Ramblings

So, now that I'm done telling you all about our wonderful vacation and you are all insanely jealous (just kidding!), lets catch up.

Since we got back, the girls got right back into a groove with school. Brooke is doing some crazy hard work. I am so impressed the difference in amount of work she is doing as opposed to last year, not to mention the level of difficulty. She is reading regularly to us and to Brenna real books. Brenna is bringing home work as well and is really loving school. They also both started dance and Kindermusik. Brooke is learning the dulcimer now at Kindermusik and is doing very well in her new 1.5 hr dance class. She loves jazz and ballet the best and we have been very impressed with her teacher this year. She is really on them, not just letting them play around and goof off! Brooke is so excited to get to dance at Christmas in the Park this year too! Brenna is still trying to figure out if she wants to be in dance. See, she was all gung ho and was loving it. Then a couple of weeks ago, for some reason, every kid in the class went to screaming and crying. The teacher was being too nice and let it go on instead of making the parents take the screamers out. So eventually, Brenna started crying too (just the atmosphere I think? She's never cried before...). Anyway, so ever since, its like that is what is in her head about dance and she requires me to be in the room with her and isn't quite sure about the rest of her class members now. ;)

They are both so funny and do so many fun things each and every day. Since getting back, they are back to fighting regularly, but it was fun while it lasted. ;) Brenna is a character for sure and I could do a whole post on how hilarious she is and some of the things she comes up with. And all the while Broke is learning to be more and more independent figuring out how to do more and more by herself.

Brad is back to the ol' grind at work, except now he seems to have a jury trial 3x/week, which makes for some crazy days and long hours sometimes. He did take off one half day this past week to allow me a much needed break from the kids/daily life to take a girls weekend trip to the beach. That was fun and relaxing and over way too soon.

As for me, well, in between running the kids back and forth and around town all over, I've been dealing with some health issues. When we (the eye doctor and I) tried to get me off the eye drops I take for my shingles (in my cornea) that I've been taking for the last 2 years, I quickly started to have another flare-up, so I'm back on those indefinitely, which is kinda depressing to be honest. :( I was really hoping to one day get off those things! Bummer.

Also, for the last three years I've been having a lot of lower back pain that I attribute to being fat. Well, apparently...not so. Come to find out (thanks to a trip to the ER and a $5,000 MRI), I have dozens of kidney stones located in both kidneys. A couple of them are large and need 'treatment', but none were in the passing stage. I have learned that its ok for the stones to stay in my kidneys forever...and ideally that's where I want them to stay. The real pain happens when they try to pass (I've had that happen once and care not to relive it). I went to the ER before our trip to discover this and went and saw a specialist (urologist) who said we could afford to wait till I got back to treat it and sent me on my way to California armed with pain meds...just in case.

So, now I'm back and the 'treatment' has started. Sort of. I will be having a lithotripsy next week to hopefully diminish the large kidney stones. I'll be out of commission for sure that day, but it is just outpatient, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

However, I was also told that the majority of pain in my back was probably not caused by the kidney stones, but rather bilateral sacroilitis (the "bilateral" part just means both sides). Yea, go read that link. The MRI revealed this nice piece of information, which otherwise would've probably gone undiagnosed. This whole time I've just been thinking I've been having 'normal' back pain and being a big wuss, therefore, not mentioning it much and come to find out...there's a pretty substantial reason for this pain. And it probably stemmed from pregnancy. In fact, I can pinpoint the damage to about 4 mos in to my pregnancy with Brenna when I started complaining of my tailbone hurting. I thought the pressure from the baby was just causing it, but lo and behold there was actually a trauma that happened then that led to this that I've been not mentioning for 3 years now.

Sooooooo........ anyway, long and short. I'm dealing with the kidney stones first and foremost before they decide to start traveling. Then after that's over and done with (sort of?), I will deal with the sacroilitis with my primary doctor in hopes to get that feeling better. And we'll go from there. And if nothing else works, maybe we can all go post our status updates on FB about National Sacroilitis Day and y'all can all (all 2 people who read this blog) start a fundraiser for me or something. ;P

(sorry, too many chain status updates on FB this week)

So since everyone is all picture'd out from my vacation pictures, this blog post will be picture-less. Have no fear though! I have picked up my camera again and will have some to share soon! :)

Ta-ta for now!