Trip 2 to Iowa City this week

Tim and I came in to the new year motivated with a positive and determined attitude! We were going to get caught up on our work, our bills and start some healthier living! Maybe take some time off to enjoy a family vacation, even if only for a few days! A little break from the every day grind. But…

my first mistake…all of my doctor checkups were scheduled for the first month of the new year! I was hoping to hit Iowa City hard in January then be done for six months…yeah yeah wishful thinking!

I was in Iowa City on Monday, just a follow up on some of the female issues I’ve been dealing with…quick trip and I’d be good to go…wrong! So, come to find out, my body is weird…who knew right?! Unfortunately my body continues to reject treatments for these issues I am having so I go back in two weeks to discuss our next move.

Basically I have one option left, which I’m fairly confident won’t work and I don’t know if I even want to try it but then it comes down to some type of surgery…something else I don’t want.

I called Tim and I always sense the fear in his voice as he waits patiently for me to fill him in on how things went. First off, I’m just leaving the hospital at the time I thought I’d be home already so that maybe made me a little cranky! I didn’t really give Tim an option to talk but instead went right into telling him what a joke my body was, this appointment that was supposed to be five minutes lasted over two hours resulting in me having two ultrasounds, another follow up in two weeks and blah bah blah. Dead silence!

I asked Tim if he was still there and he slowly said yes. After being so rude and not asking how his afternoon went, I apologized. His response was that he was going to tell me he had a terrible morning, the cows were a big hassle, something broke that he now had to fix in the barn, then he came home and after all day of installing a new sink and two trips to Norbys, the sink still leaks and is torn apart again…

but then he finishes with “you ruined my moment and I guess I really can’t complain because my day wasn’t as bad as yours.”

While I thought that was a sweet gesture of him to acknowledge that, it actually made me reevaluate my situation because everything seemed to go wrong in his day, yet he considered my day to be worse?!

And now we are on our way to Iowa City to see my lung doctor….

and I have my list of questions ready! The meds that I had been trying, along with the inhaler, have not been effective. Yeah I know…weird body, meds and treamtments not working…this blog is just full of surprises huh?!! 😜 While I think my cough seems better at times, I still battle it every night, and every night I continue to get sick from extreme coughing attacks. The fatigue has also set in again, making it a struggle to get through the day!

While today is my first time seeing him since the scans, when I talked to the doctor on the phone, he confirmed that there was a good chance the cough was from my fm so the meds might not work, he was right…yet he also said the area where my lung collapsed could most likely not be stented. I really don’t want this cough to be a forever lingering side effect of my illness, but I also know I should be thankful if this is the worst of my symptoms for now.

Today I will do the routine labs, pulmonary functioning tests and hopefully he will have also had a chance to talk with my heart doctor about my collapsed lung as well as the new arteries that have blockage around my heart. I should have more answers this afternoon…at least I am praying so.

Then next Tuesday I go in for my SVC stents which it is possible I may need to do a quick angioplasty to open them up…and the following Monday after that, back to Iowa City for my female stuff🙃 Wheeew!

In the meantime my back has been making great improvement and I am cutting back on physical therapy so yeyyyy, at least some part of my body is cooperating!

And my inlaws have even been doing some of my physical therapy exercises with me for encouragement…another sarcastic comment there because they actually did one of my exercises, planking…only to show each other up with them each ranging anywhere from over a minute to 2.5 minutes…which they all “could have gone longer” but only did enough to out beat the other one😂…all while I continue with my 15 seconds three times a day! Haha! But at least it was fun entertainment and maybe I’ll have some new exercises for you all on Sunday!😉

So while the new year has started and Tim and I continue to be faced with many challenges, I think we have both done pretty well at staying focused on the positive and not letting this all get us down. Tim is quick at making me laugh when he knows I am ready to cry out in frustration! And with a big appointment today I am extremely grateful for his company and humor….but let’s skip the cross eyes while driving in the fog! Haha kidding mom!! We were parked 🤓

This is our life, and my medical things will always be ongoing so really our attitude is the one thing we can control…even though it is still a struggle to do so at times!

Oh and as far as eating healthy….puppy chow for snacks yesterday…

And carrots for my sad snowman😂

And while we already do a pretty good job of eating healthy…we really are trying to improve some of our eating habits including healthier popcorn, which we watched in amazement as Tim really put some muscle in to it…😂😂