life in 2009

Since I am not the greatest writer I hate posting updates. With that said I will do my best to fill everyone in on my life of the past year…

Short end of things I have at age 30 had to find a new me, a side of me that fulfils my active side of life, with out being in the mountains and being active. I have been working, dating, dealing with medical things, and just loving life.

I have taken a couple of trips to California, spend a lot of great times in WY, went to NYC for the first time ever, and I have learned that I have a love for big cities as long as I never have to live there.

I think my new thing is going to be getting a motorcycle license and one day get one. I want a Yamaha R6. No worries I think that having something fast and fun will fulfill my need for excitement and need to play… the active side of me. Bottom line is I would be making a good investment for years of playing. Now I have found a sport I can enjoy safely here in Utah.

I have decided to no longer have a tv in my house and I am really liking it, only bad part is I should have started this AFTER football season. I heart football and I am going through withdraws from it right now.

I have moved out on my own, meaning no more roommates, it was just time and for my own sanity. I love living alone and all that comes with this sweet time! I also got a Boston Terrier (dog) this year as a reward that I am still here and going with the health trauma drama! She is a great puppy and I have wanted one for a while now. SO yes I have become a dog lady, but she is so worth it!

In the last 2 years I have gone through many changes and the health thing is teaching me many lessons. It has been two very long years and worth every minute of them to find me and who I really am and what makes me happiest in life. I have been making changes and after this last trip to SD, I have got a spark back and am ready to start living a fuller life. I have goals and I can’t wait to see them all come together.

Work and I are getting along right now, I am now PT though so everything is changing, I will know better just how much this week. Yes this effect many area’s in my life and that is why I have decided I have to move and shake a bit to get a better more secure foundation for myself. I am now focusing in on things and should be able to get back in school for sure next year.

I have come to realize just how much I love life and am tired of having limitations so I am testing them and will be learning new things so I can have new hobbies! I can’t wait.

So there you go you are all updated on what is happening with me!

ATLANTA'S BIGGEST LOOSER

OK to start with part of this post was stolen from a friend so.... now you know...

I have a friend who is amazing and has an amazing story as to why she is doing Atlata's Biggest Looser, she really needs your votes to stay on. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING AND GO VOTE FOR HER!!! Just go to this link and follow directions, it only take 30 seconds if that!

http://www.11alive.com/life/contests/moms_biggest_loser/default.aspx

You will see a link down the right side of the web page that allows you to cast a vote...she is the top one. Her name is Christina Packham.

Thank you all... if you want to vote twice it will help her even more. This is only good till Friday at 10 am EST. Please help!

The wonderful trip to California….

Well I left on the 28th of January and came home on the 1st of February. It was a wonderful trip with Connie. I went out there for “work” and was able to have a real vacation with Connie and family. We flew in on Wednesday and just spent the evening with Claire and Eric visiting. Then on Thursday, we drove the 101 down from Oceanside to La Jolla area.

Then we went and took the tour on the USS Midway. This was fun for me because it brought back memories and I was able to share some with Connie. I think the one thing that still makes me laugh from being on the ship was when we took the tour of the “flight tower”. For any one that is afraid of heights, well you may not want to take that tour. At one point as we moved to the upper level we were on a cat walk that was 90 feet above the water. No worries, if you fell, you would have been hurting! The look on Connie’s face when the tour guide said that and she looked down was priceless!!! Good job Connie!!! I have to say it was nice to be on a carrier and see some things I was never able to before.

After the USS Midway, we headed to Coronado Island, where we had a great time on the beach and had dinner at Panera Bread (love that place). It was fun to play in the water again and be on the beach. Though the water was cold, it was still fun. Funny part was when Connie found a “shell” we will call it, me being the pearl dork I am, we took said “shell” home and opened it that night with Papa J’s tools. NO worries they were the car ones and I cleaned them up. Sorry Papa J, I needed them! I then just though, Oh, I will set it out on the table in the back and get it tomorrow when it has time to dry up, then I can keep the shell part all nice and clean. OOOPPPSSSS…. We left for Disneyland, as I forgot about it. Papa J found it, might I say the smell found him. He is a champ and did not kill me for having to clean the ant mess and deal with the smell. He really is the best ever!

DISNEYLAND!!!! That was on Friday, it was Mama Claire, Connie, Vanessa, Sydney, Javeevee, and Me. It was Connie’s first time ever there (she had many first on this trip) and only my second time there. It was fun; just I think one has to take two days there, one for the rides, and one for the shows. Sad part was, we did not get to see the fire works. I have to say though, having a handy pass was the best. Due to the heart and not being able to just stand for long times, I went and got one so I could really enjoy the time there. Needless to say, I think we only waited max 10 minutes for any ride. The one exception was the “galaxy one”. It was all dark and had stars, by far the best ride! You never knew what was coming, so it was worth the full 20 ish minutes we had to wait in line to go on the ride. I have to say, Disneyland may be over rated, but it was fun and I have great memories there. Thanks Connie!

Other than that we did some shopping, maybe I should say Connie did some shopping and I just window shopped. I also worked for a bit on Saturday, since that is why I was there after all. The bad part was, we had a full Bookkeeping Course stolen and we were there longer than planned. All though we did have a great lunch with the best 7 layer chocolate cake ever for dessert, even if it was a 3 hour lunch.

I have to say this trip was amazing, not because all that we were able to do, but because it was true quality time spent with Connie and the family. How truly blessed I am to have them in my life, to learn from, and to have great times with. I could not ask for a better best friend or family who has been through the worst with me this last year. Thank you all for your support and love.

Here are some pictures for you from the trip, I am sure you can figure out what was what.

 

Return to Utah....

Let’s see, I headed back to Utah, on December 27th so I could take two days to travel with the knowledge a bad snow storm may come in. WOW! Was this one adventurous trip home! To start with my car hit 100,000 miles, no worries I got that picture. Then I had a little accident. We were in 2 hours of traffic and only went like 3 miles. Oh, did I mention we were still 80 miles out from Las Vegas when we were dead stopped? Short end of the story is easy, I was not on the road and tried to get back on from trying to pull off, and some road rage woman and her crazy husband tried to bump me out. Yes they came off the road to do that. Needless to say they got my babies driver side mirror. She is all fixed now and well it is still being fought out with the insurances right now. I finally got home Sunday afternoon and was so happy to see my bed; I was gone for so long it was weird to be back. It was kind of lonely in an empty house as well. But no worries I grew to love it and miss my roommate!

Here is a picture:



After returning to Utah, I have gone back to work, and living life. I was blessed to spend time with Kara, since she invited me to see Dancing with the Starts, at the E-center. It was so much fun, thank you Kara for taking me.

Here is a picture:



Then on the 1st of the year, I got to have lunch with Erin Simmons. She was in town for the holiday’s to see her family. She is one of the sisters in the Carlsbad Mission that taught me some of the new member discussions and teaching me so much that has helped me in life every since. I have not seen her since I left on my mission, so yes it has been years. It was so great to see her and visit with her. What is better than seeing friends you have not seen in a long time?

Then on the 23rd of January, I was able to take my little (BBBS) to the Grizzly’s Hockey game. It was the BBBS appreciation night and we had a blast. I love that little girl and could not imagine life with out her smile now. The funny part was all the Bigs’ were asked to where those cute little t-shirts… here is a preview of how hot they are. No worries, it was like those gloves they make, one size fits all! Pour Trina is an extra small and all they had was Large, extra large and larger! It was a very fun night.

We also did a sleep over, can I just tell you how two little girls can wipe any one out…Mothers I have no clue how you do it!!!

Here are some pictures:


Now you all have been caught up to where life is now for me… well at least you have the highlights…

Love you all and I promise I will do better in blogging!!!!

Home for Christmas...

Home for Christmas!!!

So after one long grueling year of the heart issues and not much traveling, I was blessed to be home in Californian for Christmas. I arrived at 6:15 PM on Christmas Eve, just in time for the dinner they were holding out on till 6:00 pm so I might have a chance to make it home. I love you all, thanks for suffering for me!

I was excited to get home to those I have missed and love so dearly. This Christmas could not have been better. It was truly one that gave me a gift from Heavenly Father and time with those I love. I enjoyed just visiting with the family and having a girl’s day with out kids in Temecula, CA, with Claire and Vanessa.

One of the greatest highlights was seeing Veevee getting her Pony for Christmas, from Claire and Eric. Here are some cute little pictures to highlight my time home.

Yes a little late…but hey… I finally have time to post this.

Day 10 - Done at the Mayo Clinic

Day 10 at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ and the Mayo Hospital in Phoenix, AZ. Then my trip to Carlsbad, CA., to be with family on Christmas Eve. I started my morning at 6:00 AM, getting ready and saying my goodbye’s to the Fleming family.

For the first time I was able to meet the Cardiologist there at the Mayo Hospital. He informed me that the heart is healthy for the most part and that in about 1-3 years I will need to have a pacemaker and/or ablations. He stated that the arrhythmias are caused by the slow heart rate and low blood pressure. He stated that I have autonomic deficiency, the start of autonomic neuropathy. The treatment for this is medication, problem one – allergic to the one medication, problem two – beta-blocker, which I can not take since I have one kidney, low blood pressure, and low heart rate. So, he said the best thing for me is to start my exercising back up slowly and take salt tablets (10-20 a day). He did inform me that I am still more physically fit than most my age that do not have any health problems. He gathered this from the fact I can go 12.8 minutes on a treadmill with incline. I guess most can only do 9-10 minutes. Connie, I guess those work outs and runs actually paid off. Thanks!

I then had to go to the Mayo Clinic to see Dr. Krotser, the Consultive medicine doctor. He informed me that I have a volume deficiency, just mean that I do not retain water and salt properly. This then causes me to have even lower heart rate and blood pressure. He also told me to follow up with a gastroenterologist about every 6 months to watch the esophageal spasms that I am having. One could medicate these but since they are not the cause of chest pain we are not going to do that. He feels that in the future I will have to have medication to control it so I can eat, but for now it will be done with diet.

Over all this all means I have a few things going on:
1. autonomic deficiency (ties all the following together)
2. esophageal spasms (when I eat I have spasms when swallowing food)
3. volume deficiency (not retaining water and salt properly and easy to sweat)
4. gastroparesis (this has become a lot better in the last 2 years and he was amazed that I did it with out medications)

The treatment is to follow up with the doctors (gastroenterologist and cardiologist), take a salt tablets, diet, working out, and later will come the medications. I am supposed to go back to the Mayo Clinic Monday to meet with a dietitian and the medical board, no worries if I don’t go they send it by mail. I like this a bit more and will do that instead.

Over all this was a great gift for Christmas, the diagnosis and how it can be treated. Bad part is they say it will take about 3 months to regulate and take full effect. This will also take care of the constant fatigue, since that is caused from the volume deficiency. I am so excited to have this and know what I can do to take care of it over the next few years till I have to have medication, my personal goal is to see if I can go 10 years with out medication and beat it with diet, food, and salt. I will have to watch what activities I do and elevation. I have been educated on what to do in prep for flying and I can start that again in about 1-2 months if things go well. I am excited to see what happens!! Hope and faith is what I will keep through this.

I have to say thank you to the Fleming family that welcomed me in there home and loved me as if I was one of them. I was so blessed to learn so much from them. I will always hold them close to my heart and will look forward to visiting them again soon. Thank you all for your love and help during this time, I could not have felt more at home then I did there. You are all so amazing!!!

Here is a picture of the Fleming Family!



Once I was done I had a wonderful lunch with Angel and had a sad moment when I realized that short formed friendship will be at a distance now. I was very blessed to have met her and hope that we will see each other again one day. It is amazing how we are blessed to cross paths with some and have it change our lives forever. After that I was on the road to California for Christmas dinner and being with family!

Day 9 - Last testing day...so we hope!!!

Day 9 at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ, today was amazing! I know I was at a clinic all day so how could it ever be so amazing. Well let me tell you. First of the test today were so easy, one was turning in the monitor, and the other was just eating a sick egg sandwich, milk, and radio active stuff.

Second, I was able to talk with some amazing people at the Mayo Clinic, one to be AC. She has to be one of the funniest girls ever met and she reminds me a lot of me when I was her age. She is way past her year in age socially and with maturity, something about her pulled me to her to open up and talk with her. I am glad I did, I may not ever see or talk with her again after tomorrow since it is suppose to be my last day, but she has touched my life forever and I will always look back and wonder how she is doing and what she decided to do in her life. I can only pray she follows her dreams always and never looks back with regret or hid behind her size. She is one amazing woman with many talents from what I have seen in such a short time. She has truly touched my heart.

Third, I am done with testing (at least this is the hope)! If not I will have to be back on Monday, but I will not know that till tomorrow.

Forth, the gastroenterologist called and she feels that it is not gastro that is causing the pain and arrhythmia. She feels that from today’s test she will see better and then went over with me how to better manage the gastroparesis. She is very nice and was helpful in making sure I was taking care of me properly. She supports taking care of this with diet and not pills, she also feels it is more effective and you know when things are happening and can fix it with out a doctor. I was very happy for that. So as of now Gastro is ruled out as the cause. I will know for sure tomorrow when I speak to the Cardiologist and Internal Medicine Doctors.

They prayer is that tomorrow I get the best Christmas present ever, a diagnosis and a treatment plan.

As for what I am up to tonight… well I am blogging now since I just want to spend time with this great family, pack, and be ready for tomorrow.

Here is a picture from today’s food eating…LOL… I know you will all want to go out and eat this now!