Salt Lake

First I have to share some good news: I am off prednisone!! I got down to 10 mg and took tht for about a week and a half. Originally I thought I would have to sill take lower doses for awhile before I could completely stop taking it. But then the dr in Salt Lake told me I could just stop taking it, so that was a nice surprise. I was super excited. I have done pretty good going off of it this time. The one thing I noticed is that my joints are bothering me more now, but I'm going to start taking another medication for that. I have actually been feeling a lot better, especially the last couple weeks. I haven't been having very much pain, and overall have just been doing better.
On Friday I had another appointment in Salt Lake. Chris came with me and sat at the hospital wth me for 3 hours. First I saw the Nurse Practitioner again that I saw last time. She was really excited that I gained about 4 pounds since last time I saw her. I'm finally almost back up to my normal weight. She said she could tell that I feel better than I did, and that I have more color in my face. She said she wishes she could take the credit for me feeling better, but that that's probably not it. She said that prednisone must not be my friend like it is for other people, which kind of made me laugh. She told me for now to keep doing what I'm doing. She said to just keep in touch with her and let her know how I'm doing periodically. If I start to have problems, there are always other things that we haven't tried. I have another appointment in 3 months.
After that I had the breath test for bacterial overgrowth. She still wanted me to do it. I just had to drink some not-so-good-tasting-stuff and blow into a bag every 15 minues for about an hour and a half. They said that everything was normal, so that's good. There was another lab test I was also planning on doing there, but she said since I'm feeling better, we can hold off on it for now.
Once we were all done at the hospital, we wanted to have some fun. We went to the Hogle Zoo. I haven't been there since I was about 12. The weather was perfect and it was really fun. I couldn't believe how many people were there though. My favorite part was the giraffes.

After the zoo we went and walked around Temple Square. We took a tour of the Conference Center, which I have done a couple times before, but every time is different and I learn new things. It was really fun and a really good trip. We went home the same day.