stories of a real life wonder woman

Hey there, So last week I mentioned that I had been feeling sick to my stomach. I did call my kidney doctor's office and the gist of what they said was "your blood work looks good so call the GI office." And I did and because of my transplants that make my health history complicated they got me an appointment to see the doctor the next day. After telling him what was going on and him looking at my blood work he decided to put me back on a lower dosage of the stomach med I had been on before. He did this because of my health history which makes sense. Basically even though I have had a transplant and that helps some things my body still produces too much acid. And too much acid means things like nausea so that's always fun. Anyway I am now getting used to that adjustment to my medicine regimen. In other news this week on This Old House - I am learning a freaking lot. My joke has been "Today on This Old House another thing I have no idea how to fix." But i

Hey, So one of the many joys of being sick for 26 years is that my body sometimes does things that super suck. For example for the last few days I have been sick to my stomach at times to the point where I think I might actually throw up. This is kind of a big deal because normally I can tell if what it feels like is going on in my gut is going to come up or not - 99% of the time not. And I have at times willed myself to not throw up. So feeling like this has been zero fun. I haven't had any other symptoms of anything which is also fun - not. When this happens it is very easy for my mind to run crazy down extreme paths thinking maybe I am sick with some crazy virus I have gotten before and had to be hospitalized for or think it is something bigger like rejection. Again no other symptoms. But my mind does these things and I have to constantly tell it to stop. When worry and fear are so ingrained in your mind getting those thoughts to stop is often a constant second by second battl

Hey there, This weekend we celebrated Christmas for the second time. My oldest nephews came back from visiting their mom so we had a Christmas celebration with them. Nothing quite brings me the same joy as being an aunt. Gosh I love those little people - the spirits they have and the men they are growing into. Before we celebrated Christmas my one nephew had a swim meet. It was so cute to watch those little kids in the pool. And my nephew was cracking me up after each time he swam. He would come over to my brother (his dad) and tell him how he did. One time he said "I dropped five seconds. (Meaning he swam 5 seconds faster than the last time he did that race.) I'm not satisfied. I can do better than that." Ha. I guess he has only competed in a few meets - maybe a handful - so any improvement is great. But he in that moment wasn't feeling that way about it. While he competed his older brother was watching with us. It was fun to joke with him again. As his parents h

Hey there, So I haven't posted yet this week because I haven't been feeling great so I have been relaxing and just focusing on that. When I went to see the doctor before the new year my doctor increased the dosage of one of my immune-suppressing drugs. I go to see the doctor every four months just for check ups and he has been increasing that medicine pretty consistently because my blood levels (which are checked at least once a month) are showing too low on that level. I am glad he is checking those so closely and trying to make sure I am the healthiest I can be. The downside to that is that often dosage changes even in medications you have been on for long periods of time can still cause your body to react and feel the side effects as if you were just starting it. That has been me the last week. Pretty much every side effect of this medicine I have been feeling often at various points of the day. That is one of the main ways I know when it is medications and not getting s

Hey All, Happy New Year! So far my new year has been spent working on my homeowner skills. My furnace has been doing some weird things. I still have heat I just have had some problems with the furnace motor running without kicking out heat and with it getting the house up to the temp a have the thermostat set too. And of course that makes me worry. Then when the guy came to look at the furnace is was acting fine just a little slow. So he didn't actually get to experience the problem but since it is an old furnace and he has worked with this type before he was able to say what he could be. The part I need would be over $400 and since it is an old furnace he recommended looking into new ones. Since I am still under home warranty (that the previous homeowner had on the house) that means I could get that all done. I just need to talk to the home warranty company. Unfortunately they were not much help today since it is a holiday and is freezing cold out. The tech they normally