Weekend in Wausau

We spent this past weekend in Wausau.  Our main purpose for the trip was to visit some of my old girlfriends from HS.

Oh, and Matt got to visit his mistress, Veeta (the dog). 

It was such a great time!  I miss these girls already.  Can't wait to do it again.  Can't believe how big everyone's kids have gotten.  

Zach's allergies were so bad the entire time that he spent most of the time on the couch.  Over the counter medications didn't work.  He even said his lips itch.  Getting him to the doctor as soon as I can and will update on that later.

Sam brought Lily with her so she could have someone to hangout with.  The girls slept at my sister's house since her new house has guest bedroom in the basement.  The basement also has a theater room which they enjoyed immensely.

Before meeting up with my friends, we went to Owl Ridge where my dad showcased his Camaro during their Family Fun Day.

 Along with some other cool cars.

The event gets bigger and better every year with a petting zoo, bounce house, great food, and car show.  If you have a change, get there next year.  It's worth it!

Sunday morning the men helped my grandpa Mathie in the sawmill.  Zach helped too but with a mask on.  He said most of his allergy symptoms went away because of the mask except for his itchy eyes.  

Matt and Zach found wood ticks on them.  Luckily they hadn't latched on yet and we were able to burn the little suckers.  It's fun to burn them.  They pop like popcorn.  Burn.  Burn them all!!!

The afternoon was spend on Rib Mountain State Park.  

Playing on the ski lifts

After we had a late lunch we raced home because Matt had a meeting for Salvation Army where he has been volunteering with the kids.  This meeting was more of a concert and awards ceremony.  The kids and I stayed home since we are all sick.  Girls and I with a cold and Zach with his allergies.

Latest Neurology appt.

Went to my first appointment with my new neurology doc, Dr. Luzzio.  Matt went with me, cause he's awesome.  Driving that far wipes me out now.  I haven't seen a neurologist in about 3 years.  I haven't had much happening on the MS front so I put it off.  Plus, my favorite neuro doc, Dr. fleming, retired and it really bummed me out.  I remember Dr. Luzzio from when I was on the HINT trial - I saw him occasionally.  I like him. He's funny and personable.  He had a student shadowing with him.   Pretty cool kid.  The student (I think his name was John. I'm going to call him John.) did the preliminary exam.  Asked what my symptoms have been recently and all that.  

If you are interested here is the list:

• dizziness/vertigo
• tingles all over
• left leg going limp occasionally
• cognitive issues.
• forgetfulness
• speak delays
• fatigue

Luzzio wants me to get a new MRI soon and on some MS medication.  He said he doesn't know if there will be a HINT trial again or not.  Other countries have approved the treatment, but not the good ol' US of A.  Thanks FDA!  Insert expletive here.

Luzzio didn't prescribe me anything.  He wants me to find out what my health insurance covers first. There's no point in prescribing me something I can't get.  He writes down some suggestions of meds, tells us to find out what I can have, and to call them with what I want.  He tells me to stick with my vitamins, eat right, exercise, and keep my stress low.

The appointment ended around 1pm so we decided to grab some lunch.  Matt drives around for a restaurant and I call our insurance company to find out what meds are covered. Get a head start right?! HA!  FOOL!

Pandora's Box, aka, health insurance company can't help me  --> sends me to prescription insurance.  "Oh your 'special prescriptions' that's a different company" ---> transfers me to said company that I've never heard of.  I finally talk to the right person...I think.  I explain that I just need a list of  Multiple Scleroses meds that are covered under my insurance.  Nope, she needs me to list each one of the 12 individually.  Okay, fine, I'll list them and just tell me yea or nay.  Ha ha no.  After each one she tells me that I need a doctors prescription and about how much it costs.  Yeah, after the 4th one I was done, cranky and hungry.

My blessed hubby took me to Claddagh Irish Pub - Yum.  Two thumbs up.  You should go there if you haven't already.

On the drive home I started feeling very overwhelmed and broke down and cried.  So much for keep the stress low.  Matt told me I wasn't allowed to research anymore tonight because of my breakdown.  The fun will have to wait until tomorrow.  Oh joy.

Spelling and grammar errors will happen when I blog without glasses and very emotional.  Deal.

Milwaukee Public Museum

We drove Karen to the Milwaukee airport yesterday for her trip to CA.  Lucky brat ;).  Since we have never been to the Public Museum in Milwaukee we decided to check it out.  Totally worth it!  We had so much fun that I almost forgot to take pictures.  Here are the only two I took.

Kids posing with the mummy, Djed-Hor.

Zach in "The Streets of Old Milwaukee" exhibit.

We also went to the planetarium.  The special effects were neat and all, but my vertigo kicked in to high gear.  By the time it was over I was in the bathroom wishing I would have skipped it.  Plus, it was more like a history lesson than learning about the stars.  Ironically, the planetarium at Wausau West is better.  This experience was more like going to a movie as we zipped around through "time" and learned about how different cultures viewed the night sky.  We spent more time learning about the cultures and "star-gazers"  than the stars.  That was fine and interesting and all but, it wasn't what I was hoping for.  The Wausau West planetarium gets dark, like super dark.  Those of you who went to school there or visited it know what I'm talking about.  You actually get to learn about the night sky.  Granted, the Milwaukee planetarium did have a different showing about the Wisconsin night sky and maybe that would have been more to my liking, but it was playing at a later time so we pick the "Ancient Skies" showing instead.

All in all, I would definitely go again.  There was a lot we missed, but by the time we were done, we were exhausted!

Easter 2015

It's hard to blog when you don't have a computer.  I tired doing it once on my smart phone but it was such a pain I gave up.  Anyway, we recently bought a desktop so I will try and update more often.  At least when I can get it from the kids, sigh.

Easter was absolutely gorgeous this year. Not just the weather but the company too.  Matt was a culinary master and did most of the cooking all weekend.



His shrimp linguine was yummy.  I didn't eat the shrimp, but it gave the noodles a delicious flavor.

The next day (Monday), I had little white sores in my mouth and my lips burned,  since I get cold sores and canker sores easily I recognized these were different, so I used webmd.com and it thought it might be thrush.  Looking at the symptoms it matched.  So, I got unrefined coconut oil to help heal it. It helped sooth my lips so I thought I was on the right path. Cue the leftover shrimp tainted linguine for supper...YAY!

Tuesday: My lips were swollen, felt like they were on fire and tinted orange.  The sores were worse, and now my throat hurt and it was hard to swallow.  I just thought the "thrush" was working it's way through my system and there have been colds going around so I attributed the sore throat to that.  Sure enough the swelling went down through out the day.   Since it hurt to eat it was yogurt and soup for me that day.

Day 3, Wednesday morning, I woke up with still painful swollen lips, the sores in my mouth multiplied and I could barely swallow.  I had to work at the YMCA that morning and the members all noticed.  They made me promise I would go to the doctor.  Luckily, my shift ends at 8am so I was able to get to the doctor rather early.

When she looked me over she said I definitely showed signs of a food allergy and prescribed me an Epipen.  Shrimp is our best guess since I was only introduced to it recently.  I had the same shrimp linguine at my friend's house about a month ago, but the doc. explained the symptoms of a food allergy increase with each exposure.  She said I most likely didn't notice the first time.  Now that I think back on it, I did get a nasty sore on my chin around that time but I dismissed it as just a cold sore.

She said what probably saved me was the fact that I didn't eat the shrimp directly and on Tuesday night I took Benadryl which kept my symptoms down - especially in my throat.  The doctor was baffled that up to this point in my life I'd never had shrimp.  Technically, I still have never eaten shrimp.  When I said I grew up Kosher she was confused because she thought that only had to do with eating pork, LOL.  I had to explain Jewish/Old Testament eating customs.  That piqued her interest in reading the Bible.  The Lord does work in mysterious and wonderful ways!

Since my symptoms were on the mend by the time I saw her, she recommended I just continue with the Benadryl for a while.  They scheduled an allergy test in May to see if there is anything else I'm not aware of because of my Kosher upbringing.  So far, I'm improving everyday and I thank the Lord for keeping me safe.

Samantha learning how to use an Epipen with a "practice" Epipen. 

sprain updates

 Dang! Look at those pretty colors!

I still can't do much. It takes forever to get upstairs to my bedroom. Of course the toilet in the master bath right off my bedroom is broken. So every early morning bathroom break I have to hobble downstairs. I did make waffles this morning and drove Zach to French class this afternoon. It was tricky driving with my gas pedal foot sprained. Luckily it wasn't far. Sam is feeling much better. In fact, she is being picked up to go to a friend's house tonight.  I'm still recovering from the flu, but am improving. Hopefully this healing momentum will keep going. I can't tell what I'm more sick of, sneezing and blowing my nose or dealing with my ankle.

Update: 2/24/14

The remnants of the flu are now gone - Thank God!  My ankle and foot are still swollen and the bruising has grown.  The bruises on my toes don't hurt which is strange.

Update: 3/6/14

I spent Sunday-Wednesday (3/2-3/5) in pain. I got repeated Charlie horses/muscle spasms in my right leg's calf muscle. I called the dr. Tuesday and they set me up for an appointment on Wednesday. There, they re-evaluated my sprained ankle. My doctor was concerned about the swelling that went all the way to my knee. She said my splint was actually part of the problem and I should've had been given an Aircast right away when I was first checked into urgent care.

 I had to laugh when she repeated what everybody has been telling me, that a sprain is worse than a break. That I would've been better off breaking my ankle. Such words of comfort. She also, told me to stay off my foot as much as possible and elevate it whenever I can.

 I was then sent to the occupational therapy part of the clinic to be fitted for an Aircast. While there, they asked for the Workmen's Comp. insurance information. I didn't have any of that so she told me to call my employer and get all of the necessary information to process the Workmen's Comp. so I called work that Wednesday and talk to the only HR representative we have, Kathy. 

 Kathy asked why I needed the information. I thought it was kind of obvious since I was walking around with a limp and everybody knew I fell in the Y's icy parking lot...twice!  But I went ahead and reminded her of this fact. She asked me what I would be doing with the Workmen's Comp. information. I told her that Dean Clinic needed it in order to process the billing.  She told me that I don't deal with this, that only she [Kathy] does this. Well, she hadn't yet so I was taking the necessary steps. I then called Workmen's Comp. for Dean clinic and gave them Kathy's phone number so they could get the information they needed from her. I am going to be following up and documenting every week until this gets resolved. I just have a bad feeling I'm going to have a battle on my hands.

3/7/14

 This whole elevating the leg constantly is darn near impossible. I can't really elevate it at work.  At home, I try and stay off it, but I have too much to do. I know I have a husband and kids who can help, but after awhile I just get sick of asking them to do stuff. Plus, it seems to bit me in the ass when I do.  Sorry that my sprained ankle is such an inconvenience to everyone.

Sprained ankle

I think we all can agree this winter has been brutal. On Tuesday Sam and I got an upper respiratory flu. I went to work at the YMCA Tuesday morning. By the evening I was worse and had a fever. I tried desperately to find someone to cover my early morning shift for Wednesday. No takers.  No surprise since my shift is at 4:30 AM till 8 AM.. Plus, I'm the opener. There are only a few who know how to do my job; that's not including my boss. She said she'd at least come in at 6 AM so I could go home early. Fine.
The next morning, on the very icy work parking lot, I fall and can feel my ankle twisted in an unnatural direction. There's a moment when you first get hurt you don't quite have pain yet, but I knew it was coming. I needed to get up before that happened. The parking lot was so slick I could barely get up. I crawled a short distance to a dry patch where I could finally stand up. When I put weight on my right ankle I knew at least it probably wasn't broken, but pain did shoot up my leg. I hobbled to the sidewalk and was thankful there was railing that I could finally grab onto. That railing, unfortunately, did not go to the front door. It was only a few steps - I could do it. Wrong! Down I went again. At this point I start to cry as I crawl to the front door. Once inside, I was thankful to finally be able to sit in a chair behind the front desk and text my boss what had happened. A jaunt that normally takes less than a minute, had taken me 15 to get there from my car.
 My rest was short-lived because the lifeguards had arrived and I needed to let them in since they don't have keys. While it was a pain to have to get up to let them in, I was thankful they were there and could help me; which they did. I gave them directions to do easy, minor parts of my job. One of the hardest parts, until you get the hang of it, is permanently opening the doors for the Y members.  That poor lifeguard, she struggled with the north side doors for like 10 minutes. I asked one of the members to let the people waiting by the south doors in. Of course they complained quite loudly about this inconvenience. The members that are there that early in the morning are regulars. They are there every morning. It amazes me that their first instinct was to complain instead of wondering if something was wrong. Of course, once they realized I was injured they were more empathetic.
The Y has two different pools. The lap pool couldn't be opened because one of the lifeguard was helping me.  That, apparently, was a bridge too far for one lady. She knew I was hurt and the lifeguard was helping me, but she berated the other lifeguard about the inconvenience anyway and made sure to voice her complaint to me as she made her way out the building.  Love you too sweetie.
My boss lives 45 minutes away and still can't make it till 6 AM.. so I wait. The lifeguards have trouble finding an ice pack as the pain and swelling continues to increase. I took ibuprofen but they might as well have been sugar pills because it didn't seem to help. My boss finally arrives and shortly after that so does Matt. He wanted to take me to the emergency room but I insisted on waiting for urgent care to open at 7.
 Once in urgent care, I got looked at, x-rayed, they said it was a sprain, and gave me a splint.

 I spent the rest of the day laid up on the couch sneezing and blowing my nose along with Sam as we watch, "Say Yes to the Dress." Luckily, at least the fever broke. Poor Zach is stuck doing all the chores in the house cause Matt is at work, Sam is too sick and I'm useless.

Zach hit by a car

While biking to school yesterday Zach was "hit" by a car.  It was more of a bump.  As hee was heading to Craig High School he stopped at the cross walk and the woman was at the stop sign.  He though she saw him so he proceeded to turn into the High School drive way.  She did not see him so she ran into him.  He fell off his bike landing on his elbow and his knee was hit by the bike more than the car, but was otherwise O.K.. The woman did check to see if he was ok and another man, who witnessed it, asked him if he was alright, but Zach said he was fine.  In fact, Zach told the woman, "I'm sure you have other places you need to be.  I'm fine and I don't want to be late for class." So not only did he make it to French class on time, he also didn't say anything to anyone about what had just happened.
It wasn't until the end of the class (which happens to be the last period) when he realized he needed me to pick him up because his bike wasn't working.  He tried my cell, but when I'm at work I have it on silent and he didn't program the YMCA's number (my work) in his phone.  So he went to student services to ask them to call me.  In order to get their attention to call me quickly, he told them about the accident.  So that is when I get the phone call.  They called the Y and I happen to be the one who answered.  They tell me, "your son, Zach seemed to have been in a bit of an accident.  He was hit by a car.  His bike is wrecked.  He says his knee hurts - don't think it's broken.  We called the police.  Zach was wondering if you could come and pick him up because his bike is totaled."  I talked with Zach for a bit to make sure he was ok and to get a better understanding of what happened.  My mind was reeling!  As a parent, a million horror movies play at once when these types of things happen.  My boss, Joe, had no problem with me leaving early.  Luckily, I only had a half hour left to my shift.
When I get there Zach is sitting in the AP office giving his account to the police officer.  He is calm and answering the officer with as much detail as he can remember.  The lady did give Zach her contact information which he passed on to officer.  The three of us then walked out to check out the bike and the first thing I notice is that Zach isn't even walking with a limp and the bike looks fine. So much for it being "totaled!"  Upon further inspection, I point out to Zach that the chain just fell off.  He thought the handle bars had been bent, but they just got shifted out of position and was easily fixed.  We told the officer that we weren't going to press charges or take Zach to the doctor unless he got a lot worse.  If that happened we were to call the police so they could update their files.
On the drive home I told Zach I wanted the woman's phone number.  He didn't want me to call her because he didn't want to make her feel bad or worry about him.  I told him, this woman is probably riddled with guilt and worry already.  I called her and assured her he was alright and we weren't going to sue her.  She cried with relief.
This morning he was a little sore.  But once he got moving around it got better.  He likes that he has an awesome story and wasn't hurt too bad.  He's having a little too much fun with it.  But hey, I'd rather that, than it have been something serious.  Gotta give a little shout out to Our Heavenly Father for watchin' over my boy!