Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Married life...

Wow. Where does the time go? I really, really want to try to make this blog a daily habit. I feel like if I can do that, then I will be able to use it as an outlet for some of my feelings- which should help me, overall, with everything that is going on in my life.

Let's start with the big news. This winter has been an absolute beast, and I have flared beyond anything I have experienced before this. It's been hard, and a tad disappointing. The stim just doesn't touch my flare pain. After all we went through to get it, only to find out it possibly, probably, won't work during the winter season, when I am affected the hardest because of the cold. What a blow. Oh well- I am trying to deal with it as best I can.

I react so violently to the cold and winter. The storms, the frigid temps, along with not being able to be as mobile and other triggers, I have been pushed into one of the worst flares ever. As a result of my out of control flaring, my regular pain management doctor, Dr. C, did another left Lumbar Sympathetic Nerve Block, 3 days before Christmas. It worked; I was pain free for 3-4 days. Once the block wore off, though, the pain came roarin' back. At that point, Dr. C referred me to Dr. J- the surgeon who did my stim. She felt that Dr. J could do a week long epidural infusion of bupivicaine (also known as Marcaine), the same med used in the nerve block. The hope is that by bathing the nerve in the med, it will give it the time it needs to really rest, and subsequently give me more pain relief.

The problem with this is that it's a 5 day inpatient procedure. So, on February 28th, I will be going into the hospital for this infusion. Dr. J tried several other conservative methods first, but none worked. God willing, this will help to relieve my pain. Because it's a week long epidural, there are some big concerns- it's not your typical childbirth epidural. Pressure sores are a big concern, since I won't be moving for 5 days. As are bladder and UTIs- I will have a cath in for 5 days. Add in I will be bored out of my MIND...we are already ordering and cataloging our DVDs, so I have tons of things to do while up there! I am hoping that they have internet, so I can blog my experience.

Married life has been good. Gotta be honest, signing Mrs. BLW Squared is still, well, odd! I'm getting better at it though- I have to, since I officially changed my name and will be signing this name for the rest of my life.

We got our wedding pictures back! They rock, to say the least. Stephanie of Stephanie Glover Photography (website and Facebook) knocked them out of the park. I'll put a slideshow at the end of some of the pictures (for the next few posts).

We started the house hunt again, with the hope that this time, things will go a bit differently than they did back in 2009. We found a couple that we like (including this one), but unfortunately, we have to end up waiting a little longer to start the purchasing process than we thought. Sigh; I can't wait to have our own place to make a home!

Brian and I bought a camera! It's a DSLR camera, and I was so super excited to get one. I have been obsessed as of lately- researching, reading, learning, all trying to take in how to take decent pictures. We got the Canon T1i, which came with the 18-55mm kit lens. I know, it's not the greatest lens. But it will work, that's for sure, until we can afford another one (which won't be for a while; have you seen the pricing of DSLR lenses lately?!!). It will be enough for us to learn on. Now I can't wait for it to warm up, so we can take Mindi on walks and take some pictures! I want to take this thing off of Auto Mode and really take it for a test drive! To be honest it's one of the few things that really excites me nowadays- with this disease messing with my brain and the meds messing with my brain and my brain messing with me, well, sometimes, I don't always feel up to snuff like I used to. This makes me want to learn and challenge myself- one of the reasons Brian agree to splurge and buy.

What else? Mindi is doing awesome; she has a friend now! My mom and sister got a Cockapoo named Molly, and boy was that an interesting introduction. Instead of being gungho about it, like she is with the bigger dogs our relatives have, Mindi freaked! Molly, of course, wanted to be friends, but Mindi wanted NOTHING to do with Molly. Well, they are going to have to learn to like each other- my mom is watching Mindi the week I am in the hospital! They did much better the second time around, so I think it's just a matter of figuring out personal boundaries.

Well, I promised a slideshow, so here is the first of several!

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