when the going gets tough

id like to post some photos, but the bloggers are being troublesome with that.

in other news....

my health.  oh where should we start?  i have been on medication for a long time for the OCD and the anxiety.  good stuff right?  yes, it is, but it makes me fat.  ok, the ice cream and other crap helps, but the medications, while helping me to be a normal, contributing member of society, also make me fat.

i have finally convinced my doctor to switch the medications.  this involved a 6 week ramp down of the medication i was on with a corresponding 6 week ramp of of the new medication.  all happening at the same time.

the first week of taking both i felt awesome!!  i felt pretty good the entire time actually.  but when i was in NY for the SUPER BOWL, right when i came back was when i was totally off the old and only on the new and the drama began.  it started with a weird sensation in my hands.  like i was getting a mild electrocution.  not a big deal, only mildly concerning.  after a few days i emailed my doctor.  she said that could be normal.  after a few more days of this, i went for an hour swim and then an hour run on the treadmill at the gym.  the entire time i was having these electrocutions and by then they had moved from just my hands, to my face, head, upper torso and lower legs.  other than the weird sensation, i felt fine while running.  but after - not so fine.  i got in the shower, but then i was that naked lady sitting on the bench with her head between her knees trying to not pass out.  i texted eric saying i was going to be late coming home because there was no way i could drive in my current state.  i rested and relaxed and felt like ass.  i eventually managed to get dressed and managed to buy a $4 odwalla juice from the front desk.  i felt like crap.

friday i took it easy and then saturday went on another run... 9 miles with eric and sirus on his bike.  it went really well and i felt great, so after we decided to go out about the town.  seamus was off with grandma for a fancy birthday weekend at the fairmont hotel !! so it was just the three of us.  while we were out though, i got really sick.  i had to ask eric to take me home.  i was super dizzy, the room was spinning and i was going to puke... so i laid in bed for i don't know how long when i decided that my bring tumor came back and i just started to freak out.  so i called the neuroscience institute and my endocrinologist called me back.  she said that although she could not guarantee that my tumor did not come back, she said it was highly un likely that the symptoms i was having were mostly likely from the change in medication and that i should just wait it out a bit.  i should be ok, but she told me to lay off the exercising since that seemed to make it worse. she also wanted to have my thyroid levels checked.  so it did.  and i cried and was super frustrated and a big mess.air
tuesday i went to chicago for work.   air travel was interesting though, and i managed to get sick in the taxi, so sick that i had to ask the driver to pull over on the side of the freeway during rush hour.  i came home wednesday.

 i was just getting worse and worse, more dizzy, more intense electrical shocks, more spinning.  so thursday i felt like such terrible crap that i came home from work early and asked eric to take me to the ER.  they didn't do too much, took some more blood, basically agreed with what everyone else said.  told me to stop taking the new medicine and start taking the old medicine again and sent my nauseated spinning ass home, but not before i managed to grab a handful of the best barf bags ever.

and wow, the switch in medication did the trick.  friday i was feeling better, saturday i felt totally back to normal.  no spinning, no dizzy, no nausea, no shocks.  i was able to sleep at night, i felt fine after running.  it was awesome!!!  yahoo!!  i was getting back to normal after almost 3 weeks of feeling terrible!!

this week, with a newly restored outlook, i was getting ready to go to LA for work on thursday.  but then, wednesday around 3pm my stomach started to hurt.  i was like ugh, super uncomfortable.  thought my pants were too tight.  that has been an issue in the past - too tight, give me a headache, have to change my pants in order to get through the day.  but it was late in the day already, i could power through it.  but i did leave a little early and went home, but not without first unbuttoning my pants in the car.  gah!  it wasn't helping!!

so i got home and crawled in bed.  i took an aleeve and asked eric to start researching menstrual cramps.  he brought me a hot water bottle and i used my Super Bowl hand warmers on my belly.  i took a hot shower,  none of it was working, just getting worse and i was going to puke every time i stood up!

so i called the nurse hotline and they said come on in!  so we called up mattiecakes and thankfully he was able to come over and watch the kids.  they were already in bed, so it wasn't tough for him, but we were awfully appreciative.  and then back to Issaquah.  i grabbed another barf bag on the way in!  the nurse was one i had before back in 2012, the lady giving the IV was awesome, she did a great job, didn't hurt a bit!  and the doctor was one I hadn't ever had before.   he was very funny and reminded me of Chow from The Hangover (you know the actor who plays chow is a doctor right?  for real!).  he ordered a CT scan, they asked me lots of questions, they made me drink this terrible lidocaine sludge.  (just read that lidocaine is flammable!) but i have never in my life been reverted back to being 3 years old - NO! NO! NO!  I won't do it!  You can't make me!!  CRY CRY CRY!!  ok, not really but that is what i was on the verge of while i was trying to take it down.  i asked for some water to wash it down with and she said no - it needed to make its way down slowly so it would numb everything.  oh it was horrible!!!  after i drank it, she came back like 5 minutes later and asked why i still had that look on my face!  because not only was the horrible taste and sludge still sliding down my throat but now my mouth was all numb, too!  anyway, it made me feel better. 

the ct scan came back ok, although i have an enlarged appendix!  not sure what that means, but have to be on the lookout for future abdominal pain - could be an appendicitis waiting to happen.  or not.  i've been on the verge of an appendicitis since i was 9.  maybe one of these days!

but they think its probably just gastritis due to my over use of Aleeve.  nice. 

so i missed out on the work trip to LA (and team building indoor skydiving!) i missed a day at work but managed to work friday from home.  i missed yet MORE workouts. 

but i don't have heart disease, i don't have a tumor reccurrance, i don't have thyroid issues (quite yet), i don't have an appendicitis (at the moment).

did i mention that it was like 60 degrees and sunny on friday!!!  it was like SUMMER!!