Busy, busy

This week I got a little busier than I expected. I had signed up to be a room mom for Drew's and Natalie's classrooms. I didn't know how many other people signed up, so I thought I might be a co-room parent with someone. Then I got a call from Drew's teacher about a week ago. She asked me to coordinate and manage the schedule for all the parent volunteers. I was surprised because I've never heard of a parent doing that. I am still in the process of getting it together because I have so many other things going on. We also had a meeting with the parents who wanted to volunteer. Almost every child's mother was there. This classroom shouldn't ever be lacking for help!
This week I also organized the math games for Natalie's teacher. I wish I would've taken pictures so I could refer back to it for organizing my stuff! I got clear plastic scrapbook storage boxes that hold 12" x 12" paper. Her teacher had copied and laminated each theme onto different colored papers. Then I put the papers into the boxes based on the color. I went through all of the games to find out what supplies were needed. I made a list organized by box of necessary supplies. Then I made color coordinated labels using my Cricut and cardstock. I laminated those and turned them into stickers with my Xyron machine, and stuck them on the top center of each box. Then I used my label maker, and made labels for her to put under the latch of each box so it would be visible from the shelf. Her mom used the master list and put a supply list into each box. When a group of kids uses a box, they will look at the list and go over to her supplies and get what is needed. I can't wait for Natalie to be able to use these.
Also, a quick happy things for Natalie. For some reason when they do STAR tests at the beginning of each year (a test to determine each child's reading level), she tests really low. The kids are only allowed to check out books in their reading level so she was coming home with books that she could read in kindergarten. She'd been reading chapter books to me over the summer, so I knew she could read better than the level she tested at. Her teacher noticed this too, had her retake the test, and her score was bumped up 6 points! She's having a much easier time finding books that are interesting to her.
And, I have to give credit where credit is due. Drew had Miss Judi for preschool for two years. She is known at the school for sending students extremely well prepared for kindergarten. Drew has been reading for over a year because the way she teaches really helps the kids pick up on sounds, sound combinations, etc. I was talking to Drew's teacher on Thursday, and she said that Drew is in the highest level reading group in her class. I was so excited! He's been a reluctant reader recently. I'm happy to read to him, but I also wanted to make sure he was understanding everything and that he could still read. It's been like pulling teeth to get him to cooperate. But she said they're reading in groups for 15 minutes each day so at least he's reading to someone! I know a lot of credit goes to Miss Judi for her great work with her students.
Another thing keeping me busy is our activities committee's next activity. We're hosting a Daddy Daughter Dance in 3 weeks. We're trying to make it a night to remember. To help with this I hosted a craft night at my house on Thursday. Shanna and I worked on the take-home gifts for the girls. We're making cardstock dresses with tissue made to look like a tutu, glitter on the front and ribbon at the top of the "tutu". We had help from Kim, Mandy, Michelle and Jenn. (Thank you!) We finished about half of the project. Next we'll get busy working on adding the ribbon, and then we'll start on the new hair bows to go on the little dresses. We still need to work on the invitations. We need to get busy! I will post pictures when I'm done.
When we're done with that we're going to turn right around and host an activity for the adults. It's going to be based on the Olympics. I don't have all of the information memorized yet, but the games sound really fun, and I've heard from several people that it's been a favorite ward activity. I'll post more details after we're done with the dance. We're coordinating our Christmas activity with 2 other wards so we can combine our budgets, time and money on the decorations. We're doing a Polar Express themed activity. We're still trying to hash out the details, but we realize we need to do it soon because once you get to October everyone's schedule is suddenly fuller. We need to get the work done now! If you have suppliers for large jingle bells in large quantities for a low amount please pass along that information. We're going to need to order a few hundred for the 3 wards.
I'm also trying to reorganize my office. Hopefully that will happen soon. I keep starting, and then something happens so I can't finish. I'm hoping that I'll find the time to finish tomorrow. I've scheduled my day being home for the most part so maybe it will happen. I'd better get to bed. More soon!

Can I cry a little now?

As per my Facebook post I met with my GI doctor today. After reviewing the test results he said that there are some definite issues. However, he feels strongly that having hernia repair surgery would be detrimental to my health. He said that although I have a hiatal hernia the worse problem is with the esophagus itself. He said a medical term that I don't remember, but said in layman's terms I have a sleepy esophagus. He said that instead of working as the food works its way down it only works a small portion of the time. This is causing the food to back up and causes the pain. There's really nothing that can be done to treat that. With all the advances of modern medicine there's not a pill or a medical treatment that has been developed to treat it. He said that the only thing I can really do is go on a soft food diet. This means that eating is not going to be fun or enjoyable any more.
When I met with my doctor and dietitian to start losing the weight they gave me foods that I should eat to lose weight... lean meats, green veggies, some fruit, cut out most starches and sugars most of the time and that sort of thing. They both strongly encouraged me to eat fish. I told them that while I truly appreciate that fish is good for you I do not like fish. I've tried it several times over the years, and almost always when they have a sample at Costco I try it. It's just totally disgusting to me in flavor, smell and texture, so that left chicken and turkey as suitable lean meats. However, both turkey and chicken are not on this new diet unless they're ground up. Turkey I can handle, but I don't think I've ever even seen ground chicken. My GI doctor said that I am also supposed to start taking a drink of water every single time I take a bite. This is exactly opposite of what the dietitian told me to do. She said that I shouldn't drink for 20-30 minutes so that the food would stay in my stomach longer so that I would feel full longer... thereby not being hungry as often. That was working for me. Now the GI doctor is telling me to do the exact opposite. He said that if my body was working properly that this would be a good idea. However, if I want to be able to swallow and get the food to go down I have to start drinking with my meals again. He assured me that if I drink water that I won't make the food pass too quickly. If I have drinks with bubbles (soda- and if I drank, then alcohol with bubbles) will make the food pass through more quickly.
I truly hope he's right. My weight has been stuck at about the same weight for a while and I've been getting discouraged. I truly hope that making these changes will help. I can't stop eating, and I don't want to regain the weight I've already lost. I hope that I'll be able to incorporate these changes in my life, and that I'll be able to eat and drink again without having my food get stuck. It's painful and scary. If this works I'll be thrilled, and hopefully, thinner.
Anyway, I had a couple of dreams this week that the doctor who performed the test and said that I'd have to have the surgery was wrong. And I dreamed that my GI doctor would say about what he said. I'll admit to being somewhat discouraged by this even though I suspected he would say this. C'est la vie.

Update on my medical testing

On July 2, I had bribed the kids to clean the whole house. I told them that if they cleaned the house and picked weeds I'd take them to lunch. We needed to get it all clean so we could have the bug guy come spray, and then get the carpets cleaned after that. They decided that they wanted to go to Denny's so after they were done off we went. Kent had come home from work early, and we offered to wait for him to get there. He couldn't go because he had too much work so it was just me and the kids. They ordered a variety of things, some breakfast and some lunch. I ordered breakfast, thinking it would be easy to swallow. I'd been having a lot of issues since May of 2009 with my swallowing. And during the past few months it had gotten worse. It wasn't happening at every meal so I wasn't sure why it would happen at different times of day and not consistently with the same foods. It was frustrating, and I'd almost had to go to the ER a few times because of food getting stuck.

That morning I'd had a difficult time eating breakfast so I thought eggs and toast would go down just fine. Unfortunately I was wrong. After eating only 4 bites of my food (2 bites of scrambled eggs, 1 bite of sausage and 1 bite of bacon) the food got stuck. I went to the bathroom and tried to cough or throw up so I could breathe easy again. However, this didn't work. I was struggling to breathe and talk, and was in quite a bit of pain. After about 15 minutes in the bathroom, I was sweating so bad, and starting to shake because I was really under quite a bit of stress from not being able to get the food to dislodge. The boys sent Natalie in, and she said I didn't look good. And then she looked again and asked if I was going to go to the hospital. So, I managed to pay (probably freaked the cashier out a bit because I could hardly speak or breathe), and drove myself the 2 miles to the nearest ER, throwing up a tiny bit at a time the entire time. Justin called Kent while I was driving to fill him in on the situation. He was very brave, but I could tell he was very worried. I really didn't want the kids to have to go with me, but at that point taking them home was not an option. I needed help as soon as possible. Kent came to get them, and I waited to be admitted. I got back pretty quickly, but they didn't give me anything to help right away. I had to try to talk to the doctor, who got me a room in the back. This was the worst episode by far of any of the episodes. I was pretty miserable until they gave some muscle relaxers, anti-anxiety medication, and morphine. When all that failed to get rid of the food, and I was probably starting my third hour of retching, they called a GI specialist who ordered a cup of ginger ale. That helped to dislodge whatever it was. The GI doctor had me go upstairs where I got a scope down the throat to see what was left there and then he took 2 biopsies. After all that I had a sore throat for about 3 days. I was discharged with the vague diagnosis of having dysphagia, a condition that causes the esophagus to not work properly... Makes eating and drinking extremely difficult. (The test results were normal for this test.)

Before all this happened, I had gone to an ENT to see if he could help me figure out what was going on. It seemed to start in the throat area so I figured he'd be the best place to start. He ordered a neck CT and a swallow study with barium. So on July 8 I did my best to not complain or get sick as the tech jabbed my arm with the needle trying to start the IV in my left arm (aka- the bad arm) for my neck CT. I've had at least 20-30 IVs in my life, so I directed her to the 2 veins that work the best for IV's, but she "didn't like those ones." (Oy vey!) This was her first day also, so when she was trying to get those bad veins she was moving the needle all around. I really thought I was going to be sick. The "best" (according to her and her trainer) vein rolled so the trainer suggested she take it out and try to start an IV in the other arm... which worked! (And it was in the vein that I suggested initially...) It hurt so bad! It felt like she jabbed me with a nail in that arm. Fortunately the barium swallow study was without incident, so I was thrilled about that. Both of those tests came back with normal results... no issues at all. (Test results normal again.)

I met with the doctor who had done the biopsies. He said everything so far was coming back normal so he wasn't sure what course of action to take because "he couldn't treat normal." He ordered another test to measure the pressure in the esophagus, and said we'd go from there.

Then, on Thursday (Aug. 12) I had to go in for an esophageal manometry. I can honestly say that was one of the most horrible tests I've ever had. For the test they had to numb from the back of my nose down to the back of my throat with lidocaine using a long Q-Tip. Then they stuck a tube up my nose and down to the back of my throat, where they kept it until I stopped gagging. (Easier said than done. It took about 5 minutes so my throat took a beating from the tube.) After that they advanced the tube until it was in the top of my stomach. They took some baseline measurements, and then had me take a sip of water 10 times. The tube had sensors on it that measured the pressure from the top to the bottom. Fortunately this yielded results. The worst possibility of the 5 they were testing for has been ruled out, thank goodness. I'll meet with the doctor next Friday to discuss options, but I'll probably have to have surgery in the next few weeks. They are fairly certain that I have a hiatal hernia. The doctor who performed the test also hinted at some other issues related to it, but he said he wants the other doctor to review the test and decide the course of treatment. Friday cannot get here soon enough.
I am looking forward to being able to eat and drink again without worrying about gagging. It's so bad sometimes that it can take me more than 1 hour to drink a protein shake. And when it acts up I can only eat 3-4 bites before I start gagging again. I'm hoping that this will lead to further weight loss, but so far the scale isn't budging. My primary care physician thinks that my body is in fat storing mode because of the issues, and while I'm glad to know that I would really like to lose weight since my caloric intake has dropped significantly most days! It'll happen. I know it! Any and all prayers are appreciated. I am so glad that they finally found something to explain everything! It's a huge relief, and is something that can be corrected.