Why Doctors Frustrate Me and The Joy Of Giving

I have been in a funk, I am sure that will not come as a surprise to anyone I have talk with this week. I would pull myself up by my bootstraps, but I am not wearing my boots at the moment.

I wanted our family blog to be real, and real life is not always sunshine and funny stories.
Plus this is sort of therapeutic to write it down and send it out into the cyber-universe.

I have been dealing with some pretty weird symptoms for the past month or so, I have a kid-you-not-never-going-away-headache, my arms, hands, legs and feet have been randomly falling asleep, and my finger and toe joints have swollen and are sometimes really painful. Sounds fun, right? So, I go and see a doctor. This is huge for me because I get really sick of sitting in waiting rooms, co-pays, expensive "your insurance doesn't cover this" medication and "Dr. guesses", you get the picture. With 3 kids that have asthma, an accident prone daughter, and a hubby I deal with all that enough. I finally after 2 years get my own primary care physician in Tennessee. I tell you they never saw me coming! I described all of my body's newly acquired talents and they proceed with the "guessing". I have had a needle stuck in my arm more times than I would have liked, I have been scanned and re-scanned.

Back before my life as Mrs. Olsen, I had surgery for a brain tumor. It came out of the clear, blue sky. One night I was sleeping and the next thing I know I am awake in the middle of the night, not knowing who I am, or where I was. My tongue is swollen and bleeding, and I am scared. What can only be described as a tender mercy, I did know a phone number. It turned out to be my mom's. She came to my apartment and stayed with me through the night and took me to the doctor's the next morning. Apparently I had had a whopper of a seizure! Go figure. I proceed to go to a Neurologist, she had me do an MRI. Which then turned into a Neurosurgical appointment to schedule surgery for a large mass in my left-frontal lobe. They were able to get most of the tumor out. Crazy how things can escalate, huh?

Anyway, I survived, obviously. I met and married Spencer, have had beautiful children, and the only side-effect was that I sometimes stumble over my words or can not finish my sentences because I am trying to find the right word to use. I do not think it is very noticable, but now you will because I told you.

I tell you that, to tell you this...I went to another Neurosurgeon today, with all the new CAT scans and MRI's my pcp wanted a specialist to look at my reports. I bet you are hanging on the edge of your seat...Or, perhaps, I flatter myself...Anyway, at this time it doesn't seem like it has grown enough to risk surgery again. My left side is pushing into my right side and there is still part of the tumor and a lot of calcification. It really is cool to look at, in a morbid sort of way. I have my scans if you want to see.

So, they still do not know what is going on with me. I will let you know when I know. I am feeling less "funky" today. I want to thank Jennie for taking my kids today and giving me a break. And I want to thank Bonne for being a really great VT and for being so loving and understanding the other night. (Although, I still feel guilty!)

Okay, for enduring this really long post I will grant you the one bright spot that I managed to observe through my week of crankiness...

The other night at dinner (if you call mac and cheese, dinner). The kids started to discuss amongst themselves what should be left for Santa. They wanted to leave him a gift. They thought that no one ever thinks to give a gift for Santa. They started to throw out some ideas. (sorry, can't remember what they were.) Then they asked me what kinds of cookies were Santa's favorites. Ben asked if he drank skim milk or regular milk. Then they decided that Mrs. Clause also needed a gift. They also want to "research what reindeer really eat" - their words, not mine. So, I guess my little vikings have listened a little bit when I tell them it is better to give than to receive.