So YESTERDAY I had the brilliant idea of taking my cats to the vet, by myself. Not a big deal, right? You just stick them in the carrier and off you go...

Ha. Ha. Ha.

How foolish of me.

My cats tore through not one, but TWO cat carriers (one on the way in, one of the way home.) Wanna know what else they tore? My freaking SHOULDER muscle! Apparently I should not try to carry 21.5 lbs of insane, crazy, devil cats.

The doctor told me the pain should get worse in the next few days before it gets better. Good thing it's finals week. Good thing I'm going camping on Friday. I'm also running a fever, apparently from my body responding to the pain. 

Anyone want a pair of cats?

I just found out I'm lactose-intollerant.

The main reaction I've received when sharing the news with people is something along the lines of "that sucks," "I feel so bad for you," "I would die if I couldn't eat ice cream," etc. 

However, I couldn't be more thrilled to find out. I've been having stomach problems for close to a year now. Some days it's been worse than others. But it's always the same pain. I've downed so much pepto-bismol and tums in the last year, trying to get rid of the cramps in my stomach. I never even considered that it was a food allergy causing the problems.

To finally know what was making me feel so terrible so many times... and to know that it's fixable... is a pretty great feeling.

I haven't eaten any dairy for 4 days now, and I haven't had the slightest twinge of pain in my stomach. And that my friends, is a miracle.

I haven't watched a movie for more than two weeks.
I miss watching movies.

I haven't read a book for fun since Christmas.
I really miss reading.

I'm home sick today. I woke up with no voice... and you know... when you work in customer service, it's a little difficult to talk on the phone all day without being able to speak.

As much as I wanted to take advantage of being sick by sleeping and relaxing all day, I'm instead working on my final paper for my community college class. My wrist has been bothering me again, so I'm trying to type while wearing a brace - which makes everything take twice as long!

Anyways, my hope is to at least make a dent in my paper by noon so I can get a good nap in at some point. I know if I don't rest at least a little bit today, I'm not going to feel any better tomorrow. And I have WAY too much to do at work to stay home again.

New Years Eve was incredible.

Then we kicked off the New Year with a trip to the ER.

We got home from our New Years celebration around 8:00 on Friday night. Jon went out with some friends, and when he got home around 11:30, he was complaining of severe chest pains. We looked online and came up with two conclusions, he was either having acid reflux or a heart attack. It didn't seem very likely that he was having a heart attack, so we decided to wait it out. Then he spiked a fever.

I slept on and off throughout the night, getting up every hour to check Jon's temperature, give him water, and you know, check to see that he was still alive.

By the morning, the pains in his chest were worse and he was having trouble breathing, so we booked it over to the ER.

As it turns out, he has pneumonia.

Thankfully we caught it early, as Jon is immunodeficient, and something like pneumonia can be fatal if it is not treated immediately.

He's loaded with antibiotics and vaccines now and is already feeling significantly better than he was yesterday.

Hopefully the rest of 2010 is a little less dramatic.

I think I'm getting SICK again. WHERE ARE MY IMMUNITIES?!??!

On Wednesday, I woke up with a sore throat, stuffy nose, and terrible headache. I talked myself in to staying home and having a day of rest.

Yesterday, I woke up feeling equally as terrible, but I went in to work anyways. I lasted until noon and then went home and poured myself in to bed. And I may or may not have played several hours of Hexic on the Xbox.

By dinner time, I was super hungry and nothing sounded good. I felt really weak and tired from sleeping and not eating, and I was in an overall unpleasant mood. Jon decided to be super sweet and pick-up soup, salad, and breadsticks from the Olive Garden for me. THEN, to win husband of the year award, he took me to go see Twilight. And the BEST part is, he didn't make me get dressed! So last night, I got to enjoy Olive Garden, while at the movie theater watching Twilight, in my pajamas, with Jon by my side. It was pretty much the best way to end a sick day.

Today I feel better, but not great. This is our only free weekend in all of December, and we really wanted to take advantage of it by heading over to Port Angeles tomorrow to celebrate our 2 YEAR anniversary - but that's not going to happen. Maybe next year.

Stayed home sick today.

I hate staying home sick. I'm always bored, tired, feel guilty for not being at work, and also feel even more guilty for being at home but not doing anything productive. I'd much rather just go to work and have a normal day, but sometimes that's just not possible.

So instead I'm watching the first season of the Vampire Diaries.

I'm sick. Which if I'm being perfectly honest with myself, happens every single year around the time of my birthday/Halloween.

I don't know exactly what I have. All I know is that my muscles hurt so badly I can hardly move. And it's not that pleasant post-work out muscle tingling. It's a gut wrenching, I think I might puke if I have to turn to the left again, type feeling and all I can think about right now is going home and soaking my body in a warm bath.

Anyways, hopefully whatever I have goes away and doesn't manifest itself into something larger. I have too much going on this week at work, plus I really don't want to be sick on my birthday! So, I'm going home at lunch today to rest and drink lots of orange juice :)

Jon lost his wallet this week. We've been running around like crazy trying to get everything cleaned up, closing bank accounts, freezing our credit cards, getting new licenses, changing our payroll direct deposit, etc. It's a huge pain, but I'm glad it happened this week and not a few weeks from now when we're about to get on a plane to Arizona. Traveling without money and photo id is essentially impossible.

I just filled out my time sheet for this pay period and realized I've used 2.5 sick days. Dang. I really have been sick, but I feel guilty getting paid when I'm at home in bed, sleeping.

I'm so glad it's Friday, although I feel like it's Monday since I've been out of the office since Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully this weekend I can finish my latest sewing project, enjoy a few good films, have the energy to work out, and spend some quality time with Jon.

Also, I bought a new North Face jacket and that's supposed to arrive today. So I'm pretty pumped about that...

Jon stayed home sick today.
I'm always so paranoid when he's sick.
His temperature hit 99.3, which makes me even more worried.
He's currently at the pharmacy picking up his antibiotics.
I have to work until 7 tonight.
So stressed.

I'm working late again tonight (for the 3rd time this month.) I'm exhausted.

I think the combination of being sick and busy has just drained me of any energy I might of had otherwise. I just want to go home and put on my sweatpants and enjoy a relaxing evening of solitude. Oh well. At least I get comp time.

In other news, I turned in the last piece of my grad school application today. I'll find out by the end of the month whether or not I got in.

Home sick today.

Was hoping medicine would help, it didn't.

Perhaps tomorrow will be better. I have a lunch date at iHop and I would be REALLY bummed to miss it.

Sick again. Gotta love those sinus infections.

Trying to find an ENT. I'm sick of trying to explain to a family practice physician that I get sinus infections ALL the time and no, I don't want antibiotics again.

Blargh. My ears are killing me.

I went to the doctor today. Based on my symptoms, she was convinced I had mono. However, the blood work came back negative. So she gave me antibiotics and sent me on my merry way. Normally, I don't mind being put on antibiotics, but I feel like I was given them as a default because my doctor was too lazy to really figure out what was wrong with me.

I guess my plan is to finish the dose of antibiotics and if I'm still sick, to go back and have them run more tests.

Boo.

Exhausted

Honestly, I write way too many blogs about being sick.

In the last couple weeks, I have been so exhausted. I've been going to bed at or before 9:00 every night (last night I fell asleep around 6:30). I think I might have a sinus infection, at least I'm hoping that's all I have. I'm lacking the usual cold symptoms, but my head has been hurting pretty consistently and my ears have been ringing on and off. I finally made an appointment to see the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully they'll know what's wrong with me :)

Sorry I've been slow on blogging recently, it just takes too much energy and I need every last ounce I have to make it through my work day.

TGIF!!!!!

Thank God I made it through this week.

I'm not sure if it's the change in weather, the busyness at work, a combination of both or what, but I have been feeling totally and completely exhausted and overwhelmed.

Wednesday was a terrible day. My eyes hurt. I was tired, grumpy, feeling defeated, and getting emotionally abused by students on the telephone. By the time I got home Wednesday night, I wanted nothing more than to crawl into my bed and not wake up until Saturday morning. I took a sick day on Thursday, and tried to do things that would help me regain my sanity. I slept in, did laundry, tried to get some fresh air, I drank hot cocoa, read a book, made fresh pumpkin soup and generally tried not to hate my life as much as I did the day before. It was a mental health day, and as guilty as I felt for bumming out on work, I can honestly say that I needed yesterday off.

Today isn't fantastic. I'm still on phone duty, and up to my eyeballs in paperwork, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. I'm so glad that tomorrow morning I can wake up at my leisure, make a real breakfast, cuddle with my husband, and enjoy a day of freedom and peace. Working full time is a big adjustment, and getting used to the new weather is even harder. I don't have any windows in my immediate vicinity, so at this point, I'm arriving at work and leaving work at dusk. I miss daylight.

Well, enjoy your weekends! I know I'll be enjoying mine :)

I've been so behind on my blogging lately. Work has been so unbelievably busy, and I've been sick, so the combination of the two have not been good for my personal life. I've basically been coming home and sleeping every day after work.

Yesterday I went home early. I have sinus infections all the time, and I can usually tough them out pretty well, but yesterday I crashed. I left work right after lunch, got home at 1:30, went straight to bed, and woke up 4 hours later, just in time to pick Jon up from the airport.

Our new couch finally comes TOMORROW. This weekend is looking really busy, but I'm just glad Jon is home and we'll get to spend time together. He was only in NJ for 3 days, but I missed him a lot.

Well, work is busy and I have a lot to do. So, adieu. More blogging later (I hope...)

Sinus Infection

I have yet another sinus infection.

Camping

Jon and I went camping with past weekend at Wenberg State Park with "The Doorninks" i.e. Chris and Annie. To our surprise, the park was nicer than expected, although our expectations were pretty low.

The park was located just outside of Marysville, which would normally be about a 45 minute drive from our house. However, we left at 3:00 on a Friday afternoon, so it took us over an hour and a half to arrive at our destination. Poo on Seattle traffic.

We got to the campground and set up our site. Friday evening was spent relaxing, playing games, and enjoying our company. We sat around the campfire, roasted marshmallows, and then went to bed early since we'd all had a long week. Unfortunately it started raining at about 3 am on Saturday morning. Thankfully, we had checked the weather and anticipated the rain, so everything was under tarps or the last minute canopy we purchased the day before we left. We spent most of Saturday at the picnic table under the canopy, playing games and snacking. Tim and Carlee as well as Stephen came up on Saturday afternoon. We played more games, walked down to the lake, and tried to have as much fun as possible while it was drizzling outside. Annie made "hobo stew" for dinner, which was delicious, and then our day guests left for the evening. The rain stopped on Saturday night, so we spent some time around the campfire before heading to bed. By Sunday, we were all ready to get home. None of us had showered over the weekend, so we were all feeling pretty anxious to get back and get clean! We basically woke up, packed the site, and were home before noon on Sunday.

On the drive home, I started to feel really sick. My neck and back were hurting terribly, and I had this awful headache. I thought perhaps it was from dehydration, so I drank a bottle of water, but that didn't help. By the time I got home, I felt awful. I forced myself to take a shower and get dressed. By the time I was done getting ready, I just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of the day. Jon talked me in to eating lunch. The food (and tylenol) helped my head stop hurting, but I immediately fell asleep after lunch. When I woke up a few hours later, I was still feeling awful but I felt like I needed to move around and perhaps that would help me feel better. Jon and I took a little walk, which didn't help, so I went home and back to bed. By the time dinner rolled around, I was considering calling in sick for work. Jon made us pasta, and the food helped me feel a little better. I think perhaps my body was rejecting the food I ate while camping. I normally eat really healthy, with lots of fruits and veggies and tons of water, and I didn't get hardly any of that this weekend. By the time I went to bed last night, I had drank over 8 cups of water and ate a few healthy meals and I felt 100% better.

Overall, I had a good weekend. Camping isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world. Maybe if I had a dog, a bigger tent, and access to showers, I would enjoy the experience more. However, I really do love spending quality time with good friends and camping is one of the few ways to have uninterrupted time getting to know people better and building deeper friendships. Hopefully next time the weather will be better!

This week is going to be busy again. Leana is here visiting, Meghann is staying at our house, and Jon and I both have plans almost every night of the week. Thankfully we don't have any big plans next weekend!

Allergies

I picked Jon up from work yesterday afternoon, and he gave me a flower when I got there. It was a very thoughtful & beautiful orange tulip.

I put it on the dash of the car for the drive home. It started pouring down rain, and I accidentally forgot it in the car during the mad dash inside the house. Later that evening, Jon and I were on our way to Ballard when my eyes started watering. I couldn't figure out what was bothering them so much. A few minutes later, I started getting a pounding sinus headache. I asked Jon how he was feeling, and he said he had a headache too. We realized that the flower was bothering both of our allergies. Jon offered to pull over and throw it out, but it was such a beautiful flower and I couldn't justify getting rid of it! By the time we got to our destination, my neck had started breaking out in hives. We decided the flower had to go. So, we took the flower with us in order to throw it away. Lucky for us, the first garbage can we came upon was labled "organic compostables only." Only in Seattle are there public compost bins...

Oh well, it was still a sweet gesture...