Summer Update

Well...it's been several months since I posted anything and then it was only a tiny part of our trip to Washington DC. I couldn't / wouldn't find the time to finish up our trip online. I let other things get in my way.

A lot has happened this summer. I've traveled to two weddings and made the rounds to see our grown married children, grand kids, parents and other family members. Something I'll never get too much of.

I've been working several hours at the hospital and have needed to cover several different areas, due to lack of employees and because of sickness. Oncology, Lab, Emergency, Main Registration, and even the Breast Center are some of the places I've been seen. I'm not sure if Arvil knew all the places that I could be picked up from. Every time he had to come get me, he had to have new instructions on how to find me and where to park. Hopefully things will get back to normal after Christmas, I say Christmas, because we have a gal going on Maternity leave really really soon. So coverage for her will begin too.

As for being sick...Knock on wood, I haven't come down with anything yet. I've been coughed on and around several positive cases of the H1N1 and even around a family member that has/had Strep. But hopefully due to getting seasonal flu shot, H1N1 shot, taking Vitamin C, Echinacea and gargling with Listerine. I'm doing good. Even though I've worked several long hours and have had my schedule changed to get up even earlier then before making less sleep for me. (I still think 4:45 am is to early to get up, yet I love getting off work by 3 PM.)

Besides work, this summer has turned into my journey to find out what can be causing my health to go downhill or up and down...

I've had a Kidney stone lodged in my ureter that was over 7mm, so that was extracted. But then a second Out Patient Procedure of Lithotripsy (shock wave therapy) was done on two more stones, 2mm to 8mm. Which turned up problems with my Blood Pressure and a racing pulse.... SO, for 2 months I was put on different blood pressure pills to bring down my pressure and try to slow my pulse. Things seem to be working there, so now I'm on daily medication. What also came from this whole episode was that I don't have gall bladder problems, but a hiatal hernia, so I'm on a new medication to help my symptoms of heartburn and such.

Next came my problems sleeping. Something that I wanted to get to the bottom of for quite some time. After going in for a polysomnogram and being wired up like a Christmas Tree. I had wires on all of my body parts, ie: Head, forehead, chin, nose, neck, heart/core, legs, ankles, fingers, since they measure, brain waves, eye movement, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen saturation levels, chin muscle tension and leg movements, to sleep was an extreme thought, but it did seem to happen. My findings weren't that good. I found out that I had severe sleep apnea, where my brain and breathing are compromised over 50 times an hour. So I'm now on a C-Pap machine at night to help supply oxygen to my brain and keep my air passageways open. I guess breathing isn't too overrated! Arvil says it's done wonders for my snoring, since my mouth has to be closed at all times to keep the air from just coming out my mouth that's forced up my nose. The C-pap does nothing for my looks, but does help make me sleep better and feel great.

Next I went in and had my eyes tested and new glasses were prescribed, hoping that this was the cause for some of my headaches. So far, the headaches haven't totally went away. I guess it's good that my eyes didn't change too much over the past 2 years since I got new glasses, I almost had to add Heart Attack to my medical list, since the price was over $500.00...So what could be next.

Well, Allergies. I'm going in next week to be tested for allergies that I know I have, but not sure what they are. I've had my tongue swell, causing my teeth to rub and make sores on the sides of my tongue, eyes that constantly water and itch, sneezing, shortness of breath and a tickle in my throat are just some of my symptoms. Plus I've been taking allergy medicine everyday for over a year helping to get by, instead of just being seasonal, so I want to know if there's something else I can do to relieve my symptoms. Maybe something I eat? Maybe animals? Maybe Plants, Bushes, Trees? Who knows, hopefully by Christmas I'll have everything worked out, hopefully by then I can focus on exercising to help get my weight down...something that's been climbing for the past 10 months.

I guess It's good to know that there's reasons WHY I'm feeling the way I'm feeling...It just makes me tired thinking about it all my issues...I just want to be turned into a new model of me...without all these growing old issues...At least it's worth wishing about...

Maybe 2010 will be my year for feeling great and wonderful! Here's to good health for you all! Take Care of yourselves...believe me, it's great that I have two medical health insurance policies. I couldn't have done all of this without them.

WASHINGTON DC AND FREDERICKSBERG, VA

Well, it's been a couple weeks since Arvil and I returned home from DC that I had to take a rest from all that we did and concentrate on work and home.

We had a wonderful time sight seeing and spending time together. We went to DC to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversery, (a couple months early) and had the time of our lives. We could have spent another week to see all the things that we didn't fit into our schedule.

We walked, walked, walked, then learned to use the metro train system in our favor instead of walking so much, but we still did walk and walk and walk. Needless to see, we covered a lot of ground and saw some wonderful things. The history came alive for us and though I can't remember everything we saw and heard, little things come back to memory every now and then of what we did. (pictures help jog the memory too)

We started off driving to Spokane to spend the night and fly out eary in the morning. We had an appointment to go through the Spokane temple as we came into town, so after our session, we found our hotel, went out to eat at a wonderful Mexican restrurant, then hit the bed somewhat early to be able to get up and head over to the airport the next day.

We reached Washington DC at about 4:35 pm their time and was met by Brian, my nephew and his mother Linda. Brian was bringing us a car, so we wouldn't have to rent one, when we came to VA to see his family. After driving awhile and seeing the country side of VA, we ended up at the mall where we enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. We enjoyed talking and catching up, along with saying hi to everyone that called Linda to wish her happy Mother's Day. After dinner, Brian set Arvil and I up with his GPS, to head off to the hotel. I can happily say, that we reached our destination without any problems.

Monday, Arvil and I had an appointment to see the Capital Building, but as we reached downtown, we still had an hour or so before our appointment, so as we walked around, we happened to stumble across the Botanical Gardens as they were about to open, so we took the time to go through and see all the different plant life throughout the world. It was amazing at the size of the building and to see how they created the correct enviroment for the plants to thrive and live.

Before going to the capital, we went to the office of one of Hawaii's representatives, in which I received my tickets from, just days before our trip. Mr. Neil Abercrombie. Why I didn't go through our own state of MT, who knows, but Mr. Abercrombie's office answered my email for tickets. We were excorted by his office personel and filled in on his area of service and the time he's been in office. He is now preparing to run for Hawaii's governor. We were amazed at the tunnels that we were taken through to get to the Capital Building. (Not without going through lots of security check points).

The capitol building now has a wonderful new underground visitor center, which we came to via the buildings that house the offices of the House Representatives and Senators. We had to wait for a while for our tour to start, but was amazed at the beauty and size of the building. So many people were able to be moved throughout the building without any problems. The capital contained two statues from each state and the architecture was beautiful. It was a thrill to me, to see how so many different people could come together for one purpose. We live in a great nation.

(This is in the visitors center, The lights hanging from the dome, and the mural painted inside the dome.)

After touring the Capital, we set off to find food, since we were told that the cafateria would be quite costly, there at the capital visitor's center, so off we walked. Needless to say, we walked and walked until we couldn't walk much further when we came to Pot Belly Sandwiches. They were a hit and a very busy place for 2:30 in the afternoon. All I can say is you better have your mind made up when you get in line, since they get you right through. After eatting, we headed off to see the Memorial's. Then headed back to the hotel to rest after a long, long walking day.

Kindney Stones Again

Well, the past 2 weeks have been really fun...Huh! Anything but fun.
On Sunday April 26, Arvil and I had finished having a great Sunday meal and headed downstairs to watch a little TV to relax. Well we might have been there about 20 minutes, when I started to get this crazy side pain, where there's no relief and it's worse then child bearing. I should have known something was up when I picked up a fleece blanket to wrap around me before I sat down. Lately, I'm anything but cold. But for some reason, I just wanted to have a little warmth. Needless to say after going to the bathroom 3 or 4 times, curling up in the fetal position 3 or 4 times, then throwing up everything I had ate; I wasn't in to good of a mood when I realized I was passing another kidney stone.
I finally decided that to get rid of the nasty pain, I would have to go the ER on a Sunday evening, something I wasn't looking forward to, since so many times it's busier then ever and I didn't want to wait while there were people looking on. But we decided to go anyway, with Arvil only having an hour or so before his bedtime.
Arvil loaded me in the car with my blanket and slippers and the closer to Missoula we got, I kept thinking that I should call in and get my name on the waiting list, but I couldn't bring myself to talk, since the pain kept me with labored breathing. So I prayed all the way, pleading with the Lord not to have wait, and the Lord answered my prayers. I walked in, signed my paperwork, and was taken right back to the bed. The doctor came in, asked if I knew what the pain was all about, which I did, since I had stones 3 years earlier with the same symptoms, so she ordered the CT and gave me happy iv drugs...The pain subsided and all was good. It's amazing what the right drugs can do for a person.
I sent Arvil home to get to bed, and told him I would call Clayton to come get me when I was ready, since I still needed to drain the IV bag of medicine . Within 20 to 30 minutes, the doctor came in and told me, I was the proud owner of a 7mm stone that had passed almost to the bladder, but had stopped, and a few more others. She thought that since the stone had traveled most the way, that within 3 days, I should pass it on my own. Needless to say, Clayton got his call a lot sooner then expected and so he came, picked me up and we went to the pharmacy to get more happy drugs. Wow, I was only in the ER for close to 2 hours, not 6 or 7.
Well, Mon, Tues, Wed all came and went and nothing is happening. So I'm to call my urologist to see if I could get an appointment. Well, on Friday...so Thursday and Friday I went to work and even covered someones shift, but had to leave early to go to the doctor. Needless to say, I would have had surgery on Friday, May 1, if I hadn't already ate lunch and since it would be so late by the time the magic hour would pass to allow me to have the surgery, We decided to wait until Monday morning. We decided that it would be best to go in and have the stone lasered and pulled out, instead of using the high frequency Ultrasound laser to just break up the stone.
Since I have this wonderful trip to Washington DC scheduled at the end of the week, we would need to work the schedule a little faster then normal.
Well it's now Wed, May 6th and I am still moving quite slowly, mainly due to the stent, and going to the bathroom quite frequent. I can honestly say, I wouldn't wish this on anyone and I hope that it won't mess up our trip. But the fun will not end soon, since once I'm home from DC and I cover for someone else that's having surgery, I get to go in and have my other kidney blasted for the stone that's forming in it. I can only hope for the best. But hopefully, when It's all over and done, I hope to be weened off of soda quite a bit. It's been water water water, cranberry juice, lemonade and more water for the past 2 weeks. It seems like lately I can't get enough to drink...it must be the happy drugs too.

We're Going to Washington DC for Our 30th

With Arvil's and my 30th Anniversary coming up in July and unable to get off for it, we have decided to go to Washington DC in May. Arvil told me if I didn't make some type of reservations, we were going to be painting the house during that week. So at the computer I went, sitting and looking at vacation plans for hours. I was finally successful. I was tossed out, rejected and told the price went up each time I tried to confirm our plans. Well needless to say, even with all my frustration, I persevered and kept at it. Now we're on our way come Mother's Day...

I'm not sure exactly what we'll go see or do, but we're game for almost anything. We would also like to see the LDS Temple and possibly do some sessions.

My nephew, Brian and his wife Janice aren't to far from DC, so hopefully we can schedule time to travel to see them and Brian's mother, Linda.

Now that the stress of purchasing the trip is over, now the fun will begin for planning what we'll do. Arvil's sister Karen and her husband Dale went this past year and had beautiful pictures and only good things to say. Arvil said he's looking forward to going and seeing the many sights. One thing I can say is, "I hope it doesn't rain". The last time I was in DC in 1975, it poured buckets of rain and we were drying our clothes and hair in the Smithsonian's restrooms. One fond memory is the 1st time I actually saw fireflies when we had came back to Baltimore where my brother Mark and his wife Sandy were living after they were 1st married. The cute little bugs captured my attention and I'd love to see them again, plus other things too.

Being Sick

Well, In my last post, I stated that I was going to have a great trip out to WA/OR to see the kids after having several days of training at work.
Needless to say, the weather started to turn off bad and it's a joke at work that every time I travel it either snows or rains.
Throughout the day on Thursday, my co-workers kept a close eye on the weather for me and joked about how I would be leaving the next day and would have the worst of it storm ahead of me. Listening to us laugh and joke about it, my boss knew that I was exhausted from training, I had overtime and would be leaving for the week-end, since I would be working nights once I returned. So she said for me to take Friday off, get a good nights sleep and tackle the roads during the early hours instead of the late hours. I thought this was going to be the great to get out of town early...
To my dismay, by the time 8 pm Thursday night rolled around for me to start packing and getting the car ready, I was feeling worse...All I wanted was to go to bed. I had no energy, my head was congested, I had a headache up my right side of my face and I couldn't breath very well.
Needless to say, when I awoke early on Friday, I didn't feel like going anywhere, let alone driving in the bad weather. So I called up Mom and Pamela and broke the news that I wouldn't be coming. Then for the next couple of days, I stayed in bed or very close to home. My week-end was a complete bust. Even trying to attend church was hopeless, My sinuses would not calm down and my headache wouldn't leave. NO I DIDN'T GO TO THE DOCTOR...THEY WOULD HAVE JUST TOLD ME TO DO SINUS WASHES AND GET SOME REST...which I did do...Finally it dawned on me to use my rice pack from Karen and heat it up, so I did and draped it all over my face. I was actually able to sleep. Within three times of heating it up, my plugged sinuses started to open and the headache lessen. What a great help it was.
So after a week to 10 days of the crud hanging on, I finally start feeling back to my old self and things are going good. Pamela and Jon decide to come for Spring Break and see us after all, plus they were all healthy too, come to find out, they were sick when I was suppose to come over, so if I wasn't sick, I would have been later. So they came, we played, we visited, we ate, we sat around, and had fun with the kids. They left on Monday and Monday afternoon, Guess What...? I start feeling cruddy again, plus I'm in the middle of a week of training switchboard people and a new TPD (Temp person) for our department. There is no way I can call in sick and postpone all this training. So I dope myself up and make it through the week. Today, at about 10:30, I told my boss that I was taking my gal to train with another person and I was headed home. I really felt yukky, so to home I came and bed I went. Arvil was so good to be quite for me to sleep, but after 5 hours, I still felt terrible. My head is so stuffed and the headache won't go away again. I think it's the headache that stops me from doing anything. Since it pounds behind my eyes and my ears start feeling like they have an infection too, but I know it's just the sinus pressure.
I'll just be happy to have Spring come, so I can get outside and enjoy the air, YET, ON THE OTHER HAND, ALLERGIES WILL START UP TOO...I believe this might be a no win situation and I'm going to have to learn how to deal with being sick and stuffed up.

WELL I MUST BE TO SICK TO TYPE A DANG BLOG POST! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO ADD A PICTURE OF CUTE GERMS, BUT THE SITE WON'T ALLOW ME TO DO IT AND I'M TIRED OF TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT...MY SMARTS AREN'T ALL FIRING ON THE CORRECT CYLINDERS. BETTER LUCK TO ME NEXT TIME...

Training

Well, I should say that I'm very tired and glad to be able to catch my breath for a minute or two. I have been training 4 different people at work. Day time and Night time hours. My body isn't sure what time I should be getting up, but I do know that when I do get in my bed, I really really enjoy it. As Arvil would say, "OOOHHH BABY!"

CMC opened up a new area called the Montana Breast Health at the start of this week. It is very nice and will make the women very comfortable when they have to come for procedures. With this happening, two more people had to be given a quick lesson in registration so they can cover the registration clerk while she's on break or early in the morning. Needless to say, I was told today that the gal I trained 1st was so overwhelmed that she doesn't feel comfortable to register the patients yet, so she takes them down to the ER registration clerk to do.

With the new center being built in the old ER entrance and waiting area, we received a new entrance to our Emergency, plus two new night girls to train. Training went fairly well, except for sitting on a stool for 12 1/2 hours in a tight, cramped work area. I was glad to be done there.
One of the girls came from the Switchboard, so I've been training a new replacement. The Switchboard girls do registrations on expectant Mothers and Babies, needless to say, she was a little slower catching on then the last 2 or 3 of their employees.

I believe tomorrow will be my first day in 4 or 5 weeks to be able to sit at my desk and do my other responsibilities that I have. I have a stack of registrations errors that must be close to 8 to 10 inches high. I have to go through them and pick out the ones that have errors that would cause a claim to deny, then enter the information into a spreadsheet for the person that made the error. This could be quite time consuming.

When I'm done with that, I get to start training another person on registrations that only received a little training to do his job, but has moved up into another position that will require more knowledge of registrations.

After that, I need to go back to the Oncology/Infusion Center to make sure the two girls I trained there at the 1st of the year are doing okay. It's hard to get everywhere.

It will teach me to think that everything will get back to normal or back to a routine, but because someone thinks they need some time off, I'll be working 3 nights in the ER next week. But good things do happen, since I'll have my hours within 3 days, I get to have Monday and Thursday off. So I'm headed out to see my mom and dad and get a fix of grandchildren. My youngest grandson turns 1 on Sunday March 8. My other grandson thinks that it's been long enough between visits and he's determined to have me visit, or he's coming to me, whether or not mom approves. So I'll be off and traveling.

The Anderson's Still At Home

Christmas 2008

Clayton asked that they(him and Angela) be able to sleep in somewhat this year. I guess Santa isn't as important once you're older to give up your sleep anymore.
Arvil and I allowed them to sleep in until 8 am or so...then we all just had to open up our gifts, but then had another session, once Pamela, Jon and the kids showed up from Oregon and ate Christmas Dinner.

Christmas gifts included: Comforters, Air popcorn popper, Shirts, Pants, Bed Sheets, Socks, a Knife Sharpener, Throw rugs, I-pod shuffle, sweatshirts, ATV hand warmers and cover, gift cards, candy, family memories, ski goggles, Photo Frames and much more...

The kiddo's got tractors, dolls, necklaces, learning books, toys that make noise, sunday dresses, sunday outfits, shirts, pants, ATM cash banks, MP3 kids player, DVD, Games Walkie Talkies, Glass figurines and oh so much more...

Pamela and Jon received: a spliting mull, hand tools, under the counter CD/Radio player, a vanity stool, a laminator w/sheets, new marker sets, a 2009 calendar, DVD...