Floss Fight

Remember our bi-annual date to the dentist?  Well, we had another one today.  I say the hygienists do it to us, but Caleb and I have become super competitive with these appointments.  I know it's hard to believe me being competitive, ha, but this is a bit ridiculous.  Once Caleb catches me flossing, he knows it's getting close to appointment time.  And since I'm the only one with a calender at home, that's his only way of knowing.  So what does Caleb do?  Start flossing like a maniac, too, of course.  Whoever has blood in their spit after flossing loses.  TMI, I know.

Yea, we're losers.

But we both got excellent reports today.  They said our teeth looked "beautiful" and "good as always."  Our floss fights must be worth it ; )

In other news, how about little Scotty the Hottie winning American Idol?  We didn't watch it much this year, but we'd tune in on occasion.  He seems like a good guy.  I heard he's dating the Lauren chick.  Idol love?!

Visiting, Hernias, and a Pushover

Our small group has been trying to come up with some sort of way to give back to the community, and we've had several ideas.  Our first one was to visit other young couples who have "visited" our church.  It sounded like a great idea - just stop by after dinner, say hello, and drop off a little goodie bag with First Baptist info.

It ended up being kinda funny.  Our first stop was at a girl's house who I'm pretty sure was about 15 years old.  She fibbed a little bit on her info sheet.  We also went by the home of church members, not visitors, and a church employee.  Good times.  We've got to do a little better screening next time, HA.

I went to my old stomping grounds, Union High School, Tuesday and Wednesday to do sports physicals for the athletes.  It was quite an experience, and I was glad to help out.  However, it was a bit awkward doing the "hernia check" for all the little boy athletes.  Bless 'em.  We all just got past our giggles and carried on.

And finally, I'm such a pushover.  Caleb is an Apple fanatic, and I thought he was going to be satisfied for a while once I got the iPhone.  He gets to play with it all the time, but apparently, his real desire was for an iPad.  He's been calling Best Buy daily to see if they've gotten any in because we want to use our Reward Zone points and buy one from there.  Well, today was his lucky day.  I felt like we won a game by catching Best Buy on the day they actually had an iPad in so I caved.  Merry Christmas in May!  I'll have to remind him of this new toy in December...

it's baaaack!

I think I was giving my new medicine too much credit.  I went 3 months (that's a long time) without a BAD migraine.  Woo Hoo!  I mean, I'd had a few headaches, a little arm numbness here and there, maybe some fuzzy vision, but no all-day migraine.

Until yesterday.

My alarm went off at 7:30 am, and I looked around the room, noticing a few fuzzy lines.  I just assumed I was halfway asleep still, and it couldn't possibly be an "aura."  I put my glasses on and tried again.  Doggonit.  Migraine.  I took my meds and laid back down, called my nurse at work, and planned to go in at lunch time.  My left arm went numb a few minutes later.  

Without giving too many details, I was unable to keep anything down all day.  I was finally able to sip on Gatorade by about 1 pm.  Caleb brought me lunch and tried to make me eat.  It ended up being an afternoon snack by the time I felt okay.  He was a great murse ; )

Oh, well.  I guess I can handle a migraine if I have to, but I sure do hope my preventative medication gets back to doing her job!  I hope somebody finds a cure one day.  I'd be willing to put a little money into their research...  : )

Saturday Randoms

I came home Thursday night to a surprise from Caleb.  It was this awesome CD from Target.

I can't help but like Taylor Swift.  Her songs are SO fun!  I recommend the new CD.

We saw Morning Glory with some friends, and it was a cute movie.

I'm a little bit obsessed with the Today Show every morning, and this movie depicts a young girl trying to make it as an executive producer of a morning show called DayBreak.  It makes you appreciate the hard work behind the scenes for Matt and Meredith.

We had dinner last night with some friends who have a 3 week old and an almost 2 year old.  Wow!  You can learn a lot hanging out at their house for a little while.  Precious little fam!

On the downside, I experienced my first migraine on my new medication.  I thought it was going to be an instant miracle cure, but I'm gonna have to hang in there with it for a little while.

After CPR training this morning, Mom and I went to Santa's Shop, a shopping adventure in Spartanburg sponsored by the Junior League, and we find some fun Christmas surprises!

Now back to watching college football!

Flu Shot

Caleb always feels a little bit awkward anytime he comes into our office, mainly because it's an ObGyn office.  What male doesn't feel a little bit weird?  He doesn't come that often, probably no more than 3 times ever, but still...

Well, to add to the awkward-ness of today's visit, Caleb was getting his flu shot at the obgyn office.  And I gave it to him!  His mom always gave him vaccines growing up because she works at the health department.  So he says he's comfortable with loved ones giving him injections.

I was vaccinated a few weeks ago, so we should be Flu-Free at the Massengill home!  Caleb says I threw him under the bus with my post yesterday so I hope that keeping him flu-free will redeem me, HA!

8 days

That's how long I have left with this heart monitor.  Praise the Lord!  It's a bit of a nuisance, especially when it comes to sleep.  There's just nothing comfortable about a little hard plastic box on your hip as you toss and turn.  I have a feeling that I may miss it once it's gone though.  Doubtful.

Also, please pray for a family friend of ours, Mrs. Margaret.  She's scheduled for cardiac bypass surgery Monday the 25th, and she has had all sorts of health issues recently.  We pray for her doctors and the care she receives.  It has been a long, drawn out process for her, but we know that God is the ultimate healer.  He will heal her in His way and in His time.  

This little fellow is coming to see us this weekend.  Can't wait!

Happy Wednesday : )

Heart Update

I finally saw the cardiologist and a new neurologist, and I am hopefully going to get my heart under control.  This post may be incredibly boring so I apologize in advance, but anything health related intrigues me.  Plus I want to make sure I remember these details.

The good news is - I loveeee my new neurologist.  He is SO incredibly nice, compassionate, and intelligent.  He agreed that I should stop my previous preventive medication, and he has started a new one that is much safer and effective, i.e. no more migraines! (I pray he's right).  We decided that if he is right, we're naming our first child after him.  Just kidding (sort of)!  

He spent an hour and a half with me hearing my history and explaining migraines to me in mega detail.  He says they started way back when I was a kid and had motion sickness - aka "abdominal migraine."  Who knew?  He went through all the genetics, science, and medications involving migraines which was good to hear, even if some of it was a repeat.  

I saw the cardiologist earlier this week, and it just happened to be the same one that I saw when I was 16 and had a fainting episode while running in a cross country meet.  This cardiologist now has me wearing another heart monitor, and here comes the bad news.  This one has to be worn for THIRTY DAYS.  Yes, I can remove it to shower, but it makes sleep kinda difficult.  I definitely toss and turn even more than usual - poor Caleb.  But Caleb was excited that the cardiologist told me to add salt to all of my food.  Yum!  I've always been a salt-limiter, but apparently my blood pressure is too low for that.  So bring on the salt!  

That's about all for now.  I'm struggling to find a heart monitor appropriate dress to wear to a wedding this weekend.  Nobody wants to see wires hanging out, ha!

my Heart

It's been a crazy week for us.  Well, it started out fine until Thursday.  I woke up at 5 am with a migraine.  Great.  I took my regular meds and went to work feeling okay.  Not good, but okay.  I called Caleb around 10 am to let him know I was about to faint.  I just felt like he should know, HA!

Well, I wasn't kidding.  I made my way into the restroom at work to faint on the floor.  Nice.  I was mega-embarrassed.  Luckily, I work in a doctor's office.  What better place to fall out?!  I had a team of nurses and doctors right there to pick me up and force feed gatorade to me, assuming dehydration.

I went home to get some rest, and I noticed my heart feeing a little funny, like flutters.  I called my family doctor just to let him know and to request a referral to a cardiologist in case it continued (i've had heart issues in the past when I was 16).  They told me to come in that afternoon to be seen.  Well, my EKG showed a right bundle branch block, and I fainted again at his office.  They gave me a liter of IV fluids and monitored my heart for quite a while.  I went home wearing an awesome Holter monitor and had an echocardiogram scheduled for Friday.  My heart rate was 33 and blood pressure was 80/40 at the family doctor's office.  Pretty cool, huh?

I felt pretty miserable the rest of the night and laid around most of Friday, too.  Thank goodness for my mom and Caleb who were pretty awesome nurses, aside from the fact that Caleb spilled my orange juice all over the bed.  So much for breakfast in bed, HA!  But seriously, they were great.

Now is the super fun waiting part.  Waiting for echo to be read, waiting for Holter report, waiting to see cardiologist and neurologist.

I know there are plenty of people out there much, much sicker than me, and I pray for them so much!  It is sooo not fun to feel terrible.  I was so excited to be able to wash my hair Friday night after removing the Holter monitor.  I realize how much I take the simple things for granted.  God has some sort of reason for me to have these migraines and heart issues, and I'm ready to know just what His reason is.  Prayers are greatly appreciated!

Ouch!

I did a silly (blonde) thing on Monday that was a bit painful. 

As I was running out the door for work Monday morning, my left contact started bothering me a little.  I grabbed a bottle of what I thought was contact solution and decided I'd fix it at work.  It was a free sample bottle from the eye doctor, and I assumed it was just plain ole solution.

Wrong.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I slipped out my contact, rinsed it off, and put it back in my eyeball.  OUCH!!!!  It came back out quicker than it went in.  I screamed and saw my eye turn blood red.  I just knew I was blinded.

The "solution" was an overnight (at least 6 hours) cleansing agent...aka hydrogen peroxide in a fancy contact bottle.  I flushed my eye with sterile water and soaked my contact for a while when I went into the office.  I will NEVER EVER use that stuff again.

All you contact users understand the pain.  Always read the instructions...

Boom Boom Pow

That's what we heard at 5:00 yesterday at the office.  I had just walked upstairs to get my stuff together to go home when I heard the big BOOM.  It was storming pretty bad outside so I decided to mosy back downstairs where everybody else was waiting.  On the way, I walked by the little closet that houses our main computer system and noticed it humming pretty loudly.  Well, apparently that BOOM was lightning striking our building.  It led to a good bit of excitement including a fire truck outside and several firemen wandering around the building.  Everyone was fine, but our computer system can't boast the same.  We've been old school today with paper charts, hand written lab orders, etc.  Good times.  

Also, I had allergy testing done yesterday, and I discovered that I'm allergic to dust mites.  Who isn't?  The good news is:  the doctor recommended that we only have hardwoods and tile floors in our house.  No carpet!  And we can use my allergy as a tax write off whenever we replace the floors OR buy a new house.  Sounds good to me.

More Brain Shenanigans

The best analogy I could come up with for me on Monday was a child at daycare.  I woke up Monday morning around 4:30 am with a migraine, took my meds, and went back to sleep.  Being the smart (not) person I am, I got up and went to work at the normal time.  I thought I'd be okay.  Wrong.  Around 10:30 that morning, I started having the aura again.  I immediately took my medication AGAIN, even though I hate taking it at all...so 2x in one day was quite a feat.  (It is safe, no worries there.)  My head continued to pound, and I continued to have the visual disturbances. 

What do I do but call Caleb?  He assures me that I have sick days for a reason, and he is coming to pick me up.  I proceed to talk (cry) with one of the doctors at work, and she encourages me to take the rest of the day off.  So that brings us back to the child at daycare thing...

I just found it so amusing that Caleb had to leave work, come pick me up, gather all my things (computer, water bottle), and take me home.  Did I mention I whined the whole way home?  Well, I did.  I was like a sick a little kid whose daddy had to pick her up from daycare.

I saw my neurologist today, and we've decided to do some extra tests and start on a new medication as prophylaxis.  I sure do hope it helps!  She also assured me that I will be having MRI's done of my brain each year to monitor my little abnormality, and IF I ever need surgery...she's only sending me to the BEST.  This "best" just happens to be in New York.  So, IF I have to do it, at least it's in a cool place, right?

Tonight, Caleb and I had a date night to see Dear John at the dollar theater.  I haven't read the book, but I loved the movie!  That Channing Tatum is easy on the eyes ; )

My Brain

First, thank ya'll so much for all the prayers over the past week!  I've been hesitant to "blog" about the brain stuff until I knew more about what was going on.  Then I realized that the only people looking at this are probably my family and friends that already know everything.  Plus I really think it will help me to write about it all.  

So, 2 Fridays ago (which happened to be GOOD Friday), Caleb got to see my brain during a MRI.  How fun, right?  My migraines had gotten kinda bad and much more frequent.  They occurred twice at work, and that's what really got to me.  I hated having to take meds while working, and frankly just the fact that I had to show weakness in front of my co-workers really got to me.  Migraines don't back down though.  

My neurologist ordered a MRI that Friday, and I thought it was a complete waste of time and money.  I had sort of come to terms with the fact that I have migraines, and I just have to deal with it.  Well, I finally got the results on Tuesday, and "Anxious-Research Every Detail-Kathryn" came out.  I'm pretty sure I read every personal story, treatment option, and prognosis for the minor abnormality that showed up on my MRI report.  It was nothing life threatening, but it sounded like it could get worse, and may even require BRAIN SURGERY.  I already started preparing myself for being bald.  To make matters worse, my neurologist had to reschedule my appointment to 3 weeks later, and that's when I really hit panic mode.

I called everybody I knew that could maybe, possibly know a neurosurgeon.  One of my favorite doctors prayed about it for me, and then he suggested this guy in Greenville.  Can't argue with God...I scheduled an appointment with the surgeon in Greenville for today, and he was great.  I hope : )

In the meantime, my neurologist ordered a MRA.  That meant another round in the tunnel, aka every claustrophobic's biggest nightmare.  Luckily, my mom and Caleb came with me to the tests to hold my hand.  Literally.  

MRA - totally normal.  Woo Hoo!  The next step was seeing the neurosurgeon today, and he assured me that he doesn't think surgery would fix my migraines.  Sure, it would help the little weirdo brain I've got, but it's not necessary at this time.  He says other surgeons would happily take me to the OR, shave my little head, and slice it open, but he thinks they're "quacks."  Is he right?  I pray he is.  He went to Duke, so of course Caleb is sold on his opinion, haha.

It was good news that I don't need surgery now, but the bad news is that I will still have migraines.  I'm seeing my neurologist in a week or so, and hopefully she can work on those M-words.  Other than that, we'll just be monitoring me for a change in symptoms and possibly serial MRIs.  

Again, thanks for all the prayers!  I'll update if anything changes.  Now, we're praying for peace from this opinion we received today.  Sorry this is so long, but it's been a couple of weeks worth of worry just exploding inside of me onto this here bloggiepoo.  

Migraines...

...the worst things EVER!  I don't want this post to turn into a depressing one about how terrible migraines are, but I wanted to at least give them a little attention.  I remember having my very first one when I was a freshman at PC sitting in GDH (our dining hall).  I had no clue what was happening, and I learned a magical cure for anything from my daddy when I was a little girl...you eat!  No matter what, he always made us eat something yummy when we were sick.  If you know my dad, that makes perfect sense.

Well, I could hardly eat anything that day because my tummy was doing flip flops.  Not to mention I saw crazy zigzag lines and had a numb arm.  It was like a stinkin' stroke.  Not that at all.  Just a migraine.  After a few hours of napping in my ZTA big sister Katherine Moore's room, I was okay.

Another "m-word" memory is the first time I had one in front of Caleb.  Oh, my.  I still cannot believe he married me after witnessing that.  I remember him bringing me a Mountain Dew (b/c that was his magical cure) before we started dating, and he knew I was sick.  It's the thought that counts.  Well, the first REAL one when we were dating was my senior year at PC.  I remember being so pitiful in the floor with Caleb and Alyssa being incredible nurses.  I knew he really liked me then, haha.

Anytime I had one at PC, I would call my mom to come pick me up, and she would.  No matter what time it was, she would come...and it was often around 3am.  Nothing made me feel better than going home and crawling in my parent's bed.  What a baby, I know.

There are so many stories about "graines" that I could tell.  It's kinda sad that these terrible headaches have had such an impact on my life.  I remember the many times we tried doing the Imitrex injections and shot more medication on the ceiling, walls, etc. than ever into me.  I even took a medication for a year that would prevent them, but it caused a lot of weird side effects.  That one had to go!  Now...whenever I do get one, I've been taking Maxalt.  It's my new fave.  And supposedly, Riboflavin (vitamin b2) and Magnesium help prevent them.  No such luck for me, but a few vitamins never hurt anybody.

I pray for a cure for these things soon, and I pray for everybody else who suffers from them.  The moral of the story is:  there are good doctors and meds out there for those m-words, but a cure would be grrrrreat!

On the bright side, every day without a headache is such a blessing for me, and I really do thank God for those days : )  

I love a good Half Day!

I could soooo get used to working half days!  It's awesome getting to leave at 12 on Fridays.  Maybe one day...

After work, I met my friend Heidi at Wade's for lunch.  I was running a little late so I text messaged Heidi to let her know.  She replied, "It's okay.  I'll be Wade-ing inside."  What a nerd.  Wade's is one of my favorite places to eat in Spartanburg.  It's a "meat and 3" kinda place.  It's famous, too...Bill Clinton ate there.  It doesn't look like much, but their sweet potato souffle is yummmmmy!  Here's Heidi after our delicious lunch.  It looks pretty gross outside, but the sun came out soon after.

Heidi and I have been friends for a long time.  We cheered together in high school...Go Yellow Jackets! She's getting married soon to Blakiepoo.

I then went to get a massage.  I feel so bratty to say that, but my doctor actually recommended it.  My neurologist thinks it may help with my migraines.  It's a stretch, but who wouldn't agree to that?  They have an awesome massage therapy staff at the hospital, and we get a great discount.  I throughly enjoyed it.  Now off for some bowling with friends!  Happy Friday : )