Good Day

Today was a good day. John and I have decided to consider buying a house and Nia finished up her achievement testing today! It was a long week for Nia and we are very proud of her for all of her hard work this last year. Her testing took place in a conference area of the Concorse Hotel here in Columbus. Ann and I mostly hung out in the lobby with the families of the online schoolers. On Wednesday we did have a nice little mommy-daughter date at McDonald's though.

rest

With this pregnancy, I am at risk for preterm labor. So, I have a nurse that comes to my house weekly to give me a hormone injection. The injection stops me from cramping and having contractions. However, around day 5 or 6 after the injection they come back. Today, my nurse and I decided to move the injections from every 7th day to every 6th day in hopes at keeping them at bay. Today I received my injection, but my cramps and contractions have not gone away yet. Sometimes it takes til the next day before they stop. When they start I have 2 options: 1) lie down or 2) sit with my feet up. At any rate, I am out of commission for the rest of day. I find this very frustrating. With the baby coming, there is so much to get done. With 2 kids home already, there is so much to already do. I get cranky when this happens. My husband gets stressed. Then I start to get sad.

Reactions

Today I am not feeling so hot. Yesterday I had chicken that was marinated in a bbq sauce that is now apparent I should not have eaten. This is what happens when this situation creeps up on me: I'm very tired. My body aches all over. It's hard to think and if what ever I have eaten is really bad for me, the thinking thing gets to the point where it's difficult figure out what I am trying to say. The left side of my face appears as if I am recovering from a stroke or bell's palsy and that side of my face also goes numb. My heart slows down and feels funny. I've gone to ER and to different doctors for the heart when this happens and all test show nothing is wrong. I swell up.
So what do I do when this happens? I drink lemon water, take some tylenol, sometimes I take benadryl, and just wait it out. I should feel beter in 2 or 3 days, but my face may take a couple of weeks to get back to normal. I'm generally really careful about what I eat, so thankfully this doesn't happen very often. However, when it does, I'm not usually certain what has caused the reaction. I'm not sure of everything my body has reactions to. Often I assume it's one thing and am wrong, so the actual culprit may be ingested another time or two before I figure it out. Sometimes, it's a reaction to something else in the environment (like if I were to go to a park that had just sprayed a chemical to kill weeds on their playground). I also have a similar reaction, but usually without the face part, when I am coming down with some kind of sickness.
I can usually tell when the cause is an illness, but it gets a bit tricky. The reaction seems to cause my imune system to be weakened and I often get sick shortly after one. So, then I have to determine if I was just having a reaction to getting sick all along or if I'm getting sick because I had a reaction and became weak.

The New Year's Changes...

O.k., I'm not exactly one to set up the infamous new year's resolutions, but I've started doing a few things lately and it just happens to be the first of the year. Our family, as a whole, has decide to start doing a few things to make ourselves healthier. Well, actually my family has decided to to do things that will hopefully make me healthier. Here is the thing, I have fibromyalgia. The last month or so I have really been researching fibromyalgia and exactly how to have a normal life with it. In this time I have taken myself off all of the wonderful prescriptions (this is sarcasm) and have moved toward a more organic and gluten free lifestyle. The good news... I am starting to feel so much better!!!
One of our biggest changes has been with cleaning. Not just of our house. Last night Nia and I whipped up a batch of homemade shampoo. And, according to a friend, our hair appears to be perfectly clean. Our house hold chemicals have been replaced with white vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, borax, washing soda, soap, and rubbing alcohol. That's it, no more laundry detergent, or multipurpose cleaner.
Organic lifestyle? What this means is you try to buy used, be and eat chemical free, recycle, that kinda stuff. What some might label hippie stuff minus the the whole free love and pot parts.
We are also doing gluten free. This would be a big change for most, but really our family didn't do a ton of wheat products anyway. The kids haven't even noticed yet in fact.
The last step I have included is to start taking a handful of vitamins.
All of this has really helped. I'm sleeping better, thinking better, moving better, in much less pain, and my heart is beating regularly again (I have had and irregular heart beat for 6 years now).