Crazy month!

First off, Congrats to David and Sarah on the birth of Isaac :) Also, Congrats to Michael and Melissa on their new home!

It's been almost 1 month since I had surgery. Immediately after surgery I started to feel better. I'm in much less pain than I was before, I have a bit more energy, and I'm feeling a little more optimistic. I am still having a significant amount of pain though... I'm not sure at what point it goes from "surgery recovery" pain to "surgery was unsuccessful and I'm still in pain" pain... I have a doctor's appt next week to follow up on the surgery. I'll talk to my surgeon then. I'm honestly kind of scared to ask.

In other news, I have been so crazy emotional. Those Hormone shots are intense! I always feel like I'm on the verge of bursting into tears- sometimes happy tears, and sometimes sad tears. Always on the cusp though. It's terrible. Only 3 more months of those though, and then I'm done with them for a while.

Guess what I got today!!

What did I get? I got a raise! Hooray!!

the necklace

Mom asked to see a picture of the necklace Sam got me, so here it is. My arm looks so weird in this picture! Sam says it looks like a foot :)

DONE!

After 3 straight days of working nonstop- the bathroom is done! Day 1- take off the wallpaper, Day 2- strip the old paint off the cabinets (why I chose to do that, I'll never really be certain), Day 3- PAINT!

Seriously- I have no idea why I thought it was necessary to take the old paint off of the cabinets before I put on new paint. It was so much work, and I don't think it was worth it.

The bathroom looks beautiful, but I'm going to wait to take pictures of it to post on the blog until all the paint is completely dry and I can close the cabinets and drawers. :)

busy busy day

So I went and took my RMA exam this morning. I think it probably went okay- only thing I'm worried about is there were about 20-30 questions about billing and coding. IBMC doesn't offer a billing and coding class for MAs, so I don't really know a lot about how to code. My boss had be start billing last week, so I felt more comfortable than I would if I hadn't started that at work. She also gave me a crash course in coding. I only need to pass with a 70, so hopefully I did at least that well. I won't hear the results for quite a while, but I'll be anxiously awaiting them!

After the test I decided to take the wallpaper down in my bathroom and get going on getting it fixed up. Ever since Sam got the bathtub to start draining I've wanted to fix up the bathroom so that it was a more relaxing environment so I could take a bath or just like the way it looks :) I didn't take any before pictures, but much like the kitchen, just picture any typical grandma bathroom. Floral wallpaper, completely monotone color scheme (beige... boring!) and poorly maintained plumbing fixtures. I got all the wallpaper off, spackle'd the walls, and they're ready to prime and paint. The walls have no texture to them at all though, so I'm trying to decide if we should consider painting them so they appear to have texture.

We have severe water damage on the floor around the toilet. I'm assuming that if I can see it through the linoleum, it's probably significantly worse on the subfloor.... anyone know how to fix that?

Menopause

So far I haven't had too many terrible side effects from the shots. I did have an allergic reaction to the pill my doc started me on, but the shots haven't been quite as bad as I was anticipating.

Worst thing so far- I'll get these hot flashes and I'll get so warm I'll start sweating profusely. By the time they pass I smell like I either don't believe in deodorant, or I haven't showered in months. Or worse- BOTH.

In other news, I have my RMA exams tomorrow. I've never felt less prepared for anything in my entire life! Wish me luck!!

Oh yeah!!!

I forgot- Sam and I exchanged presents for Valentines day today. We're both pretty impatient :) He got me a pretty necklace with my birthstone. The charm looks like a flower, the petals are my birthstone, and the center is a diamond-looking gem :)

I got him a candle that is made out of soy- it burns at a way lower temperature then a normal candle, and you use the melted 'wax' as a lotion. It's supposed to be really really good for eczema. It smells good too :)

So on Monday I went over to my Doc's office to get my first shot- apparently someone in the office forgot to order it, so I didn't get it. I was angry, but I tried to stay calm with the LPN because I don't know if she was the one who was supposed to order it and forgot, or if she was just the messenger. Either way, I was less than successful at not getting angry. Today I went to the clinic to get the shot though, and she was the one who administered the injection and I was much nicer to her. I find it's probably not a good idea to be rude to someone who's about to stick a needle in your butt. Side note- I did NOT realized this was a butt shot... not that it would have made any difference really, but I'm pretty sure I read on the Lupron website that it can be given in the deltoids. The LPN was friendly, but all in all not very professional. First, she took my blood pressure wrong. She didn't get a reading that is too far off what I normally am, but she still did it wrong. Then, she had her cell phone in the exam room with her. It started ringing when she was taking my vitals, and she went out in the hall and took the call. It was her fiance... so weird... Finally though, after giving me the shot she told me she had no idea what it was and how it worked. She asked if I knew, which I did so I told her, and she seemed kind of blown away that I knew. It was a weird doctors visit.

In other news- post shot I kind of feel like crap. Just FYI

Time for an update-

So I get my first shot on Monday. I'm kind of nervous about it, but what am I going to do? My doctor says I shouldn't worry, and that I'll be fine. She says we caught the endometriosis early enough that when the time comes, and I want to start a family my fertility shouldn't be a problem, but only if I start treatment soon. The shots are supposed to help preserve my fertility. Now, I'm not really worried about being infertile, but having to do something to preserve my fertility makes me so depressed. It seems like that shouldn't be something I have to worry about. It seems like that's something I should just have. I don't even really know how to describe it, other than it makes me really really sad. A couple days ago I saw a pregnant lady and I started to cry wondering if I'd ever get that.... I don't know why- I KNOW the disease was caught early enough that it shouldn't be a problem, but I'm still just so depressed about it.

Otherwise I'm kind of nervous about getting the shots because according to research done on the Depot Lupron shots, after the first shot my symptoms will be much worse than they are now, and that I'll actually start feeling better after the second shot. I'll get the shots monthly... thats a whole month where my symptoms will be WORSE than they are now! I don't know how I'll handle that. They're pretty debilitating as is. I've decided to look into acupuncture to help with the symptoms and maybe help with the disorder itself. I've found out my insurance will pay for 30 visits a year as long as I go to their clinic. I think I'm going to try it- not like it'll make it worse.

Bad news

So I went to the doctor last week. I've been having some severe lower back/ abdomen pain. I was hoping it was just an Ovarian Cyst, or maybe some Uterine Cysts... weird thing to hope for, I know. Those can be treated though.

Nope- turns out what I've been saying for the last couple years is true. I have Endometriosis. I don't know why I took the news so hard, but I did. I took it really really hard. It's not like I didn't already suspect it, or that I wasn't trying to prepare myself for the news, but i took it really really hard. After crying pretty much nonstop for about 2 days I started calming down a little. I wouldn't really say I've come to peace with it, but I know there's nothing I can do to get rid of the diagnosis, so I might as well try to function with it.

I start treatment probably next week or the week after. At this point, treatment will involve getting shots about once a month to suppress hormone production in my body. I'll begin to go through early Menopause and have all the fun associated with that. I figure I'll be pretty worked up and crazy for the next 6 months, and that prompted the layout change. Hopefully I'll come to find some kind of humor in being a 23 year old girl going through menopause and post about it. Otherwise, I'll be crazy and depressed. Either way- I'm anticipating crazy.

Bad dog... very bad dog...

So this morning I woke up late, so I had to get ready for work really fast. I got ready with just enough time to get to work on time when I noticed betty had pee'd in her kennel. I let her out thinking I'd wash the kennel and let her run free in the house for the day while it dried. Apparently she'd pee'd in her kennel during the night though, and she slept in a pool of pee and she was wet and cold when she got out of the kennel. So she rolled on the floor to dry off/ warm up. So now I have to clean the carpet before I leave for work AND wash her kennel AND since she's covered in pee, give her a bath. yeah.... I was late to work today...

Thing that gets me- Betty will normally wake me up if she needs to go out in the middle of the night. I have no idea what prompted her to think that peeing in her house and sleeping in it all night was the better option. She would have gotten a treat if she'd woken me up... instead she got a bath.

I love my job!

So a couple days ago I came to work and found a space heater in my cube. Dr. M had noticed that I always wear my coat the day earlier and he asked why. I told him it was freezing in my cube, so he brought me a space heater. I didn't have an outlet to plug it in though, so it was really just a decoration. So he asked why I don't use it and I said that I really want to, but I don't have a spare outlet, so he brought me a power strip.

Current job= WAY better than externship. I remember saying to Dr. Pace once how cold it was in his office (legitimately... he kept the office heated @ about 62 degrees). I was telling him this because the patients were complaining about how cold it was. He told me that when I graduate from med school and have my own practice I can control the thermostat. Jerk. Dr. M is a way better employer/physician IMO.

I'm still here!!

so I had my wisdom teeth out.... or at least one of them. I was pretty out of commission for about 4 days. Then I went back to work and had to start being lucid again.

It was a bad week to be groggy from pain pills- we found out today that our fax machine has been down for 2 days now. It is so BAD for the fax to be down in a doctors office! we've started doing a bunch of work arounds so we can get it all taken care of, but it's been so much work! I have faith that we'll finally be caught up tomorrow though :)

So there's an Art Sale not to far away from me and Sam this weekend- I think I'm going to see if I can get him to go to it with me. If I can't, odds are I'll go anyways, but it'd be cool if he'd come :) Maybe we'll find something pretty to put in our newly decorated kitchen!