Well, not much has been happening in my life lately as I’ve been stuck in the house on bed rest missing out on all the things happening while I heal from my surgeries. Hopefully the end of the month gets more exciting.

November 6th, 2024

Work:

I haven’t been accomplishing much at work lately. I took off almost 2 whole weeks to recovery from my surgery. Thankfully my team and my supervisor has been incredibly understanding and accommodating of my needs through this whole process.

The only big work update is that my supervisor changed. I’m not mad at all about the swap though as my new supervisor and I have been working together for a while and we get along great. I think he’ll do a great job leading the team and providing guidance where it’s needed.

Personal:

Last month I wrote that I was dealing with some stomach pains that I couldn’t explain so I finally decided to go to a Dr. The Dr. scheduled an ultrasound to check out my abdomen and try to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to ultrasound day.

I was working on Monday morning and by noon I was keeled over in so much pain I could barely move. I was in tears. I called Jay and asked him to take me to the hospital.

Once admitted, I was on a lot of painkillers to get through what I was experiencing and after an x-ray, we found out I had a BIG kidney stone (18mm), and apparently, kidney stones are brutal.

I can now confirm.

Also, unfortunately, the stone was too large to pass and they didn’t have the laser needed to do the machine to complete a laser lithotripsy so they decided to input a stent to alleviate the pain and hold me overnight for observation. That night was rough as the stent made me feel like I was going to pee my pants at all times. I got up to go to the bathroom about 50 times in the night because I was worried about peeing myself. I didn’t sleep much at all.

They agreed to send me home the next day (per my request because it’s more than $5,000 a day to stay there), so I was home on bed rest for 10 days. They provided antibiotics and pain meds to help. It took about 3-4 days before I could walk normally without any pain.

I went in for my stone removal surgery last week and thankfully it all went well. I was in and out of the hospital same day.

I now have a stent in until later this week to ensure proper healing and draining of the kidney.

On top of all of that, I had my thyroid biopsy this week, which I’m still waiting on results for. I have a large nodule on my right thyroid that is concerning so we’re hoping it’s not cancerous and praying I won’t have to have my thyroid removed, but we’ll see what happens.

My Relationship

When I was first admitted to the hospital, Jay was great. He stayed calm, was supportive and assisted the doctors with my information as I was barely able to talk through all the crying. The next couple days while I was home, he had to work and was coming home to check on me throughout the day and it was really stressful for him so I’m glad that part is over.

This past week his employer let him work from home which made it a lot less stressful for him, and ultimately for me too.

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

The dogs are great. They’re loving this fall weather. Boone was able to wear his new pajamas and hoodie this week which I just think is too cute.

I think Bentley knows I’ve been unwell the last couple weeks because he’s been really cuddly and usually he’s not about that life. I cherish every time he lays up close to me so I can pet him.

I can’t wait till I’m able to take them on walks again in this beautiful fall weather!

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

I finished A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder and met with my bookclub to talk about it and the group really enjoyed it. It was a great pick for a book club. We had a lot of opinions about the characters, the reveals, and writing style.

My book club is deciding if they want to quickly pick another book and complete a read before the winter break or if they want to wait until January. I voted one more before break, but we’ll see what happens.

While I wait, I started The Girl That Was Taken by Charlie Donlea and it is SOOO good! I don’t typically read thriller, and I’m not really sure why not because every time I read one I’m engrossed and can’t put it down!

I reached my goal of 20 books for the year so I’m upping my goal to 30 and I found some kindle books I can start right after I finish this one so I don’t have to wait for library check outs or anything.

✈️ Travel ✈️

Well, I’m not making plans anytime soon. My medical bills are adding up to substantial amounts that will keep me grounded for quite some time.

I also don’t know if I’ll be able to do my hike at the end of the month which has been weighing on me really heavy. I’ll be healed by then, but I’ve barely walked more than 500 steps a day for about a month.. idk if I can jump into 20 miles a day with a 40lb bag in just 3 weeks. I haven’t 100% given up on the plan yet, but it’s not looking hopeful.

November 13th 2024

Work:

I’m back to work full time this week and it feels good, but also a little weird. It feels like I’m starting my job all over again because I’ve been out so long and have to remember where I was on each project, what I’ve already tested and who I’ve talked to.

Tuesday, my first day back in person was great because we had our departmental quarterly meeting with our annual Thanksgiving feast! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday (not because of the historical context of course) but because I love the food, the gathering of friends, the Lions football game, and fall weather. I ate a lot of great food and felt cared for as so many of my coworkers checked in on me.

Personal:

Personally, I’d say things are looking up. I am fully recovered from my kidney concerns. Now I just have to get back in shape. My muscles are tight, my cardio is trash, and I am very out of shape.

I’ve been focusing on doing some yoga in the mornings to get some flexibility back and it’s been great.

I got the results back from my thyroid biopsy and everything looks good there too, which is great. The samples were cancer-free. They did suggest a follow up ultrasound in 6-8 months to see if the nodule is still growing, but otherwise I’m in the clear!

Now that it’s all wrapping up, the bills are starting to roll in, so pray for me!

I just dropped $1500 on a crown for my tooth this week, which was another unexpected cost. Thankfully I’ve got an emergency fund that is helping me through. Guess next year I’ll be focused on rebuilding that fund for the next series of emergencies.

I’ve been reading a lot lately and I’ve got through 28 books. Just two more and I’ll reach my goal! I’m listening to an audiobook now, which I’ll finish in just a couple days I’m sure and then I’ll probably read a physical book to close out the year.

I finally got back to writing and published a post yesterday, which feels really good. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of things quickly.

This weekend Jay and I will be going to the Rennaissance Festival with some of his coworkers which he’s really looking forward to. I don’t know that I’m looking forward to it too much, but it’ll be nice to get out of the house for a bit.

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

The mornings have been cold (around 55 degrees) lately, and the grass is VERY wet so we’ve had to take the boys out front for all bathroom breaks lately, which is no fun. The backyard is just too muddy and it’s a whole fiasco to clean their paws after every potty break.

Jay’s mom and sister came by last week to pick up Jay for their casino weekend and Boone was terrible. He was jumping all over them, very high energy, and really embarrassing honestly, so I’m reconsidering dog training school for him. Last time I looked into it, it was almost $2,800 but I was asking for them to board and train. Now that I work from home 3 days a week, I may be able to take him in for daily training and pick him up at the end of the day which may be a lessor cost. I’ll look into it soon. I’m not opposed to using some of my remaining emergency fund to get this sorted out. I love him so much and he’s such a big softy, I want people to be able to be around him and come to our home without being pummeled by a 60lb dog.

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

Silent Book Club met up last week at Tavo Coffee in downtown Bryan. I hadn’t ever been to that coffee shop and I think it was perfect for us. We had a pretty great turnout, I’d guess about 25 people, and I was actually able to get some reading done. The last time we met up was at a restaurant and I got food and it was kind of loud in there so I didn’t really get into my book much. I still love the Silent Book Club and look forward to our gathering every month.

I just finished Where’d You Go, Bernadette, which has been on my TBR list for a long time because it was recommended to me multiple times. Idk if I didn’t really enjoy it as much as I should because of the hype or if I just didn’t really like it, but it was just okay. It was a quick read so I don’t feel like it was a waste of time, I just wouldn’t recommend it out to anyone.

Now I’m listening to “I was told there’d be cake” which is supposed to be a funny series of essays, so we’ll see how it goes. It was just one of the Available Now audiobooks when I checked my Libby app.

November 20th 2024

Work:

Personal:

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

✈️ Travel ✈️

November 27th 2024

Work:

Personal:

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

✈️ Travel ✈️

Always on to the next!