.

On top of this, it seems like I am having an issue with my gallbladder. I have had this pain in my right side since late October, but I was so tired of seeing doctors that I hadn’t given in and gone to one - I thought it was kidney stones again. When I went to the ER, I mentioned it to the doctor there. She asked where the pain was - right under my rib cage - and she said that isn’t kidney stones, but since I’ve had them before I am a candidate for gallstones too - and that is right where I would hurt if I had them.

Fabulous.

Dr. Has-a-Clue doesn’t treat gallbladder issues, but she is doing an echo on my heart this coming Friday and ordered an echo on my gallbladder too - that way, if I had stones she would send me to a surgeon. The pain has gotten more and more severe over the past week, and it could be a factor in my high blood pressure, so she had them do the echo today when I was there. Turns out they couldn’t see any stones. *sigh* However, the symptoms are right - pain increases an hour after I eat, pain gets better hours after I eat and gets worse when I eat again, high fat foods are worse than plain foods. She thought it might be an ulcer, especially since I took NSAIDs earlier this year for my hands, but the fact that I’m curled up in pain after I eat rather than feeling relief from the acid points the other way. She said it could be a small stone, or a stone that has travelled down the bile duct towards my pancreas. She gave me the name of a gastroenterologist, and I have an appointment there on Friday.

In order to make that appointment, I had to reschedule the CT scan of my kidneys and ovary that Dr. Has-a-Clue wants to do. The edema raised a red flag for her, so she wants to make sure I don’t have any kidney problems. The fact that I had an ovarian cyst back in 1990 (they removed my right ovary), the description of my cyst, and a lot of my other symptoms also seem to point to possible Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, so she wants to make sure my left ovary is ok. The CT scan was going to be this Friday, but it has now been moved to next Friday. I can’t take this gallbladder pain much longer.

I did do all my lab work today. They drew blood for 17 tests. 17! I have no veins, so she had to search for one in my arm. Fortunately she found a deep one and was able to get all but one tube of blood from my arm - the last (huge) tube had to be drawn from my hand though. Ouch! I’m just glad she didn’t have to draw the rest from my hand. I’m glad that is over with now.

While at the appointment with Dr. Has-a-Clue, I got a return phone call from Dr. Zapper, the neurologist that did my EMG for carpal tunnel, called me back about the face numbness. I realized yesterday that I hadn’t called them and he might want to see me. I was right - he wanted to see me *right away* - the nurse sounded so urgent about it, I was almost nervous. Dr. Has-a-Clue asked me again about my symptoms (the same drill I got an hour later from Dr. Zapper), and said it sounds like Trigeminal neuralgia - and Dr. Zapper said the same thing. To be sure, I’ve got an MRI scheduled now for Sunday afternoon. I hate to do it in a weekend and take away from family time, but Mike needs to drive me since I get to take valium. We don’t want another incident like the last time I had an MRI, where I had a nice little panic attack over being in the machine.

Tomorrow is my follow-up visit with Dr. Hand-man about the carpal tunnel and I get the verdict on the hand surgery. I want to avoid it, and I am definitely not doing my left hand now that I’ve discovered the meds were causing most of the problem, but I’m afraid that going to school is going to keep me writing, and that irritates my right hand the most. He already warned me this summer that prolonged inflamation could end up causing permanent damage to the nerves that surgery couldn’t reverse down the road, and I have already put this off for 14 years. Back then, I was dealing with military hospitals and the process of going through the chain of doctors - by the time I got the clearance for surgery, I was pregnant with Jason so they couldn’t do surgery on me. Now I don’t have any excuse.

*whew*

Really, the blood pressure, the carpal tunnel and even the facial numbness aren’t bothering me that much right now. The gallbladder issue has reached the point of a very sensitive tummy and I feel a lot of nausea from it. I have to pick and choose what I eat because some foods cause a lot more pain than others. Meat seems to be out of the question right now - I was in tears the other night, it hurt so bad. So lots of bland, low-fat foods for me for right now until we get this figured out.

So if I seem quiet lately, now you know why. I don’t want to sound like I am doing nothing but complaining about my health, and I’ve been out of sorts for the past week or two. Just a bit spacey, for whatever reason. Plus I know people that are going through things that are so much worse right now, I’m thankful for all the good things in my life. I’m thankful for Dr. Has-a-Clue and Dr. Zapper. I’m thankful for my family and friends, because they have all been so supportive. Hopefully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I just can’t wait to reach it.

The Biology test wasn’t as horrid as I was afraid it was going to be. Mendel, genetics, all of that is somewhat interesting to me and I “get” it more than memorizing the names of the cell structures, so that is a good thing. Hopefully I pulled off another A so I can keep my average up.

I can’t believe how close we are getting to the end of the semester. I have a quiz in Chemistry next Monday, an Algebra test on Tuesday, a Chemistry test on Wednesday, and then the following week I have three finals. That’s it. We’re done on December 14th, just in time for me to celebrate my Mom’s birthday without worrying about having tests the next day. I can’t believe it is so close!

I have labs to finish up tonight, but I think I need a little TiVo and knitting time first. Yeah, need. Uh huh. That’s what I keep telling myself at least!

I have a Biology test tomorrow. Half of it I’ll do ok on - it is about genetics, which I think is cool, so it is easier for me to learn. Some of it is more in depth and more memorization than my brain seems to be up to these days, so I’m a little stressed about that. *sigh* At least I now know that my blood type is really IAi, and I must have inherited the “i” from my mom who is Type B, and the IA from my dad who is Type A. I am also Type A (A- to be exact) and could pass on either the IA or the i to any future children. See how much I’ve learned?

Oh well, pretty pictures are a good distraction from studying. I need to find some time to go take more photographs with my new camera. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that is going to happen this week between tests and finals right around the corner. I hope I can keep my 4.0 average, but Biology might get the best of me. I guess it is time to get back to the books.

The above photo can be downloaded as a wallpaper. Please let me know if you use it - it is nice to know that my pictures go to a good home.

We always have a ton of change, and try to take it into the bank after we roll it to deposit it. We considered using Coinstar before, but it seemed silly to pay 9% fees to them to take our money. Now you can Skip the Coin-Counting Fee at Select Coinstar Centers and Get a Gift Card or eCertificate! Gift certificates for Starbucks, Amazon, Pier 1, Hollywood Video and Linens ‘n Things are available. How cool is that?

It has been a crazy week, from Sunday evening through today. Here is the rundown:

- Sunday I went to the emergency room because around 4:00 in the afternoon the left side of my face started to go numb. This is not normally a good sign. Add to that the fact that I have borderline high blood pressure which has been wonky ever since the carpal tunnel/shoulder thing started this summer (cortisone, NSAIDs, it has been a ton of fun), and I was pretty nervous about it. After a cat scan to rule out a stroke or anything else serious, it turned out to be nothing. *whew* However, while I was at the ER my blood pressure went up to close to 200/120, after being 150/100 when I came in to the ER. Which led to …

- I skipped my Chemistry quiz on Monday morning and spent a few hours on the phone finding a better doctor to go to. I then went to class, although I was only there physically. My mind was off in space. I had a 2:00 appointment with a new doctor who is a cardiology and internal medicine specialist, and I really liked her. For the first time in years, I feel like someone actually wants to get to the root of a lot of strange things going on physically. She didn’t make me feel like I was completely neurotic, even though I know I can be, so it was a good day. I have more testing coming up on December 2nd.

- Tuesday I got my last Algebra test back - 96.5! Whoo hoo! However, I could tell I was still battling some sort of bug because I was so drained.

- Wednesday my Chemistry teacher made a point of asking me if I was feeling ok - she said that I looked super tired. I felt it too. After I left class I went by Twisted Yarns to check on the stock of Kureyon for daysies. When I got home, I crashed. I slept for about 4 hours, and then managed to get up, eat dinner, and crash again.

- Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving! Fortunately, I was feeling better. My Mom cooked a fabulous meal - I don’t normally like turkey that much, but it was so delicious! Everything else was wonderful too - I’m still craving more of the stuffing. Mmmm… Afterwards we went through the Black Friday ads and I picked out the things I was going to go shopping for this morning. Matter of fact, I didn’t bother going to sleep - at 2:30 am I realized I would never get back up in time to make it to the stores.

- I went to Wal-Mart at 4:30 this morning, after staying up all night. Then to Circuit City, then to Office Depot, and then to Kohl’s. I finally made it back home around 9 am. I got most of what I wanted to get, although obviously not at the stores I went to first. (I bought nothing at Wal-Mart and Circuit City.) I slept until 1:30, and now I still feel like a zombie. Ugh.

Back to the pretty pictures. So much easier to focus on instead of words right now.

(Click the image to view it larger)

I just learned tonight that Dori of “No Bra Required” passed away earlier today. She fought a great battle with cancer and she lived a beautiful life. My heart goes out to the family that she left behind.

As her husband said, “Make today a good day, kiss your husband or wife or someone you love, hug your kids and love your neighbor today.”

Sort of puts things in perspective, doesn’t it? Live your life to the fullest and make the most of it.

The first of many from today - we had a great time at the Texas Rennaisance Festival and the camera was clicking away. I still have a TON to learn about how to use it, but I was thrilled with some of the shots I got. Be prepared to see lots of photos.

And to Jay Lee and the Flying Fish Sailors - thank you for making my day with this afternoon’s version of “The Cat Came Back.” It was a great way to end the ren fest season!

Sweet!

Originally uploaded by bpc.

Wheeee!

Sassy hair!

Originally uploaded by bpc.

Sassy hair thanks to Rita! (That would be Rita the hairstylist, not Rita the hurricane.)

Fancypants camera is on its way! I love using UPS Package Tracking to keep me updated. It will be arriving here tomorrow. To say I am excited beyond words is putting it mildly!

The phone just rang and a number I didn’t recognize showed up on caller ID. Mike is on his way home, and since it was a local number I answered. You know, just in case. Instead it was a recording telling me, “Hello, this is a recording from Jean (Gene?) Research. No need to return the call. (713) 555-5555.”

I almost want to call them back. Almost. But I figure that it might be a trap to lure me into some organ harvesting scheme or something, so instead I decided to come and post about it.

On Monday, it was in the 80s. I wore a light dress with a sweater over it to class. The a/c wasn’t working, and I was glad I had dressed for the warm weather outside. Tuesday a front came through and brought us a ton of rain and cooler temperatures. Last night it went from cool to friggin’ COLD. (I know, cold by Houston standards is not cold to everyone else. But it is cold to me.)

It was 37 degrees this morning.

I didn’t want to turn on the heat last night because no one has gone up into the attic to make sure the pilot light is lit, and I am neurotic and convinced that I would kill us with carbon monoxide poisoning. I understand how that works now thanks to my Biology class, but I don’t want to experience it firsthand. Instead I went to bed in a t-shirt, a sweatshirt, housepants and the thickest socks that I own.

Mike has been gone to Boston this week, and I must have been super cold without the human furnace here to keep me warm - I woke up curled into a ball this morning, and when I stretched my legs out the sheets were ice cold! Jason said he slept under 3 blankets. We were digging for gloves this morning; it was definitely a glove day.

Tonight looks like more of the same. Actually worse, with a low tonight of 33. I guess I am going to give in and turn on the heater. There is too much risk of pipe damage in Houston homes if it gets that close to freezing outside. Plus my hands are like two ice cubes right now. I like to bundle up and enjoy winter as much as the next person, but this is just crazy.

I’m sure my paranoia about turning on the furnace has nothing to do with the fact that last year when we went to turn them on we discovered we needed to replace both of them. Oh yeah, that made for a fun Christmas.

Now where did I put the flannel housepants?

DKNY Men’s Leather Pants I Unfortunately Own. One of the best auctions ever. Be sure to read all the questions at the bottom. [Seen before, but snagged today from Busy Mom. Us crazy moms, we’re all about the leather pants.]

The pants actually have a history, and the seller has a site at banterist.com.

I won it! I won it! I’m so excited! I’m getting a Canon EOS 20D 8.2MP SLR Digital Camera!!! It was a battle to the finish, but I won!

On Sunday, I started poking around Flickr instead of working on my Algebra. I mean, come on. Pretty photos vs. long division of polynomials? Yeah. Pretty photos win every time. On a interesting twist of fate, I decided to check out Dawn’s photostream. I first started reading Dawn’s site back in 2001, and she is an amazing photographer. Her old blog is long gone, but you can see some of her photographs at Chicago Uncommon. (And if you need a photographer in Chicago, she is available for hire.) Anyways - I started poking through her photostream to catch up on her recent work, and I spotted a picture of a camera. For sale.

She is now the proud owner of the new Canon EOS 5D. Ahhh… someday. I on the other hand am now the proud owner of her spare Canon 20D, won just moments ago on Ebay.

WHEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

A fancypants camera has been in the plans for years. First I had to wait for them to drop to a relatively sane price. Then it was just a matter of saving up for it, so my presents lately have been cash. (Mike even included a “instead of gifts, she wants money” note on my birthday party Evite this year.) My Christmas present was going to be cash. I wanted a fancypants camera, and I had my eye on the Canon EOS 10D. Not the 20D that I now own, but the 10D because of the cost issue. When I saw Dawn’s auction, I knew it was too good of a deal to pass up. An even better camera, with a better rating at DPReview.com, more features, plus extra items that she was selling off with it? It was perfect. And the bidding went down to the wire - I was almost outbid with 30 seconds or less to go. But I was hitting refresh, refresh, refresh and I caught it and raised the amount. So now everyone is happy!

I doubt that I will sell my Canon G2 though - it has been a good camera for me and still works just fine. I’ll keep it handy for when I need a quick point-and-shoot or something light to carry around. Maybe I’ll even let Mike take some pictures for a change!

Katy, the non-blogger, gets props for calling the other day and guessing that I had found the thing of my dreams on Ebay. I didn’t find it on Ebay, but that is how I purchased it - so close enough.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to go and dance around the room some more. I’m so excited!