The Grind

Back to work today.

Cute kids, funny stories, lots of hugs.

A bike ride down to the pond. A family fishing.

Today was ok.

People with chronic neurological conditions are like 6 million times more likely to become depressed (NOT A REAL STATISTIC). I read that last night when I started to yell at the Hubs about taking care of me. I figured I should look up mood changes because I was having one.

So today I woke up and I made a choice.

It would be a good day.

Important fact... it is not technically illegal to have sex with a dead body in Illinois. They are trying to pass that law now so you may want to get on that.

Dr. Who?

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!
I am not growing horns.

Dr. Awesome!

I saw the good doctor today and we set a record. There was not a single face palm.

I think he has given up.

Bottom line, we aren't going to do anything. Well. I am going to do something. I am going to make an appointment with the ophthalmologist. As long as I am not losing my sight and my headaches aren't worse we are going to keep on keeping on.

This makes me happy.

I am going to make a second section with Dr. Awesome's answers. I wouldn't want to confuse him with questions. The poor man already has enough to deal with when it comes to me.

On another and equally important note I saw a goose poop yesterday. Like I actually saw the poop come out of it's butt. It was hilarious and I giggled at least three times thinking about it today. It really comes out as a white liquid. I don't know why that would be surprising to me, but it was. Also hilarious.

Tomorrow. Expect a Roy announcement. He looks great.

Break

Sometimes I need a break from life. I've been taking an email break for most of the week and then last night I took an internet break. I also took a cell phone break.

I did not take a Hunger Games break. I read that whole book yesterday. It was pretty good.

I have a long list of people who need something from me and have emailed me. I have not a lot of energy this week. So I am taking a break. Tomorrow I will have to address them in order of importance. Starting with Teach for America because I have a bunch of stuff due.

Good day today. Mom took me out to buy my interview outfit. It is cute. I even got a flower for my hair. I will take a picture the day of.

I have been having a lot of floaters lately. That is concerning.

I am going to go back to pretending life doesn't exist now. I will return tomorrow.

Humping

Wills is out of town. I am tending to her dog. I went over there last night and took the small and fuzzy beast for a walk.

Then I was humped relentlessly.

It was slightly off-putting.

I went over there tonight and it was the same drill only there was absolutely no humping. Now I am worried that I didn't look pretty.

Bummer Summer

A public service announcement...

TODAY IS NOT FRIDAY.

Even though it is beautiful and you felt like doing nothing at work today and you spent a half an hour down by the pond watching some weirdo hopping up a hill it is not Friday. It is Tuesday. Tuesday. It is also a full work week. So get used to it.

Today. Oh today. It was gorgeous but I had a headache. On and off all day. Lots of floaters in the morning. Stupid. It seemed to go away in the afternoon but then it came back when I rode my bike. Exercise induced headaches. Have I told you about these?

Certain exercises, like schlepping your bike up a hill, tend to increase intracranial pressure. YES! The one benefit to this condition. An excuse not to exercise.

So when we were hanging out the other night Wills wanted me to address something in my blog. She said that she wasn't clear on how this whole thing started. She knew the history with the hospitalization but she was curious to know when the symptoms first started.

The answer is I don't know.

There are indicators that it may have been something I have had since high school. Or it may have been something that just started. We don't know. Idiopathic means without origin which means we don't know exactly when it started. We don't know why it started and we don't know how it started.

Have I mentioned you can donate? They also have a store. There is a really pretty bracelet.

Things I am down with...

OPP

PTC

And this sunny weather we are having.

It was so warm today! I wanted to ride my bike, but there was a serious problem with that. I might have been blown away. We took the dogs for a walk instead. The Hubs and I. They loved it.

On the IIH front... AMAZING day. I felt almost like my old self. I am hopeful that with the nicer weather things will start to look up for me. We shall see.

Mom and I went out to dinner tonight. Holy cow was it good. My sandwich had APPLES on it. I LOVE sandwiches with apples on them.

Also, this video is a complete violation of copyright law.

Excitement

I am wearing one of the Hubs' shirts. It smells delicious.

SO! Got a message on the bookface today from the NewsMan. He got an email from someone who read my article who's daughter has IIH. Terrible that she had IIH, but cool that the article did what it was supposed to do! This poor girl has been having a rough go of it lately and so I am going to call her tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to get together and talk about how much this thing sucks.

I took a nighttime nap tonight. I am a failure.

Pretty awesome day for me on the IIH front. Nice sunny day which meant nice clear head. Exhaustion reared it's ugly head about 6 though. Sometimes it happens that way, I'll be fine fine fine fine fine and then all of a sudden I am falling asleep. I am still groggy, but that could have been the deep sleep.

I had a dream that I was asleep and someone knocked on the door. I had to let them in but by whole body was asleep so I was dragging myself to the door. It was incredibly frustrating because the person was rather upset with me.

I'd Tap That

This spinal tap was silly.

It was waaaaaay different than the last two I got. I figure that since I am out of same day surgery and now able to sit up and type comfortably I will go ahead and tell you about it in more detail.

So this is my back. There are a few things you should notice about my back...

1. I have a cool tattoo.
2. I sneaked and put on my undies and sweatshirt which meant I had to sit up. I couldn't get caught or they would make me start my 2 hours all over again (joke).
3. There is a lot of green stuff on it.
4. There is a weird target like tramp stamp.
5. There is a flapping band-aid.

All of these things will be explained in time.

Let's start with number three (I think numbers 1 and 2 are self explanatory). That green stuff is left over from the topical antiseptic they used to make sure my back was sterile and hopefully prevent an infection at the puncture site. The lines are because I have a big butt so it kind of pooled... : (

For this LP (lumbar puncture - same thing as a spinal tap just a fancier name) I traveled to the Interventional Radiology department where they used a fluoroscopy machine to determine where to place the needle. Interventional Radiology is simply the place where they use the machines to help diagnose and perform certain procedures. They do angioplasty in this department because they can make it minimally invasive. A fluoroscopy machine is awesome. It takes basically a real time x-ray and projects it on the television so the doctor can see where he is sticking the needle. That is why I have the target on my back. That is so the doctor knew where to stick his needle.

I wanted to say "Oh yeah? Well, Dr. Cowboy knew where to stick it just by knocking on my back a couple of times." But I figured I shouldn't taunt the man with the large needle.

What does that leave us with? Ah yes, the floppy band-aid. Hubs just didn't remove that before taking the picture.

Another thing I wanted to note is why I had to lay flat for two hours. Two long hours. And not even prime time television hours. There are two main side effects post tap, headache and nausea. It is believed that these can be prevented by laying down for two hours, but studies cannot confirm or deny this.

How do I feel post tap? Eggcellent! I feel like my shoulders and neck are finally relaxed. I told the Hubs that although I have never gotten a massage I imagine this is what people feel like after one. It is delicious. I want to melt into the couch and sleep for days.

Happy Rare Disease Day!

Post- Spinal Tap

My pressure was...

Anyone want to guess?

30!

I didn't do a pre-post because I felt fine and it was too early. Beautiful sunny day outside and all I had were a few floaters. No head or neck ache. Nothing. Just floaters,

So now I am wondering what my pressure is when I feel like shit.

I have to lay here for two hours. I wonder what I should do. The Hubs is with me at least. I think he might fall asleep. Maybe I should do that too.

Lazy Days

no idea who made this. sorry.

This one here. This describes my Friday night.

I would like to thank the Presidents of the United States of America for existing so I can have this day off of school to bask in the sun with two small beagle puppies.

I would not like to thank the people from the highway widening commission who decided this would be a great day to chop down the two large trees in my yard forcing me to listen to the sound of chainsaws. That kind of counteracts any relaxing gained from the basking. How selfish of them.

A small boy's face

Buster (left) and Haylee (right).

Sunny sunny day today. I have a walk at the forest preserve penciled in, but I am concerned about the mud factor. It is incredibly muddy. It would get my away from the sound of chainsaws though. I don't know that the dogs will want to go. They seem pretty content to bask.

Rare Disease Day is in 9 days. I hope you have your plans all worked out. If you need something to do you can some watch me get a spinal tap. I would not mind.

Grrrrrr-eat Day

Today was a good day. Things were just kind of coming up Me.

I woke up to a text from my brother. Well, really a series of texts, telling me how much he liked my blog. It made my day. My brother (we will call him Doosh) and I live rather far apart and as such are not super close. We can't hang out on the weekends but when I do go visit we have a great time. He will not only have my back if someone is giving me shit but he will also tell me when I am being an idiot. Both excellent qualities in a brother. So what he said meant a lot to me and it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

It was also a half day at work, which is just glorious.

I had my interview with the local paper and that went really well. Of course I knew it would because the NewsMan is such a great guy. I don't know when the article will run, but I will scan it in here so you all can see it.

Hanging out with Wills always makes a day worth while.

It is also insanely nice out. Sunny and whatnot. I feel like a million bucks.

<3