For those of you who actually read this and don't know, I am a carrier of Hepatitis C and TB.
Long and sorted stories shortened, we are unsure of where exactly I contracted either disease.
The best that either of my infectious disease specalists can figure, the Hepatitis C was contracted when I got a tattoo during my junior year at college. One color (red) was not opened in front of me and we're guessing that was the color that may have been re-used. A needle could not have been cleaned properly, although all of the instruments were opened in front of me. There is a slight chance that I could have gotten Hep C from blood transfusions I had as a premature infant back in 1982 (before blood products were tested in 1992) but my doctors have two theories about this: 1) most of my transfusions were from my father and he has tested negative and 2) the amount of Hep C that was found in my body was really too small of an amount to have been laying dormant for 24 years. The best guess? The tattoo.
I found out that I had Hep C after I attempted to give blood for the Red Cross during college. I have since gone through 48 weeks of horrible hell and concoctions of medications but have been in remission since July of 2005. I go in once a year for check-ups on my health and liver. This year, I will go 2 months after Sprout is born to make sure the Hep C hasn't flared up.
The TB (found out about in 2006) is also an unknown; however, when the State Health Department called (talk about being freaked out!) and said that they need information to track where I may have contracted this, we think it may have been where I did my student teaching. The population there has a higher percentage of Native American students and families and evidently, they are in the higher percentage of the population that carries TB (according to this woman). Really, who knows where I got it. But I got it. Thankfully, it is inactive right now and I don't have to do much other than watch my coughing and go to the doctor if anything changes. I did try to to do the medication that helps combat the active TB but developed nasty side effects that were making it hard to function.
Anyway, after all that, I am very aware of what these disease do to your body and to your life. No, I don't let either get me down but I do have certain things I need to do to protect myself and those around me, especially my family.
So when I saw this article this morning, I was beyond irritated. It makes me want to cry, yell and throw up all at the same time. Those patients did absolutely.nothing. to deserve this.
This is an update from the original article, which I cannot find my link to...sorry....
"No Remorse for tech who gave Hep C..."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34920322/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/?GT1=43001
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
38 weeks and 5 days....
36 weeks
- I still can't believe that we've made it this far.
- I can't believe that I am just a mere 9 days away from my due date.
37 weeks
- I can't believe that this is my house - the house full of baby furniture, strollers, carseat, swing, rocker, Dreft and tiny outfits.
- I still can't believe I'm going to be a mom to a beautiful daughter.
38 weeks 3 days
- I honestly still can't believe that I'm pregnant.
Our house has thrown-up baby stuff everywhere. The nursery is still not ready but hopefully by this weekend, we will have furniture. We have to wait until this weekend to get furniture in there but we still need 1/4 round trim, a transition piece between the floor and hallway carpet and felt pads for the furniture.
I still need to return a few items (tomorrow with my momma), get a pair of pants for the baby, get a lamp and a rug, some wall stickers and maybe a picture or two. Definitely getting the bedding we need and pants, and the wall stickers. The lamp, rug and pictures may wait. Did I mention we changed how we're decorating the nursery? Yep. I'm neurotic.
The carseat came out of the box today and will be installed tomorrow. The swing is not out of the box yet, nor is the pack n' play or stroller. We don't have our bouncy seat because Babies R Us didn't have it. I really wanted to have it before she came but it is going to have to wait. And we will have to wait on ordering more cloth diapers, get our wet bags and look at a breast pump until later.
Everyone keeps telling me that, in the end, it doesn't matter. And realistically, I know it won't. But I'm internally freaking out. In more ways than one. And I'm uncomfortable a lot of the time now. I have stretch marks, I can no longer bend over comfortably, I can't put on my own socks or shoes and my face is round. I haven't worn my wedding band in over a month and my feet and hands are swollen.
But I wouldn't trade it for ANYTHING....
I cannot wait to meet our little girl.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Scenes from 2009
This is Piper's new favorite spot...the basket o' blankets. And she gives you the look of "Don't you DARE touch me" every single time you go near her.
Our mantle, complete with stockings for the dog and cat.
These are animated figures from Rankin and Bass' "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer". The penguin also sings, dances and hops around. All of them freak the dog and cat out.
They have since been removed from this location and put up on a shelf. Everyone is much calmer that way.
Sprout's first ornament - cute and very appropriate for a little girl aptly nicknamed Sprout :)
Ebony's new favorite snuggling spot - our bed and the body pillow. She loves it!
Christmas Thoughts
Well, it's here.
Christmas.
Actually, it's Christmas Eve. But still.
It's here and I'm so not in the mood for it.
Maybe it's the hormones, the stresses of being pregnant, not having everything ready and not being able to do much about it.
Maybe it's that I'm lazy and I just don't want to deal with it.
But it doesn't matter because it's here. And I'm trying to convince myself that I need to be in the holiday mood - for my husband, my family, my daughter, myself.
Having holiday sweets, especially the fudge and puppy chow, does seem to help some :)
Today was supposed to be a day for my husband and I just to relax. Together. He didn't have to work and we were going to watch Christmas movies, drink hot cocoa, make glass candy, make homemade spaghetti sauce together, and just be.
Instead, he and my lovely lovely lovely unforgiving, unselfish father-in-law are upstairs melting the varnish off of the nursery floor by hand with a heat gun (so graciously lent by my dad early this morning) and a paint scraper. We rented a sander yesterday to sand the varnish off but the sander just melted the varnish onto the sander pads and rendered them useless. Poor Caleb was so incredibly frustrated last night and we were both near tears. It shouldn't be this difficult and it seems so silly to get mad about, but that's what was happening here. We thought this would be a semi-easy task. Instead it's been one flippin' headache after another.
Currently, I'm downstairs praying that this will work (they're going to try to sand the area they've already un-varnished to see if it will work with this type of sander or if they need to get a different type) and just waiting to hear the results. Caleb and my father-in-law are going to return the sander today so that we don't have to pay for an extra day and re-rent it next week when we can work on it more efficiently.
While downstairs, I'm watching Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (the newer ones, Episodes 1, 2 and 3 were on yesterday all day and the older ones are all on today), snuggling with the kitty and watching my belly move. Everyone keeps telling me to cherish this time we have without Sprout because by next year, she'll be grooving and moving all over the place. And we are - very much so. I just can't wait to meet her and to see what she looks like and just hoping that we'll get everything done in time before she arrives :)
With that being said, I'm going to back to snuggling on the couch and wait to see what happens upstairs. It sounds like I should start making dinner around 4 so we can eat - I think we'll try to get to church for the 9:30 service. It's not too far and hopefully the nasty weather will hold off until we get home.
Christmas.
Actually, it's Christmas Eve. But still.
It's here and I'm so not in the mood for it.
Maybe it's the hormones, the stresses of being pregnant, not having everything ready and not being able to do much about it.
Maybe it's that I'm lazy and I just don't want to deal with it.
But it doesn't matter because it's here. And I'm trying to convince myself that I need to be in the holiday mood - for my husband, my family, my daughter, myself.
Having holiday sweets, especially the fudge and puppy chow, does seem to help some :)
Today was supposed to be a day for my husband and I just to relax. Together. He didn't have to work and we were going to watch Christmas movies, drink hot cocoa, make glass candy, make homemade spaghetti sauce together, and just be.
Instead, he and my lovely lovely lovely unforgiving, unselfish father-in-law are upstairs melting the varnish off of the nursery floor by hand with a heat gun (so graciously lent by my dad early this morning) and a paint scraper. We rented a sander yesterday to sand the varnish off but the sander just melted the varnish onto the sander pads and rendered them useless. Poor Caleb was so incredibly frustrated last night and we were both near tears. It shouldn't be this difficult and it seems so silly to get mad about, but that's what was happening here. We thought this would be a semi-easy task. Instead it's been one flippin' headache after another.
Currently, I'm downstairs praying that this will work (they're going to try to sand the area they've already un-varnished to see if it will work with this type of sander or if they need to get a different type) and just waiting to hear the results. Caleb and my father-in-law are going to return the sander today so that we don't have to pay for an extra day and re-rent it next week when we can work on it more efficiently.
While downstairs, I'm watching Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back (the newer ones, Episodes 1, 2 and 3 were on yesterday all day and the older ones are all on today), snuggling with the kitty and watching my belly move. Everyone keeps telling me to cherish this time we have without Sprout because by next year, she'll be grooving and moving all over the place. And we are - very much so. I just can't wait to meet her and to see what she looks like and just hoping that we'll get everything done in time before she arrives :)
With that being said, I'm going to back to snuggling on the couch and wait to see what happens upstairs. It sounds like I should start making dinner around 4 so we can eat - I think we'll try to get to church for the 9:30 service. It's not too far and hopefully the nasty weather will hold off until we get home.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Okay...seriously
I think that our house has a mind of it's own and when we're down, finacially and emotionally, it breaks It does this quickly without the bat of an..windowshade and does it with a smirk, I'm sure.
Case in point: We finally got the two flat roofs fixed so that they are now pitched to match the rest of the house and are no longer leaking (Praise God!). However, in the process of this, there was door in our bedroom (that led out to the roof) that had to be removed. So the guys had to use the siding from the part of the house they were covering up with the newly-pitched roof....only, they ran out of siding. So new siding was ordered and will be in Friday...which my husband has to put up.
When the door was removed, the guys took the outdoor screen door off and left the indoor door still hanging. I pitched a fit when I re-read our proposal and it stated that WE had the choice to have the door removed. So the guy took the door off. And put a piece of drywall up where the door was...only he left the door frame. So now we have to tape and mud the drywall and take off the doorframe and fix that.
With all of this, the ceiling still has a large hole in it that needs fixing - we did recieve some back payment from the company but for reasons that need not be discussed, that money had to be used elsewhere. So, we still need to go get drywall for that, plus mud, tape and paint. We do have the insulation. And a 5 pound box of roofing nails (don't ask...you're just better off not knowing) that we'll never use.
So, the ceiling needs fixing still, the siding still needs to be picked up, cut and nailed up on the house, the door frame needs to be removed and filled in/insulated (whatever you do to a door frame that is removed)....
and then the door broke. The piece we need may or may not be available to us.
On top of everything else, we still don't have some necessary items for the baby and I'm slightly worried that even with returning a few items, we may not have the money to get what we would like to get. We have one more shower tomorrow for Caleb's work, so we'll see. I need to just trust that we will get through this. It's just very hard and having all these hormones running through my body is NOT helping. at all.
And I feel big and pregnant. Literally, overnight - yesterday I felt HUGE and I think it was due to the fact that Sprout was just sitting front and center. I was able to breathe (she wasn't in my ribcage for once) but was SO uncomfortable most of the day. I felt like no matter how I sat/stood/laid down/moved, I couldn't get comfortable. Today, I don't feel like I look as big as yesterday and I don't FEEL as big as yesterday. She's taken back to the ribcage, which is fine with me.
Enough of my complaining - I'm going to go get a bucket ready for Caleb to wash out paint brushes (he's putting up the last coat of paint tonight on the nursery walls) and then tomorrow, we're taking up the carpet. Please, seriously, pray that we find hard wood under there (we're thinking we will) so all it will need is a little clean up. I don't know how we're going to afford to put different flooring down - laminate flooring maybe...
i feel super stressed.
Case in point: We finally got the two flat roofs fixed so that they are now pitched to match the rest of the house and are no longer leaking (Praise God!). However, in the process of this, there was door in our bedroom (that led out to the roof) that had to be removed. So the guys had to use the siding from the part of the house they were covering up with the newly-pitched roof....only, they ran out of siding. So new siding was ordered and will be in Friday...which my husband has to put up.
When the door was removed, the guys took the outdoor screen door off and left the indoor door still hanging. I pitched a fit when I re-read our proposal and it stated that WE had the choice to have the door removed. So the guy took the door off. And put a piece of drywall up where the door was...only he left the door frame. So now we have to tape and mud the drywall and take off the doorframe and fix that.
With all of this, the ceiling still has a large hole in it that needs fixing - we did recieve some back payment from the company but for reasons that need not be discussed, that money had to be used elsewhere. So, we still need to go get drywall for that, plus mud, tape and paint. We do have the insulation. And a 5 pound box of roofing nails (don't ask...you're just better off not knowing) that we'll never use.
So, the ceiling needs fixing still, the siding still needs to be picked up, cut and nailed up on the house, the door frame needs to be removed and filled in/insulated (whatever you do to a door frame that is removed)....
and then the door broke. The piece we need may or may not be available to us.
On top of everything else, we still don't have some necessary items for the baby and I'm slightly worried that even with returning a few items, we may not have the money to get what we would like to get. We have one more shower tomorrow for Caleb's work, so we'll see. I need to just trust that we will get through this. It's just very hard and having all these hormones running through my body is NOT helping. at all.
And I feel big and pregnant. Literally, overnight - yesterday I felt HUGE and I think it was due to the fact that Sprout was just sitting front and center. I was able to breathe (she wasn't in my ribcage for once) but was SO uncomfortable most of the day. I felt like no matter how I sat/stood/laid down/moved, I couldn't get comfortable. Today, I don't feel like I look as big as yesterday and I don't FEEL as big as yesterday. She's taken back to the ribcage, which is fine with me.
Enough of my complaining - I'm going to go get a bucket ready for Caleb to wash out paint brushes (he's putting up the last coat of paint tonight on the nursery walls) and then tomorrow, we're taking up the carpet. Please, seriously, pray that we find hard wood under there (we're thinking we will) so all it will need is a little clean up. I don't know how we're going to afford to put different flooring down - laminate flooring maybe...
i feel super stressed.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Beware...
...of the hormones that come with pregnancy.
Holy cow...I was a mess yesterday and so far, today isn't any better.
It has a lot to do, at least yesterday, with my lack of sleep. The night before, a certain baby had decided that 2 am was THE perfect time to start her morning kalestenics. I couldn't get comfortable and was up for most of the rest of the early morning hours. I got up with Caleb at 7am yesterday and got some things done around the house. At lunch, while Caleb was trying to get lunch together before he had to return to work, I snapped at him, the dog, the cat and the dishes. When I started crying that I was a bad dog mom and am not doing enough for her, he ordered me back to bed for, at the very least, a nap. I did take a nap before running a few errands. Add to that the fact that we were SUPPOSED to have 20-ish Amish men at our house today working on our roof and we won't, until at the earliest, next Monday... I was all around cranky.
Today hasn't been much better - Caleb woke up late, I woke up very sore and cranky. He has a consultation today for the local sleep clinic - we are pretty sure (the doctor and myself) that Caleb is having sleep apenic episodes throughout the night and from what I can tell, they're getting more intense (more gasping for breath) and more frequent. So, the doctor referred him to the sleep clinic to see what they can do to help - needless to say, we're both a bit nervous and I think that added to the tense feelings this morning. And I was going to go the consultation with him but decided that it would probably be best if I just stayed home. And the way my stomach currently feels (thank you baby, Braxton-Hicks and something that isn't agreeing with my stomach), I think I'm better off here.
Today, I also have the grand task of finding out what permits we need to acquire before the Amish come and fix our roofs. Looking at the city's building department and their website, it seems that we may have to apply for a couple of permits but I'm not sure - hence, why I'm going to call. The contractor is going to take the two flat roofs (who EVER thought those were a good idea had some issues), make them into pitched roofs to match the rest of the house. And because they're pitching the flat roof right under our bedroom, the infamous-random-door-that-leads-to-the-flat-roof has to be removed so that they can pitch the roof correctly. And in addition to that, they will remove some siding from below to add/hide where the door was.
Ugh.
So I have to call and find out if we need a siding permit, a building permit, roof permit or a combination of the three. AND, the siding and roof permits each cost 100 dollars plus the after-inspection.
I'm going to cry.
And then throw up from the Lucky Charms that aren't sitting well.
Happy Tuesday
Holy cow...I was a mess yesterday and so far, today isn't any better.
It has a lot to do, at least yesterday, with my lack of sleep. The night before, a certain baby had decided that 2 am was THE perfect time to start her morning kalestenics. I couldn't get comfortable and was up for most of the rest of the early morning hours. I got up with Caleb at 7am yesterday and got some things done around the house. At lunch, while Caleb was trying to get lunch together before he had to return to work, I snapped at him, the dog, the cat and the dishes. When I started crying that I was a bad dog mom and am not doing enough for her, he ordered me back to bed for, at the very least, a nap. I did take a nap before running a few errands. Add to that the fact that we were SUPPOSED to have 20-ish Amish men at our house today working on our roof and we won't, until at the earliest, next Monday... I was all around cranky.
Today hasn't been much better - Caleb woke up late, I woke up very sore and cranky. He has a consultation today for the local sleep clinic - we are pretty sure (the doctor and myself) that Caleb is having sleep apenic episodes throughout the night and from what I can tell, they're getting more intense (more gasping for breath) and more frequent. So, the doctor referred him to the sleep clinic to see what they can do to help - needless to say, we're both a bit nervous and I think that added to the tense feelings this morning. And I was going to go the consultation with him but decided that it would probably be best if I just stayed home. And the way my stomach currently feels (thank you baby, Braxton-Hicks and something that isn't agreeing with my stomach), I think I'm better off here.
Today, I also have the grand task of finding out what permits we need to acquire before the Amish come and fix our roofs. Looking at the city's building department and their website, it seems that we may have to apply for a couple of permits but I'm not sure - hence, why I'm going to call. The contractor is going to take the two flat roofs (who EVER thought those were a good idea had some issues), make them into pitched roofs to match the rest of the house. And because they're pitching the flat roof right under our bedroom, the infamous-random-door-that-leads-to-the-flat-roof has to be removed so that they can pitch the roof correctly. And in addition to that, they will remove some siding from below to add/hide where the door was.
Ugh.
So I have to call and find out if we need a siding permit, a building permit, roof permit or a combination of the three. AND, the siding and roof permits each cost 100 dollars plus the after-inspection.
I'm going to cry.
And then throw up from the Lucky Charms that aren't sitting well.
Happy Tuesday
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Update
Well, I at least changed the theme of our blog...
and finally took some pregnancy belly pictures.
Pregnant belly at 30 weeks in a very comfy (but increasingly tight) sweater:
sorry this is blurry - my camer and I don't always love each other
I'm 31 weeks pregnant and it still feels unreal.
Baby Sprout is definitely bigger and moving all over the place.
Moving so much so that you can literally see my stomach move.
And last night, she showed off to her daddy and used a pointy part of her body (elbow? knee?) and ran it across my belly. It totally freaked mommy out and just made daddy laugh. hard.
She has also taken a love for momma's ribcage. She likes to, as it feels, walk along my ribcage. I'm not sure that's what she's actually doing but it feels like she's walking along/running/drumming her fingers along my ribcage. It takes me by surprise when it happens and it tickles. A lot.
I look and feel pregnant but there are often times that I have to remind myself that this is real and still really happening to us.
I'm definitely more uncomfortable but I try not to complain because I feel guilty for doing so.
I love my pregnant belly but will be glad when I can bend over like a normal person again :)
Belly picture at 31 weeks:
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