MIA

It has been awhile since I have updated. There has just been an awful lot going on.

Last week, I had my first overnight business trip since HK has joined the family. I knew she would be all right, I knew that Justin would be okay, and I thought that I would be fine. Well, I did manage to make it through the one night I was gone without hysteria, but I actually did think a few times that I was going to have a full on panic attack. I was NOT expecting that at all-I really thought I would be ok, but I will admit that I was a little sad and panicked at being away from home.

So, the next week, I have my next overnight, but this time I am gone for 2 nights. Everything is going much smoother, until I swell up like a hot air balloon. Let me back up-I have been swelling for the past week and a half to two weeks, but I am just chalking it up to the fact that I have come off of prednisone and it is a reaction. Well, I called my doc from out of town just to see if I can get an appointment for the end of the week when I am home again. The doc FREAKS out and tells me to get to an urgent care clinic immediately. So, I proceed to go to an urgent care clinic, and they would not touch me-told me to go directly to the ER. OK-what in the heck???

So, I drive all the way home to Nashville and go directly to Vanderbilt ER. Justin meets me. They take me to triage and take my blood pressure-it is 160/103. Seriously. Not kidding.

The nurse puts that little plastic tube thing in my vein so they don't have to keep sticking me (typing this is actually making my body hurt at the thought of it). I kind of start to panic about the whole idea of the needles and the tubes, so my nurse reverts to her Peds (yes, as in pediatrics) schpeel...she tells me, "honey, it is all right. I am just going to put a magic straw in your arm!" Now really, unless that magic straw is connected to some magic White Zin, I want nothing to do with your magic straw business.

After 7 hours at the ER, and blood tests, which I am NOT.A.FAN.OF.NEEDLES.AT.ALL, I am ok. All the tests came back fine. They do think that it is a side effect of the prednisone because all of this started when I ended the meds. I will live to see another day.

I will be honest here-I would not have even gone to the doctor had it not been for something a man said to me as I was debating what to do regarding my cankles. We had just been talking about kids, and I had told him that I had a 4 month old little girl. He looked at me and said, "You need to call the doctor and do what the doctor tells you to do. It is not about you anymore. You have someone else to think about now-you have a little girl who needs her mother to be ok and be there. You have to make sure that you are all right. She is depending on you." Wow. That is some food for thought. This is a whole new ball game.

So, as I am typing this, my hubby, my mom-in-law and my dad-in-law are working in the front yard-weeding, mulching, trimming...For Justin's birthday, they gave him a day of yard work. He actually took them up on it. So, I should feel guilty about sitting here while they all slave outside in the heat. However, when Justin and I got a house, we made a pact that the inside is mine and the outside is his. And, this is his gift-this is between him and his parents. This has NOTHING to do with me. I just get the cold waters when requested, and I did make hot dogs, pasta salad, and grapes for lunch. Ah-but doctor's orders-I must keep my feet up!