Let It Snow!

So I'm sitting here waiting for our dinner to be done and the wind is just howling outside. We are supposed to get between 12-14 inches over tonight and tomorrow. Yes folks, winter is officially here. If I was still running, I just might have a huge problem with that whole concept, but since I'm being a lazy turd these days, well, I'm good with it. I'm actually looking forward to a snowy, lazy day, especially since I'm still working from home.

Working from home has been great, I'm not sure I ever really want to actually go back into the office. There's no one bothering you with stupid questions, you can lay around in crappy clothes if you want, and damn it, I DON'T HAVE TO FIX MY FREAKING HAIR! Not that I ever did anyway, but you get the point. I have a feeling that I will probably be forced back in next week since it is the beginning of month end close, but for now, I am going to enjoy it.

Anyway, I felt a little icky today, the back pain is back for some reason and I feel like I have a lot of fluid in my lungs. Probably those damn clots breaking up. The good thing is I haven't been to the ER in a whole week! Yay me! I am hoping to be back to running by the weekend, if I can just kick this shortness of breath. I'm resting and really trying to take care of myself, so let's all cross our fingers.

Oh, my timer just beeped, so dinner must be done. I'm making baked chicken, sun dried tomato rice, and veggies with sugar snap peas, red peppers, and little potatoes. I haven't eaten chicken in almost two months (since becoming a vegetarian), but for some reason, I saw some free range chicken breasts at the store and picked them up. Rick called and was so excited to hear that I was cooling a "normal" dinner. "Real chicken?" he asked. "Yes honey, real chicken." I replied. Ahhh...the small things in life.

Almost back to Normal.....

I kind of dropped the ball on the pictures of fall colors last Friday. I took the camera with me when I walked the dog to the park, but the battery was dead, so that was that. Oh well, I have the darn thing fully charged up and ready to go a the next opportunity.

Saturday morning, Rick got up and took Madison to the airport for her flight to Missouri. I had planned on taking her, but Rick didn't want me around "all those germy people", so I stayed home. I am starting to feel like a recluse. I know that there are times when I complain about how utterly stupid people can be, but I'm ready to be back in society! Madison made it safely to Mid Mo and was greeted by her Pa Pa Jim and her little cousin Ryan. She babysat Ryan while my parents went to a wedding and my brother worked, it sounded like she had her hands full. Madison really likes little kids though, so she did pretty well with her.

Just an FYI, Maddie is really doing well in her high school classes, she made an A on both her history test and her Algebra test this week, so tell her Great Job when you see her!

I felt much better on Saturday, the pain in my chest and back has slowly been going away. I still feel it, but it is not constant. Rick, the dog, and I went out to Indian Creek Campground for a little hike Saturday afternoon. It has been snowing quite steadily in the foothills, so there was quite a bit of snow on the ground out there. I was hoping for a great walk through woods while crunching through all of the fall leaves, but we ended up hiking through snow. My only complaint about my health is that I tire extremely easily and I am easily winded, so I had a really good workout tromping my way through the woods in the snow.

Sunday, I had a lot of my energy back. FINALLY, we are seeing some progress! I cleaned house since I really couldn't workout too much and ended up scrubbing the carpet between Madison's room and her bathroom. How does one teenager create such a freaking mess? There is or was literally a trail of make up from her room to her bathroom. All different colors too. Black, pink, blue, you name it, it was there. I managed to scrub up what I could, but you can definitely tell something is still there. Rick and I decided that we are just going to have to rip the carpet up in her room once she leaves for college. There's no hope in there.

Sunday night, I could tell that I overdid it a little, I was passed out on the couch at 4:00, really exhausted. Rick made me dinner and we sipped a little wine. He made fettuccine with red peppers, mushrooms, and asiago cheese. He put the fettuccine and some bread in the oven and baked it for a little while and everything came out so good. It is very nice to be taken care of once in a while.

Beautiful Day

I've been working from home a lot this week, so I've gotten a lot of rest. I now realize why the doctor's keep telling me to rest. I feel so much better after laying around on the couch all week. If I'm not up and moving, I also don't have to take the pain killers and I can actually think! Gee...who woulda thought? I have been trying to ween myself off of those pain killers, it's not any fun to be so foggy headed all of the time.

I just got back from another doctors visit with my hemotologist and my blood is right were it should be at 3.0. Between 2.00 and 3.00 is normal. The other day it was at 3.60, which was really thin. I think that I am on the road to recovery!

I took a short break from work to blog and it's such a beautiful Colorado day, I think I'm going to walk the dog down to the park and enjoy being outside. I'll take the camera and see if I can't take some pretty fall pictures. It is such a clear day that you can see the mountains really well and they all have snow caps on them. I love this time of year!!

Tonight will be laundry and packing night. Madison leaves for Missouri this weekend since it is the start of her fall break. She is so excited to see her grandma and pa pa Jim back home! She had planned a trip to Columbia to see her best friend Drew, but Drew came down with the swine flu. Ugh. We are planning a trip back to Mid Mo during Thanksgiving, so I told her we would make sure she could see her then.

Rick and I don't have any plans. It will be good just to have couple time for once, especially since he has been busy with work and I have been so sick.

I'll post the fall day pics later!
Have a great day.

Dog thinks she owns the place.





Rick took Madison to her dance class last night and I stayed home, popped some narcotics, and decided that I would take a nice relaxing soak in the tub. Now, usually when I shower, Piper will follow me in the bathroom (she'll pretty much follow me anywhere), but last night she wouldn't get her lazy butt up off of her doggie couch. Looks like she had other plans according to the above pics. I got out of the tub and found her lying on the couch. She knows she isn't allowed on the couch, so I'm not sure what prompted her to think she could get up there. Damn dog thinks she owns the place. I took some pics and Madison and Rick got a good laugh out of it when they got home.

Yesterday was a lot better day for me then Tuesday was; no ER trips! I took a three hour nap in the afternoon because I was so wiped out from the day. My pain is a lot more manageable too, which is good because I HATE taking pain pills! They make me sleepy and confused and I don't like not being able to think straight. So hopefully just a couple more days of taking them and I can stop.

Not much else going on, Madison has two more days of school this week and she's off to Missouri for fall break! She's really excited to go and see friends and family.

Back to the ER.

Well, Tuesday it was back to the hospital again, I have been in the ER three times since last Wednesday, some of the staff is starting to recognize me. I have thought about just leaving my id bracelet on so that they can just swipe me on my way through and be done with it, so I don't have to go through the pre admission stuff.

Anyway, Tuesday I was coughing up blood again, this time in huge clots, and I was extremely short of breath. I, of course, went on into work thinking it was normal for someone with PE until Rick finally convinced me to call my hematologist. My hematologist's nurse told me that it was not normal and to get on over to the hospital. I had a friend from work drive me over to the hospital and I called Rick, who left work and rushed to meet me. They ran all sorts of tests on me again to make sure that I don't have more clots, which I don't. I was coughing up blood because my blood is now too thin. My ER doc (who was the same one that I had the other night when I was admitted) told me that I would probably be back and forth like this until they figured out the right dosage of Coumadin to get me on. I have also developed pleural effusion of the lungs, which is fluid in between the lungs and the chest cavity. This is the cause of my shortness of breath and the pain that I have been having in my back.

I was allowed to go home, I was sooo happy that nothing was majorly wrong and I didn't have to stay in the hospital again. Laying around in a hospital bed is torture for someone as active as I am. I just need to take care of myself so that I can be back to running in a couple of weeks and Rick can stop taking off work and running me around all over the place. I feel really bad for him, he has all this budget stuff going on at work and he has had to take so much time off, I know he is stressed. He says he doesn't care and that I am much more important, but I know that he is just as tired as I am. He took off work early tonight, so that he could get Madison over to her dance class and I could kick back, relax, take my narcotics, and blog. He's such a sweetheart.

Today was a better day, nothing major happened! I am just worn out and tired.