Happy Birthday!

Today is Brandon's 23rd birthday. I am doing my best to be excited (I am sick. Hopefully I won't ruin everything for him.) He has had a few birthday treats over the past few days. On Saturday Mammaw brought him a chocolate birthday pie (because Brandon loves chocolate) and his present from her, Pappaw, and Brian (the Clone Wars Monopoly.) Last night we went out to dinner with Brandon's family, and that was nice. I haven't seen them in a few weeks because I have been sick and all kinds of crazy stuff. We went to Cracker Barrel, and I had pancakes, and they were good. Today we will run over to the library for a few minutes, because we are having a going-away potluck for our children's librarian, Ms Lynn (who is one of my favorite people). We will not stay and eat, because I don't want to cough on everyone, but I need to drop off a cheesecake for the potluck, and say hi to my bff Owen (my friend and former co-worker's one month old baby). I told Brandon I'd get him Taco Bell for his birthday lunch, and then tonight my family is coming over for pizza and cake and ice cream. It should be fun. I hope Brandon has a really nice birthday. I will try not to cough all over his cake.

I should buy stock in Hall's strawberry cough drops.

The last few weeks have been interesting, to say the least. Pretty much every one who knows me is aware that I have "tummy troubles". Something is basically always wrong with my stomach. Sometimes I can't eat. It's stupid. Well, things have been getting worse lately, particularly in the reflux department, so three weeks ago I went to see my internist to talk about what's going on. He did some tests, took some blood, told me to go back to my gastrointerologist and have my esophagus scoped again, and then come back and see him so we could talk about what to do next. In the course of those tests, he found that I am still anemic from some bleeding problems I had almost a year ago, I have extremely low vitamin D levels, like everyone else in my family (normal range is between 32 and 100. My number was 5.8. Pretty sad.) And something may be going on with my thyroid- I had trouble reading his handwriting on the results. And he did an EKG because sometimes I have these really scary heart palpitations, and found that I have an "irregular sinus rhythm", but lots of people do so it's not anything to worry about. That is somewhat comforting.

So then the next week, I went to the hospital and had my esophagus scoped. It's not pleasant to think about, but things went pretty well- the whole thing takes a little more than ten minutes. As everyone and their mom suspected, my esophagus is pretty torn up from years and years of exposure to reflux, and a host of medicines that don't do their job. The doctor said I have a hernia in my esophagus (which explains why I can't swallow sometimes, but is still extremely lame) and he said that I had Barrett's disease, which is basically a precancerous thing that makes really bad burns on your esophagus while your esophagus tries to grow itself a new lining (ew). He said my chances of getting cancer were pretty slim, though, as most of the time it's middle aged white guys who get it. I may be white, but I'm not an old man. So I have that going for me.

Well, after the procedure, I did ok, but then it was getting harder and harder for me to swallow, and my stomach was upset for a few days. So I called the doctor to see if there was a chance that the procedure had disrupted anything, and they didn't really answer that question, but they said that my biopsy results came back and I do NOT have Barrett's. This is a good thing, but still. My esophagus must look pretty bad if they thought I had this horrible disease thing.

Well, then I caught a cold. And this sucker will not go away. Everything started to go better, except for the cough (you know, the cough sticks around for what feels like forever) but then it was getting harder to breathe, and then on Saturday I woke up and was pretty sure I had pink eye. I'm not sure why, but you can get it when you have a cold sometimes. So Sunday morning my mom took me to the doctor, and the doctor was a patron of mine whom I don't particularly care for, and she basically blamed everything on my allergies. She gave me a cortisone shot and made me do a breathing treatment, and wrote me FIVE prescriptions. Antibiotics to make me feel better. Hard core cough syrup to help me sleep. Eye drops for my stupid pink eye. A short term inhaler because my lungs are so inflamed. And a prescription for another inhaler should I need one later on. This is crazy, really.

So I took everything I could yesterday afternoon and last night, and didn't sleep. Every time I moved in my sleep, whether it was slumping down a little in my pillows or rolling on my side, I woke up because I couldn't breathe all of a sudden, and then I'd cough for ten minutes, and then try to sleep again. This happened every hour. Painfully lame. This morning I feel worse than I have all week. Hopefully the pharmacy's worth of medicine I am consuming will help me feel better really soon. I feel sorry for Brandon. I can tell he is getting tired of hearing me cough.

Hopefully it won't be as cold this time.

Can I just say that I am pretty excited? Sure I can.

Mom and dad decided that they want a vacation this fall. I totally agree with them- we didn't take a vacation last year-saving vacation time for the wedding, I guess- and we are vacation people. We have at least gone somewhere for a long weekend pretty much every year since the beginning of time. Sometimes, you just need a break. Anyway, they have decided to go to Disney World, and I am invited along. This in itself is exciting enough- because I love Disney World and I've never been there in the fall, and they'll have Halloween decorations and everything. But it is super exciting because I invited Kelli and she found out the other day that she will be able to go! So I am super pumped! I am trying hard not to think about it too much, because the more I plan something, the more the actual event deviates from my plans, and I end up a little disappointed. But it's hard not to- even though it's seven months and seventeen days away.

But what about my husband? Well, he doesn't want to go. He does not vacation very often. And he had fun when we went to Disney World, but he's not obsessed with it or anything. Plus if he is still working at the same job, he doesn't get vacation time, meaning he'd miss a week's pay. So he really doesn't want to go. He doesn't mind if I go, but he does tease me a little about spending the money on the trip. All we have to pay for is our tickets and food, so I did some math and found if I save $10 a week I should have more than enough. That just means I can't buy as much junk at the grocery store. It's an excercise in frugality. And practicality. Yeah, that sounds good.

I'm sure I will post more about this excitement as the actual event draws closer, but for now I just wanted to vent some of my happiness.