Adieu to you, February

My gosh, I have been away for almost the entire month. At least for this last week I have a solid excuse. I have a confirmed case of the flu! I guess I started getting sick last Saturday, slowly but surely and it ballooned until I was a coughing, hacking mess with a nasty fever and other bodily woes.

I had my Tysabri infusion on Tuesday morning even though I felt like a sad sack. We all knew I was sick but I didn't know just how sick I was. I probably should not have had the infusion that day but I just thought I had a bad cold then. I mean, I have MS and I generally don't get sick too often because of that highly functioning immune system.

The question everyone wants to know is did I get the flu shot?

NO!

I always, always, always get the flu shot either at work or at the doctor's office but I just somehow missed it this year. I signed up too late at work to get it and then my Dad died in November and I kind of fell apart for a while.

So I am on Tamiflu and an antibiotic and an inhaler to deal with my chest gunk. This is on top of the plethora of meds I take on a daily basis for MS and diabetes. I am getting tired of pills, but they are making me feel better. Hooray for that.

In other, more delightful, news:

1.) My A1C level has dropped from a 7.5 to a 6.7! This is somehow miraculous because I have NOT been testing my blood sugars regularly and my med regimen has not been all that regimented since my Dad died. (I know it's time to take my life back and test, test, test and watch what I eat and actually start dancing and exercising again.) I think my Dad sprinkled some fairy dust from Heaven into my blood during the draw the other afternoon. There's just no other reasonable and feasible explanation.

2.) I have a new part-time job. I joined Stampin' Up! as a demonstrator after first saying no to it, then pondering it, and finally jumping in with both feet. My first official workshop should be in about 2 weeks, well after I get un-flued! I'm looking forward to it.

3.) My mid-winter break is coming to an end but I am thankful that I have good health insurance, a great doctor, access to decent meds, and time off to recover. Thankfully, (knocking on particle board here) my MS has not acted up.

That's about it for February!

Two in a row...

This was my first full day of summer vacation and what did I do? I slept almost the whole day away, read in between naps, and occasionally watched some television. Do I feel guilty at all?

Nope, not even a little bit!

I deserved every minute of my rest and relaxation today. I have been working hard this past school year, hardly taking off any time at all due to illness. I even carried over 2.5 days to next year! I have taken off one day a month for my Tysabri infusions and two personal days (one for mental health reasons and one for Franklin angel). That is huge for me compared to last year when I was out from November to May!

So what's up for this summer? Better eating, more fruit and veggies, and lots more movement. Time to shake off those pounds again.

Sick AGAIN

Can I say that I am under the weather yet again with my fourth cold since I went back to work on May 1st? Yes, I can say it. It's the truth. I am sniffling and snuffling.

Why does this keep happening? Maybe if I took all my supplements and my multivitamin every day instead of once a month I may be feeling better. Better living through chemistry is one of my top sayings.

I have one more full week of school and then three more days the next week, two of which will be half days. I am trying really hard to hang in there but I did take a day off this past week. That is going to hurt me in the pocketbook as I have no more sick time available after taking 5 months off to recuperate from a rough bout with some MS symptoms. I wish now that I had buckled down and gone to work so I could take a day off this week. Of course, I think about taking time off every week. That's just me, the tired slacker.

I keep trying to move my bedtime up and I swear there are days when I go to bed at 7:45 which has got to be earlier than some of the kiddos in my class. I moved my wake up time back a teensy bit to 5:38ish. I am still tired.

The good news is that I don't come home from work every single day needing a nap like I did before my sick leave. That may be the Tysabri working its liquid gold medicine throughout my body. Now I come home and nap maybe once a week. The rest of the time I flop on my bed and read for an hour or so to decompress and rest my mind.

I better go as it is almost 8 p.m. and my bedtime. This darned cold will not get the best of me. I can't let it.

Sunday night sniffles

It's Sunday and I wish tomorrow would be Friday instead of Monday. I'm scared and anxious of this Monday because of silly things that I worry about. School is stressing me out but it will be fine once we get rolling for the day.

I have a cold or some allergy issues, not sure which. I'll just call it a cold. I'm sniffley and coughing and have watery eyes and I'm running a fever (again).

I think part of my agitation is not from taking any Xanax either yesterday morning or this morning. I am definitely irritated and agitated about tomorrow on the horizon. In the end it will all be fine though.

After all, I am a fantastic genius or so I sometimes think.

The highs and the lows of Saturday

My father underwent surgery on Friday for a potential triple bypass. They were only able to do a double bypass due to the size of the vein they worked with during the surgery. I saw him after the surgery and he was on the ventilator and looked good.

On Saturday my sister arrived home from Iraq due to a Red Cross emergency leave. I made her a sign with my scrapbooking stuff that said "Welcome home from Iraq to my sister, my hero." Seeing her at the airport was the high point of the day. We hugged and cried and took some pics on her camera.

Then we went straight to the hospital from the airport. My dad was responsive the moment he heard my sister's voice. His eyes opened and he looked at all of us. We haven't seen my sister for 15 months so this was a nice surprise for him, I suspect. He was still on the ventilator so he could not speak but he tried to mouth words and he smiled. He could move his hands and feet and was supposed to come off the vent sometime that day.

My mom got a call later that evening saying he was still on the vent because he seemed to be bleeding out somewhere and needing more blood. I guess going off the vent would make his heart work too hard.

Later on the hospital called again and my father had gone into shock (because of the blood loss maybe?) and they said we should come right in. I had taken my night time meds and had about 90 minutes of sleep in me and was in no position to be able to drive so a friend picked me up and dropped me off at the hospital around midnight. My dad was in surgery again and they removed some blood clots and put in a balloon pump for his heart. I have no idea really what the purpose of the pump was because I was so tired I thought I was going to just fall down and listening to the surgeon was like listening to the buzz of bees.

He will need another surgery in a few days to get the pump out.

My brother is also supposed to be coming home from Iraq through a Red Cross leave.

Dad is completely sedated and did not wake up when my sister and mother went to visit him today. My mom told me not to go because I am so wiped out and I listened. I am exhausted and worried and I hope he sleeps peacefully through tonight and the next night and so on without any more complications.

I'm going to say the rosary which I never do and if prayer is your thing, I'd appreciate you remembering my family now.

The end of Christmas

I'm showing my MS symptoms here while I am trying to undecorate my Christmas tree. Standing for a few minutes and bending and holding those little tiny colored ornaments is killing me. Again, it's like a mini-marathon of activity. Do a little and then sit down for a while.


I have a friend coming over on Friday to help me take down and store the empty tree. She thinks it will fit back into its original box and she, being the same person who showed me that the oven door can come off, may just be correct. If it was just me I'd probably end up with it in the living room all year long so thank goodness for my friend, the Goddess of Cleaning, BJM.


I'm also trying to get my sick bank leave extended. That seems to be much easier to get an extension compared to the original request to use sick bank time. The crazy thing about it is that it's deja vu all over again. My dad had a nuclear stress test on Tuesday and the results weren't good. He has an artery completely blocked and needs surgery again. It is supposed to be scheduled for Monday of next week. This will be his fourth surgery in about 6 weeks, all on his heart.


In other news, I received a nice blog comment from Pitney Bowes who must have people scouring google to see where their name turns up. I mentioned a neat program that they were promoting called Holiday Mail for Heroes in early December. You could send cards to a certain address and the cards would be distributed to military personnel and vets all over the world. I sent in some cards left over from last Christmas and a few new ones from this year. I've already bought the clearance cards so I can participate in the program next year.

Here's the blog comment from Pitney Bowes:
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Pitney Bowes has left a new comment on your post "Holiday Mail for Heroes, an easy way to help other...":

On behalf of everyone at Pitney Bowes and the American Red Cross, thank you for all of your support in helping to spread the word about the “Holiday Mail for Heroes” program.

We would like you to know that we’ve not only reached the goal of delivering one million cards to US service members, veterans and military families, but we surpassed it! And it’s all because people like you and your blog readers who got involved. View the following video for more details and a personal message of thanks from all of us: http://blip.tv/file/1643672/.

We could not have done it without you.

Can I be sick from the doctor's office? Err, yes.

I'm not feeling so well, almost said not so hot, but I am actually feeling hot. All this just after telling the neuro's NP that my fevers have been staying lower. I came home from the neuro's and went to bed and woke up feeling like crap.

Ick.

I took two Aleve and am taking it easy and plan to get some sleep here soon. Not that I often stay up past 9 p.m. because that would cut into my 11-12 hours of sleeping at night.

We did talk about disability at the appointment today and that is something that seems to evoke lots of differing emotions at the same time. I'm still in it with the Tysabri for now and look forward to seeing how that medication works for me. I hope I feel better soon so it won't effect this third Tysabri infusion.

That's all I've got for now. Not so inspired lately with my writing but thanks for stopping by.