Life Lately

I laughed because my legs and feet look pretty rough. I painted my nails and shaved my legs, but it still doesn’t hide the fact that I have bruises from being a complete klutz. Nor does it hide my blistered feet from years of Zumba. Oh well! Part of it….

The EMG was not fabulous. I had electric shocks sent through my legs, arms, and hands. Then the neurologist stuck needles in my arms, legs, hands, and back to test my nerves and muscles. I seriously wanted to cry. We ended with an ultrasound of the nerves in my arms. This neurologist informed me that I have carpal tunnel in both wrists and that we caught it very early. It is treatable and should be resolved within three months. I have to adjust some of the things I do at work and wear braces at night.

As soon as I finished with the testing, I went to my main neurologist for a meeting. I’m now on my full dosage of Topamax for my chronic migraines and that is working very well. I only had one issue while taking this medicine so he prescribed another medication that can shut down a migraine that sneaks past the Topamax. Ryan, my neurologist and I also figured out that I am premenopausal based on some of my migraines and my symptoms. I’m really shocked because I’m only 31. My cycles are consistently coming every 21 days now and my migraines are flaring the night before them. I had also been diagnosed with an inner ear condition called BPPV. You can Google it and it’s also tied into migraines. I’ve always had issues with my ears. The BPPV is temporary, but we don’t know how long it will last. Finally my neurologist wants to do a sleep study on me to see if I have sleep apnea. Based on the shape of my throat and my dad recently diagnosed with it, he is fairly certain I have it. He thinks he can greatly increase my energy levels if we can improve my sleep quality.

The best thing is that everything is all manageable. There is nothing life threatening or altering. I can control this and I can adapt. It may take tweaking some things, but most of it is temporary. It just all kind of collided and was tough to diagnosis. I went through months of misdiagnosis, months of testing, and so many months of wondering and not knowing. Now it is over. I am just thankful at this point. I am a little frustrated. I feel sad that I lost almost a whole year. I missed out on things with my family. I mean, we moved this year. We had a big family vacation. This was supposed to be our year of joy. I feel robbed of that sometimes. I wanted that so badly and it was just out of my reach,

But…. God humbled me this year. He taught me so much, He brought my best friends. He showed me that I could depend on others instead of being so independent and strong willed. He broke me and remade me. He showed me to just sit still and trust Him. Instead of taking my health for granted, I value it even more. I make an effort to be more present with my family in those special moments that I really missed out on when I didn’t feel well. I learned that I could share my struggles to bring someone else hope instead of just keeping it inside. Most of all He showed me love, mercy, and hope.

This week one of my favorite people got to come to class! Sweet Allie was able to trade nights at her new job to workout with us. We have all missed her so much, but she’s saving up for college. I’m so happy she’s responsible, but I really miss her. When I really started struggling physically this year in class, she stood beside me and was my high impact example in classes. She brings so much energy and sass every single time. We tried a hip hop Christmas song and it was such a crazy mess, but we had fun and that was all that mattered!

Unfortunately this was also a rough week for Caleb. He got a nasty stomach virus. When I picked him up from school, they office was paged with several clean ups needed in other rooms. I have scrubbed the house and washed so many clothes. Thank goodness for Zofran!

Fortunately I was able to work on my laptop and edit boat pictures. Caleb was content watching plenty of Christmas movies. My favorite Christmas movie of all time was on too!

Late Friday night after no naps and plenty of running his mouth, he finally crashed beside the tree. He had been cooped up in the house for two solid days. For my little ADHD boy, that was tough!

Today has been beautiful! We finally took down a big tree that was right over Caleb’s room. The wind whips across the property and I can’t sleep at nights when it storms because all I can think about is this tree falling on my child. So my sweet husband took it down for me. Luckily we had some help! I am just so thankful it is gone now. We have plenty of firewood for our evenings after Caleb goes to sleep too!