I have found out over the last few days that LOTS more people who I know in meatspace actually read this blog! Like LOTS AND LOTS from various (waaaaaaaaay too various) parts of my life. Imagine an obscure part of your life and then think about an obscure person from it and imagine that that person knows everything about you. You don’t *mind* that they know it, but you just wish you had knewn that they knew it.
I’m not even sure what to say. I spent the evening with some of my most favorite Hokies. We cried and prayed for all of the students at Tech, thanking God for what a great place it is. I didn’t go to Tech, but I spent many weekends there. It’s a very special place to me, and even more special to my friends who went there. I just hope that when the healing starts, we think about the things we love about Tech and not the nightmare of this one day.
Wear your Hokie colors tomorrow to show your support. I know I will.
So this has been my first week completely off of Lexapro. I’ve spent the last few weeks lowering my dosage but last Saturday marked my first time being completely off of it for almost 2 years. Boy howdy am I glad that this week fell during Spring Break and not during a time where I had to, oh I don’t know, function in any capacity.
It hasn’t been terrible, just odd. The absence of it in my system combined with the antibiotic I was on for bronchitis made me have no appetite whatsoever. I seriously think my stomach shrank. I lost about 6 lbs. in a week. Sure, it’s nice to see that on the scale, but it wreaks havoc on your body. It was like all of the systems in my body were freaking out and arguing with each other. Luckily that seems to have balanced out a bit. I actually want to eat and I’m letting myself eat whatever I want at this point so I can feel normal again. I’ll worry about eating really well once my brain is balanced back out.
Apparently the best thing for the withdrawal systems is to just sleep. When you’re sleeping you’re not aware of the craziness going on, and part of the withdrawal is being exhausted, so I guess it works out. I’m a little nervous about having to go back to work tomorrow. I have yet to deal with actual stress without medicinal help in quite a long time. By the grace of God, however, we have a few relatively normal weeks coming up so I can ease back into the chaos.
Prayers for an easy transition would be appreciated. I’m having a hard time with the fact that there is a very real possibility that this won’t work and I’ll have to go back on it or some variation of it. And by hard time I mean breaking down into tears in line at Wal-Mart with poor Ross having no clue what’s going on.
Click here to see pictures from our first annual Fr-easter (Easter with Friends). We are contemplating also having a Fr-anksgiving, Fr-alentine’s Day, and Fr-abor Day parties as well. Stay tuned! The pictures are courtesy of Jake Lyell, the best photographer in these parts and, dare I say it, the world. Highlights include Sam’s mom (AKA the cutest and nicest woman ever), MattWhite rocking out to Billy Joel, James stealing candy from children while gambling, and several people playing dominoes. We are lame and AWESOME. HE HAS RISEN!
Sorry. It’s probably a little off color to put a picture of a speculum on my blog. But, considering *I’m* the one that had to spend some time with this God-awful instrument today, I only feel but so bad.
Yes, I saw my good friend Dr. Miller today. I love Dr. Miller, despite the fact that I shudder each time April approaches as I know it’s time for that annual exam that only 50% of the population must have. He’s a very kind man and he keeps it relatively warm in his examination rooms, which is nice. However, I don’t like how I have to spend so much time waiting in his examination rooms. I would much rather wait in the waiting room where clothes are allowed. When you are in the examination room you have to wear a hospital gown. Well, I guess it’s a gown. It’s more like the suggestion of a gown. The word “gown” implies a garment of much breadth that give you coverage. This gown opens to the back AND front and you have to sit “just so” to keep all of your goods covered. At least I’ve learned to keep my dignity and keep my socks on during these visits.
Everything went fine. Then of course he asked me when I was going to give him some babies. I thought this was odd. I was under the impression that *I* get the babies. He really should have asked when I was going to give him some more money. Then he told me that things were really “ideal” for me to start “working on that.” He even said I looked perfect. I said “Thank you?” I mean, what do you say when some compliments your reproductive health? Rather than compliments, I would prefer a coupon that excuses me from next year’s exam.
All of this took 5 minutes. Yes, 5 minutes of examining after 55 minutes of waiting. Waiting in the examining room, not in the waiting room. I guess it’s better than him examining me in the waiting room. Oh well, the walls in his new office are so thin that I got to hear all of his conversations with his other patients. I now know that the lady next door is having bladder issues and the girl across the hall will only quit smoking when she gets wrinkles. On a much more exciting note, I got to hear a woman hearing her babies heart beat for the first time. It sounded like WHUH WHUH WHUH WHUH mixed in with her saying, “Oh, wow!” over and over again. I must say, that was very exciting. I imagine it would have been more exciting to have heard it while wearing underwear, though.
1. I cannot dance.
2. Most people cannot dance.
3. I do not like dancing.
4. I do not like people looking at me while I can’t dance.
5. I will not go back again.**
*BodyJam is a class at Gold’s where you dance a lot. Like, you have to follow steps and stuff. And you dance. For an hour. The whole hour.
**Please check the class out for yourself. I had a lot of fun but it’s just not for me.
Me? I was in bed watching it live on the television. Take a gander at this. Your mind will be blown so make sure you are wearing a hat to collect the bits-they can be hard to get out of the drapes.
Friday: Went to work for our one hour of staff development. Came home and slept a ton. Went to Patient First. Got poked, X-rayed, and diagnosed as having bronchitis AND tiny veins. Came home and went to bed ridiculously early.
Saturday: Slept for infinity. Went to in-laws to celebrate FIL’s birthday. Ate some food that I’m sure tasted good but being that I couldn’t smell anything, tasting was out of the question. Went upstairs and slept in the guest room while hubs played Wii and dominoes. Went home and went to bed.
Sunday: Slept for more of infinity. Cleaned the house. Saw Phannie for a few minutes. Went to church. Saw FSC’s first baby on our first Easter which was very special. Came home. Had many friends over for Easter celebration. Went to bed before everyone left. Realized that I have lost all muscle tone in my body from not being able to work out for a while due to the death.
Today: Woke up *still* feeling like death. Can’t sleep until the Verizon guy finishes what he’s doing to give us better cable and Internet. Want to go back to bed so bad.
Best Diarist “I feel like I know Valerie like a best friend. I think if I saw her in Ukrop’s, I’d be compelled to ask how Ross’s birthday was. Does she have a clue who I am? No.”
