Kidney Stones and other Pains in the you know where

    To keep it straight in my mind I'm posting the events of Saturday, October 13  through Saturday, October 20, 2012.

Around 5 a.m. on 10/13 I woke to use the ladies room.  Suddenly I was hit with a vomitting spell and immediately my head felt like it was going to explode.  If my worst migraine ever was a 10, then this was easily a 20.  I was screaming in pain.  I managed to get back to the bed, David brought me an icepack which made the pain worse.  We waited a few minutes,  all the while I am trying to control my cries so I don't wake the kids.

After no relief, I asked David to bring the kids to me so that I could tell them good-bye.  At this point I fully expected to die.  I had no clue what was causing this pain, but knew it could not be good.

Of course the kids were frightened to see me in this state, and I was trying to comfort them, to tell them it would be alright even if I died.  I pulled off my rings and gave my spoon ring they gave me for mothers day in 2010 to Sarah and my wedding rings to Daniel.

We headed to the ER as soon as we were dressed and arrived around 6 a.m.  Good, they're not busy, I should be well cared for...

The pain level had decreased by this point but was still so intense I couldn't think to answer question, couldn't tell them what was going on etc.

My blood pressure was 200+ over 110+.

I was put in a room and given a CT scan of my head and an EKG.

Someone came in to start my IV, but couldn't get it because my BP was so high.  Slowly, as I lay on the gurney, my BP started to come down.  The CT and EKG came back normal.  No stroke, no heart attack.

More waiting, blood pressure continuing to slowly come down.

Headache getting worse.  Shot of toradol and 2 zofran for nausea.

10 a.m., we don't know why this happened but you can go home now.  No instructions, no prescriptions, nothing...

We went home, stopping by Chick-Fil-A for breakfast on the way.

My head is still hurting tho not as bad.  I fell dizzy whenever I move at all, and the pain worsens.

We get through Saturday and go to bed hoping that tomorrow I'll be fine.



    Sunday, we get up, get breakfast, each his own, I still feel lousy, the headache, dizziness...  Around noon I call the on-call line of my primary doctor.  The RN on-call advises me to go back to the ER.

When we arrive at the ER, a different one from yesterday, I am quickly triage back, my BP is still high, orders written, sent to the lab waiting area where I waited no longer then 10 minutes.

Put in a room, IV started, blood taken, urine sample, my room labeled a priority...  Doc comes in and does a thorough physical exam.  Tells me what they are looking for in all the blood they've drawn.  Explains that he might have to do a spinal tap if all my labs look good.

Within an hour, I'm being prepped for and have given consent to have a spinal tap done.

Spinal tap...not a thing I would like to repeat, but a necessary evil.   BUT the results of the spinal are good!  No meningitis!

So where do we go from here?  Doc explains that he doesn't know what caused the BP spike and the headache.  But we do know what didn't cause it.  You're more stable now, I'm giving you a very strong pain med and something for nausea, get them filled, go home and rest.  See your primary care doc tomorrow.

   

    Monday, get in to see primary doc.  Weigh in and find I've lost 20 pounds in the past 3 months!  So that's why my skirts like to fall down!  GO over all my meds,  This one BP med interacts with everything.  Why are you on it?  Let's change it to a safer med,  all these meds in the past 4 weeks to try to improve your migraine control have been too much changing for your body.  You need to get them out of your system.

So now all I'm on are the diabetes meds and the BP meds.

    Tuesday, I take the kids to the park for their cross-country practice.  I feel good!  I visit with my mom over the phone for about 30 minutes then visit with another mom the rest of the time.  I feel better today than I've felt in weeks!!

Back home.  Get supper finished, eaten.   PAIN!
                                                                  Not migraine or BP headache pain.
                                                                               Kidney Stone pain.


Wednesday.  Mom drives me to see my urologist.  X-ray taken.  5mm stone that was in the left kidney no longer visible.   Start antibiotics, pain meds, anti-spasm meds,  call me in the a.m. and let me know how you did through the night, but you're probably going to have to have surgery to remove this one.
Didn't need any pain meds from 10.20 p.m. Wednesday until about noon on Thursday.  Called Dr in a.m. to say had a pretty good night.
2 hours later called back, tell him it's moving again, pain is bad.  Can you control it or do you need to go to the ER.  I'll control it.
Come in Friday morning for CT scan so we can locate the stone.

Friday, get CT scan done, See Harrison, Stone has barely moved since it left kidney, it's too big to pass, Dr G has a slot let me check and see if we can get you in today.

Be back at hospital by noon, surgery at 2.

Surgery goes well.  Sent home with typical instructions.  Didn't get to sleep it off because David needed to keep my moving to prevent clots.

Friday night go to sleep.  4 a.m. wake freezing, temp of 104.   Call the on call urologist.  Take a Tylenol, see if it comes down.  4 hours later 101. by 11 a.m. fever  up to 103.  Call urologist back, go to ER for evaluation and possible admittance.

In Er, they fear pneumonia, doc from last weekend is working.  Put me in his rooms.  Chest x-ray, urine sample.  Everything clear!  Possible sinus infection, you're very congested.  Go home, do you need more pain meds?  lots of fluids, rest...

    Sunday morning, still have slight fever, still very tired, but slowly getting better.

Pain from surgery comes and goes.  Right now it's fairly bad which is why I'm blogging at 3.30 a.m.

I go back to the urologist on Wednesday to have the stent removed.  David will be with me, removing a stent can be painful and can cause spasms that are not pleasant.  But over all maybe I'm on the upswing.  I hope I am.

I want to get back to walking, we were doing so well and I was really enjoying it.  (They put sidewalks down OUR side of Morehead Rd.  Makes it much better for me for walking!)

(This was the 2nd kidney stone I had to have removed in about 10 weeks.  Prior to this I had not had a bad attack in 9 years.

A Day in the Life of the Gibson Family in Pictures

Cooking

Stacking

building a PC

Interesting Critters

Creating a business

Training the "Monsterdog"

Textbooks

Messy Table

If You're Considering Homeschooling...

I had a wonderful conversation with one of the pharmacy techs at my local pharmacy today. Her daughter turned 1 today and she was asking me about homeschooling. So many young, and not so young, moms want to do this but are afraid that they'll:
1. not have enough patience
2. not know enough to teach the child
3. ruin their kid for life.

I was able to share with her that she's been "homeschooling" her daughter from day

one. When she reads her a book, when they play together, when they do crafts, etc...

As a homeschooling mom, especially if you never send them away to school, you learn and grow with them.

You don't have to know calculus to teach a young child their colors. Besides, by the time they're ready for calculus, they are independent learners anyway!

So don't look at families like the Duggars and think, "I could never do that" (And I highly admire and respect the Duggars).  Remember they didn't start out with 19 kids. They started with 1 or 2 and as the other kids came along, the older ones helped the younger ones and they all are learning together as a family.

If you have the slightest interest in homeschooling, ask questions, talk to moms that you know who are already there. Most of us would love to share with you.

And while I'm sharing with you, I'll tell you there are days that we clash. There are days that I lose my patience... There are days that I want to send them to the bus stop.  This young mom was surprised that I told her that we have bad days, that the kids both have areas they struggle with, that  we're not perfect, LOL.

But those days are far fewer than the good days. And since we really believe that God has called us, the Gibson family, to homeschool then He will provide everything we need to bring it to fruition.

Word of Advice...

IF you have a freezer that needs to be defrosted on occasion.  It is best to do so before the interior of said freezer looks like the abominable snowman exploded in there.

I'm just sayin...

Newest Crochet Projects...

...that are finished.



Front of crocheted and felted bag

Back

Side View

Inside of bag

I have since changed the straps a little by sewing the edges together so they are narrower.

Granny Square Bag, this is the bag I will be teaching some of my  Crochet Club folks.  I have not yet decided on the straps for this bag.

Back of bag

 

Inside of bag

Zip closing.


So far everything on this bag is recycled.  It's a bit small for me, I definitely will have to pare down but overall I like it and I could take the squares apart and make them larger...

Back to School

Silly me!  I thought I'd have lots of time to do things I wanted needed to do now that D & S are back to the books. 

I should have know that even though they are very independent learners, they would need at least a little help from me.  So I realized, about an hour into it today, that this first week is probably going to be pretty intense. 

I had assumed that as I typed up a syllabus and lesson schedule for each subject for this year, that's 13 for D and 11 for S with only 3 classes that are the same, I had assumed that they had been watching me and reading over my shoulder and assimilating everything and could hit the ground running.

I.  Was.  Wrong!

So this morning, after we started our day with a short Bible reading and discussion then prayer, I went over a couple of their classes with them. I showed them how the syllabus told them exactly what was expected and how they would be graded.  Then as they started a new subject I made sure they had read the syllabus and really understood how the class was to work. 

Much better.  Now we were thinking on the same page.  Still, high school is much harder than the previous years.  But their attitudes have been much better and since D was diagnosed with ADHD and put on a very mild medication he does so much better in school.

Looking back I wish we had put him on something mild years ago, but we were trying other approaches to help him focus.

My advice if you asked me now would be to try the 'natural' things first.  Things like diet, exercise etc.  BUT your child may need the help of prescription medication.  It's really nothing to be ashamed of.  I need certain medications to help  with my diabetes and migraine disease.  Maybe if I continue to exercise and loose weight I can reduce or even come off the diabetes meds.  Hopefully as D matures he can be taken off of his medication.  But I really believe that GOD has given us doctors and medication to help us at times.

So...since I write this mostly for family, here is a list of what the kids are doing for school this year:

D, 10th grade, age 16
Teaching Textbooks Algebra
A+, this is a computer certification he is working toward
Conversations with Character, this is a course to help them learn to converse well
Apologia Bible, Who is God? & Who Am I?
Science Olympiad, http://soinc.org/
Notgrass Exploring Government, http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/american-government-high-school-curriculum
Literature, he has a list of 16 books to read over the course of the year.
One Year Adventure Novel, http://www.oneyearnovel.com/
Music, composer study
Apologia Biology
Art, he's doing a cartooning course
Spanish, we're using an online course similar to Rosetta Stone but FREE!!
Cross country running
Speed Stacking, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzyIGTT4IzY&feature=related  and Yes, they really do go that fast!

S, 9th grade, age 14
Art
Conversations with Character
Music
Science Olympiad
Apologia Bible, Who Is My Neighbor
Rod and Staff English
Saxon Algebra
Notgrass American History v1
Spanish
Rod and Staff Spelling
Apologia Physical Science
Speed Stacking
Cross country

As you can see, they have a full plate. 

We are still hosting "Crochet & Play", going into our 3rd year.  It's fun to watch the kids grow and develop whether it's in crocheting or just as people.  They'd like to meet more than once a month, but I'm not sure I can make that happen and still have D & S get all their book work done that day. 

The table toward the end of the school day.

One of D's storage cubby's, missing quite a few books right now.

D's assigned reading for this year.

 

Drafting table with some of D's books

 

 

 

One of S's cubby's with her schedule taped to the front.

 

Inside of the same cubby.

One Year Adventure Novel in its nice storage box, got the box for free when I ordered the curriculum!

 

#2 cubby for S.

#1 school bookcase, holds most of our fiction and S's 2 cubby's

Bookcase #2, holds the rest of our fiction, my teaching stuff and some sewing books, and reference books.

S

 D

 

Forgiving Others

"He who cannot forgive others destroys the bridge over which he himself must pass." - George Herbert
         

We've been dealing a lot with forgiving lately.  Specifically how to forgive those who hurt us.  How many times must we forgive?  Jesus said "Seventy time seven."

When we pray The Lord's Prayer we very specifically ask God to forgive us our 'debts, trespasses' as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Do we understand that we are saying , "God, forgive me the same way I forgive others."?

How can we expect Him to forgive us when we do not truly forgive those who sin against us?  We can't!


If you chose to hold a grudge, to hold onto the hurt someone caused you how you are blocking Gods forgiveness of your sins.

Think about it!

Makes you think...

"Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It's like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course I can't trust the arguments leading to atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God." - C.S. Lewis

     

Love this!!

Migraine Update

Thank you so much to my friends D, K, & P.  Your emails and phone calls were so encouraging.  I know I sounded discouraged and down.  I was.  But their insight and prayers and friendship certainly helped me to see things with a renewed perspective.

Here is part of what K said to me, 

It certainly is hard to see the good.  Sometimes I don't think it is that helpful to wrack your brains trying to see what the good is in something that is clearly bad. I think it is enough to trust that God is good, and to know that in the end He'll make all the bad go away. Or another way of looking at it is that God will bring good OUT OF bad things, not denying that the bad thing truly is unequivocally bad.  Rom. 8:28 says God 'orders all things for the good . . .'  I don't think that means that we need to try to call bad things good or try to see that a bad thing really is good...  I just know that my thinking on this has changed over the years, and I hope in the right direction..."

What a good point.  I don't have to view a bad thing as good.  I just need to know that God is good, among all His other attributes, and that He has my best interest at heart.  EVEN IF I. CAN'T. SEE. IT.

This is part of what D said,

I understand how hard and how serious it is to have a chronic illness like you have and how awful it is to feel pain and or sickness most of the time in your days. I've had a relapse because of the move and I am struggling to get back to where I was getting to ( such a better place!) before the move.Some days and nights I have so much pain and sickness I can't function at all.Why did God let this happen? I don't know. I can talk about it with only a very few because most don't want to hear it. But it is real and I and M have to deal with it. It is no fun( understatement there) but I can trust God in it, and also when I stop trusting God I can get back to trusting Him.

He loves us. I don't know why you are going through this but I will pray for you, for relief from the headaches.

Having someone, or 2, who really understand what having a chronic illness is and the frustration that can go along with it is so helpful and encouraging.  And both D and P are in much worse shape physically than I am and P has NO familial support at all.  D and I at least have husbands who are loving, godly , caring men.  And I have 2 great kids who are old enough and mature enough to take over.  In fact that is just what my son did yesterday.  He took over dinner.  I was not up to making pizza so he just told me to go back and rest and he would take care of it.  And he did.  With very little help from me.  I think the only help I gave was how much ground beef and bacon to cook for the stuffed baked potatoes.

Finally here is what P shared with me after my last migraine post,

Hi Susan, I just left you and D a message on your answering machine but it was too long and I got cut off so I thought I'd just jot a note.  I feel so badly you are suffering in this way and I will pray.  I wish I could do more and feel frustrated that right now I am so limited in what I can do myself that days that days go by and I do nothing but the minimal to take care of myself and take my pills and make my meals.  Please know in your heart of hearts that if I was healthier right now I would do more to encourage you and even make a trip up there to help and encourage you in person.  Susan, I miss you (and your family too) so much.  For as much as that's sad, I'm aware that it's such a blessing to know and be known by people well enough to miss them.  So many people in the world don't even have anyone who loves them enough to miss them. .... 

Dear sister, just know that you are not forgotten and that I will be beseeching God for His mercy to grant a breakthrough on the Dr's understanding of these migraines.  There is hope for that.  I often doubt that myself, but it's easier to have hope for someone else's situation b/c you can see God's character more objectively for who He really is.  I know He is able, and that there's always hope in any situation with Him...

All 3 of these ladies live a minimum of 450 miles from me... so we communicate a lot via email, but to know that they get my posts and care enough to reply and to pray and to encourage me means so much.  To hear from them is the highlight of my day!

But, back to the migraines...

I am improving.  Some weeks it is 3 steps forward and 2 back but overall as I look at my headache logs, I am seeing stretches of days without headaches!

So what am I doing?

1. No prepared foods.  No mixes, no fast food, etc
2. No tylenol, aspirin or ibuprofen
3. No caffeine
4. Fresh veggies, meats, some fruit, goat cheese
5. No bread
6. No fast acting carbs
7. Mainly water to drink

How is this helping?

1. I don't get all the chemicals that can trigger migraine
2. I don't get the so-called rebound headaches
3. I can sleep at night
4. Overall more healthy
5. I don't get the blood sugar spikes
6. Same as 5
7. Flushes my system, less for my kidneys to process
8. I've lost about 15 pounds
9. I fit into a skirt yesterday that has always been tight
10. I've got 2 skorts that need to be taken in cause they fall down!
11. My menstrual cramps have greatly decreased, to practically nothing from going through 2 boxes of midol a month to needing 2 doses.

I'm not sure how everything ties together but I am slowly improving.

So thank you for your prayers and encouragement. 

Now I just need to get the lesson plans finished for next school year so I can take a sewing break!

Bird Roosting on Whirl-I-Gig

We have this large wooden whirl-i-gig that my mom-on-law gave us that hangs on the front porch.  Last night David was on the phone around 10pm and as he wanders when he talks he ended up on the porch and happened to notice the bird.

Here is the best  photo from last night. It is really hard to see the bird even though we shone a light on him and used the flash on the camera. I hope you can make him out.

This is a photo of the whirl-i-gig taken this morning.

I hope to go out earlier tonight and wait quietly on th eporch for the bird to arrive.  Maybe I can get a shot of him in the dusk.

Memories... Old & New

Father's Day Weekend 2012 was a time to relive old memories and to make new ones as a family. 

David and I spent much of our early years chasing trains.   Photographing trains.  Riding Trains.  Not just any train mind you, steam trains!

Saturday we drove up to Salisbury, NC to see Southern Railways 630 and to photograph it.  This was the first steam engine to run since 1994.  The kids were born in 1996 and 1998 so they had never seen a steam engine in operation.  (Other than Tweetsie and Strasburg)

I was surprised to find my heart beating faster when I first heard the approaching train,  the memories it brought back are so precious and now my children are gathering memories. 

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day.

By Daniel

This was shot from inside the car the kids rode in prior to pulling out of the station.

By Sarah

By me

Fellow train chaser taking her shots

Sarah in the window, Daniel is peeking out behind her

I don't stick to only trains!

The thorns on this were incredible.

Migraine Awareness Month

June is Migraine Awareness Month.  The ribbon color is purple.  So my blog will be in purple from now on.  As I go through this journey, I want to be able to help shed light on this mystifiying disease.  The cause is unknown and there is no cure.  It is NOT just a headache.  It can be and is debillitating for many. 

Some good websites:
Teri Robert
migraine.com/blog/
help for headaches
migraine disease
migraine cast
health central, migraine
putting our heads together

Seeing a Migraine Specialist

I started seeing a migraine headache specialist in Greensboro, NC on May 31. The first evaluation was very thorough, including an EKG, range of motion measurements on my neck, several vials of blood drawn for testing. The doctor was very kind and understanding. Able to explain more about my condition. Migraine Disease is not curable. The cause is not known though research is being done to find a gene that causes it. She went over all my meds and immediately made changes to not only meds but to my diet as well.

Tuesday, June 18,  I received the first set of trigger point injections to try to ease my migraines that are almost 24/7. Out of the past 28 days I have not been headache free for more than a few hours at a time.

As of today, Friday, June 22, I had a whole 6 hours or so free of headache.  I am doing everything I'm told to do.  But the headaches are getting worse.  There is no break in them and I am struggling to stay positive.  The past 2 days my eyes are so blurry and watery that I can't drive safely at all.   I can only focus to read for a few minutes at a time and then I have to change activities to give my eyes a rest.  Obviously the injections did not work long-term.  

I'm starting to loose hope.  I say I accept His will for my life, even including the headaches, but I'm struggling. 

It's hard to have a chronic illness like this.  A lot of people don't view it as serious.  Maybe it's not life-threatening, but it is life-altering.  And right now I'm having trouble seeing the good in this.