I already blogged about Kayzee's adventure and her GI issues. She is doing a lot better. I think potty-training her helped a lot. The only thing we are still figuring out is why she doesn't sleep through the night. I think the longest stretch she has slept all night every night was two weeks. Other than that she hasn't been sleeping since she was born. She wakes up screaming 1-4 times a night. So needless to say we are all tired at our house. Yes we have tried everything so our next step is working with the pediatrician to find a specialist or sleep study we can get her into to figure out why she doesn't stay asleep. Let the new adventure begin!
Here is Kayzee eating lettuce. She is like a rabbit. She LOVES veggies and she grazes all day.
Mommy Daughter. She is looking more and more like me:)
As for me, well, I am literally on a roller coaster but once doctors figured out what was causing me problems the past 12 months I am figuring things out and my symptoms are mellowing out. Last summer 2012 I was having some really annoying painful symptoms that were definitely not normal. I don't really want to go into details but the symptoms were bad enough I would end up in bed for a couple days and I would lose too much weight the unhealthy way. I missed out on a lot of fun activities with family and friends and just the fun that summer holds. I was getting really frustrated. And it seemed like every time it got bad enough, I went to the dr and he would just give me stuff to stop the symptoms and knock me out for a few days. Not a life to live with being a working mom.
The symptoms continued into the school year. I started missing way too much work because of it all and it was more important to me to figure out what was causing the symptoms then just to stop them only to have them return. I had already researched my symptoms the best I could and that was why I quit drinking caffeinated sodas. That helped a lot but it was time to find a dr that would help me. 9 months after symptoms first started my dr finally figured it out and I was diagnosed with IBS-D. It affects women in their late 20s early 30s and is caused by many reasons. I went to a GI specialist and we figured out that mine was probably caused by stress. I don't handle stress very well and I have had a very stressful like 20 years (ha!). There is no cure but there are ways to alleviate symptoms. I can no longer have dairy or red meat. No greasy food (like chinese), no citrus, and no veggies that cause gas. Basically I am really struggling because cheese and ice cream are the hardest to give up. I cheat sometimes and bam! I end up in bed in pain or in the bathroom all night. IT SUCKS! Pizza is hard too. Danny gets pizza a lot and I can't have it. Greasy cheese=PAIN! But it's my favorite:(
Beginning of May symptoms were really bad that I just wanted to take the drugs that would knock me out but the sub system could not find me a sub so I had to go. Luckily a BYU dance company was teaching all my classes that day so I just sat in the corner crying in pain. My dr decided to put me on some medications that would help me get through the rest of the school year. One of them said I could not be out in the sun and of course I did not have the gym for the rest of the school year. I thought I might have to go on medical leave but my dr approved me being outside as long as I was sitting under an umbrella. Not an ideal way to teach PE but it all worked out. My students are great. But what a rough month it was. I was given a blessing at the beginning of the month that said I would have the strength to finish the school year so I know that helped a lot. I looked it up and realized I missed 42 days of school last year. NOT GOOD. That is more days than I take off for maternity leave! I hope that this school year will go a lot better
When I was in the middle of it all my wonderful mother-in-law told me that I was given this for a reason and I just needed to figure out why. So insightful and that has made me look at trials in a whole new way. I now know why I was given this trial and it has helped me a lot. I needed to get healthy. I was having a lot of health problems because of my weight so this is definitely helping me get to a healthy weight. I am eating healthier and exercising also helps alleviate symptoms. I was looking back through my posts of the last year. I have lost 50 lbs to date and of that 50 lbs 35 of it was lost just from being sick. Not a fun way to lose weight at all. How come when I actually try to lose weight (and I have been trying all year) I only lose 15 but when I don't try the weight comes flying off while I am in pain? That's life I guess.
This summer 2013 has been the best summer. Yes I had my down days but they were definitely not as bad as they have been...until this last week. OF COURSE I get really sick when I am supposed to be back to school. I have already missed my first two days of school! Not a good way to start out the school year:(
Friday Aug 9 I woke up in the middle of the night with a really high fever. Felt so weird how sudden it hit me and woke me up. I suffered through the weekend and thought it would just be a 3 day fever thing and I would be fine. Monday morning my fever broke. I was so glad because I needed to start getting school stuff ready. But then Monday night my fever came back really high. We found a babysitter and I went to the instacare that was open that night and of course they were of no help. They just told me it was a virus and I would just suffer for a few more days and be fine. But no! I didn't have time for this. And I didn't get better. I got worse. I didn't sleep at night because I couldn't stop coughing. I was having trouble breathing and by day 6 with a fever I had had enough. So missing my first day of school I went to my family dr. He said a virus definitely doesn't last this long so it must have turned into a bacterial infection. He gave me a prescription for an antibiotic saying I would feel better in 24 hours so I could go back to work and a cough medicine to knock me out at night.
When I got to the pharmacy they told me the antibiotic was $5000! WHAT? Seriously? So I paid for the cough medicine and the pharmacy sent back suggestions for similar antibiotics for the dr to ok and I went home to wait. Not hearing anything I kept calling and the dr's office kept telling me they were working on it. What is there to work on? By the time 5:00 hit the office was closed. So I suffered that night and got worse. the medicine to help me sleep didn't work, my fever got higher, and I was starting to show signs of liver and kidney failure and without eating all week I couldn't move. In the morning I kept calling and calling but given the same response that he was still working on it I broke down. My dad told me to go straight to the ER. Danny didn't want to do that so he got off work and went and chewed out my dr. That got results fast. Not two minutes later after Danny called me the pharmacy called me and said they finally got the new prescription from my dr. Then my dr personally called me to apologize and told me that if I didn't feel better on this antibiotic then I needed to go to the ER. So far I have been on it 24 hours and two doses and I am actually feeling better. My fever is gone and haven't been taking as many pain killers and I am eating and my body is functioning better. WHAT A MESS!
Now the sad news...through all this we have been praying really hard that no one else would get sick because preschool starts for the kids on Tuesday and Danny needs to keep working. And Danny's family was coming to stay for the weekend. Yesterday evening I finally emerged from my room and everyone told me that Memphis had a fever and a sore throat. NOOOOO! He was quarantined to my room (the sick room) and we are headed to the dr. today so hopefully we can explain my past week and they can get him better right away so he doesn't have to suffer as long. Stay away from our house!
I am so grateful for everyone who has helped through all this. I have had two blessings. So many friends and neighbors have taken the kids for a few hours every day so I could rest. I couldn't eat or move so meals at our house with Danny coming home from work exhausted were non-existent so my wonderful ward stepped up and yummy food has stocked our fridge. Danny's family is here watching Kayzee and they bought some groceries too. I am thankful for my parents listening to me and helping me in every way they can. WE ARE SO BLESSED. Now fingers crossed no one else gets sick!
Oh no fun at the end of the summer! Feel free to email Lauren and I on what to eat when off dairy!! It's not fun but it sure keeps desserts in check--going on 10 months ;)
ReplyDeleteHope the school year goes much better.