Thursday, January 29, 2009

Kidney Stone

Apparently tooth problems weren't enough, so I went ahead and got a kidney stone. It felt like I'd been kicked in the crotch on Tuesday night, and Wednesday morning it felt like someone had kicked me a few more times. Then I went to the instacare in north Orem and the pain really started.

The doctor gave me a shot of an anti-inflammatory medication, and when the pain kept up he gave me a shot of morphine as well. When the pain still didn't let up, Cyndi drove me to the ER and they gave me some stronger narcotics that took away the pain. On a happier note, I'll never get addicted to Morphine since I'm not a fan of the way it makes my whole body burn.

I was there from around 9am to 2 pm and slept through most of it. They gave me a cat scan and saw that it was 3mm and half an inch from passing, so they discharged me. Cyndi drove me home where I slept through the rest of the day, right up until 2am this morning, when the ridiculous pain in my side let me know that the stone hadn't passed. When 800 mg of ibuprofen and 2 percosets didn't knock out the pain, Cyndi (that awesome, awesome wife of mine without whom I couldn't have gone through this) drove me into the ER again. They let me stay there for an hour and a half and then discharged me again on the assumption that, since it was no longer hurting it had passed.

At 11am today, the pain told me (again) that it hadn't. For those of you watching at home, that's 37 hours from beginning to the last time I was sure it hadn't passed. This time the ibuprofen and percosets worked, though. It hurt for 15 minutes and then it stopped. I'm afraid it just stopped moving again and won't believe otherwise until that strainer has a stone in it.

Fun trivia: if it lasts for another 32 hours, I'll have to go through a plane ride with a kidney stone. Fun times!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dental Work

Well, it's that time of year again, when I spend more money than I made in the first 18 years of my life to fix my teeth. This years round up: 1 crown, 1 filling, and 2 more crowns if the insurance company will agree that slowly chipping away at my front teeth is a bad thing. The secretaries don't think it's likely.

I just came back from getting the first crown and the filling done, and I have to say that I absolutely love my dentist, Dr. Richards. Love with a capital :D. He's the only dentist that I come away from the experience and don't wish that I had gone to another dentist. Also, he's funny. Also, he's fast and willing to work with you on money and with emergencies (both of which I've had to take advantage of in the past, unfortunately). Also, the assistants usually give me enough of the laughing gas that it works.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

For Christmas this year, we went to Colorado to hang out with the Veronin clan. I absolutely love Christmas, and I'm really happy that Jeff was able to experience one with my family. On Christmas Eve, my dad reads us Luke chapter 2. We use to act it out with dress ups and everything, but I think we're all a little too old for that. Then we all open one gift (youngest to oldest). It was especially fun this year because Isis and Ki got to participate. Isis loved the attention as we all watched her open her gift. Ki was more interested in exploring the living room (that he's never allowed into) than his gift. It was really cute.

On Christmas morning, we all trooped up the basement stairs (once again youngest to oldest) including the cats, Timmy and Tommy, who are allowed upstairs for a few hours just for this holiday. They were more scared of the unfamiliar than honored with the prospect of joining us for this magical day. We started in the family room for stockings and then moved into the living room for presents.

Everything was perfect. I think watching a child enjoy Christmas helps bring a little of the magic back into it for us grown-up children, and Isis was having a great time with it all. My dad spent a lot of Christmas Eve putting together a mini, singing trampoline for her. It was a big hit. Ki is pretty attached to it too. He tries to climb on while Isis is jumping. She's very good to share her new toy with him and bounces softly while Ki grins and claps.

When Sunday night rolled around, Jeff and I were ready to go home and get back to our lives. I love that we had enough time this vacation to be ready to go instead of having to drag ourselves back home. I didn't feel overwhelmed the next day at work, although I did kind of lose my voice after a week of relaxing. It's amazing how much I'm required to talk at my job.

Thank you, Mom and Dad for making Christmas so much fun, and for making it so easy to come home anytime. :)

New Years Eve was spent with friends at our house. We played Rock Band all night and missed the ball drop. It was really funny and a lot of fun. When we realized what time it was, we laughed, the couples kissed, and we went back to playing Rock Band.