My favorite days of the year besides Christmas

Despite the fact that my lungs are still really noisy and squeaking, I was able to have a great weekend. Friday was my 35th birthday (am I middle-aged now?) and Mark took the day off to spend with us. We went out to lunch and saw "Igor" at the local theater - which was ok. I was kind of bored at times, but Ricky said he liked it and that's all that matters. Then we went out to dinner with my family. It was nice.

Saturday we just hung around the house and I cleaned. Mark went to with his guy friends to see My Bloody Valentine at the Aragon and I had 2 of my mommy friends over to watch the "Sex and the City" movie. I would've had 2 more friends over but they couldn't get sitters. It was a lot of fun. Ricky spent the night at my mom's and we were able to watch the movie without interruptions. I really liked it and can't believe it took me so long to see it. After my friends left, I took a shower and started watching it again until Mark came home. I know - kind of dorky.

Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary. We picked up Ricky and went out to breakfast. We bought him some toys at ToysRUS and then took him miniature golfing. He had a blast. 18 holes with a 3 year old is an eternity but lots of fun. Took all afternoon though. We took him to the same place we went to when we were dating - when I almost knocked all of Mark's teeth out with my swing. Been like 10 years since we were there last. After that incident, Mark never wanted to take me back there - haha.

Since I stay home and our income is significantly smaller than it was before, we agreed to just do simple gifts or no gifts. So when Mark gave me a box to open - wrapped in hello kitty wrapping paper (yes I love hello kitty) I thought it was another figurine to add to my collection shelf. I was completely shocked to open the box and find a diamond necklace! Diamonds! He hasn't given me diamonds since our wedding because we were saving and trying to live on less. I am thrilled to bits but told him no diamonds for years. There are plenty of things we need money for - like a mortgage and tuition. I guess he was sneaking around and took my mom along for some support - even though in the end he ended up picking it out himself. I am completely touched.

You can imagine how bad I felt that my anniversary present to him was a Scrabble dictionary!! But that's okay I guess. I did buy him a guitar for Valentines Day and he got me chocolate. But no more big presents!

"Hanging in There" Has a New Meaning for Me

I haven't blogged in an eternity because a weird thing is happening to me. For the last 6 weeks I have been bombarded by one medical ailment after another and I am hoping it's stopped.

It all started with a cough on August 10 - I'm not weird, I just know that was the day we went to the Renaissance Fair and I had a little cough. Since that day, I haven't been able to shake it off, and I actually cracked ribs on my left side 3 weeks ago and earlier this week I cracked ribs on my right side. All from coughing so hard! Talk about excruciating pain. And all I can take is Tylenol 3 with codeine. I was actually crying for 3 hours when it happened. So any movement whatsoever makes me cry out in pain. Sucks.

Meanwhile, I have been told that I have gestational diabetes so since Monday I have been pricking my fingers 4 times a day and I have gone on a special diet. I don't mind the diet so much - in fact I think I really needed it. But the pricking - I mind. I will find out in the next few days if they want me to do insulin injections on top of that - and I am praying I don't need them. That's a big needle to me. That would mean I'd be pricking myself 6 times a day total.

I also have been told that I now have asthma. Apparently I have had it my entire life and didn't know it - and it just took pregnancy and this sickness I have to bring it to surface.

I haven't been working much the last few weeks. I've felt crappy and been in too much pain. Driving hurts too. I feel really bad for the baby because of all the drugs I've been taking. We have spent so much money on all kinds of prescriptions this month it's ridiculous. I just hope the baby is okay and I can shake this lung problem once and for all. The lung specialist I saw tuesday said that if I don't get better, he's admitting me into the hospital next week.

My 35th birthday is a week from today and I better not be sick!

No Rest for the Sick

Mark and Ricky took me to the hospital yesterday to get a chest x-ray ordered by my doctor. As a pregnant person who has been very careful in what I eat and consume during pregnancy, I wasn't thrilled about exposing the baby to radiation but it's one of those situations where I don't really have much of a choice. If I have pneumonia or if my oxygen level goes down, the baby suffers.

Well the doctor called me this morning and my x-ray was negative - so that's good - no pneumonia and no blood clot. I'm just extremely sick. So my doctor is going to put me on a stronger antibiotic and extending my Prednisone for a few more days.

Meanwhile, Mark and I were supposed to go to St. Louis to attend a college buddy's wedding this weekend. Kids aren't invited so Ricky was going to spend the weekend with my mother. We were looking forward to a nice roadtrip and a weekend catching up with old friends. Mark told me last night that he didn't think it was a good idea for us to go with me being pregnant and so sick. I think he's right. I think if I weren't pregnant I would have gone and just dealt with it. But since there is a little one to consider I think it's kind of scary to travel while I am so sick.

Mark actually took Ricky to work with him today so I could get some rest. After months of silence, our real estate agent called me to say that a couple is coming to our house tomorrow for a tour in the morning. So rather than take that nap I wanted this afternoon, I will be cleaning. Since I've felt like crap for 3 weeks, I've let a lot of things fall by the wayside. Lots of de-cluttering in the next 24 hours. Better get started!! UGH

Walgreens Pharmacy Screw Up

I have gone to the neighorhood 24-hour Walgreens since we moved to our house 8 years ago. We used their pharmacy all throughout - and never had a problem. Until now.

I am on 5 medications and a few days ago, Mark went to go have them filled and came home with them.

My doctor printed out a "cheat sheet" for me with all 5 meds printed with her prescription directions. I started taking the meds and didn't feel better after the second day so I really looked at them.

My bottle for Prednisone said "Take 2 tablets daily for 5 days" which would mean I would have 10 tablets in the bottle. But I had 20.

I checked my doctor's cheat sheet and she wrote, "Take 2 twice daily for 5 days" which would call for 20 tablets.

I verified the script with my doctor who said that I should be taking 2 tablets in the morning and then 2 at night for a total of 20 tablets for 5 days. She said that the pharmacy screwed up. WALGREENS SUCKS!!!!

It's bad enough they screwed up but what's worse is that I am pregnant. I can't even imagine if they wrote a higher dosage on my bottle!! No wonder why I wasn't feeling any better - I was taking 1 tablet in the morning and then 1 tablet at night when I should have been taking 2 more tablets a day.

I went to the Walgreens pharmacy this morning and complained to the pharmacy manager who apologized and said that the incident would be written up and then he refunded me the money for my prescription.

This is really scary and now I will second guess every prescription I pick up.

Sick of Being Sick

When I was pregnant with Ricky, I was lucky that I was healthy the entire time and avoided getting sick that entire 37 week period.

I'm not so lucky this time.

I didn't work when I was pregnant with Ricky and of course since I work in a public library, I get hacked on all the time and I am exposed to all kinds of people harboring all kinds of viruses and what have you.

I have Asthmatic Bronchitis and it really sucks!!

It started out as a simple cough almost 3 weeks ago and it has gotten so bad that I spent 5 nights last week sitting upright on the couch to sleep. If I laid down on the pillow, I would cough uncontrallably to the point of not breathing.

I have been really good with this pregnancy - no caffeine, no chocolate, no nitrates, etc. and it is killing me that I am on 5 different medications right now. I hate the thought of drugging the baby but I am really sick.

If I don't feel better by tomorrow, the doctor will send me for a chest x-ray. Nice radiation for the baby, eh? She wants to see if I have pneumonia or an embolism.

Mark and I are supposed to drive down to St. Louis for a wedding this weekend. Mark went to college down there and hasn't seen his college buddies in over 3 years. I am taking my 3 hour glucose test saturday morning before we leave. I am so tired of being sick!!

Boy or Girl?

Mark's sister is an ultrasound technician for a group of ob/gyns and she was able to scan me and tell us if Ricky was going to be a boy or girl. She was more than willing to do it for us again.

So the other night when she was working late, Mark drove us all to her hospital for a scan.

This is our miracle baby - the one we waited two and a half years to conceive successfully. I really couldn't care one way or the other whether we had a boy or a girl. I am just happy that it looks like it's going to be healthy. The results from my Alpha-Feta-Protein test came back that the chances of the baby having neural tube defects is 1 in 5,000. So that made us feel good.

Mark has wanted 2 boys as long as I can remember. When we were dating, we would go to furniture stores and he would make comments about the boys bunk bed collections. So even though he didn't say it, I know he was wishing for another boy. Ricky wanted a sister for a long time, but for the last few months he's been saying that he wants a brother.

Well they got what they wanted. It's a BOY!!!

Mark hasn't stopped smiling since the ultrasound. Ricky is really excited too. It was great to see the baby moving around and actually looking more like a baby. He was sucking his thumb and had the hiccups. I'm looking forward to seeing my little baby boy. Now we just have to find a name!

Save the Drama for Your Mama

Yesterday while I was on the phone with my sister, Ricky said he needed to use the bathroom. I told him to go ahead and that I would follow him in there when he was done. He usually calls me. Well he finished and decided to lock the door and pull it shut on his way out.

I was upset, but not so much because he is only 3 and didn't fully realize the possible consequences of his actions. When I told him that because of this I couldn't go to work, he smiled really big. Uh oh - hope he doesn't pull this again on days when he wants me stay home.

We have a key - more like a wire to open these doors. I tried it on our den door and it worked, but for some reason, I couldn't get the bathroom door open. Of course. I couldn't unscrew the hinges because they were in the inside.

This created a few problems for me - this happened at 1pm and I had to be at work by 4pm. My contacts, glasses, makeup, toothbrush and toothpaste were all in the bathroom. While it wouldn't be such a big deal to show up without makeup for one day (not thrilled to do so but oh well), there was no way in hell I could drive to work blind as a bat. I would have to take a cab to the library! So I called my boss and found a substitute - thankfully.

I tried to open the door for over 3 hours. No luck. Thank goodness we have a second bathroom in the basement - with my little bladder I would have died without a toilet.

When Mark came home from work it took him less than 5 seconds to get that bathroom door open - laughing at me the whole time. Of course. Lesson learned: Keep duplicates of my toiletries outside of the bathroom in case this happens again and learn how to unlock that bathroom door!