Mark's new job: 7 days, 7 weeks, 7 months

So most of you know by now that Mark has a new job (especially since we announced it in our Christmas letter and it's been all over facebook), that it was a long and frustrating road, and that he was unemployed for two months. Now that he's officially working, I can tell the whole story!

 

His new employer is Southern Utah Neurosciences Institute, a part of Intermountain Healthcare (IHC). Here is a short video explaining who they are and what they do:

He is the physician assistant (PA) to a spinal surgeon, Dr. Stouffer, but is training with several neurosurgeons as well. They have clinics in St. George and Cedar City, and do surgeries in hospitals in both cities.

It took a verrrryyyyyy long time to get this job. Mark's brother asked him, "Why didn't you get the ball rolling a little sooner?"

OH      BUT      WE     DID.

Okay, let's start back nearly a year ago, around June 2014. Mark was contemplating finding a second job for financial reasons. Having Isabelle cost a fortune, we couldn't afford health insurance (we have been completely without it for 7 months), we didn't have a drop in savings, let alone retirement, and things we needed to replace couldn't be replaced. We are up to our eyeballs in debt from PA school and things just weren't getting any better.

We got a call from my brother Tyler, who is friends with a spinal surgeon, Dr. Major. He pulled him aside at church and asked if Mark was looking for a job. (Mark had shadowed Dr. Major several years ago and was offered a job then, but couldn't take it because of his new contract with the National Health Service Corps.) Mark talked with Dr. Major and he said that in August, a couple new neurosurgeons were coming to the practice and they needed more mid-levels part time. He would get back to us when he knew more.

In August, Dr. Major called Mark again and offered for him to join the practice, and it would be full time instead of part time. Mark told him that his NHSC contract wasn't up till January 25, 2015, and Dr. Major said they would be willing to wait for him. Mark accepted and we were very excited! At the time, the IHC job listing was for a nurse practitioner, and it needed to be switched to a PA position. (Both are mid-levels that do essentially the same things, it was just a minor detail.) "The listing will be up in 2-3 weeks." 

  Mark's office at Premier, as he had started to empty it out.

So then Mark and I had to meet with the whole management team at Premier Pediatrics, where he worked for 6 years. He was meeting to negotiate a few things with them, but the new job offer came at the same time, so we decided to tell them that he would be leaving in January. (I had to sit there during the whole thing and it was so very awkward. But it turned out fine.) We were not allowed to talk about him leaving for a few months, though.

Since this all happened 5 months before he was supposed to start his new job, they had plenty of time to hire some new providers to replace Mark. It was agreed that his last day would be January 23rd and his first day at the Neurosciences Institute would be January 26th, 2015.

Fast forward 5 months......

IHC never posted the job listing, so Mark could never apply for it, so the job wasn't official. We have no idea why, but there was one particular person who was supposed to be in charge of making it happen, and they refused to return phone calls or keep us updated on anything. Every few weeks, Mark would try and make contact, and the few times he managed to get through, they'd always say, "Wait another 2-3 weeks." We gathered from the listing (that was still up as a nurse practitioner position) that Mark would need current certifications in BLS and ACLS (basic and advanced cardiac life support) in order to apply. So a few weeks and several hundred dollars later, he got those certifications so he'd be ready to go. 

At one point in November, we actually just drove down to the office and he tried to just pop in to meet with someone. They kept him waiting for an hour and no one ever came out to meet with him.

We gave up and went to lunch and then went back over, and this time we were able to meet with the office manager and one of the neurosurgeons. They assured us that the job listing would be up by Thanksgiving and we'd have everything squared away by the end of the year.

November came and went.

December came and went.

Most of January came and went. 

STILL NO JOB LISTING.

We were at our wit's end, and Dr. Major, despite being the senior surgeon, had no power over this. He did manage to get someone to START on the process of getting the job listed, but then we were told that it had to be approved through like 6 different channels of people. The office manager, upon realizing that Mark was supposed to start in two weeks, said, "Oh! That's not possible! I hope you've made arrangements with your current employer to keep working there." WHAT THE @$%@#$Q%@#$?!

But Mark's replacements at Premier Pediatrics had already arrived--he couldn't keep working there. January 20th rolled around. Finally:

The job listing!! I had been checking like 10x a day for months. I hurriedly applied for Mark. (Or so I thought...)

Three days later, Mark's last day at Premier arrived. He had really loved working with kids, and he was an extremely popular provider. Every day, a mother would be brought to tears when he told them he wouldn't be back for their next appointment. (True story.)

This also marked the end of his time with the NHSC, which saved our behinds by paying back 2/3 of our $150k PA school loans over 4 years. (If you are a doctor, PA/nurse practitioner, nurse, mental/behavioral health professional, dentist or hygienist and can work in primary care in a rural or medically under-served area, look into this program!)

We still hadn't heard anything from IHC, but Dr. Major said to just plan on showing up on Monday. Until we found out that that wasn't allowed...he wasn't an official employee yet. Sigh.

At some point during his first week of unemployment, someone finally called, only to tell us that Mark's application was never received! WHAT THE )@*#$%($#@*^$%?!

So then we had to apply all over again, and this time there were several more pages to fill out. When I'd done it before, after I filled out a bunch of pages, I uploaded his resume, and it brought me back to the home page and I thought I was done. Nope.

 About a week after we submitted his application for the second time and he was interviewed: The official job offer and contract arrived!! We had been told that once his contract was in hand, he could start shadowing at the clinic and operating room.

NOPE.

At this point, we were contacted by corporate IHC, who said in no uncertain terms that he was not allowed to set foot anywhere until his credentialing was done, which typically took "about 12 weeks" and "Official start date is June 8." (WHAT THE #*Q$%^(@&#%^?!) But we were going to be sent a large packet of paperwork to get things started, and the sooner we got it done and sent back, the faster the process would go.

TWO WEEKS GO BY.

We never received the packet. We finally called and figured out that they had sent it to Mark's old work address!! The manager there at the time didn't know what to do with it, and so stuck it in a corner and didn't bother to inform us. When we called, a new manager had taken over, and she couldn't find the packet. Mark offered to drive the 300 miles to SLC to get it from headquarters. So then the corporate lady says, "That is a long way to drive! I can just email it to you."

WHAT THE *(&#%$(&%^#$(&%?!

So we got all that #*^#%$(@# paperwork done in like 3 hours flat, and submitted it.

We finally got a welcome letter from corporate. Welcome, you're hired, we're glad to have you, "You aren't allowed to work until credentialing is done, and on our end you need to allow 4-6 MONTHS." WHAT THE @!%^@#$*#*#%)&*#$_@%^*_(&%)*^?!

At this point, nervous breakdowns were occurring all around. We were just so frustrated and upset and angry, especially because the people at his new clinic KNEW that this would be a long process and yet totally ignored us for 5 months, when they could have, SHOULD have been working on all this.

Mark tried to stay busy (I put him to work on a lot of projects) and he took temp jobs with my dad, with a local hotel changing beds and with a cabinet shop in Hurricane. The only way we were surviving was thanks to a big tax return that we got. We were supposed to use that money for other things, but survival came first. About a month and a half in, I applied for WIC, food stamps and Medicaid to help keep us afloat.

We were able to spend a lot of time as a family (in Zion on President's Day, which happened to be a free day) and that was nice. But still there was a lot of frustration at our circumstances. It was hard because the both of us would get stopped wherever we went and asked how the new job was going, and he hadn't been able to start yet.

Our friends and family were very supportive during this time. My brother-in-law's mom, who is a nurse in St. George, put us in contact with the Medical Staff Coordinator for the hospital there, and she immediately got to work getting us temporary privileges set up. If we had met her sooner, we might not have been in this mess!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Mark has been an affiliate at the hospital in Cedar for 6 years, and had worked in the labor & delivery department with all the new babies. It is an IHC facility....they had credentialed him 6 years ago. It is in the SAME corporation. WHYYYYYYYY they couldn't just give him immediate clearance for the other facilities as well is beyond me. (A few times, corporate  would come across his IHC work records and remark, "You're already in our system! Huh!") Ugh. Anyway.

 

Mark had to be approved by three different Boards of Trustees (one of which only meets quarterly) so that he'd be allowed to work in the two hospitals and two clinics. As a matter of fact, he still hasn't been approved by them all yet. But we were able to work on getting him temporary privileges in the meantime.

 

So we've spent the last two months waiting, doing paperwork, waiting, MORE paperwork! Phone calls, emails and faxes and yes, more paperwork. Blood tests. Drug screenings. References. College diploma and medical license checking. They were waiting on a reference from Mark's previous attending physician, Dr. Dowse. He faxed it over, but all they got was a blank fax. So that was another bump in the road.

At some point, it finally did dawn upon corporate (a.k.a. "Medical Group") that this guy they were getting 10 emails about per day needed temporary privileges! He had already been granted them by Dixie Regional (hospital in St. George) and Valley View (hospital in Cedar City) but Medical Group needed to grant them too in order for him to be allowed to see any patients in the clinic or the OR setting. 

Finally....FINALLY....they said he could attend New Employee Orientation on March 16th, one week ago.

We were so excited that we hung out on the lawn to greet him as he came home from orientation. 

Mark is going to be in training for the next 6 months. He is having to learn spine surgery/orthopedics as well as neurology and neurosurgery, what to do in the clinic, how to do rounds in the ICU, etc.

He had two days of orientation last week, and then three days of surgery and clinic. They meet at 6:30 am, and Mark has an hour drive to get there, so he has to get up at 5:00 and leave at 5:30 am. So far, he has been working about 12 hours, plus driving 2 hours, getting home around 7:15 pm. It has been exhausting for him and exhausting for me to be alone with the kids all day! I've had a low grade headache ever since he started.

This job is a big change for us, but we know that it will be good in the long run. Mark has always wanted to work in surgery and is very excited about that aspect of it. Standing for 4-5 hours at a time is tough, especially since sometimes he has to wear 3 lead aprons the whole time (because multiple x-rays are taken during certain procedures).

Most of what he's doing is assisting with spinal fusion surgeries, which is where they fix compressed vertebrae. They have to stick wedges in between, do bone grafts and put in titanium rods and screws. He has assisted in a couple other procedures, too. The other day, he had to stand and hold a guy's spinal cord while the surgeon was drilling around it. "Don't move or you'll paralyze this guy for life." No pressure, haha.

Practicing sutures on pigs feet last night.

While the hours are long, we are hoping that eventually he will be able to spend 2-3 days a week in Cedar City, so he won't have to commute. We will be getting family medical/dental/vision coverage, a 401k and a pension plan, all of which we have never had before. He will get paid per mile for his travel, they will cover testing and licensing and continuing education fees, and once his training period is done, he'll get paid overtime (everyone seems to work at least 60 hours a week). Not to mention, his salary is higher overall.

It's a good thing we don't believe in fate or bad omens, otherwise we would have given up on this job a long time ago! It has been 7 days since he started, which was 7 weeks after the date we THOUGHT he would start, and 7 months since the offer from Dr. Major.

Now we just need to get that first paycheck on April 3rd. Then I'll really be able to heave a sigh of relief.

Mark's surgery and other misadventures

It has been nothing but fun and games at the Yoder household lately--let me tell you!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Mark got some allergy testing done by the ear, nose and throat doctor who works downstairs from him. I nagged him to have his nose looked at, too, since I know deviated septums run in his family. So Dr. Pearson had a gander and was like, "WHOA....you need surgery." Yay.

Mark has sent Dr. Pearson so much business over the years with referrals though that he offered to do the procedure for basically an 80% discount. So of course we decided to go through with it. (And it's a good thing we got it done when we did, because his work abruptly decided to drop his health insurance by the end of this month.)

He was scheduled to come to the hospital at 11:15 am last Thursday. For some lovely reason, the universe was determined to give me a crappy time. The day before, Mark decided to try to fix our two humidifiers. They were both working, but Madelyn's made a lot of noise that it shouldn't and ours only worked about half of the time unless you blew on the fan to get it started. He was able to fix Madelyn's, but ended up breaking ours. One of the #1 things for his post-op care was to sleep with a humidifier...of course!! So he has had to use Madelyn's Hello Kitty one, because we cannot afford to buy a new one yet, and in the meantime poor Madelyn has had to go without, even though she (and now Luke) has had a cold.

THEN, that same night, I sent Madelyn in to take a shower and she sat down to get undressed. She put everything in a pile and stood up and got in the shower. I came in to grab a washcloth for Luke, who was bathing in the other bathroom, and saw her glasses poking out at a weird angle under her pile of the clothes on the floor. She had stepped right on them without realizing it.

Nooooooooo!!!!!

I tried to gently bend the frames back (the lenses were still okay) and then the whole thing just snapped in half. These were $200 glasses, people. She has a backup pair but they aren't the same prism strength and they're a little too narrow and make her head hurt after a while.

That night before bed, I prayed REALLLLY HARD that everything would at least go smoothly the next day, because I didn't know if I could handle it otherwise.

Well, come the next morning, I had to rush to get Madelyn and I dressed so that I could take her to the eye doctor to pick out new glasses before school. As she was getting ready, Luke came into the bathroom and announced that he needed to "choke" (throw up) so I set a stool for him at the sink, but then he said he needed to go potty, and so I had to hold a bucket under his chin while he dry heaved and pooped! I was like, Are. You. KIDDING ME, UNIVERSE. Thankfully it was not diarrhea, I have no idea why he needed to dry heave, but nothing ever came of it--he felt fine after that with no further problems. 

So I raced Madelyn over to the optometrist--she picked out a new pair of glasses and they gave us credit for new lenses (since we'd just had new ones made a couple of months before), but the frames were still $150!!! Did I mention that we were broke already from paying the surgical fee?? I literally was sure the check was going to bounce before I remembered that we had $100 in a different bank I could transfer......but still we were flat broke and had another 9 days till payday. (Payday is tomorrow. It has been a long week.)

Anyway, I got Madelyn to school 10 minutes late and then had to go back and get Luke to take him to preschool (I might have been crying in the car after I dropped him off) and then had to get Mark ready to go to the hospital.

We got there at 11:15 am and went back to his room in same day surgery, and then I had to go back and pick Luke back up from preschool. In the meantime, they did all the pre-op stuff and when we came back, he was just waiting to go.

My camera battery was unceremoniously dead (of course) and so all I've got are hazy cell phone pictures.

He didn't end up going into surgery until 1:00 pm, so we had almost an hour to hang out.

I have never seen Luke wash his hands so many times. All because of the foot-operated faucet. Coolest thing EVER if you're four.

Off he goes! The surgery itself was only going to take about 45 minutes. Luke and I went down to the cafeteria for some lunch (where he threw a huge hissy fit until I figured out he wanted a cup full of ice). We saw Mark's boss down there and he said it had been an awful week to have him gone because they'd been slammed with a ton of RSV cases and had been crazy busy. (Mark did not feel too bad about this.)

Here's the procedures he was having done:

Mark was probably born with a deviated septum, but when he was a teenager, he was doing a front flip on a trampoline and landed with his knee slamming into his nose, which broke it (he thinks, his folks never took him to the doctor) and made it worse. He could never breathe from the left side of his nose very well, and his right side was too open, so his body would swell the tissues up on that side to compensate. If your nasal cavity is too big, it dries out and causes nose bleeds and other problems.

He also had to have his turbinates cut back, because they were further blocking his air flow. So fun.

We came back upstairs and Mark got wheeled back into his room a few minutes later. The anesthesiologist said he had to give him extra sedation because he was fighting the breathing tube they were trying to shove down his throat. ("You may be a little sore and hoarse...")

The surgeon said that his septum was a doozy and was shaped almost like an "S". He had to use a mallet and chisel to break it and then reset it, and had to put an extra suture at the tip of his nose to tug it straight. Ow.

The nurses all said that he was the nicest, politest person ever to come out of anesthesia. He seemed calm and almost cheerful to me, considering what he'd just been through. 

 

 We just hung out while he became more alert, and eventually his gauze soaked through with blood and a nurse came in to change it and instruct us how to do it at home. Then she basically said that we could go as soon as he could get up and move around! I think it was only about a couple of hours out of surgery that they released us.

Mark's good buddy Jake Malie, who works in same day surgery, happened to see that we were there and stopped in for a few minutes. It was nice to see him. He used to work at the clinic with Mark.

Luke was really well behaved the whole time and was perfectly happy just munching on ice chips, obsessively washing his hands, and watching Disney Jr. (Cinderella came on, which was like the first good thing that had happened all day for me.)

We had to go get Mark's prescriptions filled at Smith's right away. They couldn't call them in because one of them was a narcotic (Percoset) and so he had to sit in the car for half an hour and wait for me. He was in a lot of pain by the time we got home, and starving and weak because he hadn't been able to eat since 9:00 pm the night before and it was almost 5:00 pm.

I dropped the boys off at home, got them situated and Mark fed and drugged and then picked up Madelyn at my friend's house (thank you Jenny!) where she had gone after school.

This is basically how we spent the next five days. Mark slept on the recliner in a drugged stupor, and I tried to keep everybody fed and alive. We had to start a log for all the medicines Mark was taking because it was hard to keep track of them. I also had to play nurse and help him change his gauze and swab the dried blood off the inside/outside of his nose with a hydrogen peroxide solution. So romantic!! His upper teeth really hurt and he could only breathe out of his mouth the whole time, which made them even more sensitive. He even cut himself two straws to stick in the corners of his mouth to breathe out of to keep the air off his teeth.

 

 When he got bored of sleeping, he was back at it with the video games, although he couldn't quite keep up the stamina he was used to. But that was a sign that he was feeling better.

After a VERY long weekend, I took him back to the doctor on Monday morning to have the splints taken out of his nose. They were these big silicone things that were shoved clear the heck up there. Everyone said he'd feel much better after they were out, and he did. Then all the lovely dried up Surgicel and coagulated blood had to start getting flushed out. Today is the first day in a week that everything is finally coming out clear.

His nose is straighter, inside and out, but he still can't breathe out of it yet. He got cut up so much inside that it is still swollen. But that should all subside in the next week. He tried sleeping in our bed for a couple of nights but can breathe better on the recliner. His face looks like it's back to normal (he had taken daily self portraits during the ordeal but didn't want me to post them) and I can't wait for him to feel what it's like to breathe like a normal person! He had a nasty taste in his mouth for the past couple of days--he could never smell or taste blood before but now he can, so it was sort of a shock to have all that gunk constantly draining out.

He returned to work on Tuesday and worked for two full, busy days, including night clinic last night. He still tires easily and got a bad headache yesterday from overexertion. But he's got today and the rest of the weekend off, so hopefully he'll feel great next week. Thank you to everyone who has been checking up on us during this--we are all just glad that it's over!!

POTS and IST

These pictures have nothing to do with this post. We just got several new fish on Saturday and since they each look different, we named them. Madelyn came up with Thorin, Fili, Kili, and Bombur (someone is obsessed with The Hobbit...) and we also have a Petri III, Fungus III, Gandalf and Speedy Gonzales. We already had a Gollum (our giant algae eater) and some other nondescript fish. They are the best pets! We've had fish the whole time we've been married.

Anyhoo, I have been meaning to post but last week was sort of awful and I had nothing to post about. I do have some news about my heart, though. Ready for a long ramble??

On last Friday morning, I was scheduled to go in at 8:55 am for a stress echocardiogram at the hospital. I had been DREADING it and was so nervous that I wasn't going to have the energy to do it. And so of course the night before I threw up and couldn't get any sleep. (The throwing up was because I'm still nauseous 50% of the time at night.) So, off to a swimming start!

I had to wait for a half an hour but they finally brought me back to radiology and hooked me up to about 12 different wires all over my chest and neck, and then took an echocardiogram (ultrasound) of my heart. My cardiologist Dr. Manchanda and a couple members of his team were right there in the room with me and he was able to tell me right away that my heart is physically fine and that there's no arrhythmia or valve prolapse going on. (Not surprising, since my echo from 2009 showed the same thing.)

My heart was going pretty fast, though, and my blood pressure was low. It's amusing that every time his nurses have checked me, they'd remark about that, and I'd say, "I know....that's why I'm here...." Hah.

Next, I was supposed to run on a treadmill for six minutes. This is the part I was dreading so much because I have NEVER been able to run very well. Even when I was a ballerina dancing 3 hours a day, I could never handle running or as much jumpy stuff as the other dancers. It always made me feel like collapsing. And since I've become pregnant, my physical tolerance for exercise has gone down to zero.

So I stood up to get ready to run, and after a few seconds, my blood pressure dropped so much that I got a little dizzy (I didn't say anything, just blinked hard a few times.). They had me lie down again and Dr. Manchanda came and felt my pulse in my wrist. They took my blood pressure while I was lying down, then had me stand up and took it again, while the doctor was still feeling my pulse. My blood pressure went from 110/50 to 100/60 (or something) and since I was still hooked up to the wires, they could see my heart rate jump up to about 120 at the same time. I also almost blacked out from the sudden drop in blood pressure. They seemed alarmed, but I told them that it happens to me every day and always has (which is true) and that it stabilizes within a few seconds and then I'm fine.

After all that, Dr. Manchanda said he wasn't comfortable with me running on the treadmill, and I was like, "Yay! I have always had trouble running." and he said, "Well, no wonder..." He said from what he had seen, he didn't need me to run anyway because my diagnosis was clear. I have Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

He had me get dressed and come down to his office, where he sat and looked over my heart monitor readings from the past two weeks and also talked about POTS and our treatment options. Basically, the fludrocortizone drug he might have put me on to help my kidneys retain more salt is not pregnancy approved, so I have to start taking salt pills. 

YUM!

Better than eating actual salt, I guess. I don't like salty foods so now I just have to swallow about 6 of these a day. It should increase my blood pressure and volume. I couldn't find them anywhere in town, so I'm waiting for a delivery from Amazon before I can start taking them.

I am still trying to figure out exactly what POTS is, and from my first visit with Dr. Manchanda, it sounds like I also have overlapping symptoms of Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST), hypotension and hypovolemia. So here's the gist:

hypotension: low blood pressure

hypovolemia: low blood volume

IST: Elevated heart rate not related to postural changes or activities. Might explain why my heart rate shoots up to 120-150 when doing mundane things like sorting laundry, showering, or even just sitting on the couch or at church. Right now, I've just been parked here at the computer for quite a while and my heart rate is 112. Symptoms include palpitations, lightheadedness, dizziness, flushing, sweating, and shortness of breath.

POTS: Falls in blood pressure accompanied by increased heart rate when standing or eating. Symptoms are the same as IST, including my favorite: darkening of the visual field (blacking out), but also might include fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, nausea, early satiety, bloating, and constipation.

I have had all of the symptoms I just listed, but since I'm pregnant, a lot of the digestive woes and fatigue come with that territory, too. So either way, I'm hoping for some relief soon, either from the salt pills working miracles or from my hormones leveling out since I'm finally in the 2nd trimester.

I know I have had these heart issues since I was a teenager, but pregnancy hormones have made everything exponentially worse. That is apparently common, and once I deliver (have I mentioned that this is our last baby?? I can't go through all this crap again.) my condition should improve. 

I went through a heart monitor, echocardiogram and the whole 9 yards while I was pregnant with Luke, too, but my cardiologist then was a moron and just blew it all off as nothing. I'm so glad to have a wonderful doctor now who took the time to get a proper diagnosis.

...................................................................................................................................................................

In other news: we had our house appraised last Monday (managed to get the house and yard spotless--it nearly killed me but it got done) and......it appraised just a tad too low. UGH. It is basically worth what we paid for it (could be worse) but since we have done so much work on the property, we were hoping for a little more. But I have faith in our mortgage broker that he's still going to make the refinance work. Because otherwise we are doomed and still have to pay $450 for the appraisal.

Also: last week got news of the $3,500 in doctor bills we now owe, not including the heart monitor or echocardiogram I just had. And Christmas is coming. And Madelyn's birthday. And our anniversary. *hoo heee hooo hee* (practicing labor breathing, serenity now.......)

Pray for us.

Health update. And the TARDIS!

So! Another week has come and gone. I am *somewhat* feeling better and getting more energy. I have been able to go run errands a few times this week  (although I still get really tired and sometimes nauseous afterwards). A couple mornings ago, Mark said to me, "It's so nice to have you back from the dead! You don't know how hard this first trimester has been on me!"

.................oh really.

But anyway, I have some new developments to add. On Halloween morning, I went to see a cardiologist in town to try and sort out why my heart seems to race for no reason. We pretty much are agreed that I have tachycardia and hypotension (low blood pressure), but until he knows exactly why, we can't go forward with any treatment. I do have a family history--most everyone in my immediate family has heart racing issues and my sister Meg had to have surgery this year to fix hers.

 

So I'm back on a heart monitor for 30 days (hopefully less). Although I wore one for 3 weeks while I was pregnant with Luke, the monitor wasn't as good and would only record events if I pressed a button, and none of the actual readings are on file anymore. And furthermore, the cardiologist from St. George who reviewed the data and had me do an EKG in his office back then was described as being a "jerk" by BOTH the nurse practicioner and my new doctor (and by me, and by my OB--he totally was a jerk). He said he doesn't want that guy touching my case with a 50 foot pole.

Anyhoo, this new monitor records everything 24/7, with actual people keeping an eye on the readings up in northern Utah somewhere. It is more of a hassle because I have to sleep with it on, and make sure to change the batteries twice a day, and keep the phone transmitter thing charged, and it has to always be within 10 feet at me or it freaks out. And the electrodes hurt like a mother when you have to peel them off and change them every day. Oh, and for the first 4 days, one of the wires wasn't even working properly, so I had to go get a new monitor once the clinic finally reopened on Monday. I'm going to be peeved if all that data goes to waste from those first few days!

But unless I have an actual arrhythmia (which I don't think I do, my heart beats regularly, just fast), there won't be anything they can do about it. The doctor said that sometimes an otherwise healthy heart will accelerate "inappropriately". You would expect your heart to get over 100 beats per minute if you were exercising, but not to get to 100-140 just by eating breakfast, or taking a shower, or sorting laundry, or just plain sitting around, like it does to me.

I also have the problem of low blood pressure, which I've always had. Not really sure why either, but he said it could be because I don't have enough sodium in my blood. Which might be treatable, but since I'm pregnant he doesn't want to try to raise my blood pressure because then it might lead to preeclampsia and all that garbage. So in the meantime, eat more salt? I guess it's worth a try.

Loving the uncertainty!

Next Friday I have to go do a stress echocardiogram while I run on a treadmill, which sounds like a death knell to me. I've never been able to run worth a darn--cue flashbacks to middle and high school PE--turns out it's because I have a heart problem! Hello...

Also (sorry this is really longwinded) on Halloween morning I had to go get 7 vials of my blood drawn, which I'd totally been dreading because I usually black out or dry heave when that's done. But I laid down and it actually went pretty well! Of course, it being Halloween, I still had like 8 more hours of stuff I had to do, and it was a very tiring, long day. I was a blob for the rest of the weekend.

My blood work (routine pregnancy screenings) all came back normal, good news. My urine culture came back and said I have a UTI. Bad news! I haven't had any symptoms other than some cloudiness, which has been going on for weeks and weeks. Sheesh! So now I'm on antibiotics.

Then I went to the dentist yesterday. I'm so excited to be getting all these medical bills in the mail.

My friend Anya, who is way too nice to me, surprised me with this in the mail yesterday:

ISN'T IT BRILLIANT!!?!??

She said she was going to wait till Christmas, but since I've been feeling so lousy as of late, she finished it early because thought it should be keeping me company "as you lay half-dead on the couch" (which I still spend a lot of time doing). THANK YOU ANYA! Ahh, so nice to have caring friends! She's had heart issues and has been through pregnancy twice as many times as me, so she KNOWS, man. I converted her to Doctor Who, so it's kind of our thing now. In fact, before I even opened the package, I thought, "I hope it's a TARDIS blanket!" :) She crocheted me this mini TARDIS and 10th Doctor for my birthday, so I'm like forever in her debt now.

I'll post more if I find anything out from all this testing!

P.S. We are in the process of refinancing, and got a horrifying call this afternoon saying our house appraisal is going to be happening MONDAY MORNING. I haven't had a clean house in two months, y'all. Wish me luck this weekend.

This is really happening

I am currently incubating another baby. I KNOW.

We always knew we wanted at least one more, but it was really hard to take the plunge. Things were good with just Luke and Madelyn. Our lives were predictable and comfortable. I don't have to buy diapers all the time. I get sleep. I even get a few hours to myself when Luke is at preschool! But I realized that if we didn't hurry and get pregnant, I'd probably talk myself out of it forever. As it is, Luke and the baby will be 4 3/4 years apart, just like he and Madelyn are (which is actually a great age gap, if you ask me). But still, once I did get pregnant, I panicked. WHAT ON EARTH AM I DOING?!?! Pregnancy is the worst! We don't have enough room for another kid! We're going to be stuck with paying for every single bill ourselves! (Lousy insurance.)

But it's too late now! Haha.



I am really grateful that we are able to have another one, and know that he or she will be loved to pieces.

But, y'all.

For the past 6 weeks I have had to struggle with not feeling good and not being able to tell anybody, and keep up appearances of still being a functioning human being. Showing up for stuff, completing assignments. Driving the kids everywhere. Getting dressed. (If you ask Mark or the kids, though, all attempts at cooking, cleaning and parental responsibility at home have pretty much ceased on my part and we are living in squalor. Which is true...)

I haven't had quite as much nausea as with the other two. Madelyn's pregnancy was unspeakably horrible and I had hyperemesis gravidarum. I still threw up a couple dozen times with Luke and was super tired. This time has been markedly better in some ways, but I've still been dealing with a lot of crap. I'm going to record it now for posterity's sake, and because I have weeks worth of venting to do. Ready???

I felt fine for the first 5 weeks or so. Then I started to get tired really easily--just in time for Luke's birthday and our family pictures!

Then I became lactose intolerant (?!?), which I have never been in my life! I was starving all the time and hypoglycemic...I couldn't keep my blood sugar stable. But every time I ate anything with milk products in it, it felt like a lead weight in my stomach. I had similar problems with Madelyn's pregnancy, and it was NOT COOL. Finally after two weeks of that nonsense, I hauled myself over to my allergist in St. George who does NAET and had him treat me for milk/calcium/various other digestive enzymes. He was like, "You can just avoid milk products..." NO I CANNOT. I CAN'T LIVE THIS WAY. (Milk, cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, chocolate, hello....)

Anyway, after that I was okay eating that stuff again, but still struggled with being starving all the time but not being able to find anything appealing to eat. And when I would finally decide on something, I could only have like, four bites. And everything turns into gas. The few times I've thrown up have been because of a big burp that was not forthcoming. Fun huh. Oh and then I had the biggest breakout of my life all over my face, which lasted for a few weeks. Stupid hormones.

Have you ever had a really bad case of the flu before? And when you finally decide to cross back over into the land of the living, you have absolutely no energy left? I have spent so much time napping and just lying around, it it ridiculous. I can't get enough sleep. Even if I sleep all day, I'm exhausted. And what is truly telling is that stuff that drives me nuts at any other time, i.e. dirty house, not being able to do projects/crafts, going whole days without getting out of my pajamas, not cooking, I have honestly not cared about it one iota. I'm just TOO TIRED! I had to abruptly stop my nightly walks and my Pilates classes, because by about 6:00 pm I can no longer do anything but lie down. When I overdo it during the day, I usually end up nauseous at night. I've been going through a lot of Phenergan gel.

I have been feeling better in the mornings, and sometimes get up and go places. I can usually manage to get a couple errands done if I need to, but then I have to rest for the remainder of the day. Two days ago, I had to get up and go do visiting teaching at 9:30 am (after a long night of Luke constantly coming into our bed), and was doing that and other errands for a few hours. I came home and ate lunch and then had to spend the next SEVEN HOURS lying down recovering, and then just went to bed. It is so frustrating!

I find myself watching a lot more TV, and I lie there and scrutinize everyone I see: "They don't look sick. They probably feel great. Lucky &*^@(%#@(^#s." Yesterday, I was getting lapped by old people at Walmart. That did not help.



We went and saw Dr. Sanders (who delivered my other two, love him) last Thursday, and to our surprise, we got to have an ultrasound! He has the latest 3D machine that does color and it is so cool.

 It was a HUGE relief to see that there really was a baby in there, and that I wasn't being crabby and exhausted and hormonal for no reason, haha. The baby was measuring two days ahead of schedule, but he kept my due date at May 19th 2014.

We finally told the kids about their new baby brother or sister that day when we had the photos. Luke pretty much took it in stride, "Okay!" He has talked to my belly and given it some kisses.

Madelyn, who has been really worried about me and keeps making me get well cards, had just come home from school when we told her, and her eyes went really wide and (between shoving huge bites of banana in her mouth) said, "HOLY CRAP!" And "That is so weird." Hahahahhahahaha. But now she is just excited and hoping that it's a little sister.

Everything is looking great so far with the baby, and Dr. Sanders said I should be feeling better pretty soon. But my heart issues have come back. Remember how I had to wear a heart monitor for a month while I was pregnant with Luke? I was diagnosed with tachycardia back then, and we initially thought it was just pregnancy related, but it's not. It's something I've had for at least 15 years or so, and it just gets worse with pregnancy. My heart races really fast and it's really uncomfortable. It gets as high as 140 beats per minute when I come out of a hot shower. But even just sitting and eating breakfast, sometimes it's up to 120.

I'm going to a cardiologist tomorrow to see if I need to get put back on a beta blocker, which should help slow my heart down. BUT, it will also lower my blood pressure, which is low to begin with, so then we start with the dizziness and lightheadedness. It's either that or feel like I'm having a heart attack five times a day. I don't know which is worse.

So here I am at 11 weeks! Nothing to show yet, which means I can still sleep on my stomach. Ahhh. I actually lost 3 lbs this past month. I'll be happy to get a belly in exchange for the ability to eat again.

My follow up pregnancy posts should hopefully be a little less whiny!

And a HUGE thank you to my dear husband, who has been incredibly patient, long suffering and helpful and willing to get takeout, and has not batted an eye when he comes home for lunch to find me still in my jammies and the house still a mess, as he is about to do right now.

Now, on to Halloween! If I can just manage to get the kid's costumes ready today. Wish me luck. 

Lagoon

 

This past Saturday, we made a trip up to SLC for some work-sponsored fun at Lagoon (or as Luke calls it, "Goon"). Mark's clinic was feeling generous and provided free tickets, parking and meals for all their employees. I hadn't been in about 12 years, and Mark and the kids had never been. We drove up Friday night after work and stayed the Hyatt Place hotel near the airport, then hopped on the freeway the next morning at were at Lagoon in 20 minutes.

   

 Unfortunately, June 29th was the hottest day of the year and the hottest day on record for the area! It was at least 105° (previous record for June 29 being 104° back in 1977) but I saw reports saying it was actually 112° in SLC for the two days we were there. AND it was really humid, too! Lucky!!!!!! I know, it was a lot hotter in other places, and that heat is nothing new, having grown up in southern Utah. But I've never been stupid enough to stand around in it for 7 hours, is what I'm saying.

 

Thankfully, most of the kiddie rides had no lines and there were big shade trees everywhere. We spent the whole morning there letting the kids go on stuff and they had a blast.

 

 I look gross in all of these pictures, so please disregard.

We rode the Sky tram thing a couple of times...we had to go back because Madelyn's flip flop fell off right after we took off. Some nice people saw it fall (and probably heard me freak out) and set it on the ledge there for us.

 

 Madelyn and I went on the yo-yo swings and I thought it was interesting that it was decorated with 1800s lady portraits and exotic birds. (??)

 

 *hot*

 *sweaty*

  

 This is the Sky Coaster.

 Dr. Dowse, who is apparently an adrenaline junkie, went on it once in the morning and then convinced Mark and his son-in-law Daniel (who also works at the office) to ride on it with him after lunch. This is after they signed up for it and paid--they'd come back later to ride.

 We got our lunch and had to walk clear to the back of the park to our reserved pavilion to eat with everybody else. This is how all of us felt.

Did I mention that it was hot??!

The Premier Pediatrics employees

 After lunch, Mark and Daniel decided to go on Wicked.

 See the car perched on top of that crazy thing?? Apparently, you get shot off like a rocket via magnetic launch and then try not to toss your cookies while hurtling down that thing.

 

In the meantime, Madelyn and I got a giant snow cone and I tried to keep Luke in the shade and fan him. Poor baby! It was so miserable! I don't know how he fell asleep.

 Madelyn talked us into letting her play a carnival game because she wanted a big stuffed animal. We let her play Lucky Duck because it required no skill and had a guaranteed prize. She has been carrying "Martin" everywhere since then. (She is a fan of Martin Freeman...perhaps that's where she got the name.)

 Then the guys finally met up for the Skycoaster. I didn't think it would take very long, but we had to wait 45 minutes for them. We hung out with Daniel's wife Megan (Dr. Dowse's daughter, who is 7 1/2 months pregnant and has a little 1-year old girl). Mostly we talked about how hot it was.

The waiting was too much for Luke to bear.

I videoed their jump--they were 143 feet in the air when they released the pins, went into free-fall for 30 feet (Mark says) and then went swooping back and forth. If it looks terrifying and headache inducing, it totally is. Mark had gone once before on one at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and didn't like it then, either, haha.

 They survived! That's their co-worker Chelsea flying over their heads above...

 

 The kids were so worn out and hot and we knew we were leaving soon, so we let them go get soaking wet in the fountain.

There is a whole water park there called Lagoon-A-Beach, but it was SO crowded and we were all so tired that we agreed we'd go swim at back at the hotel instead.

 We got the kids changed into dry clothes and then Luke went and got his own radioactive looking fish, who he named Mr. Fish.

 The kids played Whack-A-Mole

They had one last ride on the bumper cars. Luke was in HEAVEN!

And then we left around 4:40pm. We got some cotton candy and a caramel apple for the road.

*oof*

We collapsed when we got to the hotel and then went for a quick dip in the pool, showered and then got back on the road for....

 We were supposed to have gone the day before, but Mark had a schedule change at work and instead of leaving Cedar City at 1:00pm to drive up, we left at 6:00pm and didn't make it before they closed. By the time we got there on Saturday it was 8:00pm and only had one hour to shop! (When going to Ikea, it takes about 1 hour just to walk through the store, much less buy anything.)

But in the end, I ended up with lots of awesome, cheap birthday/Christmas gifts for the kids (they were eating at the cafeteria with Mark and didn't see anything) and this hot pink owl pillow. Isn't it fabulous?! The correct answer is yes. Mark needs convincing, though. It might end up on Madelyn's bed instead.

So we had fun and definitely want to go back to Lagoon and Ikea (and H&M, etc., etc., etc.), just maybe without the prickly heat rash situation. And when we have more time and money so I can get some new couches. Not too much to ask, is it?....