I am so tired! Whew! It's not like I have done SO MUCH today. But man, it sure feels like it! This morning my ankle was really bothering me. I kept the aircast off this morning while at Home, and just stayed on the couch. I did some things online, read a little bit, tried to keep the kids from killing each other while speeding around the house on their riding toys, and pretty much just tried to stay put. I had a doctor appointment with Dr. Kim (gastroenterologist) that had been scheduled for next week, but when I was walking into the Orthopedic Specialist's Office yesterday (or hopping along on my crutches, rather) they called and said that Dr. would be seeing patients the following day and would I like to move up my appointment? So I said sure, and at 11am today went BACK to the hospital to see Doctor. So I took a long bath, during which Ardyn and Marek both wanted to sit on the potty. Marek came into the bathroom and wanted to get in the tub (per usual) and started to strip off his pants, and then tried to pull off his diaper. He got his pants down but not OFF is ankles, and then got his diaper off, but the velcro tab stuck to the back of his sweatshirt so he was hobbling around the house with his pants around his ankles and his diaper dragging along behind him attached to the back hem of his sweatshirt by the velcro. He was saying "Dadddddddy. I neeeeed go pottty." and I could hear him searching the house for daddy. I finally got him to come back so he wouldn't pee in the floor, and Ardyn located daddy, who came and put Marek on the little potty because by that moment Ardyn wanted to go too. Marek had tried to get on the big potty but he is WAY tooo short to accomplish that feat.
As soon as I put my aircast on to go to the Doctor... excruciating. It just touches the exact spot of the break, which happens to be very near the skin on the outside of the area of my ankle bone. When I put my tennis shoe on.... Yowza. I wasn't sure I could wear it at all. But by the time I had limped to the doctor and got through my appointment, it was tolerable, or perhaps just numb.
I am scheduling another scope, this time lower only, to check on the inflammation/colitis and see what exactly is the status. It's been just short of a year since my first one, and Dr. Kim is putting me on one additional med right now that is a fast acting tablet to soothe the acid in addition to the PPI. The PPI works great, with the exception of when I lay down at night. Dr. is giving me this as a supplement to the PPI, just for use on occasion when I feel that hard to swallow lump going on. He thinks that since things have been going well with the upper symptoms, we don't need to repeat the upper scope this time. So I scheduled the scope without my calendar because I am an idiot and didn't bring it with and haven't gotten everything into MobileMe yet... and of course I accidentally scheduled it so that the PREP is the same afternoon as the school zoo trip (uh-oh) and the actual scope is the day of Ardyn's Dance class Pictures, which she will wear her recital costume for. Just seems like a couple too many things going on those two days. So I think I will move it forward a bit, so that it's just AFTER recital weekend and BEFORE zoo day. Jeez. Doctor also has switched to a new Prep (MoviPrep) which (I know this may astound anyone) I am actually excited about. ha ha. I know. But it's all liquid, and seems to be LESS than the previous amount, and you can drink MORE Liquids of your choice, AND there is no "poop pill" that you need to take on top of it. About time. It also comes in a much more manageable container than the previous GIGANTIC jug. The girls at the office said that patients have been telling them it's much more tolerable and they get better test results as well.
So, anyway, after that fab appointment (I am not being sarcastic, it really was good) I got to see AO and CB for a bit, which was cool. Then I came home and my ankle was killing me! Off with my shoe. Sarah brought a casserole and Jamie brought lunch, we ate and then I went to the couch. Foot up. Then we took a nap, that actually lasted like an hour but took about 4.5 hours, because Ardyn kept waking Marek up, causing problems, and eventually was so exhausted herself (to bed late from coloring eggs and up toooo early) that she couldn't even function. We missed dance. I feel bad because I know recital is coming up, but my ankle hurt and Evan was gone and she NEEDED to be taking a nap. Then we got up, I got a casserole from Courtney and a loaf of bread, which went right into the oven and we ate supper. Then the kids took a bath and I put them to bed. Back to the couch. Foot up. Then I went down and sorted laundry. it took my SO LONG to sort that the load I started was doing it's final rinse when I finally got the clothes sorted. yay. Then I cleaned the chicken brooder and fed and watered them.
I just wanted to note, that I am so grateful for the food. The mail train has already been awesome. We have been eating well and we are in casserole heaven... and chocolate heaven :) I feel guilty because I have been given the "yes" to walking, but it is broken and it still hurts like hell, and I am trying to limit my time on it. Plus I have two weeks of laundry, two weeks of dishes, and a ton of other stuff to do... and I hope that I can slowly get some stuff accomplished while not being on my foot much. We have a big day planned tomorrow but hopefully not a whole lot of it will require me to be on my feet :)
I AM going for a second opinion. I called my family physician, and spoke to the nurse, who agreed that a second opinion was not a bad idea. She suggested seeing Dr. Perona at St. Margarets, who used to work with Dr. Sompalli. She mentioned that she was confident in Sompalli but that perhaps a second opinion can't hurt. I have had my records sent to the physician and checked that Dr. Perona is a primary care physician for insurance and that I can go see him so soon after just seeing Dr. Sompalli. So, next week sometime. they suggested that I might need to have another xRay because the xray will be over a week old by the time he sees me, and It may have healed or changed since then. So now we wait a bit.
Tonight Evan brought in the two bags of chicken food I got on Wednesday. I bought another 20# bag of chick starter and a 40# bag of 15% starter finisher. I have been doing a ton of reading about chicken health and nutrition, and several of the books that I have read, recommend that you move chicks of my particular breed to a grower/finisher at around 8 weeks, instead of 10. Then you keep them on the grower/finisher until they start to lay and then move them to layer. I wanted to get some more feed at TSC the last time I went, and when I told the lady that I wanted to buy some starter/finisher and asked her where it was, she tried to talk me out of it. In fact, she downright refused to show it to me because she told me that my chicks needed to stay on chick starter until they were 10-13 weeks old. Um. Okay. I was stumped because I had read a bunch about being able to move them sooner, and the chick starter comes in fairly small bags and I was about to finish one. I wasn't sure I wanted to go buy another bag of chick feed and then move to finisher after that. I had intended on buying the finisher, opening the bag to see if it was much larger (pellet) or more of a crumble, and determine if they can swallow it. She wouldn't even show it to me. Grrr. This was the samek woman who told me that I didn't need to buy pine bedding for my brooder if I already had cedar, because it didn't matter, and then a week later I read in like 5 places that cedar contains a dust that causes a lung disease that will kill chickens, and that young chicks are incredibly susceptible to it. Nice. So I ended up making my THIRD trip into the store for the correct bedding, that cost me $4.50 - less than the gas it probably took me to make the trips. So later that day, when I got home and started researching feed again, I kicked myself for not telling her where she could stick it. AND then this week I went back and got a bag of chick starter and a bag of finisher. When I opened the finisher, I saw that it was really small crumbles and then I was cranky because I had already OPENED the bag of chick starter (duh) and I probably could have gotten away with taking it back. These chickens are HUGE, but they are about 5 weeks now so I just tell myself that I will feed them starter for another 2 weeks or so and then whatever starter is left I will start to halve with the finisher and transition them slowly as recommended. They are eating a TON now. To give you an idea, when they were little, they ate 1/8 quart of chick starter per day, for the whole six of them. Now they are eating a full quart feeder of starter each day. I don't want to give them much more than that because they are a heavy breed and I don't want them to get overweight as they will get foot and leg problems. Right now they are eating just that much, and leaving a tiny bit in the feeder by feeding time. So they are eating EIGHT TIMES what they ate 2.5 weeks ago. Yep. And they drink 2 quarts of water a day. They are already technically outgrown their brooder, but so far they aren't really fighting, are very healthy, clean, and happy... and have great appetites. I do have one runt, but it doesn't really seem like she is being picked on. In fact I sometimes wonder if she might be a he. I clean the brooder and their feeders every day, so I am not as worried about the crowded quarters as I could be. They still like to roost on their perch (a tension curtain rod) and they also like to fluff their feathers big and full and kick around the pine chips to make a nest like impression in the bedding and lay down together. Too cute.
So, that's the scoop. I have an icky feeling that there will be water in the basement tomorrow. All the rain that is already making water stand in the yard, and the forecast for tomorrow is for severe storms and rain. Wind, hail. I hope this isn't so, but I tried to tidy up the basement a bit so that things don't get wet. I put all the chicken feed and potting soil up on the potting bench, and then I refilled both 5 gallon buckets with fresh feed and covered them tightly. The only thing I didn't get done was sweeping the floor a bit, but it's 1am so I think I might be okay to just sleep now.
And Yes, this is how I take it easy. If my body rests, even the slightest.... my mind RACES.
For example, if God promised to never flood the world again, what is this inevitable doom that seems to make me want to build an ark and protect my family. All this rain. The storms and the rain get worse each year. The ice caps are melting, and I believe that scientists might be right when they say that the Earth is in this natural life cycle where it cleanses itself of our bad influences to start itself fresh again. We could be wiped out like the dinosaurs. What's God's perspective on that? I don't feel very safe here right now.
Goodnight!
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