Adios Appendix!

Well, it's been a whirlwind couple of weeks around here, to say the least...I survived round two of exams and presentation nonsense...well, almost...Let's start with Valentines day. Have I mentioned how much I hate Valentines day? It wasn't bad tho. Husby suggested takeout BBQ dinner at home via candelight (with the Munchkins too, of course) which was probably the best idea yet. Since I have school by our fave BBQ joint I offered to grab it on the way home. Yum! He had his usual pile of ribs, and I tried something new, these crab cakes coated in pulled pork...Seriously. I kid you not. Now, I have been phasing meat and meat products out of my diet gradually, so I expected the tummy ache that ensued Monday evening. And I kind of expected it to linger into Tuesday, I mean, deep friend and pulled pork, I earned it. But come Wednesday it was like I was being stabbed in the gut over and over again, and I only made it 2 hours into my 11 hour day at work when the boss started calling the local urgent care offices to see who had what imaging equipment to figure out what meanness was attacking my insides.
Using Colleen and Lisa's differential diagnosis, we narrowed my RLQ pain down to ovarian cysts, appendicitis, or diverticulitis, I just needed someone to take pictures of my guts and tell me which one it was. No luck finding Urgent care though, so I had to suck up the copay and visit the local ER.
It was interesting. I sat there for a few hours being poked and prodded (OW) and then drank some contrast dye mixed with crystal lite that I was told would give me diarrhea. Yay. CT scan was inconclusive (and boy is that gonna cost me) and by the time the surgeon got there Jon had arrived. We opted to take the diagnosis of possible cysts since my WBC wasn't elevated and although I had about no appetite I wasn't nauseas or vomiting. They offered to keep me for observation, or take out the lil guy for kicks, but I had a big test on Thursday (covering intraabdominal infections, mind you, Irony!) and a presentation to give on Friday that I hadn't quite finished yet. My super nice awesome nurse was busy when it was time for me to go, so this other nurse tossed a bunch of papers at me including a prescription for half the NSAIDs I currently take, confused the hell out of me, and lead me to tears of frustration. Supernicenurse came back and apoligized, and I just hoped that I would never have to see any of them again.
Well, I was up a couple times during the night with the stabbing pain, which was worse despite my pile-o-pain pills (not the 400mg Ibu the ER doc offered me though, something about duplicate therapy he didn't seem to understand...)and driving to school Thursday AM was not a pleasant time. Not to mention the after effects of all that crap they made me drink for the imaging, I was a peach, for sure. I spent a good chunk of time on the phone trying to get a hold of my PCP at the VA to get in for an ultrasound to confirm the cyst hypothesis, or obtain some sort of referral to not have to pay thousands if I had to go back to the ER....To find out my PCP was leaving the clinic and they could get me in in MAY. MAY. MAY! I requested to leave a message for a nurse or ANYONE but since they didn't have me reassigned they didn't have anyone to direct my message to. Lovely. They ended up finding a cancellation in someone's day for next Wednesday, so I took that for the time being, and hoped the pain would go away.
I made it through my test. Not excited to see the grades on that one, a two hour exam and I left in about 40 minutes because I was pretty sure my guts were going to grace the classroom walls one way or another. Texted husby to meet me at home and take me back to the hospital. Once I was back in the ER with not-so-nice nurse taking care of me (luckily I felt to crappy to care) they did bloodwork and my WBC was elevated. They opted to inspect my appendix situation laproscopically, and told me they'd take it out either way, and got me ready for surgery.
So here it is, Saturday night, and I'm working on this recovery nonsense. It went really well, and although I'm super sore I no longer have this stabbing pain in my RLQ.
I just caught up on emailing all my professors to make up my work from Friday and for Monday and Tuesday, so that I could take it easy a couple days. Since my back is already in bad shape, this whole having my stomach muscles cut into thing isn't the best ever. I'll tell you what is the best ever though, my husby for attempting to take care of me, my folks for bringing me flowers, my friends for entertaining me and making us all dinner, and all the people sending warm get better fuzzies my way. Who knows, maybe I can get some lazy projects done the next couple days? Maybe?
:)

Time out Tuesday...

So, I was getting some things done before classes yesterday, and I found out that the class I had an exam in today was NOT a pass/fail class. Ooops. I suppose that was likely indicated on the syllabus, but...I guess I missed that. Yesterday was jam packed, by 10am I had already spent quality time at the gym, got the kids up and dressed, finished my homework for the afternoon, and killed some time...After school was filled up too, volunteering with my oldest at Noogieland back in the city till 8...Meaning I had to go in and out of the city twice before I could finally wind down. Monday was manic indeed, but enjoyable, despite taking a small amount of anxiety to bed with me since studying for this exam clearly was out of range...

That being said, I rocked it. For sure. Granted, it was all on that common sense stuff, that (frighteningly) other pharmacy students sometimes have a LOT of trouble with. I had an advantage I guess in that I have kids that I had to feed and take care of and it was a self care exam...But for all the times having a family doesn't make the pharm student life easier, I think I had one freebie coming my way :)

Anyways. I was about to start working on my umpteen school things for the week, osteomyelitis case, fundraiser flyers, journal club, presentation....And I thought I'd take a time out. I busted out my camera and took the before shots for my projects-in-progress...

So...Here (hopefully) you can see the blue cord that will be a new bag, on top of the canvas where Auburn and I have sketched out our drawing (a big leafy tree and tons of flowers) an old magazine, an olive container I rescued from the recycletruckmonster after the last fridge clean (some label still attached...) and my bff modgepodge.

With both kids entertained, and husby soldering in the hallway, I figured I'd take my time out one step further and have some craft time. I decided that I wanted my pencil holder, formerly known as olive jar, to be coated in various shades of wine since it will be in my dining room, with a burgundy ceiling and purple walls, and wine in general makes me smile...So I selected my ratty-est wine-o mag and went to town cutting out slices of pinot and merlot. Before grabbing my scissors, I soaked the jar in a bucket of hot water with a lil Mrs. Meyers (goo gone scares me a little, and to be honest, it requires too much one-on-one) so the label and residual sticky would slip right off. Chopped out the shades of wine, and rescued my jar, ready to go! I was so impressed with it's shiny-ness, I took a picture of that too...

Ok. So the glare from my camera, and the photo quality don't do this shiny piece of rescued glass justice, I'm going for the *thought* that counts. I was super pleased. I promptly coated it with shades of wine and heaps of modgepodge, and once it dries and I find some snappy ribbon for the top, I'll post a pic of that too :)

Well, I suppose this case study isn't going to do itself, and considering I took another time out to blog this today (apparently my blog doesn't write itself either...) I'd better get to it.

Happy Tuesday all :)

Dear Friday, I love you.

We should do this more often.

But really.

Don't get me wrong, it's been a crazy day, and it's not even noon. This weekend is basically a marathon, working, superbowling, and studying (apparently I have another test and presentation due next week...)

Either way, I'm glad it's Friday. It's dress down day, even! I swear, class is a LOT less painful in a hoodie and jeans.

This weekend, I have some ambitious projects to finish up. OK, maybe not that ambitious. Last weekend I spent some time prioritizing and collecting supplies for my projects. I decided my needs were..
1. A pencil holder: My desk, which I LOVE is getting super beat up. I think having writing utensils in an accessible (and adorable) place will help save wear and tear on my top drawer, which has developed a squeak. Of course, this is a process, I'll have to clean out and organize the drawers, the top of desk chaos, soap the drawers so they don't squeak, then cute-en it up and plant it on the clean desk....
2. New Art: Now that my living room is (almost) painted, I think it's time for a wall wear upgrade. Bought some canvases and decided it's time to use up the random paints to make some wall art happen.
3. New bag: I could always use a new bag. Goal, is have it done by spring break. Got some clearance corduroy (I wanted enough of one fabric to make the most of it, and my fabric bins are currently being held hostage in a hostile environment), this weekend I'll draw the pattern.

I know, it's a little silly to have 3 concurrent projects. During last week's blog hop, I saw so many adorable posts, with before and after pics, processes, etc. Loved it. But realistically, I just don't have the space, patients, or chunk of time to get things done in a process fashion, at least, yet. (Hobby room IS on the horizon!) So, I'm starting 3 small but needed projects now, so when I want to work on something I can pick up whatever works for the space and time I have.

So, happy weekend all :) And I'll update this with pics when I get home, to at least show the "before" shots...