Booo.. It’s Halloween Month! Jay and I are taking a short weekend trip this month, I’m doing a lot of dog sitting, and I’ll be meeting up with my book club to discuss the book we’ve been reading the last month and a half!

October 9th 2024 – (Yes, I missed the first Wednesday of the month)

Work:

Work is work. Not much new to report here. I’m doing things and making money.

Personal:

I’ve been going through some shit lately if I’m being honest. I’m super happy I’ve been able to travel in the recent months, but coming home and being sick each time has taken its toll on me. I got COVID not too long ago and that took over a week to recover from (and unfortunately I’m still dealing with the lingering cough) on my most recent trip, I got sick the day after the conference ended and was struggling through the rest of it.

I still had a great time in New Mexico, but not nearly as great as it would have been if I was feeling okay. I also made it through the entire trip without altitude sickness until the very last day (10 days in!) which I find odd, but I threw up in public and that wasn’t cute.

I went to the Dr. this week to have them check up on the nodules in my throat. They’ve been there about 4 years now and I have them checked out every year just to make sure they aren’t growing and potentially becoming cancerous. Lately, I’ve felt them in my throat, which is odd as I don’t usually feel them so I wanted to get them checked out. I met with a new Dr and got an ultrasound scheduled next week so hopefully, all is good there, but we’ll see.

I haven’t been working out because I’ve been sick and tired and I can’t wait to get back at it.

My Relationship

Jay and I are both really busy lately but we’re making the most of the time we have together… by watching football or baseball mostly.

We’re going to be getting away for a weekend in New Orleans this weekend and I’m super excited for some time together away from home. We haven’t actually gone anywhere together since the 4th of July.

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

The dogs are great. Bentley has a grooming apt. this week before we leave for the weekend so he can look and smell fresh for the dog sitter.

Boone is being such a good boy! I think he’s past his baby years and starting to grow up. We’ve been leaving him out of his kennel for longer periods of time lately (so far he’s been good for 2 hours at a time).

When we get back from our trip to New Orleans this weekend I’m going to be spending all next week watching Pancho again, which I’m so excited about. He’s a great dog. I love their apartment complex. They always leave me with great meals to eat and I’m just excited for the little stay-cation. I feel a little bad being away for another 7 days when I’ve only been home 7 days but Jay can hold down the fort while I make this money.

My trip to New Mexico cost right around $1,000 and I made about $400 on Rover before I went so I’m hoping to make the rest up before the end of the year so it doesn’t really impact my savings.

Oh, and I crossed another goal of the year off my list! I paid off my loan to my mom which I’ve been working on paying off for about 2 years now. That felt great.

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

I’m still working my way through A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. I am really enjoying and the only thing that’s stopped me from blasting through it is my body needing more sleep than usual. Every time I’ve sat down recently to read, I’ve been asleep within 15 minutes.

I did recently make a Goodwill stop and purchased some new books I’m excited about. Some of them I’ve already read, but I’m happy to add to my collection – The Giver, Dare to Lead, Wild, and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. I also purchased some new ones I haven’t read before – I love it here and Where’d You go Bernadette.

✈️ Travel ✈️

This weekend Jay and I are driving out to New Orleans for a very short weekend away. It takes about 6.5-7 hours to drive there and we both work Friday so we’ll really only have Saturday to explore and Sunday we’re heading to a New Orleans Saints football game at noon! Once the game is over, we’re rushing ourselves back home in hopes to get back before midnight because we both work the next day.

Besides that, no upcoming travel for me in the next month. I just got back from Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was there for 10 days and had a really great time. I can’t wait to start putting together some content from that trip for you all!

October 16th 2024

Personal:

Well, life took a quick change for me this past week.

On Monday, I got one of the stomachaches I’ve been getting for the past couple of weeks. By afternoon it had progressed to the point I could no longer take it. I called Jay and asked him to take me to the hospital. The pain was so intense I was nauseous and throwing up. I was crying uncontrollably.

Once at the hospital, they provided me with multiple rounds of painkillers, morphine, and fentanyl to try to ease the pain before ultimately taking me in for an x-ray after being there for over 6 hours already.

The x-ray showed I have an 18mm kidney stone blocking my urinary tract, which was causing the pain. Unfortunately, they were unable to operate on it that night so they took me into surgery to input a stent to ease the pain and drain the kidney. Upon doing so they retested my urine and found that the backup in my kidney was infected so they also got me started on antibiotics.

I stayed in the hospital for the night, getting up to pee every hour or so because the stent put a lot of pressure on my organs making me feel like I was going to pee myself continuously. They kept me on fluids for the night.

The next day, thankfully I was feeling a bit better. The pain in my kidney had subsided but I had started to cramp and the infection was spreading through me so I continued antibiotics.

I begged to be released later in the day and headed home. My muscles have continued to cramp since being home and I’m still in a lot of pain, but I have my surgery to remove the kidney stone coming up in about 10 days. Since there was an infection, the Dr. wants me to get through my antibiotics and confirm the infection is completely gone before they do surgery.

I’m not working, I’m not moving, I’m not really living right now, and mentally, emotionally, and of course physically, I’m just exhausted right now.

On top of the actual issues I’m dealing with, I received a tentative bill upon leaving the hospital for around $50,000 and I haven’t even had my surgery yet. I’m not sure how much of that will be cost to me vs. my insurance, but just seeing that number added weight and stress to my mind and body.

My supervisor at work, colleagues, and of course Jay (my boyfriend) have all been incredibly supportive and are doing everything they can to ensure I heal and get better, but I’m really struggling.

October 23rd 2024

Work:

Well, due to my recent health issues and schedule of Dr. Appointments and Hospital visits, I haven’t accomplished much work in the last week. However, the last couple of days I’ve been feeling better so I’ms starting to get back to a few projects. Thankfully I didn’t have any upcoming deadlines and haven’t put any burden on my team.

Personal:

I’m in better spirits than I was last week, although the hard part right now is just waiting. I’m feeling better, I’m able to move around and do everything I need to do, but I’m not able to stretch or do any exercise which is tough on me.

Nothing really new happening in my personal life at all. I spent a few days literally just sleeping and binge-watching TV and now I’m getting back to myself.

My next surgery is Tuesday and we’ll start the cycle over again, but thankfully then I won’t have a kidney stone or a stent inside me.

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

The dogs have been my rock this past week. Between watching them play together and the constant snuggles from Boone, they’ve really helped with my recovery. I couldn’t be more thankful for them!

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

Our book club meets next Monday to discuss A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which I actually finished way before the due date this time. I liked the book and I’m excited to hear about everyone else’s experience with it.

At first, when I heard I was going to be on bed rest for a week or so, I was excited to catch up on all the documentaries, TV shows, and books I wanted to read, but I was somehow too tired to do any of it. I really just slept and stared off into space for a couple of days straight. That sounds weird, but it’s all I really had the energy to do.

Now that I’m feeling better (for now), I started another book June ReImagined, which is a bit of a trendy romance book, but it’s cute so far too. It’s not going to top my favorites list, but it’s a good one.

✈️ Travel ✈️

Well, no travel for me in the near future. I’ve got some good blog content to write about from my trip to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and New Orleans, so hopefully that will get me through until I hike the Lone Star Trail. I had originally planned the hike to be next month so I’m hoping I’m healed up and can still make it happen. I was ready to do it in late February/early March, but then I broke my toe and had to postpone and now it’s half a year later and I REALLY do not want to postpone again.

I was training for the hike quite a bit before I went on two back-to-back trips and then started this whole unexpected health issue month. If I do get to go on the hike, I think I can still do it, but carrying 50lbs (at the start) and not having worked out AND having just come off surgery a few weeks prior, IDK how I’ll do.

Right now, I’m sticking to the plan, but we’ll see what happens.

I don’t have any more travel planned for the rest of the year. I was planning on saving my money these last two months to do a small home improvement upgrade, but now the medical bills are stacking up, so we’ll see what happens. I know I won’t have extra “fun funds” as I like to call them for a couple months at least.

October 30th 2024

Work:

Personal:

🐕🐕 The Dogs 🐕🐕

📖 Book Club/Reading 📖

✈️ Travel ✈️

Always on to the next!