MOMS

I'm so glad I said yes to joining MOMS with my church (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)! Originally I was honestly thinking about saying NO because I have quite a lot going on, but how could I say NO to something that would ultimately make me a better mom to my children.

Today was the my first meeting and it was great! We started out by dropping our kids off in the nursery (score)! Then we went to our meeting room and mingled until it started. 

They opened up with a spiritual reflection, we prayed a decade of the rosary, then began our planned activity (Pinterest fall wreath). Fr. Ben hopped in to say how excited he is about this group! I love Fr. Ben!

Then after carefully completing my Pinterest inspired fall wreath (thanks to Kayle Landrigan, Courtney Freiburger, Angie Minnich, Julie Gabriel, & Angie Jurczak...yes it took that many people to help me), we played a fun getting to know you game. 

The ladies who run this MOMS group are incredible! 

So...if you are Catholic & looking for a way to get connected to other young families, please consider joining MOMS. It meets every other Tuesday from 9:00-11am.

God Bless

What's New with Me & New to You

After several years of considering joining Junior League, I've finally took the leap and am now in the New Member Cohort. The reason I really wanted to join Junior League was to make an impact in the community with philanthropy. I miss my Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity days of volunteerism and what a great organization to be a part of...they're established, have the volunteer opportunities right there, you just need to take part! It's also a great way to meet people if you are new to the area. I've been here for 10 years now, so I'm not necessarily on League to make friends, but there are some kind hearted gals there! Plus what got me was their new focus, elementary readiness! This is a definite need and holds close in my heart, as I have 2 kids (almost 6 & 4). Everything that JL does, is to better their mission.

One of the ways in which Junior League raises funds is with their New to You Sale! This is an excellent opportunity to shop name brand items at amazing prices!! Basically JL members have donated tons of their items they can part with to this sale. The date is 11/1 from 8-3 at the Fort Wayne National Guard Armory (130 West Cook Rd). 

So, what are you waiting for?! Bring

your friends and come shop this fantastic sale of quality products in all merchandise categories, so you are sure to find amazing deals! And don’t forget the bag sale which happens from  2:00 pm – 3:00 pm at the end of the sale. Shoppers can fill small bags for $5 and large bags for just $10!

You won't want to miss this event!!

Living It Up

Today was quite the busy day, but none-the-less, worth every minute. As normal, I got Olivia on the bus, Gabe his breathing treatment, and then headed out to run errands.

 Gabe wanted to pick out a craft for his play date with Sam (neighbor friend), so we went to JoAnn's and he picked out a Wilton Gingerbread Halloween House. It was on sale and I had a coupon, so why not. 

Then I dropped Gabe off at preschool and checked out the book fair at his school. I was happy to see Neysa Myers and get her recommendations on good books. I bought 5 books (2 for the kids for Halloween, 2 for Christmas, & 1 for Gabe's teacher). 

After the book fair fun, I went to Olivia's school to volunteer in her Kindergarten class. I wasn't sure what to expect (never volunteered there before) but Olivia was really excited that I was going to be helping out. Her teacher had me help her with some projects and I enjoyed helping out. On a side note, I'm really impressed with Covington so far! My decision to go public seems to be the right, so I hope.

After volunteering at school, I went to pick up Gabe from preschool. Then his friend, Sam came over to play. Gabe was really excited to have him create the Gingerbread Halloween House with him! The boys played really well together and I look forward to them playing more often!

Then Olivia's friends, Annika & Caitlin came over for a play date. They went 100 mph in all sorts of different activities. One minute we were making bracelets, then they were dressing up in princess attire, playing hopscotch, Barbie doll Dreamhouse, and then they were jumping on the trampoline. They are extremely well behaved girls and Olivia is lucky to have them as friends! 

After the play dates, it was bed time, so I let the kids see their surprise (aka, the Halloween books). They LOVED them!!

How awesome is it to make your kids day with something so simple as books?! I love our simple little life and wouldn't have it any other way! God bless each of you!!

Follow-up on Urology Issues

Well, I had my urologist appointment today...biopsy results came back negative for cancer! He said it was a urethral stricture, which is very uncommon in females. He said in 29 years of practice, he's had only 3 (me included) patients with a stricture. 

I had no idea what a stricture was, but Dr. Girod (my family doctor) guessed this from my initial appointment and I'm impressed that she was spot on! A stricture occurs when scarring narrows the urethra. I'm not sure when or how this scarring occurred, possibly during childbirth?? Anyhow, a stricture restricts the flow of urine from the bladder and can cause a variety of medical problems in the urinary tract, including inflammation or infection. I can't believe I put up with this for so long, but so glad to have some answers and am relieved that I had the procedure and am feeling 100% better!!

Thanks for all your support and prayers!!

Restless

Last night I couldn't get to sleep until 2am and tonight I'm still up. I think I'm extremely nervous about my pathology results from the biopsy. 

I shouldn't be because the doctor said he didn't think it looked like cancer, but it's the unknown that freaks me out. 

I called my urologist today to see if they got the results back yet and the nurse told me that it takes 7-10 business days to get results back and "that's why I have my appointment with the doctor on Monday."

I'm sure everything is fine, it just makes me nervous because the doctor told Dan that he should have my results back in 2-3 days. 

Deep happy thoughts...c'mon Mr. Sandman, I need to rest. Gnight friends!!

Found a Dentist!

For reasons not worth mentioning, we were in search of a new dentist. I received lots of positive feedback on Dr. Klinger, who goes to my church, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. 

Back at the end of August, I popped into their office to check it out and I was impressed. It's extremely clean, inviting, the staff seemed friendly, and the dentist himself even waved to me and he had no idea who I was at the time. 

Since then, I researched other dentists, but Dr. Klinger stood out above the rest!

Today I had my first appointment with my new dentist and I was thoroughly impressed! They even let Gabe play with the train table while I had my appointment (they watched him)! I'd highly recommend Dr. Klinger if you are looking for a dentist in Fort Wayne!!

What's Going On with my Health

Ok friends, some of you may wonder what in the world is going on with some of my posts lately...well I do not like the attention, but I'll just give you the scoop, in case any of you ever think about not taking care of yourself either. 

Believe it or not, for the past 4 years I've been having terrible pain whenever I urinate. I've just dealt with it, thinking that it's normal and took care off family, who needs me more. Well then around a month ago the pain increased to the point of intolerable, so I decided to call my doctor and schedule an appointment. It felt worse than labor and delivery & I felt like I was peeing razor blades!! 

Originally the doc thought it might be a stricture, but she wasn't sure. At the appointment she had me take a pee test, to rule out a UTI (which would have been the longest UTI ever, but they have to do these things). 

A few days later her nurse calls me saying that there's blood in my urine and they want me to get a CT of the abdomen. 

I went to The Imaging Center on W. Jefferson and got that done. I was awaiting results...which I was told kidney stones and that I needed to go see a urologist named Dr. Rudolph. 

I went to this appointment by myself and let me tell you about it...mind blowing!! First of all, I went into the appointment and met his nurse, who asked me where I got my images taken. I told her at the Imaging Center. She then tells me that she needs to go check on them and leaves the room. She then comes back and says that "we have to do a procedure." So I'm freaking out thinking that they are going to have to zap my kidney stones right then and there. She comes back and says, "Sorry, we had to do a last min procedure on another patient!" WHEW!! 

Then I met the Dr. and he is a character. He has a sense of humor but when you are by yourself and nervous you don't know how to take him. He checked me out in there and decided to have me try an estrogen cream for 2 weeks to see if that might give me any relief. He also made sure to tell me not to have sex with my husband with it in, "or else he might get boobs, but he might like that sort of thing, bc I'm a guy and if I had boobs, I would love to sit around and play with my boobs all day." Uhm...I guess if your job is a urologist, you have to get past the day with some sense of humor???

So I tried the estrogen cream for 6 days and it did nothing but make my breasts even bigger (oh my)! Dan made me call the urologist and update them on the non-relief. The nurse called me back and said that the doc wanted to get me in for a Cytoscopy under sedation at the hospital. They wanted to take a look and see what was going on in there.

The surgery center scheduled me for 10/2. Then the nerves shot in. I haven't had surgery since my ear tubes and tonsils surgery when I was young. I don't even remember that far back. I checked on Parkview's MyChart, which is to be a great way to communicate with the office, to see if any additional info regarding my procedure had been added. Nothing...up until they stated that I was having a completely different procedure done, which freaked me out. I called them and they said that it was an error and assured me that I was having a Cytoscopy and NOT a retroperitoneal abdominal lymph node dissection, as stated in MyChart. 

I went into surgery on 10/2 and I'm so glad they sedated me because the dr. said that he couldn't even get his scope in me. He had to dialare with a wire guiding tool to get his scope in there. Ouch! 

Apparently I had a bunch of scar tissue somehow and my urethra was almost all closed off; therefore he removed the tissue and biopsied it. He didn't think it looked like cancer, so that's good. The lab results have been sent to pathology and won't get results for a few business days. I'm grateful that he removed the scar tissue though! The pictures truly show what he is talking about, but I'll spare you the details on those pics. 

After surgery, Dan spent the entire day taking care of me. He is incredible and even helped me with my catheter that I had to have for 24 hours. Nasty! 

I felt nauseous most of the day and threw up/dry heaved several times from the anesthia. Luckily, the dr got me some good pain meds for relief down there. 

Then today, I also took off of work because I was still in pain and needed another day to recover. I'm so glad I did because I spent most of the day feeling run down and needed to rest. 

The good news is that now that the catheter is out, I can actually pee like a normal person (the real normal without pain)! It only hurts afterwards from where the dr. took out the scar tissue. 

So here's to getting some relief and answers! Don't do what I did and neglect your health!! 

Peace~