Full House

Last weekend we had quite the crowd at our house. Brock and Kris came for a quick trip from Boston, so everyone came to hang out while they were here. It was so fun to see them (we hadn't seen them since August). Porter and Taylee are getting so big. It will be fun when Brock is done with school and we can see them a little more often. Here are just some pics from the weekend. I enjoyed every minute of having all THIRTEEN of my nieces and nephews here.

Porter and I (he just turned 2)

Halli really liked to give Landon hugs.

Luke and Landon

The weather was nice enough that the kids could even play outside...Taylee, Tanner, Kade, Kalan, and Ian

I love this girl!

Landon still really likes me. :)

Saturday night my niece Kelsi was in Magic Valley's Jr. Miss. A bunch of us girls went and watched her. She did so good and was so fun to watch. I was so proud!

Kelsi is on the bottom left with the headband. This is their Physical Fitness routine, which she won by the way. :)

I thought she looked gorgeous!

It was a great weekend with family. Of course, after everyone leaves I miss them even more, but it was fun while it lasted.

Good news

I changed my mind...I'm entitled to do that, right? :) I decided to have the sinus surgery now because it will be completely paid for. I had called and cancelled it and the nurse said she would talk to the Dr. to see what else we could do in the meantime. She called me on Monday and said that we could try allergy tests or something, but that he really thinks that surgery is the best option for me. He also said that I would only miss two days of work (he does surgery on Thursday and said I would be back by Monday.) The big thing that was holding me back was having to miss a whole week of work (like they originally told me). So I thought about it and decided to go ahead and do it. I work with such great girls at work who are always willing to cover for me or trade days or whatever I need. It took some major convincing of my boss because someone already has that Friday off, but I pretty much told her I was doing it. Everyone else said they would be fine without me. I scheduled it for March 31 (the last day that it will be paid for!) so I hope nothing happens that means I have to stay in the hospital. :) The other choices I had wouldn't work, so that's when it is. I feel really good about it. I have tried everything under the sun for my sinuses (allergy meds, nasal sprays, sinus rinses, etc) and I still have problems, so hopefully this helps at least some. Another reason I was originally debating about it was that I dind't know if I wanted to have a surgery when I havn't been feeling great and have lost all this weight. But I have been feeling really good the last week since I started the prednisone. So I called Dr. Smith on Tuesday and he said that I should be fine. I think that eased some of my mom's concerns as well. So March 31 it is!

On another note, today I was supposed to call Dr. Smith to see how to taper off of the prednisone, so I did and his nurse called me back and left a message on what to do. Then Dr. Smith practically chased me down at work today to talk to me. He said there is a standared way to taper off the prednisone, (which is what his nurse told me to do), but he said we could do it a little differently because with pouchitis you can do it faster than with like ulcerative colitis (I think because it's not as bad). I told him my cell number and our office extension so he could get a hold of me to give it to me. Then he got kind of excited and told me how yesterday he was talking to some rep who has a new test that they can do for pouchitis and ulcerative colitis. I didn't really understand it, but it helps you see kind of what the pouchitis is going to do, which maybe can shed some light on how to treat it. He said he gets to do two of his patients for free and he wants to do me! He said he was really curious to what it would show. I have no idea what it entails (it's probably a blood test) or really even what it will help, but I was pretty excited. I think he's going to call me next week about it. Anyway, then apparently instead of calling me he went up to our office on the 5th floor to drop off the sheet telling me how to get off the prednisone, and a prescription for a lower dose. He's so nice, what kind of doctor does that? So I just wanted to share some good news today. Now I'm just praying that I will still feel good on a lower dose of prednisone, keep your fingers crossed!

Feeling Good

Just an update with what's been going on with everything...I have actually started to feel better the last week or so. I have been calling Dr. Smith every week and letting him know how I'm doing. He hasn't really known what to do. First he increased my prilosec dose, which I think helped some but I was still having lots of other problems. I had a couple bad nights where I was in a ton of pain and the pain pills I had didn't do a thing. Sometimes I see Dr. Smith at the hospital when he's on call and one day he had me meet him at the 3rd Floor nurse's station and he gave a prescription for stronger pain pills right there (that's right, I know how to work the system). :) Anyway, then he put me on prednisone (of which I'm not a huge fan). He had me start with 40 mg for 2 days and then taper down, but I really didn't see a difference at all. He said he never has this much trouble with pouchitis. So he had me go back to the 40 mg, only this time for 10 days. I'm on day 4 and I feel SOOO much better! I can't believe it. It's a little scary though because I have bad memories of never being able to get off prednisone. Before I had surgery I took it for a year because every time we would try to lower my dose, I would get sick again. Then I dealt with all the bad side effects like bloody noses, poofy face, cravng junk food, grumpy mood, down to my adrenal glands in my kidneys failing and landing me in the ICU. Hopefully I will be able to get off of it quickly and I will still feel good. But it has been really refreshing to be feeling better.

On another note, I went to an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor in Twin the other day. I have been wanting to go to one for a long time and figured that since I've met my deductible that now was the perfect time. Dr. Smith referred me to him. His name is Dr. Mayes and I was really impressed. He had me get a CAT scan of my sinuses, and then let me go right back and talk about the results. Apparently I have a really deviated septum, which was nice to know. Also some other stuff up there is too big and making it so I can't breath and feel congested all the time. He said he could do surgery and I would definitely breath better. He couldn't guarantee that it would help the sinus headaches, etc. though. But I think it would be worth it to just be able to breath (although I hear sinus surgery is pretty miserable). I've always thought that most of my problems were related to my sinuses themselves, not allergies, but he said some allergies could be contributing too. He said he wasn't going to tell me what to do, but he brought up the fact that it would be a great time to do the surgery since I've met my deductible (it starts over in April, which is a bummer). So I scheduled it, but as I was thinking about it I decided it wouldn't be a good time. We are really swamped at work right now. The only day I could do it was March 31st (because of other people being on vacation, my brother coming to visit from Boston, etc), but that meant I would miss the first week of April. That is when I am supposed to start working 5 days/week and one of the other dietitians will be working more hours at the cancer center. Plus I'm planning to go see my brother in Boston in April for a few days, and I don't feel like I could take time off for both. To add to everything, my boss announced a couple days ago that she is leaving and her last day is March 25th, so we might even be out of a boss at that point if they havn't found someone new yet.

Friday I called and cancelled the surgery and Dr. Mayes' nurse is going to call me on Monday and let me know if he thinks we should do anything else in the meantime (allergy testing, etc.) I had allergy tests when I was in like 6th grade, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to do it again. I'm just tired of having a sinus headace every day of my life. So I will for sure do the surgery, but probably not until like July, when we've moved to the new hospital and can take vacations again, and have a new boss, and things have hopefully settled down. This week I've been dealing with a bad cold and cough, and today I don't have much of a voice. My boss sent me home early on Friday, I think because she was afraid I was going to get everyone else sick. I hope not...I would feel really bad. I feel like I catch everything that goes around and have it worse and for longer, but I guess that comes with a messed up immune system. :)
Anyway, I feel like things are looking up and I have had more energy. I have been staying very busy with church activites and hanging out with friends and family. Sorry if this rambled a bit, but there it is. :)

Blessing

Last weekend we went to St. Anthony for my nephew Luke's blessing. My mom and I went down Saturday morning. We stopped in Pocatello and did some shopping so we didn't get there till the afternoon. That night we went and ate at Craigo's in Rexburg. The blessing was really nice and it was just fun to see everyone. Luke sure is getting big and he is so cute.
Here are just a few pictures from the "blessed" event. :)

Oh I love my family...

I'm 24!

Crazy right? I feel kind of old. On the Sunday before my birthday some of my aunts and uncles and cousins came over and we had cake and ice cream (actually brownies and ice cream because I'm not a huge fan of cake). Of course my cousins and I watched some Psych. What else would I want to do for my birthday? My birthday itself was on a Tuesday, so I had it off because I have every Tuesday off. (Not for long though. Starting in April I will be working 5 days/week, which I think will be bitter sweet...the money will be nice but I really love my days off). I just slept in and relaxed. Then I went to the opthamologist who said my eyes are fine so I could start taking the medication for rheumatoid arthritis. Then I went out to dinner. All in all it was pretty good. I got lots of birthday wishes on facebook, cards, phone calls, and texts. I felt pretty loved!