time for another plethora of randomness post

• Apparently, I'm popular in Florida. I started using a StatCounter for all the hits to my blog, and Florida, you're leading the way. Thank you for your patronage.

• This week is Thanksgiving. I'm going to be writing a post about this holiday. Fair warning: it won't be what you expect. Hint: I'm not a big fan of Thanksgiving, even though this is the equivalent of heresy in some circles.
• I love my husband. I don't say this often enough on my blog! But I do have to brag on him for just a second...on Saturday morning when I finally ventured downstairs to start some laundry, I found a huge bouquet of a dozen white roses on the kitchen table. I don't remember the last time something made me gasp, but that's exactly what I did. Such a surprise...such a sweet man. Our marriage has had its share of ups and downs this year, but we are in a very good place right now and I'm so blessed. Thank you, my love.
• I've re-injured myself. I am extremely bummed about this. Last night I went to pick up my almost 15-pound baby nephew in his almost 2-ton infant carrier (okay, I'm exaggerating obviously, but goodness, those things are HEFTY!), and something...happened in my back, right where I'd herniated a disk 2 months ago. It wasn't a pop or a snap or anything dramatic, just a searing pain right through that disk that shot jolts of follow-up pain up and down my leg. I paused, hoping that I'd just moved wrong and it would go away, but alas, as soon as I moved, I realized the pain was baaaaaa-aaaaaaack. I gave in and took a Vicodin last night (this is a big deal because weaning off of Vicodin was pretty awful last time around) and thankfully, I do feel a little more mobile and less crippled this morning. Here's hoping I've just aggravated a tender, still-healing spot and not herniated the disk again.
• Our Hispanic youth group is growing. On Friday, we had 17 kids show up to the Esperanza center. Adam and I are both excited and very nervous/overwhelmed by this; God is blessing this ministry in an abundant way, but we are beginning to realize that our resources (helpers, space, budget, etc.) really need to grow along with our attendance. We would appreciate your prayers!
• The Colts lost last night. We're no longer undefeated. This brings a surprising amount of sadness to my heart. This is the curse of being any kind of sports fan.

Close sesame

So, I've been rather off the "bladar" (blogger radar...is that going too far with abbreviated terminology?) this last week but I have 2 excuses:

1) Blogger was being a SNIT about uploading photos, and since all the posts I want to write include photos, well, I just got disgusted with the whole process and decided to give Blogger the cold treatment.

2) Sesame seed oil. At least, we think it's the culprit. Here's the story:

Wednesday night was Adam's birthday, and I wanted to make a veggie stir-fry recipe I'd found in Real Simple magazine this month. I used ingredients that I bought a while back for a recipe and then haven't had an opportunity to use again, among them being rice wine vinegar and sesame seed oil.

We ate late and then watched a movie and then went straight to bed. I got up yesterday morning and saw very puffy eyes in the mirror and thought, good grief, what have I rubbed into them? I showed them to Adam and he said, take a Benadryl and it'll be okay, so I kissed him goodbye, went to the bathroom, started my shower, pulled my t-shirt off and nearly screamed when I caught a glance of my skin in the mirror. I had hives so thick on my chest that I looked sunburnt. And they were up and down my arms and I also realized, on my face (the puffiness was red upon closer examination). So I called my mom and asked her to please come down to my house immediately. Mom came and looked me over and appeared really befuddled and concerned. She made me take a Benadryl immediately and said, sit on that phone until you get ahold of the doctor. I called and they let me come into the office as an emergency. And then my chest started to feel tight. I told Mom I really didn't think it was anxiety because I was actually quite calm. When Dr. Records came in and heard that my throat was tingly and my chest was feeling heavy and tight, he took one look at my skin and immediately left the room. He came back with an inhaler and made me take 3 puffs to open my airways, just in case. Then they gave me a shot of steroids in my hip to kill the hives. We talked about what could have done this, and we just had to conclude that it was one of those cooking ingredients, since I've used all my other stuff (medicine, detergent, etc.) for YEARS. Dr. Records said he'd go with sesame oil as the culprit. A quick Google today has informed me that sesame seeds are the 4th highest food allergen (HUH? Who knew this???). So now I want to get an EpiPen, because sesame seeds and their oil are used in a ton of things and I don't know how much of a quantity of sesame oil constitutes an allergic reaction in my body??? Is it high, like frying all veggies and rice in it? Or will I break out/stop breathing if I have it in low quantity, like if I have a hamburger on a sesame-seed bun? This is scary!

Anyway, there's my excuses for not blogging lately. Just another chapter in Becky's medical drama book. Sigh.

follow-up to last post

Go to this website, http://www.komen.org/bse/ (the Susan G. Komen foundation), to get all the information you need to do breast self-exams. I used to have a shower hanger with pictures and info, but that was lost many moons ago. I know OB-GYNs have them for free in their offices; it's time I had one of these again!

update on my owie

So my MRI showed that I do, indeed, have a herniated disk. Or disc. Still not sure how it's spelled. Anyway, it's the disk between my L5 and my S1 vertebrae. If that means anything to anyone. Apparently, 90% of people who herniate a disk herniate this same one! I'm a bit surprised at myself, honestly. The illnesses and injuries that I sustain are usually atypical!

Anyway, the good doctor recommends lots of rest, painkillers, steroids, and when I'm up to it, some gentle stretching and exercises. He says it's not bad enough for surgery. YET. And I quote. So I've decided to be a very good girl and do all the resting required of me because back surgery appeals to me NOT AT ALL.

However, I must record a slight complaint. The back pain is quite wretched, yes, but I could put up with it easily enough if it weren't for all the accompanying inconveniences. For example: I can't bend to dry my legs after a shower. I need assistance with underwear, pants, socks, shoes and getting out of the bathtub. If I drop something, I stare at it for a long while, pondering a painless way to retrieve said object, and then usually decide to live without said object. If I turn, bend, move, or even gesture in just the wrong way, pain shoots through my back and my face reflects it in this automatic grimace-face-thing that I can't control. So now I probably appear to have a twitch disorder. Lovely.

I guess the good thing is that lying around prone for hours at a time requires some form of entertainment for this restless mind. And I can tolerate only so much TV/movies, and I like to read books in chunks, not straight through in one sitting. And I've done every crossword in the house. So what's a laid-up girl supposed to do??? SUDOKU. Yes, I'm now addicted. I used to pooh-pooh the latest trend in brain games as "too numbery" for me -- I like to stick to letters and words, more my forte -- but I decided to give a puzzle a whirl and I finally solved my first one last night. Which is only going to feed this addiction, since I now feel capable of something numbery! Yee-haw! And in the interest of sharing (ie, trying to get others hooked on my latest craze), here's a website where you can generate a PDF of up to 4 puzzles on one page, print it off, snuggle in bed, and work your little grey cells!

ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch

How I'm feeling:



















What I probably have:

What my symptoms are (and this is the prettied-up WebMD version):

• Sharp pain in the back, sometimes going down the back of one or both legs, immediately upon or shortly after exertion or injury.
• Inability to bend or straighten your back, accompanied by severe pain.
• Gradual development of neck or lower-back pain, possibly intense on arising or when sneezing or coughing.
• Numbness or tingling in an arm or leg, and possibly a progressive loss of strength in one or both legs.

What we're going to do about it this afternoon:

back among the living

Since I am now recovering from the mother of all kidney infections, I will be able to post my happenings again! I just haven't been able to sit at my laptop without sweating through the pain. I've had UTIs before, but never have I had the infection in my kidneys, and holy smokes, it hurts like the dickens! (sidebar/note to self: research origin of "hurt like the dickens" -- I always say that and I haven't a clue what I might be actually saying!)

With the aid of Advil, I was able to participate in the preparation for Sam and Mel's wedding, which was yesterday. Golly, I love those two kids. And they had such a precious wedding. It was HOT outside during both wedding and reception, but the food was tremendous and we all had such a good time.

In order, I think these are the posts that I "owe":
Day Out with Thomas photos
taking my mom out to the L.S. Ayres tearoom for her birthday
Sam and Mel's wedding

Best get to it!