Sickness Central

Our home has been hit hard with sickness!  Annelise came down with her first stomach bug last Wednesday.  We were getting up and going to get ready for gymnastics class.  I asked her to go out to the kitchen to throw Harrison's diaper away and I hear her cough and small splash.  I figured that wasn't good, so I went to go see what happened.  She had thrown up.  I immediately grabbed a bowl to finish catching it.  I cleaned her up, and took her to the couch to lay down.  Shortly after that, she threw up again.  At first, I thought that her getting sick might have just been a one time thing, but after the second time, I knew that she was sick!  Poor girl was miserable!  She spent the morning throwing up and resting on the couch, nodding in and out of sleep.

She fell asleep for her "nap" and slept for 2-3 hours on the couch.  She woke up right as Drew was getting home from class.  She immediately asked for something to eat, ate a banana, drank some water, and started to run and bounce around like she had never even been sick at all.  I couldn't believe it!

Then, Friday came, and the flu bug hit me!  I woke up nauseous and fought for a while to work my way through it.  I had signed Annelise up for a Kindermusik class and was really excited to take her.  I knew I wasn't going to make it, so I asked Rachel to take her.  I started throwing up shortly after they left.  Thankfully, Harrison napped for majority of the time they were gone.  Once Rachel and Annelise got home, Rachel took care of the kids until Drew got home a little after noon.  I was a mess until about 4.  I was so cold!  I don't think that I have ever been so chilled when I've been sick.  My nose was like ice.  It was so weird.  Once I was able to stop throwing up, I felt much better.  I was so upset that I got sick when I did because I had made plans to go out with a friend.  Inevitably, that's when sickness always hits, right?

Yesterday, Annelise came down with a nasty cold.  She started showing some signs of it Sunday night, and come yesterday morning, it was full blown and awful.  But, a cold doesn't stop her from running around and being rambunctious.  She's feeling a little better today, but still not 100%.

Drew is dealing with the sickness today!  Have I mentioned how much I hate winter?!?!  Is it summer yet?

My Worst Nightmare

It happened. It came back.

The pain, the shakes, the nausea, the vomiting. All of it.

Sunday night I got those intense stomach pains again. Of course, I got sick. And this time, the pain didn't go away. Usually it would kind of come and go in waves. After taking 1000 mg of Tylenol and still being in pain after about an hour and a half, Drew decided that we needed to go to the Emergency Room.

Once there, they started an IV and drew some blood. Then, they gave me something for the nausea and some Tramadol for the pain. They might as well not have even given me the Tramadol because it did absolutely nothing. The doctor came in and told me that my white blood cell count was extremely elevated, which is a sign on infection or inflammation. My count was at 18000 and it usually caps out at 11000 at the highest. They were a little concerned to say the least. The doctor was concerned that it could be my appendix, but wasn't fully convinced because my symptoms weren't classic to appendicitis. The doctor then decided that he wanted to do a pelvic exam. Oh joy!

They asked if I was still in pain, which I was, so they then gave me some Dilaudid. I was loopy and lightheaded before they even pulled the needle out of my IV. However, that took care of the pain.

Then came the pelvic exam. That was awful fun while trying not to pass out. Then, another ultrasound.

Nothing new was found. The doctor said that if I was a male, they could have said that what I was experiencing was appendicitis and gone from there. But since I'm a female and have a uterus and ovaries and all that good junk, they have to rule out problems there first. The doctor suggested that I go back to my OB/GYN the next day and have a follow up with her since the problems were probably associated with my endometriosis.

They prescribed me some Norco (the same stuff I took after my surgery), told me to take 2 as soon as I got them, and sent me home.

When I woke up at 7:30 Monday morning, I took 2 more Norco and went back to sleep for a little bit. I woke up again a little while later, called the doctor, and made an appointment for 1:45 that afternoon. Drew and I eventually got out of bed between 10 and 11 and I went to the couch. I was starving, so decided to snack on some graham crackers. Shortly after that, I began to vomit again. And I could not stop. The time came for us to leave for the doctor's appointment, but Drew called them and told them what was going on with me and they suggested that I just go back to the ER.

So back we went!

It took us 2 hours before we finally got put in a room. Round 2 of IV and lots of fluids and nausea medicine. After the doctor looked at my info from yesterday, he said that he wouldn't be a good doctor if he didn't do a CT scan so he could rule out my appendix. Then began the journey of drinking the nasty dye crap. It wasn't horrible. It was lemonade Crystal light, water, and the dye stuff. I couldn't taste the dye crap, but I'm not a fan of that much lemonade at one time. I don't drink that much liquid in 2 days, let alone 2 hours. I choked down about half of the container and then got frustrated because my stomach was so upset from all of the liquid. They then gave me some Reglan, which the nurse said would help with the full feeling and the nausea.

The CT scan was painless and the results came back that my appendix was fine. They sent me home again and told me to just follow up with my OB/GYN. Two nights in the ER to have absolutely no answers.

I'm frustrated that I'm having these problems again. I'm supposed to be better. My problems were supposed to be fixed after the surgery and taking the birth control. I have an appointment to see the doctor on Monday and hopefully she has some answers.

Could It Really Be Over?

Last Thursday, November 5, Drew and I went back to the doctor for a follow up appointment after my surgery. I don't think that I had ever been so excited to go to the doctor. I never got the opportunity to talk to her after the surgery, so I was anxious to hear things from her and to be able to ask some of the questions that I had been having.

Dr. H showed me the pictures that she took during the surgery. Boy, were those interesting! I honestly had no idea what I was looking at, but she went through them and pointed out things to Drew and me. I basically just took her word for it. She showed me the spots where I have endometriosis. She said that I have Stage 4, which is the worse there is. She discussed with me everything that she told Drew and my mom after the surgery. We basically decided that doing continuous birth control to stop my periods would be the best decision for right now. She told me that I had to wait until the Sunday after my next period to start. Dr. H then said that I would probably have one more bad period then.

I am extremely happy to report that I am finishing up my cycle and I was not sick at all. Not even a little bit!!! This is such good news to me. That also means that I'll be taking my first birth control pill tonight.

I'm really nervous about it. The pharmacy tech said that I would probably be nauseous with it, so it would be best to take it at night so that I could sleep through it. I'm just praying that God lays his hand over and protects me. I don't want to feel sick anymore from all this stuff. I just want to feel better, normal.

I want to say a huge thank you to all of my family and friends who have called or written to see how I've been feeling. I can't express to you how much it has meant to me!

I'm Still Whole

I thought that I should probably recap surgery and let everyone know what happened.

We arrived at the hospital bright and early at 7 AM. We checked in and were given a pager. Drew and I sat and waited for about 10 minutes and then a nurse came and brought us back to hospital "cubicle". It was a 3 walled room with a curtain, a bed, and a bunch of machines. The nurse had me change into one of the stylish operating gowns and then we played the waiting game.
After about an hour, another nurse came in and hooked up my IV. It was my first time ever having an IV. Obviously, it was Drew's first time too!

After the IV got hooked up, I had to just lay around and wait. Before that, I was pacing and couldn't sit still. There must have been something in there to calm me down!

Surgery was scheduled to begin at 9 AM, but wouldn't you know it, they were running late. Dr. H came in to talk to us about what she was planning on doing. It was nothing new. Then, the anesthesiologist came and talked to me about what he would be doing. His name was Dr. Bone. I told Drew that I hoped he was hot with a name like that. He was older, which was ok by me. I'd much rather have a seasoned veteran knocking me out than some young buck fresh out of diapers.

A new nurse came to get me and wheel me back to the operating room. I was actually pretty calm. Again, there must have been something in that IV! She wheeled me into the room and introduced the other two nurses that were in there. I didn't have my contacts in or my glasses on at this point, so I was blind. I saw people, but I wouldn't be able to pick them out now. The nurse wheeled my bed up right next to the operating table and had me scoot over onto it. She untied my gown and it was absolutely freezing in there!!! She starting sticking heart monitors on me that didn't help my goosebumps. The anesthesiologist put a blood pressure cuff on and I remember telling them that I was sorry that I was shaking so bad and that I was cold and nervous. Dr. Bone said that it was ok because they weren't nervous at all. Good thing Doc! Dr. H came into the room then and I felt a poking in my IV. Dr. Bone then stated that I would be going to sleep. I looked up at the lights and remember thinking that I needed to be sure to keep my eyes open because I didn't want them to think that I was asleep but not really be asleep.

The next thing I remember was waking up and asking how long I had been asleep for. I told them that I felt like I had been dreaming. Then, I started coughing. I had a breathing tube during surgery and it made me feel like I had a frog in my throat. I kept coughing and clearing my throat. So annoying! I woke up in the recovery room and immediately asked for something to drink. The nurse that was attending me brought me ice chips and kept asking every two seconds if I was nauseous. I said no and open my mouth for more ice. I could not stop coughing. I asked for a drink, but that wasn't happening apparently. After being asked about 20 times if I was nauseous and proving that I was awake and coherent, I was wheeled to the post surgery "cubicle".

A new nurse was in there and asked if I was in pain. I actually wasn't too bad, but I knew better than to wait. I said yes, and she told me that she would be bringing me an oral pain med and asked what I wanted to drink. Um..... just wheel the entire pop machine in my room please! I asked for Sierra Mist and was told that I needed to eat some crackers with the pain meds. Graham crackers were my choice. Honestly... best graham crackers ever! (Keep in mind that it was the first solid food I had had since Saturday.) Once the new nurse had me checked in, she called for my mom and Drew to come back.

Drew and my mom waited in the waiting room during surgery. They have a screen in there that told me where I was the entire time during surgery. They could see what time surgery prep started, what time surgery started, what time surgery ended, and when I left recovery.

They came back, and then we just waited for me to get discharged. We probably spent an hour and a half to two hours waiting for me to get discharged. I actually felt pretty good. Until I sat up to get dressed. The doctor had to use air to puff up my abdomen during surgery. The air has no where to go after surgery, but rise. The minute I sat up, the air rose straight to my shoulder and almost brought me to tears. It hurt.so.bad. On the drive home, the air was in my ribs and I could hardly breathe. It was not fun.

Once home, I basically just laid around. I mean, what else was I going to do. And I laid around on Wednesday and Thursday too. Friday, I finally felt like I could stand up for an extended period of time without falling over, so I decided to take a shower. Best.shower.ever!! I felt like a whole new woman. I felt good yesterday too and had a good time handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. We even went to Adam and Nicole's for their Halloween Party.

I have two incisions, one right under my belly button and one right on my pubic bone. Neither one are very pretty right now. I do still have all of my organs!

Dr. H talked to Drew and my mom after surgery and she said that my right ovary was stuck to some tissue and other organs, so she unstuck that. She said that that was probably contributing to my pain during my period. My left tube was filled with fluid, so she drained that. She said that she doesn't think that it will ever work. I do have a large amount of endometriosis and she cleaned up some of it. Dr. H said that I'm at high risk of a tubal pregnancy, so I will have to be monitored very closely if and when I become pregnant. That is still a little ways off for Drew and I.

I have two options at this point. First is to be put on a medicine that will basically put me into menopause. Dr. H does not recommend this option because I could only be on it for a short amount of time and it wears away at bone density. I'm already small, so that's not a good choice. The second is birth control that will stop my period. It always seems to come back to the birth control doesn't it? I don't want to choose that route, but if it's going to keep me healthy and painfree until Drew and I decided to try for a baby, then so be it. We have an appointment on Thursday with Dr. H where I'm sure we will be discussing things.

Surgery Date

It's finally confirmed that my surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, October 27.


Tensions are already running quite high here in our house. I never would have imagined that our first year of marriage would have been filled with so many challenges and obstacles. We're praying for the best and I ask that you do too. I will keep everyone posted with updates as we get closer and as the surgery actually happens.

They're Gonna Cut Me Open

I went back to my doctor here in town last Thursday, the 10th, for a follow-up ultrasound after our appointment in Madison. They did another ultrasound to check the size of the cysts. The ultrasound room at my doctor has a screen that Drew and I can watch while the ultrasound is happening. I like this. A lot!! And since this was my third one, I could actually tell what the ultrasound tech was looking at.

So, she's looking around, and I can spot my cervix, and my ovaries, and I see the cysts that we already know are there. And there we see this thing. This weird looking thing that kinda resembles a tampon. At first I was mortified, wondering if I screwed up somewhere. That probably wouldn't be a good thing. Then, after realizing that I couldn't have made that mistake, we look at it a little more closely and it kinda floats.

The ultrasound tech said, "I've never seen anything like that."

What? What do you mean you've never seen anything like that? That's not the right answer!

"Um, what do you mean? What do you think it could be?", I calmly ask.

"Well, look, it kind of floats when I push against it. Look." ::Push, push::

Ok, that's enough of that! Quit playing with my organs please and thank you.

"Um, yeah, that kinda hurts."

Not exactly the kind of conversation I expected to have with the ultrasound tech. And that "thing" has shown up since my last ultrasound. Weird.

We met with the doctor again and she said that she thought it might be scar tissue, but she's not certain. She also says that it now looks like both of my tubes are blocked. (Before it was just my left one.) Then she tells me that she wants to do a laparoscopy so that she can go in and take a look at things. I asked her why the other doctor in Madison didn't even see my tube being blocked and she just said that he specializes in cancer, not infertility. Do I buy that? I'm not sure. But all I know is that I'm really lost as to who to believe.

Drew and I tossed around what to do for a couple days. We got two very conflicting opinions from different doctors. We wondered if we should try to find another doctor here in town and see what they suggested. At the end of the day, we (or I really) have decided to just go ahead with the surgery. My doctor said that she's going to go in and look around, clean up any scar tissue she can, and hopes to leave everything else alone. She doesn't want to take anything if she doesn't have to. That's a relief to me! I hope that she'll be able to fix whatever is going on with me.

The surgery scheduler finally called me on Friday, but I wasn't able to answer my phone. Of course, when I called her back, she was away from her desk. I left a message and her voicemail said that all messages would be returned same day. All except mine apparently, because she never called me back. Hopefully she'll call me back tomorrow and I can find out when we can get this show on the road.

Cancer Free

I was supposed to go in for my colposcopy today, but the doctor's office called on Wednesday and scheduled an appointment at UW Madison for the second opinion today. Drew and I had to be there at 8:45 AM. Once we got there, we registered, and then went to Radiology where they did another ultrasound. Both external and internal. Seriously, not fun!

After the ultrasound, we went to Oncology to meet with Dr. Rose. The waiting room was filled with people. And lots of them had on scarfs or hats. It was so sad. And I was terrified waiting for whatever news was going to come. We checked in at Oncology and the lady gave me a pager and said that they would call me back to do my labs in a little bit. Fantastic. Drew and I went out in the hallway to wait. After about 10 minutes, the lady came back and said that Dr. Rose decided to meet with me first and then do labs. Drew and I were then sent through a set of doors to another waiting room. This waiting room was also filled with people.

We were called back pretty quickly and were put in an examination room. A nurse took my vitals and a little information. Then, a physician's assistant came in and she talked to me a little bit more about what was going on. Then, as she was leaving, she told me that Dr. Rose would be in to do another pelvic exam. (BTW, I have decided to keep a count of the number of people who have seen my lady parts during this whole ordeal and my number has now reached 5. I'm a married woman who is not pregnant. That is way too many!!!)

So, I undress, for the second time, and sit and wait. He comes in and talks to me a little bit about what's been going on. He pulled up my ultrasound and told me that there are two cysts on my right ovary. One is 2.4 cm and one is 2.7 cm. Not huge, but not teeny either. He told me that they aren't cancerous and he's really not concerned about them at the moment. Dr. Rose said that the symptoms that I'm complaining about are pretty indicative of endometriosis. He says that they really don't do surgery anymore. They treat the symptoms. With birth control!!!!

My heart sank at that point. Yes, I am overjoyed that it's not cancer that I'm dealing with. But, I do NOT want to start taking birth control. I asked him if there was anything else that could be done and he said that there are hormone shots, but he doesn't recommend them. They would be on a trial basis and I would have to stop after no more than six months or I could risk damage to my bones.

So, he did another pelvic exam (where he pinched me with the speculum and stuck his finger in my booty. Is that normal? I think not!!) and told me that I should schedule a follow up with my doctor here. I guess that is the next step for next week. Maybe she'll have some different suggestions besides birth control.

More Reasons to Love Being a Woman

I've been fighting with whether or not to post about what's going on with me health wise. On one hand, blogging about it will probably help sort out some of the emotions that I have running through my head. And help me keep everything straight. But on the other hand, I'm not exactly sure who reads this, and I know that there may be a couple people who read this that I really don't want to know what is going on. But, I have to keep reminding myself that this is my blog and I originally started it for me. And my family. And my friends. So, I'm going to go ahead and post about it.

Do you remember me posting here about me going to the doctor? I went to the doctor because of those sharp stomach pains that I was experiencing. Here is where I talked about my trip to the ob/gyn. I never posted after that, but they called me and I had an abnormal pap come back. They want me to have a colposcopy. I put it off because we were going to North Carolina, and from the reading that I did, it can screw up my cycle. I did NOT want that to happen with us going on vacation. Especially since I get those pains during my period.

So, I got those pains in May, which made me to the doctor. Then again in June. And again in July. July almost killed me. I always get the pains on the second day of my period. That just so happened to be a Friday. I have no idea how I made it through work with the pain that I was in. Thank God for Amy who basically let me sign off my drawer and sit on a chair and focus on not passing out. I even called Drew to drive me home. That Saturday sucked too, but somehow I made it.

After that ordeal, I decided that I could no longer deal with the pain I was in, and I scheduled another doctor's appointment. They decided that they wanted to do a 5th day ultrasound to see what is going on with my uterus to cause me such pain. August period came and I scheduled the appointment for the ultrasound. I felt so nauseous and sick this cycle. For about a week. It was horrible.

I went in for the ultrasound on Wednesday. Boy, am I excited to get pregnant so I can do that again! (Please note the extreme amount of sarcasm in that statement.) After the ultrasound, Drew and I met with the doctor. And here we go....

I have a Dermoid cyst in my right ovary. A dermoid cyst is made up of different kinds of tissue from other parts of the body, such as skin, hair, fat, and teeth. Sounds pretty nasty! My right fallopian tube is blocked. Both of these could be contributing to the pain that I'm experiencing. Since I have the cyst, she wanted to draw blood (::bug eyes!!!:: I didn't sign up for that when I made the appointment. You already got to shove crap inside me and now you want to poke me and take my blood too!!!) to see if the cyst is cancerous.

She called me today to let me know the results of the blood draw. It came back with a 45. If it was 35 or under, the cyst was nothing to worry about and would probably go away on its own. If it was 145 say, that would mean that it was cancerous. 45 means that it could go either way really. She said that it could be elevated because of the blocked tube or the possible endometriosis. So, she said that she wants to send me for a second opinion to the gyn. cancer doctors at either Madison or Northwestern.

I talked to my mom and have come up with some questions that we want to ask the doctor. When we met with her on Wednesday, she said that most likely I'm going to have to have a Laparoscopy. This is a surgery that (hopefully) alleviate some of the problems that I've been experiencing. The problem right now is that nothing is really certain. You can never tell how bad (or good) something is until you get in there to look at it. She said that the surgery would probably be used to remove the cyst, possibly remove my fallopian tube, and figure out what the situation is with the possible endometriosis. (You can't know for certain if you have endometriosis unless you have surgery.) If I'm going to end up having the surgery anyways, my mom and I feel that it would be best to forgo the second opinion and just get the ball rolling on the surgery. I'm scared to death of this, so I'd rather just get it done and over with if I'm going to have to. I'm going to call and talk to her about it tomorrow.

Right now, I have an appointment on Friday to have the colposcopy done.

So, that's the update. I will keep posting here as I get more answers.

She Said "No News Is Good News"

I had an appointment with an ob/gyn today. Actually, she was a nurse practicioner, if that really matters. Alicia was very sweet. She knew that I was nervous and really helped to calm my nerves. Drew has been slow at work, so he was able to take today off and come with me, which helped a lot too. She talked to him a little too, and I think she made him feel not quite so awkward.

She did an annual exam and we discussed putting me on a medicine schedule for my absolutely horrendous menstrual cycle. Can I just mention that I absolutely love that she didn't mention putting me on birth control once? We discussed NFP (Natural Family Planning) and from what I can gather from our conversation, she's very knowledgable about the subject and seems to be pro-life. That was definitely something that I was looking for in a doctor.

She told me that the only way to diagnose endometriosis is to do surgery. She said that the things that I've been complaining about sound like it could possibly be a slight case of endometriosis and then she told me that the best fix is pregnancy. Well, that's not going to happen right now, so we'll see how the medicine schedule works.

Hopefully It's Nothing

About six months ago, I blogged here about experiencing some intense, sharp stomach pains. This past weekend, I experienced the same type of pain. A common factor is that they both happened during the beginning of my period. I decided to go to the doctor today because I am still feeling very run down.

I'm happy to report I'm not pregnant, I don't have acid reflux, and she suggested that I eat more. (Thanks a lot, doc. How many years did you go to school for that?) Then, she told me that it sounds like the pains could be associated with endometriosis. I had heard of that term but wasn't quite sure what it was. She basically said that what happens is that cells from my uterus attach to other organs. I did a little researching when I got home, and it sounds like endometriosis can be pretty serious. Some of the symptoms that are listed are what I was experiencing.

My next step is to schedule an appointment with an ob/gyn. I haven't had a pelvic exam in 8 years. Yeah, I know, pretty irresponsible. I had a bad experience the first time, and that kind of scared me away. It's time that I get over it and just go. It's not that horrible, right? Right?? I plan on making an appointment in the next few days for next week if I can. Hopefully it's nothing too serious and whatever is wrong with me can be easily fixed.

Sick. Very Sick!

I wasn't feeling very good yesterday morning at work. I made it about an hour before I decided to go home. I was helping out at another branch, so I know that I kind of left them hanging. It's a good thing I did though.

I came home and fought off waves of nausea as I helped Drew cut in our master bedroom with the wall color paint. I was only able to help him for about a half hour before I told him I couldn't do it and came to lay on the couch. About 1:30, I got very sick. I don't think that I've ever had the flu this bad.

I ate about half a can of pears when I first got home, thinking that would help my nausea. Wrong!! I think it made it worse. But at least I had something in my stomach at that point. I didn't really eat or drink anything for the rest of the day. Last night, Drew really got on my case about eating and drinking some fluids. I managed to choke down about half a cracker (Yeah, I know, go me!) and a little 7-up.

I'm feeling a little better today. I'm just praying that Drew doesn't get it. It's nasty and I wouldn't wish the way I feel on anybody.

Lessons Learned

.....Drew started having trouble breathing.



He went to the doctor a few weeks ago because he wasn't feeling too well. We don't have a regular family doctor because we rarely get sick. Well, sick enough to go to the doctor anyway. So we went to the immediate care clinic. The doctor there told him that he had high blood pressure, along with some other things, and put him on some blood pressure medication. He eventually ran out. Instead of going back to the doctor, he decided to just take a few days of his dad's blood pressure medicine until we found a family doctor.



D-U-M-B!!!!! Dumb, Dumb, Dumb!!!!



He started to "wig out" as I like to describe it. He has trouble breathing, complains of cotton mouth, feels the need to pace, he just feels weird he says. He spent the rest of the night trying to calm down and eventually fell asleep.

Dolphin Swim Pictures

I, honestly, did absolutely nothing all weekend. I was fighting off horrible stomachaches and praying that I wasn't getting sick. These pains were a sharp, knife-like pain in the middle of my stomach. Pain I had never experienced before. Yes, I whined like a little baby! Drew offered little support and told me that I better not be that bad when I'm pregnant cuz he won't want to hear it. The pain kinda came and went and he was lucky enough to say that statement at a moment when I was experiencing quite an amount of pain. Otherwise, he would have gotten a swift smack!! Seriously though, Drew did do a pretty decent job taking care of me. He would get up and get me anything that I asked for. He's such a good hubby!!

I did scan the pictures from our swim with the dolphins. I'm sure you've all been anxious to see those. If you remember me saying, I had looked forward to this day for a long, long time!

I'm actually very proud of Drew. He does have a fear of big fish (what a baby, right?) and he took the whole experience like a champ. He didn't really act too nervous but I could tell that he was. These pictures were all taken by staff at the Dolphin Swim Experience place and I'm sure that if they find them on here I'd get sued or something. But seriously, we paid $100 for these so whatever. At least I said who you were.

It'll Get Better Before You're Married!

Drew and I went to Klehm Arboretum on Sunday to take some engagement pictures. I had never been there before and it was beautiful. Anna, a friend of a friend, took the pictures for us. We expect to have some back by the end of this week.

After the pictures, Drew and I went to the Winnebago County Fair. Josh was driving (Do they call it that?) in the demolition derby and Drew was pretty stoked about seeing it. I had never been to one, so I was excited to experience it. Ya, there was one word that I would use to describe it, and one word only. REDNECK!!! Only men would think of an activity where you get in a junky car and run into other junky cars. Josh did great though, and actually finished 2nd. And he would have held out for a lot longer, except that he broke his drive shaft (?).

After the derby, we came home. And I have had an intense headache since Sunday afternoon. It lasted all night Sunday and I finally decided to take something about an hour before I went to bed. I figured that it would help and once I woke up in the morning I'd feel better. Wrong! My headache lasted all day yesterday too. I took non-aspirin pain reliever twice yesterday and nothing put even a dent in it. I woke up this morning and still had this blasted headache. So, I caved and took some Extra Strength Excederin. Ok, that helped. But now it's 11:30 AM and my headache has come back with a vengeance. Seriously, maybe this is dramatic, but AM I DYING?? I've had this nasty headache for almost 2 whole days now. I don't have time to be sick. Nor do I have the patience right now.