Adventures in Tubeland

How hawt is this:

It's the grey man-sweats that make the sexiness complete.

What you see above is me in the midst of a 24 hour pH study. They put the guide wire up my nose, down the back of my throat and into the lower esophageal sphincter. A probe in my stomach measured the pH there, while a higher probe measured the pH in my esophagus. The probe attached to a little computer and I wore it for 24 hours. In this way they can tell if I am having GERD. Having studiously examine the pH numbers the whole 24 hours (hey, it was interesting to me!) I have concluded I probably don't have reflux at all. I also concluded that I am suprised I am able to digest food at all. My stomach acid is completely neutral--hovering around 7.0 for almost the whole 24 hours. The doctor will examine the results and pass them along to my doctors and then they'll tell me their conclusions and what comes next. Should be interesting.

Our pre-lit artifical xmas tree was a huge hassle for us this year, and we spent actual xmas day with no lights on it since it went kablooey for good as Nate tried to light it before I came downstairs. Somehow I did not notice this until later that night when we came home from my mother's xmas dinner gathering. (Probably because I was desparetly trying to figure out what was wrong with our super expensive only two years old Nikon; turns out the lense wasn't on right, duh!) So here are a couple of xmas morn pics:

I got my pay for the end of last quarter and my two week paid xmas holiday. I'm still lokking at the damn paystub in disbelief! I never had a paid vacation before. It's so freakin' weird. And awesome! It wasn't a relaxing vacation, but still...
But back to work starts Sunday.
Blech.

Hey! (Hey!) You (You!): Get into my car!

Yesterday was my 37th birthday. I was sick. I have been sick on every birthday as long as I can remember back to junior high. Apparently I carry the "sick" around but do not allow it to come out until I am done with work, school, holiday shopping and the holidays. My body is either very smart or very dumb. I vote the latter.
In related news, tomorrow is my 24 hour Ph test. The will put a guide wire up my nose, down the back of my throat, into my esophagus. On the outside the wire will connect to a little belt pack computer which monitors the Ph levels in my esophagus for, yes, 24 hours. Sounds fun!!!
For my birthday the boys (whch, of course, includes Nate) and I went to the Melting Pot. One of my favorite places, if not the classiest of my favorites. If you're not familiar with it, it is a chain which only serves fondue. We had traditional Swiss for an appetizer, salads (I had a southwestern Cobb salad), then we had a variety of meats, poultry and fish cooked in the traditional boullion, then for dessert dark chocolate with peanut butter and great dippers. Yum. Even with a bottle of wine we didn't spend a terribly large amount and the boys seemed to have a little fun, so I was happy.
I forgot to mention here, but holden and Ethan went to bed around 9:30 on xmas eve. Holden normally stays up until between 12 a.m. and 1 a.m. on school nights and around 2 a.m. when there is no school the next day. Ethan has a 10 p.m. bedtime on school nights, but 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. bedtime when there is no school the next day. It made me so happy to see they were still at the ages where they can be excited about xmas morning. Holden got an Xbox 360 and Ethan got an Ipod Classic. And Nate and I got lots of great stuff for each other. It was a banner xmas this year.
Then Friday night was my friend Tahnee's surprise birthday party for her 30th which was at Appalachian Brewing Company. We had fun; Tahnee a little too much maybe, lol. It was nice to get out and see people.
Oh and I got a letter today saying I got a 3% merit raise at work.
Good week , other than "the sickness."

Re: Last Post's Title

"Short post to get the balling rolling again. "
should read "ball rolling."
I must have had something else on my mind, lol.

Short post to get the balling rolling again.

Tiredtiredtired. And I don't have any idea why, but I am constantly sleeping.
MY BFF and her DH had their gorgeous baby boy, Tobin Samuel Sincoff. (I was up there for a few days so that is my excuse for not blogging for a month, lol.)
I'll post the pics I took after I (finally) email them to the proud and happyhappy parents.
Quick news:

• Boys are on Xmas vacay now.
• My quarter is done (finally!) and I have two paid weeks off. (Great to work for a university.)
• My chest x-ray, bloodwork, biopsies, etc etc were all normal. Cuz it's probably all in my head, right? I am going to take BFF's advice and reuqest a pulmonology follow up for asthma (even though my immunologist seemed pretty sure it wasn't, because, ehy, that's not their speciality, right?) if the 24 hour Ph test shows nothing, since that is already scheduled anyway. Since I skipped it once before thinking it wasn't necessary, that is probably the one test for which they'll find something. Because that is my luck. I could have gone and been taken care of months ago, but I think I'm a doctor or something.
• Honestly it is the kind of tired I had with bad depression, but we'll keep that on the back burner until we know there is no physical reason for it. They already upped my anti-depressant (because of increased depression) and anti-anxiolytic (for sleep since they took me off of the sleep aid I had taken forever because we were trying to weed out some drugs that might worsen the dryness I experience orally, ocularly and-um-vaginally). But I'm going to ask about raising the Effexor XR once again, lowering the cloanzepam back to what it was and going back on the Trazodone at a half of the dose I had been on. (I like chemistry, lol!)
• BFF and I will be starting a slightly different sort of mommy blog shortly.
• My holiday shopping is (almost) done, but nothing is wrapped.
• Reading lot when I'm not sleeping.
• My plants are doing well, knock wood.
• I'm Twittering a bit more regularly the past few days to try to get some momentum to post here.
• And I'm thinking of starting a tumblog. Ooops, I did it. No posts, yet.

My Behind is Behind

Yeah, so it's been a while. It's hard for me to feel like posting as my depression is getting worse and there seems to be too much to say to have the energy to explain. Plus, most of the people in my life already know all of this, but here goes: a recap of sorts.
I had sent an email to my rheumatologist regarding the neuropathy that was a paranoid rant about how "maybe I have sarcoidosis or MS??" My rheumy graciously responding without saying, "Hey nutso!! CHILL!" She explained the reasons why I probably don't have either, but we can run a few tests to prove it and she also suggested I should have had the Ph test for reflux that my immunologist had suggested. (They told me that the wheezing and coughing I've been having for a while was not asthma as far as the tests showed ad it may be reflux--even though I don't have the more common symptoms like heartburn or acid burps. I skipped it because the test required wearing a wire up my nose down into my esophagus for 24 hours, said wire being attached to a little computer I wear on my belt monitoring the Ph levels in my esophagus. Since I was convinced it is not reflux, I said "eewwww" and skipped it.) So I called to schedule that.
Then I got a phone call from my primary care doctor's office saying she received the email from my rheumy and wanted to bring me in to discuss some things we could explore. (They never called me for an appointment before, so this freaked me out a little.)
Meanwhile I had my gastroenterology appointment. The woman told me that we would not do the Ph test as first she wanted to schedule me for an upper GI endoscopy to check for esophogeal damage, ulcers and pre-cancerous lesions. WHAT?? Oooookay. So I scheduled that. Then when the nurse called to go over the procedure and my meds, etc., she said they would do a biopsy to check for eosinophilic esophagitis at the request of the doctor in addition to any they do if the see "something." Oooookay.
Anyway, whatever is causing the wheezing and dry cough is what is probably leaving me exhausted as it obviously interferes with the amount of oxygen I get while I sleep.
Still no idea why I have neuropathy. Probably will have to just live with it at this point. Sigh.
So all of this uncertainity is combining with the fact that it is fall heading into winter and that is always bad for my depression to leave me on a downward slide. My psychiatrist upped my Effexor XR; my PCP took me off of my trazodone and upped my clonazapem and took me off of two other meds (allergy stuff) to try to a) reduce the number of meds I'm taking and b) relieve some of the severe dryness in my eyes, mouth and --ahem!--Sister Suzy. (This is not--as proven by bloodwork--Sjogren's; just dryness from meds and a natural dryness I've always leaned towards. The mouth dryness is annoying because my teeth are starting to chip and break more easily and the eye dryness prevents me from ever wearing contacts. I use Celluvisc in my eyes and various forms of biotene and sugar-free gum to alleviate mouth dryness.)
So now we wait.

In other news, I'm not sure if I've mentioned that both of my boys, in recent months, have cut off their long, luxurious locks into "skater" cuts and my oldest died his black. It actually looks good on him, but the whole "cool teen/tween" thing they are going through makes me sad. I miss my little baby boys snuggling on my lap and laughing crazily at life. Now they are "emo" and perpeutally sarcastic--still funny and not at all depressed, just the projection of coolness and aloofness that makes me miss them even when they are right there in the room.

Holden made high honors and Ethan did well with his first quarter portfolio.

Nate is still working his butt off.

My BFF is ready to pop out a sweet baby boy any day/week now.

My brother-in-law's wife, ditto.

It's hard to be surrounded by baby love just as I'm missing it most.

I've started a few small indoor succulent gardens with various types of living rocks. All of my plants still seem to be doing alright, knock wood.

My book list over there -------> is suffering a bit. I've been reading a lot of magazines when I do read,; I forget to enter books and I haven't reviewed anything for a while. But anyway, at least I'm reading something, right?

And my job... Well, let's just say I'm looking forward to the end of this quarter. I need new sample. New areas to work.

And lastly, poor Ethan is home sick with what seems to be a cold. Voluntarily sleeping. Now that's sick. Poor sweetie.