Something to Celebrate! September 26, 2008

 

 

So we’ve officially made it a year! Alex and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary a little more than a week ago. It was so nice. We went up to Indy for a nice dinner and we got tickets to see the musical Sweeney Todd on campus. The trip to Indy was a lot of fun…it was the same weekend as the MotoGP race, so people were out with their bikes all over the town. In several places there wasn’t enough room for cars to park because the bikes completely lined the streets and there were several places where cars decided they would park three rows deep (yes, this is in downtown Indianapolis…it was complete insanity!).

 

Anyway, our dinner was fabulous, but the best part about the entire night was my brother calling me. I know, I’d like to say it was spending quality time with my husband, but really…hearing from my brother was the best thing! It had been almost four months since my brother and I last spoke. It made the night really special.

 

I also had my ultrasound appointment last week. I made Alex go with me…boy did he get a kick out of that. I can only imagine how he’ll behave once I am pregnant. (Although I suppose I should give him some points just for coming with me to the appointment). Anyway, we walked in a little after my appointment time (Alex is NOT a morning person)…and waiting in the waiting room for a couple minutes. Then the nicest ultrasound tech came out and got us. She was really great! She walked through exactly what we were seeing on the screen…and as it turns out…the polyp is not in my uterus. So yay! No surgery for me…at least not anytime soon!

 

We met with my doctor briefly after the ultrasound to go over everything and to see if we had any questions. She said my tests came back normal, so we didn’t have to remove the polyp immediately, but that I should remind them of it once I do get pregnant (apparently it could cause some spotting issues). She and another doctor agreed that it would not affect my fertility if we decided to leave the polyp alone for the time being. So it’s staying for now…I guess we’ll see where we are in a couple months (January is coming up quick!).

 

I also met with my new doctor about my back this week. I’ve been put on some muscle relaxers for the time being. They seem to be helping (I can get through the day without being in too much pain, maybe a 3-4 on a scale of 1-10.)…but I’m so tired when I’m taking them. I’ve even been taking them at night…about an hour before I go to bed. But I haven’t noticed much difference in the sleepiness. I may need to go back in in a couple weeks to have an MRI done on my back, but if everything goes well, I will start seeing a physical therapist and will be able to stop taking my medication. It’s my goal to be off all medications by early November. If we’re planning on trying in January I don’t want any chance of being on something that could cause a problem.

a little bit crazy September 8, 2008

Arg…I’m so frustrated. I’ve been dealing with back pain for several years now…and about a month ago I had another period of excruciating pain. I had stopped going to the chiropractor up until that point…but the amount of pain I was in called for some help. Well…I’ve moved since the last attack I had, and I never replaced my chiropractor. So I had to start at square one. My boss recommended a lady in town and I went to her the same day.

 

My first impression was that she was a little off…but she might actually be able to help. She’s very into holistic medicine and likes to push the vitamins and minerals she sells in office…so I automatically was skeptical (Bloomington has a ton of these type of “doctors”…I’m just not a believer…I need some proof that this stuff really works).

 

Anyway, she did the basics…I had some x-rays taken (surprise, surprise, my back’s seriously messed up!), and she realigned me, and I had an ultrasound done on my back. That was everything I was used to the in past…my old chiropractor (who I completely adore) used the same techniques.

 

The only difference is Todd (the old chiropractor) actually gave me some exercises to help my back…but this woman hasn’t given me anything. In fact…she went through an entire period where she didn’t even want me walking. If you can imagine…I wasn’t terribly thrilled. I’ve been training for a couple small races this fall…but I had to stop because of my back pain. But there was no way I was going to completely stop working out. She still has yet to “ok” any sort of exercise…but I’ve been doing a little bit with my trainer at work.

 

Anyway, all of that added up should have probably been enough for me to start seriously questioning a few things and probably start looking into finding a real doctor. But I didn’t. Instead I kept going. And every time I would leave the office I would hear the girls ask me if I “felt so much better”…and every time I kept thinking, “no, she’s not helping me at all”. Well…last week I finally gave up on her. But it took her doing some serious damage.

 

I had an appointment on Thursday evening after work. So I went about my day as usual. Went to work…did my mid-day workout in the gym (Thursday was 20 minutes on the elliptical and 10 minutes of abs). Well I get to her office…and I’m in a little bit of pain…probably a 4-5 on a scale of 1-10. (This is a serious improvement…I was at an 8-9 earlier). Anyway, I’m at the appointment and she gets upset that I’m not making any more improvement…apparently I should be completed “healed” by now because she’s apparently that good.

 

Well she’s feeling around on my back and grabs my side…and just starts digging in. She has me roll over on my back so that she can see something on my stomach and she starts hardcore digging into my abs saying that they’re so tight and that there’s something wrong. Well this goes on for a while until I can’t take it anymore. It seriously hurt and I felt like I was going to throw up…in fact, I think I said, “If you don’t stop I’m going to throw up all over you!” So she stopped on that side…but then later tried to do the same thing on the other side of my stomach. She then had the nerve to ask me the dreaded “don’t you feel so much better?” I didn’t say anything…but hey…saying nothing was way better than what I was thinking!

 

So I hurt a little bit that afternoon…but by the time I got home I was really throwing up. I spent all night and the next day getting sick. My husband finally had enough of it and called the office and demanded that they give us a reference to a real doctor. Needless to say…they weren’t thrilled we were leaving their practice. In fact…she was so upset that I wasn’t going to come back that she repeatedly called the wrong doctor to refer us. She was going to send me to some crazy doctor at a pain management center…yet another doctor who would love to sell me his vitamins. My poor husband spent all day on the phone with their office…but we finally got an appointment with the doctor we requested. Now I just have to wait until November! (Yikes! That’s two months away!). The new office apparently didn’t have any openings any time soon…so I guess I get to hang out in pain for a while. I’m going to call them later today to see if they’ll work me in if anyone cancels an appointment.

Hi..I’m new. September 3, 2008

I’ve decided I need to have a place to write down how I feel..without really worrying if it makes sense to everyone. So, here I am.

I’m torn right now..do I start off and tell any back story so everything makes sense..or just jump into it?  I suppose I’ll do a bit of both.

Here’s the short version…  My lovely husband and I got married last September. We had a miscarriage in March (we weren’t trying..but it was still devastating). We’re thinking about actually trying again in a few months (December/January-ish).

I finally went to the doctor yesterday for a pre-conception checkup. Figured everything would be fine. And most of it was..I’m doing everything she recommended I do..take my vitamins, exercise, cut down on caffeine..but..there was one minor hiccup. It seems I have a polyp…and apparently they can’t tell if it’s attached to my cervix or my uterus. So I get to go back in a couple weeks and have an ultrasound done to figure out where it’s coming from. If it’s attached to my cervix..it’s apparently no big deal. But…if it’s stemming from my uterus I’ll need to have surgery. Now I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who have had no problems with this procedure…but seriously…I’m flipping out right now. Because the doctor can’t see where it’s coming from she couldn’t specifically let me know if it would affect our chances of getting pregnant or not. So here I am thinking we’ve already failed once..and this could potentially be a pattern.

Here’s hoping my ultrasound sheds some light on the matter.