The experiment continues

Another follow up with the migraine doctor today and good and bad news...

The good news...I haven't lost any more weight, although he did double my dosage a month ago, which could have had additional weight ramifications...this could be a good sign that my weight has stabilized or a not-so-good sign that I'm eating all the junk food in sight since nothing else seems the least bit appetizing...

The bad news...The number of migraine circles on my calendar haven't decreased. He wants to see one, maybe two circles (migraines) a month, three would be pushing it...There are 5 circles for October and there were 5 circles for September, both months have 1 migraine that required 2 Imitrex to take care of it...And this is with a doubling in dosage between these two months. However, as far as I'm concerned, I'm still thrilled with the results...this is a vast improvement from popping Imitrex or Excedrin Migraine 4 out of 7 days per week, which is what I was doing before this wonder drug came along. Are we the least bit surprised that I have stubborn migraines? Ummm...NO!

But, he wants to take an agressive approach to this and get me some serious relief from all of these migraines. So, he's upping my dosage again...we'll see how this next month goes and if the number of migraines stay the same, we'll probably try one more increase in dosage and then I'll make a decision on the dosage level that I feel comfortable with given the $$ it costs vs the number of migraines per month. If I'm getting the same or relatively the same number of migraines at 50 mg as with 200 mg...I'm sticking with the 50 mg...I'd be crazy not to, given what these meds cost! We chatted about this somewhat today and are completely on the same page with this, because these aren't cheap pills...Until today, I've been fairly fortunate that he's had a supply of samples in his office, so today is only the second time that I can remember that he's actually had to write me a prescription that I'm going to have to fill - and even the first time he gave me samples, so I really didn't have to fill the prescription that he wrote out for me. We'll see how this goes for another month!

Ok...enough about me and my ailments...I'm moderately worried about what I'll be like at an older age when my body is actually supposed to start falling apart...I'm getting a jump start on something that I don't really want to be early on here...Yikes!

Kellen...Boy he was funny tonight! We haven't gone grocery shopping (too full of a weekend - I normally do grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon), so we stopped by Fazoli's after day care to pick up some "pasta" - code for spaghetti - he doesn't seem to eat it if you call is spaghetti, but eats it if you call it pasta. We got home and ate it, and as usual, he made quite a mess and ended up with pasta all over his clothes. We normally let Bailey lick the bowls (nice treat for the doggie) and Kellen was offering him his bowl to lick, so I decided to try something with the dog...I told him to clean off Kellen & his chair...So Bailey licked the pasta off of Kellen's chair and pants while Kellen was stapped to his booster seat. Kellen just laughed hysterically while Bailey was getting the pasta! He thought it was so funny, and it probably tickled him some, too! Then it was off to the bath for him - he needed it!

I'm trying to get him adjusted to this time change (and me too...this time change thing really messes with me). It seems like no matter what time he goes to bed, his internal alarm clock will wake him up at what his body thinks is 6:30 AM...we gotta' work on this...Maybe we can get his body switched over by the end of the week.

May I have another

Day to add to this weekend? I don't really feel like I got rested...I know that we added an hour of sleep onto the night last night, but Kellen didn't get the memo...He never did take a nap yesterday, just too much going on with the tailgate party, the new drop-in, game-day, day care place, then out to eat at Wings-n-More last night. He didn't get to bed until ~ 10 PM...and no real nap to speak of yesterday - the 15 minutes on the way to the day care place don't really count as a nap in my book. Despite this...he was remarkably well behaved...as much as a 2 year old can be with zero sleep - all day long! An he was up at 6:30 AM his body time, which was actually 5:30 AM real time this morning. Luckily, Dad & Aunt Boo worked most of the morning and I was able to sleep in somewhat...as much as I could with the kink in my back that appeared this morning - I just couldn't get comfortable!...oh me and my ailments!

Kellen and I left Daddy to work on the house and went to Fairfield to see Julie, Chris & Caleb at Pam & Gene's today...had a great time visiting with them for a while and then went to the McDonald's afterwards to see Gramma and Pap Pa Gerren before Pap Pa had to go to work. Kellen and Gramma played for a while on the jungle gym outside and Kellen was just absolutely filthy playing in the "rocks"! He was pushing himself so hard to play, and it was really just because if he stopped for a second, he was going to crash! He napped on the trip over there, but it was only for ~ 1 1/2 hours, and that was interrupted, unfortunately, because I stopped in Madisonville at Sonic and got an iced tea, which I didn't think would wake him up...what was Mommy thinking!?!

He did a really cute thing while playing...he looks up at the big McDonald's sign and says,

"Mommy M. Big M!"

"Yes Kellen. That's a big M. What sound does an M make?"

Rubbing his tummy, Kellen replies, "Mmmmmm."

That was a brand new, never seen before, Kellen original. Where does he come up with this stuff?

Pumpkin carving with Daddy

Well...since it was a "with Daddy" thing...I wasn't there, but from the pictures, it seems like they had a lot of fun! Kellen's day care had Pumpkin Carving with Daddy on Friday afternoon (isn't that sweet?) - and bless his heart, Matt was the only dad from Kellen's class that did this last year (I guess 1 year old's are a bit young for it? - we didn't know!). So Matt was bound and determined to try again...he was even originally scheduled to work yesterday and when he realized that his shift coincided with this event...got rid of the shift!

I think that this went much better this year than last year! Kellen understood the concept and, of course, this was "Kellen's Pumpkin!" that he had picked out himself. Last year he was scared of the pumpkin and ran away crying - I don't think he'd ever seen something that color that was that large - Matt had picked out a doosey last year! My boys, my boys...aren't they a pair!

So this weekend we have Aunt Boo in town...should have lots of fun stories and pictures to share after today and the game, etc. More later!

Boo-Boo Week

It's been a week of boo-boo's so far, with a slight break today. Kellen pulled a face-plant by jumping off of a bench at an ice cream social (Mommy's work-related event) after I got off of work on Monday. Result: busted lip and a bloodied-shirt Mommy. Tuesday he tripped and fell before nap time...something no one thought was a big deal until they saw the strawberry rug burn on his forehead after nap. Wednesday he fell on the playground outside and hit his chin on a log...another strawberry scratch-type mark. Poor guy!

But, he had a BIG surprise waiting for him this morning. Matt and I went to a departmental party last night, hosted by my boss. One of the door prizes was a kids package that included this 4 foot alligator - so soft and cuddly, really, and of course, it's green - Kellen's favorite color! I knew that he would just love it, but one of the graduate students ended up winning it. I joked and popped off to her, saying that I had wanted that for Kellen, and loe and behold, she gave it to me to give to him. What a sweetie!

He woke up screaming this morning at about 3 AM, starting both Matt and my day off really early (and no, he never really did go back to sleep), so when we finally got out of bed, I went ahead and sat him down for breakfast (the alligator was in the living room, so his back was to it). Very quickly I heard an animated,

"Mommy! Kellen all through. No eat! All through!"

I'm not sure how he did it, since his back was to the living room, but he had spotted the alligator sitting in the chair and had decided he was done with eating. In addition to telling me he was all through, he was very animatedly using his sign language to say the same thing as well. I didn't want to fight the fight, so I let him just play with it...

He had a great time this morning before school! And the guys at the office got a big kick out of all of the pictures that I took of him playing with this alligator this morning. I made sure to send them as a thank you to the graduate student as well...that was just so sweet of her! He's amazed at the "Big eyes" and made sure to lay down the law right off the bat with the "No bite" rule...My guess was that he would tell the alligator "No bite" within 3 minutes of seeing it...I was dead on with this prediction. It was too cute!

I can't take it!

Ok...I tried, I really did. I hope that Matt is proud of my valiant effort here. It's 12:11 AM...they're going to inning #12 and I just can't do it anymore. I'm pooped! Come on guys! Let's go! I've done the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned up the living room, washed three loads of clothes, all while multi-tasking at the computer and watching the 'Stros...and the game still isn't over. Night-night guys...

Pumpkins

This will be a quick post...as the Astros are on and I'm trying to watch the game...but we took Kellen to the pumpkin patch in Conroe on Saturday and he had a blast... He did a really good job at picking out which pumpkins he wanted for carving, since he and his daddy will be carving pumpkins at school on Friday. We even picked out two, one a little larger than the other to give them some choices and variety in their carving. He was a little bit of a strong man and strutted his stuff, picking up the rather large pumpkins, with perfect squatting form, I might add - and no, I haven't been working with him on this. Maw Maw, Kellen and I were at this pumpkin patch for close to an hour, just walking around and having a blast. They had a reading area with pumpkin and other fall-type books and many photo-opp areas set up and we had never taken him to see so many pumpkins all in one place. He was on pumpkin overload! He even picked out a couple of pumpkins for Maw Maw's house, too, and then had plenty of time to just play around. Notice the small pumpkin in his hand...this was on the not-for-sale reject pile that he immediately gravitated to upon arrival. And he wouldn't put it down the ENTIRE time we were there...needless to say, it came home with us.



He's been up way past bedtime two nights in a row watching the 'Stros, but really, how many times in his lifetime is this actually going to happen, right? But tonight when he threw a major temper tantrum because he had milk (that he had asked for, mind you) in his sippy cup instead of apple juice, well, that was just his way of telling me that 8:45 PM for the 2nd night in a row was just too much for him (and last night he was up later than 8:45 - and no, he doesn't sleep in to make up for it). Of course, he really didn't understand that so I was the bad guy putting him to bed when he wanted to, "Watch baseball Mommy. Watch Astros!"

It just breaks your heart sometimes. I tried to explain to him what a miraculous thing (of course I didn't use those words) that it was that we had let him stay up two nights to watch the Astros and that him throwing a fit because of his drink was really telling me that he was too tired to stay up and watch the game anymore and that he was telling me that his body was ready to go to sleep. I understood that he wanted to watch the Astros and that I was sorry that I needed to put him to bed but I loved him and wanted to do what was best for him. Of course, again...none of this makes sense to a 27 month old kid, but the calm voice in the midst of the screaming and crying did calm him down...Within 5 (and that's being generous) minutes of him being in bed I didn't hear a word...

3 weeks?

A new Lost in 3 weeks? What is that about??? I can't stand it when shows do this?!? Didn't they learn their lesson when they pulled this with Alias? Come ON! Are they trying to say that Walt is one of the "others" now? I know no more now than in any other earlier week. ARG!

Ok..so I haven't updated on the TMJ from the doctor's appointment last Friday...the long and short of it all is:

• the popping and clicking that occurs virtually every time that I open my mouth is actually injuring my disc and will continue to do so until it injures itself to were there is no longer disc rubbing against other tissues in my jaw joint
• in doing this, my jaw is doing to itself what he could do in surgery, only nature will play its course out in 6 to 18 months, or longer, depending...

We chatted about surgery, but if it's just an annoyance rather than painful, which thankfully it now it, surgery isn't an option - whew - that's actually ok with me. I'll just need to be patient and let nature take its course on this one, I guess.

We met her!

We met her...finally! We met Allyssa my niece today! Matt wasn't able to go with Kellen and I to Killeen to meet with Michael, Allyssa, Gramma Gerren, Jonathan & Tammy's gang. When we chatted about doing this yesterday he had forgotten about plans to study today for one of his tests tomorrow...We didn't want him to try and reschedule the study group and then the test, etc., so we decided that Kellen and I would just drive ourselves to Killeen today. Anyway, we made pretty good time there and Kellen actually told me that he was getting tired and within 20 minutes (I'm being generous with that time frame) of being in the car, he was out light a light for his nap. And he slept the entire trip there...~1 1/2 hours...

We had stopped at a store before we left to pick up a few small things as gifts for Allyssa. Kellen and I had discussions throughout the store as we were deciding on items (and he was wanting to hold them) that these were not Kellen's, but were Allyssa's, and that we were buying them for her. I thought that this might be a really hard lesson for a 27 month old child...I was correct, but he actually did very well with this. I did buy them both kites (Donkey from Shrek for Kellen and Dora the Explorer for Allyssa) thinking that if the weather was a bit breezy that flying kites might be a fun thing, plus I didn't want to make Kellen feel completely left out and jealous about not getting anything at the store.

Allyssa was taking her nap when we arrived, so Kellen was able to play with his Gramma (with undivided attention - I noticed later that he did get somewhat jealous about sharing Gramma), get adjusted somewhat to the new (or at least somewhat unfamiliar) people and new surroundings before she woke up. Then we were able to meet her and he gave her the bag 'o goodies that we had brought for her. Surprisingly enough, when he gave her the bag, I only had to remind him once that there were the gifts that we had bought for Allyssa and that they were her things, not his. He did understand, although he really wanted to color in those coloring books that I bought for her with the brand new crayons! So, he asked her to, "Color, please?" and she said that he could. Sharing is a good thing, right?


They had a really good time playing all day today! They played in the ball-tunnel thing that Michael and Tammy have at the house, played with the animals, went outside and swang on the swing with their Gramma. I even managed to get them to pose for some cousin pictures throughout the day...Yeah!!

Allyssa taught Kellen how to ride a horsie (stick horsie, that is), and we took them outside just before we all left and flew kites. They had a blast! I think it was Kellen that made the comment that it was, "Way up there, Mommy!" I think he was a little nervous that something bad was going to happen to the kite because at one point in time he screamed, "NO!" as they were trying to get it up there and flying...Not quite sure what he was thinking on that one. It was a new experience for him at least, not sure if Allyssa had every flown a kite before (not that either of them actually flew the kites, but you know...).

But of all of the pictures that I took of Kellen and Allyssa today, the cutest of them all, I would have to say, is this one!! Aren't they just too adorable?...And both of them know how to work people, too...Whoa buddy. Michael and I are in for some trouble here!!

Now to back up...Yesterday the Aggies played like a brand new team. Were those really our guys out there? They must have had a fire lit under them last week or something, but it was great! 62-23 Ags over the Cowboys...Whoop! My complaint for the week - I'm just ready to wear something to the games other than my shorts and a tank top...can I start wearing my overalls anytime soon? It's October for goodness sake! It isn't supposed to be in the mid-90's and I'm not supposed to be worried about getting lobster-sunburned at every game!

Jeff came over on Saturday and Kellen had a lot of fun with him...well, that's not entirely true. Jeff and Matt left shortly after Jeff got there and then I got in trouble because Jeff left with Matt.

"Jeff open door?" Kellen asked after they had left.

"No Kellen. Jeff isn't going to open the door right now. He and Daddy went to run some errands and they will be back in a little while."

"NO!"

Then he runs to the couch, glares at me, grabs his toy and pouts...lip trailing the ground kind of pout, actually. Um..He got put down for an early nap not too long after that. And slept for between a hour and a half to two hours...a pretty good nap for an early one...

After the game we went to a tailgate and I got him from the sitter and brought him back to campus to join in on the fun and I guess he had his Daddy, PawPaw & Jeff rolling almost the entire time. He is a hoot when he wants to be! And after how many visits by Jeff and even our trip up there in September we finally got a good shot of Jeff and Kellen...YEAH!!

What a fun and full weekend!

Memory

Kellen sure has one! I allowed him to watch Toy Story when we got home from school today and in the middle of it we stopped it to eat, then got ready for bed and finished it. After it was over I told him that Jeff was going to come and see him tomorrow. He looked at me and said,

"Molly?"

He remembered his girlfriends name...who Kellen met the first part of September. Granted, he had met her once before, but that was a year ago! Wow! I was amazed, to say the least!

"No, Kellen. I don't think that Molly is coming with Jeff tomorrow to see you. I'm sorry."

"Jeff's frogs."

"Yes, Kellen. Jeff gave you lots of frogs when you went to his house the last time."

Amazing I tell you...Just amazing!

"Ok Kellen. Let's go to bed now. A little bit after you wake up tomorrow Mr. Jeff will be here to see you, ok?"

"Ok. Kellen go night night."

Worked like a charm. One bed time story and he was in bed and under the covers. Maybe we should have Jeff come and visit us more often. I'm glad he went down easily. My head is killing me...2 Imitrex today...not a good day for Becca's migraine-world...

I'll update with TMJ stuff later...

What will he say?

What will he say when I see him tomorrow? I'm referring to the TMJ doctor...I have a follow up appointment tomorrow...dare I say that I hope it's my last one...I can actually open my mouth without feeling the need to weep; however, it's still clicking/popping when I do this, but based on what he said the last time, I could be dealing with that clicking/popping sound for another 6 months - a year, or longer...*pout face*

But, on the bright side...it's better than him saying that the clicking/popping will never go away, right? Because that would spell almost certain surgery...and I'm not sure how life would work with a jaw that was wired shut - even for 6-8 weeks. I'm sure that it has to, because I'm fairly certain that a surgery of that sort isn't all that uncommon, but still...consider my job...with a jaw wired shut...hmmm...definitely an interesting prospect...

Anyway..I'm on a cleaning spree...houseguests coming in this weekend for the game - Beat the hell outta' Oklahoma State! I better see something better outta' the Aggies than what they showed last weekend - come on guys - let's see whatcha' got here!!...and I'm trying to get the front part of the house all cleaned up. I'll leave the vacuuming for tomorrow, since Kellen is asleep and I don't want to take any chances on waking him up, but I would like to get quite a bit done so that Matt can come with me tomorrow morning to my doctor's appointment in Houston...I don't really want to drive there again by myself like I did the last time. I proved that I can do it and I didn't get lost, but I don't want to be in a car that long by myself if I don't have to be. He did a great job on the back (yes, yes I know, it's really the front) part of the house yesterday...I think he worked almost the entire day on this room. And it shows. He's almost completedly done with it and it looks great! So the plan for tomorrow is to finish up the house after we get back from Houston (or he'll stay here and work on it, depending on how much I'm able to get done) before the houseguests come.

I say houseguests, mostly because I'm not really sure who's coming into town...Jeff, and ???? I'm not even sure if there is anyone other than Jeff coming in. hmm.. So anyway..this is probably enough of a blog for tonight...Back to cleaning for me!

Tired...

I'm worn out. I was part of an interview panel this afternoon to help select congressional interns (at least the first round of interviews) for the Agricultural and Natural Resource Policy Internship and I didn't receive the application packets until yesterday mid-morning. My goal was to try, in my spare time yesterday, to look through them during the day to avoid staying up all night to review them before the interviews this afternoon. Spare time! HA! I didn't leave work yesterday until a little before 6 PM and didn't get started reviewing those applications until almost 10...midnight rolls around and I still wasn't through with them...I had managed to get about halfway through my stack. Oh boy...The best laid plans, right? But with my eyes crossing and the words on the page blurring, what was the use?

I thought that I could try and get to them this morning because I only had two appointments, right? Wrong! But that's ok...We managed to get through all of the interviews anyway with me speed reading the applications prior to them walking in to interview. Occasional breaks helped, plus the fact that our interview panel was awesome and quick...we were rolling on some of these interviews today!

But, you may ask...you're tired and it's midnight yet again tonight? Yup! I'm still on this doggone computer trying to get some work done. I really think that if Matt was home more often I wouldn't be this much of a work-a-holic, but Kellen's asleep and what else do I have to do? Clean house? Ha! So I just work away and really lose track of time getting things done...It's a blessing and a curse to have proxy...it really is.

Tomorrow is another full day...Have a crew full of volunteers ready to "Wow" the area 8th graders coming in for the Youth to Career Fair at Reed Arena...all 2,500 of them...I need my energy for this one, so I'm going to bed...Night night all.

Sweet boy

Kellen was so tired tonight...I worked kinda' late and didn't get to day care until right at 6. We swung by the chicken place and picked up chicken, corn on the cob (for he and Matt..my jaw would revolt if I were to try that) and some rolls, and he fussed the entire time he was in the car. Made it home and right to the dinner table, and he didn't even eat his roll - if that tells you anything!

He threw a fit after we cleaned off his hands and face and I said that it was time for bed...forget even thinking about a bath tonight. So I changed his clothes and read him a bedtime story and asked him if he wanted me to rock him, which is something that I haven't actually done in quite some time. To my surprise he actually said yes. And to my surprise I realized that I had wanted him to say yes.

I say that he was throwing fits, but it was so much of the tired fits that it really didn't make my angry-upset...they were the kind of fits that it was actually easy to stay calm, speak in a calm voice, help him calm down, try to help him express and verbalize his feelings and help him understand what he was feeling, etc. Those kind don't happen all that often.

Anyway, he laid his head on my shoulder, wrapped his arms around me, with one arm patted my back and with the other, reached his hand up into my hair. He sometimes likes to play with my hair but tonight...it was almost a death-grip. It didn't hurt, but it was very much a security issue. He didn't want me to go anywhere. I just rocked him, stroked his hair and patted his back. It had been too long since we had allowed ourselves to have a special time like that. I miss this! After a little while I laid him down in bed and he actually asked me to lay down with him, which he almost never does - he simply knows that Mommy doesn't lay down with him. I told him, "No. Mommy is not going to lay down with Kellen. Kellen go night-night."

To this he replied, "Daddy lay down Kellen."

Well, I guess he knows which one of us is the sucker, huh? "No Kellen. Daddy is not going to lay down with you. Kellen night-night. I love you. Night-night."

He's such a sweetie!

Go 'Stros!

7-6 in the 18th inning! Whoo Hoo! Way to go Astros! Man alive that was a long game! What was it...the longest in playoff history? Wow!

This somewhat takes the sting off of the horrible game yesterday that the Aggies played with Colorado...or didn't play...I guess whichever way you want to put that. Unlike the 'Stros, our guys just didn't show up yesterday...did they just not get on the plane? I just get so frustrated with those Aggies! Doggone them! And poor Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Aunt Boo got to watch that in person!

What a weekend - it's such a difference actually having Matt around. He didn't have to work at all this weekend, which was such a switch from the norm. We had wanted to get so much done this weekend, but it didn't seem that we actually got it all done...Oh well! No biggie! At least we had some time together, which Kellen really enjoyed.

Lost

So I'm not quite sure what's going on with Lost, which is, I'm sure, the writer's whole point. Saw the women-planted-in-the-hole thing coming a mile away - come ON Sawyer...you of all people should know better!

But what are they doing with the Jack and Locke team up and punch the computer button thing? What the heck is that about? And I thought that Helen was the name of the 900 number girl that Locke called...not an actual girlfriend...hmmm. And they are insinuating something with Jack's wife...just haven't figured out what yet...WHAT!?!?!?

I've gotten Matt hooked on this show and he HATES it. Not the show, but the fact that I've gotten him hooked on it...It's rather funny, actually.

Tomorrow night is Alias. After last week, I think my tear ducts are dry. Matt just couldn't understand why I was getting so upset over a TV show, but HELLO - they JUST GOT BACK TOGETHER AND WERE GOING TO GET MARRIED AND HOW DARE THEY KILL VAUGHN OFF!! I was upset all night - really, and yes, I do know that it's just a TV show. I called Brenna, because I thought of anyone she would understand, but just left a teary, sobby, voice mail because she didn't answer. Sigh...such is my life.

Picture time

Kellen's school pictures are tomorrow morning and sure enough, he fell down on Tuesday afternoon at day care and has a huge goose egg and bruise in the middle of his forehead. Will we ever get a professional picture of him without it looking like we abuse our kid? I mentioned something about the pictures being ruined to Matt (I know, I'm being a little melodramatic here) and he just laughed and said if he wasn't bumped and bruised then it wouldn't really be a picture of Kellen. So true, so true.

And I paid for his lack of sleep this morning...and I must have gotten all of it, because his teacher said that he was great at school. Had a great day there! Peed on the potty TWICE! And this is in place of them changing his diaper - two diaper change times in a row - WOW!. And I still haven't gone on that shopping spree I keep talking about to get him the big boy undees...maybe if I keep putting it off the teachers at school will have him trained. Wishful thinking, I'm sure. But he did pee pee on the potty for me after his bath tonight. I just have to remember to have him sit there longer than he really wants to...and after he's said "all through" since he gets bored before he actually goes pee pee. But he was so proud of himself. I heard the pee pee sound and looked up from what I was doing to see this huge grin on his face,

"Kellen pee pee potty, Mommy!"

All right!

Adults

I actually was around a group of non-co worker adults tonight. Wow! That's a pretty big deal for me, especially lately, as my life consists of Matt, Kellen, work & family. Period. But I went to a small group hosted by some new friends of ours that started a small group from Grace in town. Matt and I have been talking about trying Grace for ??? months now, and Matt& Kellen actually tried it out on Sunday while I was having my migraine medicine hang-over. I think they really enjoyed it! Hopefully I'll get to actually try it on Sunday and see what I think about it, too.

Kellen had a good time playing with their kids and watching VeggieTales, which is a rare treat for him during the week. Plus, they had lots of fun VeggieTales toys, too, so he just had a blast! I had thought that he might actually go to sleep at some point in time, since it started at 7 (bedtime), but no...he was still awake and going strong when we left at 9:20. Overtired and compensating for it, actually.

We'll see how much I pay for this adult interaction tomorrow...

Drugs, drugs, & more drugs

So I had my check-up with the migraine doctor today and he wasn't happy with the number of circles on my calendar. I'm pleased that I'm not popping pills 4 out of 7 days of the week to treat an oncoming migraine, but he had really been hoping for 1-2 circles for the entire month - tops. I have 5 circles with 6 pills taken and one already this month (yes I know it's only the 3rd). I told his nurse that he wouldn't be too happy about it! And I'm still losing weight, despite forcing Blue Bell ice cream almost every night and chocolate when I get the urge - yes I know...what a horrible side effect to have, right? But to have virtually no appetite really does STINK! And to have to force myself to eat one of my most beloved of all foods...well, that's just pure craziness! There are; however, some days when food does actually sound and taste somewhat good - those are nice days...hmmm...

Anyway, back to reality. We chat and he decides to double my dosage of medicine. We had started out on a really small dose anyway (50 mg) when the normal dose for migraine prevention is 100-200 mg. He told me that the vast majority of his patients are able to hold off their migraines with doses of 25-50 mg, but that my migraines were just more severe than that and would need a higher dosage to regulate and normalize. Of his 50 or so patients on this medication, ~6-10 are on doses of the recommended level...I'll be one of those guys now. What I understood is that he wanted to get them under control (i.e. 1 or so a month) and then slowly back the dosage off to see if my body would/could tolerate a lesser dose without more frequent migraines. We shall see!

Jaw-wise things seem to be progressing rather nicely. I can open my jaw and entertain those around me with a nice percussion sound, which now no longer puts me in tears, it's just annoying and uncomfortable. Improvement, improvement! Even if this takes 6 months to a year or longer to improve (i.e. popping/clicking to go away) I think that I can handle it. It will be if the TMJ doctor tells me that it (popping/clicking) will never go away that I will have a major issue and Matt and I will have to crunch the numbers on the surgery costs... I'm scheduled to go back to him next Friday, so we'll see how that goes.

Ok - enough about me..Onto more fun things - Kellen!

So he was sitting on the potty tonight - YEAH! He didn't actually go pee-pee, but sat there for quite some time trying. During this time he was playing with himself (this really is G-rated, honest). I guess it's a fun thing for little boys to do? Wouldn't know, of course. Then he starts pulling at the skin and makes the top part disappear - looks at me and says, "Where penis go?" and grins, just like he's playing peek-a-boo with any other toy of his.

I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from laughing hysterically at this, since he wouldn't have understood why this would have been any funnier than any other game of peek-a-boo, right? "I don't know Kellen, where is it?"

He lets go. "There it is! Kellen penis!"

Oh my gosh can he get any funnier?!? It was a riot! And this occurred after we had a discussion about peeing in the potty rather than on his VeggieTale stuffed animal. He wanted to hold it on the potty with him and I told him that he couldn't because if he pee-peed, he might get some pee pee on the VeggieTale. He looked at me with a mischevious grin (oh man are we in trouble, 'cause when he looks at me like that, he looks JUST LIKE HIS DADDY!) held the VeggieTale in front of him,

"Pee pee VeggieTale?"

"No Kellen. We don't pee on the VeggieTale or our other toys. We pee pee in the potty."

"Oh. Oh-tay." He slowly reaches to put the VeggieTale on the back of the toilet. Quick grin and then, quick-as-a-flash, the VeggieTale is right back in front of him.

"Pee pee VeggieTale?"

"No Kellen. We don't pee on the VeggieTale. We pee pee in the potty. If you don't put your VeggieTale on the top of the potty, Mommy will take it away."

"No! My VeggieTale. Kellen put up VeggieTale." And it goes to the appropriate spot. At least for the time being.

And now I'm realizing that he can get off of the potty by himself. Hmmm. This may not cause a problem after he's peed, but what about the other??? How do I stop him from getting off of the potty after that's occurred without making a gigantic mess? Oh man...so much to learn. I thought that the biggest part of the learning curve with kids was over - I think I was sorely mistaken on that one!

I think he missed his daddy

Matt worked a monster-shift...~80 hours, actually. Luckily, his relief called in early today and, after finding out how long Matt had been at work, graciously offered to come in early so that Matt could come home. He came into the office a little after 4:15 to surprise me (although it wasn't actually a surprise - I had called the station to talk with him around 3:45 and Hebert had told me he was on his way home - sorry honey!). It was; however, still wonderfully nice to see him after so long! He decided since it was so close to me getting off of work that he would swing by and pick up Kellen at school and just meet me at home - I would have LOVED to see Kellen react to THAT surprise!

So we all got home and Kellen just wanted to be close to his Daddy, but still wanted Mommy close by, too. This is actually something that he doesn't get all too often, which we're trying to counter. Some of his demands were:

"Get Daddy."

"Tickle Daddy."

"Daddy get Mommy."

"More Daddy get Mommy."

"Wake up Daddy - get me."

"Daddy GET UP!"

"Bite." [An explanation might be necessary on that one - he wanted a bite of our food..it always tastes better from our fork, it seems.]

"Daddy come HERE."

"Kellen flop."

It was just adorable. You can tell how much he missed his daddy this weekend...every time that we had prayed, he would start the prayer off by saying, "Bless Daddy work..."

Matt and I were sitting in the recliner in the living room and Kellen decided that he wanted to scratch Daddy's back, so he came over and sat between Daddy and Mommy and scratched, patted, and rubbed Daddy's back. Every once in a while he would just hug his Daddy's back and it looked like he was hanging on for dear life. Their time together is just so precious!

I got Kellen's clothes changed for bed and then read him a book while still in the living room, then he decided that he wanted Daddy to read him a book. Since it was 7:30 and completely obvious that Kellen was tired, I suggested that Daddy read him the book in his room and just put him to bed. So they went into Kellen's room and then Matt came out rather quickly. I looked at him with what I'm sure was a quizzical look on my face.

They apparently brushed Kellen's teeth and then when Daddy started reading the book, Kellen stated, "No read book Daddy. Kellen night-night." Well all-right then.

Close Call

That's what I'll call the events of Hurricane Rita for those of us in the original path...a close call. Our department closed down a little before 3 PM on Thursday and the University closed on Friday for hurricane preparations. Matt had worked a 24-hr shift on Wednesday and got home early Thursday morning with the intent of packing things up and putting them in a climate controlled storage facility. However, they had run all night during their shift and he kept watching the storm path and decided against that, thankfully so, now. That would have been so much work for nothing (but we didn't know that at the time). I wasn't sold on the idea, but was behind whatever he wanted to do...my thoughts...we have homeowners insurance for a reason, right? They sent him home with some O2 tanks to fill up, so without an official decision on them wanting him to come back, we took that to mean that they did.

After watching the storm track all day Thursday morning, by mid-day we finally make the decision that Kellen and I will go to Uncle Eddie & Aunt Glenda' s in Rockdale. We don't think that I'll hit much traffic going that route (and I know some back roads that no one else will be taking), and it's a good direction away from the path of the storm, and after I find out my parents are going there, too, it's a great chance for Kellen to spend some time with his Pap Pa and Gramma...So Rockdale it is. We decide that I'll just get up and leave on Friday and not worry about taking off on Thursday, since there really isn't any reason to do so. Thursday night Matt decides to go ahead and go to the Aggie game, which is fine by me...I'm not feeling well and just need to take it easy. So Kellen and I watch some of the football game, which Kellen is just SO excited about.

"Go Aggies!" He yells to the TV as the game ensues. He sure loves Aggie football - well, almost any football, actually.

I let him stay up until 8:30 PM watching the game and then he'd just had enough and to bed he went. For being as tired as he was he really didn't put up too much of a fuss, which is unusual for him when he's overtired. Some would say that based on this, he would sleep in the next day, right? WRONG! My kiddo' just isn't hard-wired that way... Up and going maybe a half hour later than his usual time on Friday morning...but basically his normal time.

I packed up things and got ready to go on Friday morning while Matt ran some errands to get ready to go back to work. His goal - get Kellen and I off to Rockdale and then head to work...for a monster-sized shift. From whatever time he got there on Friday until Monday night at 6 PM. CRAZY!!! The only break was supposed to be for him to run home to check on the house before calling me to come home, but he ended up not doing that because one of the professors I work with checked on the house for me and called to let me know everything was OK on Saturday. Thanks & Thank God!!

My plan was to leave on Friday between 8-9 AM, and I ended up getting out the door by 9:45, which wasn't all that bad. I didn't hit any traffic on Hwy 21 to Caldwell and then it just stopped as I turned onto 36...so I busted a U-turn and went down the backroad FM 908..No traffic there, which is just as I thought! I made great time, and only had to slow down 4 times, 3 times to avoid hitting buzzards in the road - stupid birds that wouldn't fly away as I was coming - even when I honked at them.

"Too loud, Mommy. Mommy hit bird?"

"No Kellen, Mommy didn't hit the bird. I just honked at them so that they would move so I wouldn't hit them."

"Too loud, Mommy. No honk."

The 4th time was to avoid some monster-sized snake that was stretched from the side of the road to the center stripe - not kidding - I just went around that sucker...wasn't about to run over it! Love those back roads with zero traffic!

"Whoa Mommy!"

We made it to Rockdale before 11, and Kellen just had such a good weekend. He didn't act shy with Uncle Eddie or Aunt Glenda, and I can't remember when the last time was that he had seen them. But, he did remember the house! We drove up and he made a comment about a puppy that he had played with during one of our visits...It's amazing what sticks in his brain and what he remembers, because I swear that was almost a year ago...As for my parents, after a quick trip on Friday morning to the doctor for dad's blood pressure, which was WAY too high, new medicine, and getting their place ready for the storm, they head off to Rockdale as well and get in Friday afternoon.

All-in-all we had a good weekend. I was kicking myself because I didn't take more craft projects to work on in my spare time. I took Kellen's baby book and the pictures that I had already picked out and ordered to go in them...got them cropped, placed and put in the book (but I had that done on Friday before my parents even got there - how much time had I thought that project would actually take?). Now I just need to add some text in places and gather a few more event pictures and that book will be done - and how old is Kellen? Whew?!? I had contemplated taking some of the t-shirts for the t-shirt quilts that are lined up for me to work on - at last count I think there are 4, but that includes a high school and college quilt for me as well. I should have taken those with me and cut the squares out while I was there, but oh well! I really expected that it would be storming some, possibly with some power outages...Again, oh well! On a positive note - I was able to take a NAP - a long one, too - I think it was 3 hours or something crazy like that on Saturday afternoon. So maybe it was good that I didn't have projects to work on, because I would have felt like I needed to work on them and I wouldn't have let myself nap...which I'm sure that I needed.

Kellen made some great strides on the potty this weekend, peeing three times in it on Saturday night - once before and then once again after his basin-bath (translation: a lazy-mom's bath when there isn't a bathtub available and you don't want to get in the shower with the kiddo), then again after brushing his teeth - Way to go buddy!

Now Mommy really has to step it up in this area...He's telling me that he needs his diaper changed and doing so well on the potty - all of which means that I need to start working harder on the potty training. Up until this point I have been very laisse-faire with this event, albeit a milestone event, in his life. Now it looks like we need to go on a shopping trip and pick out some training undies (not pull-ups - because it doesn't bother him in the least to pee pee on Buzz Lightyear...), plastic training cover pants, and some big boy undies.

Question: Am I really ready for this?

Answer: NO!

Jaw update

I had my follow-up appointment with the TMJ doctor last Friday morning. It was originally scheduled for the Friday before that, but I still had medicine left to take and had it rescheduled for last week so that he could evaluate me when I had completed my 2nd round of muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory meds. For the record - it IS getting better, I'm just getting impatient. However, I just need to remind myself of how far I've come since May and June, when it was at its worst...bawling when Kellen would bump my jaw. Right? Right. Keep reminding myself of that. Because I don't like the alternative (I'll explain).

We chatted about how my jaw was doing and I asked him about the popping/clicking when I opened my jaw. I can still open it through the first phase just fine, it's when I push it to open through the second phase that it now pops (when before it wouldn't/couldn't open unless I manually moved the lower portion of my jaw around) and clicks. It doesn't really hurt anymore when it does this (at least most of the time, anyway), it's just incredibly loud and annoying to me. He manipulated it, and had me open and close my jaw a couple of times while he felt what it was doing, commented that "Yes, it was really loud and pretty bad", then told me the good and bad news.

The good news. The clicking is a sign that the soft tissue around the jaw area is relaxing, which means that it's getting better. YEAH!

The bad news. The clicking may not go away for 6 months to a year...maybe even longer. Or he could make it go away very quickly with surgery, but he stated that he didn't think that I really wanted him to go that route. He's absolutely correct!

Now, if he told me that the clicking would never go away without surgery, I would most likely be making a surgery appointment quite soon...but if it will go away and it just requires patience on my part...well, I'm married to Matt...God has instilled some level of patience in me at this point in time...right?

So, the plan is to drop the muscle relaxants from the mix and just take the anti-inflammatory medicine and he wants to see me back in a month.

Sidenote: The doctors office had moved locations since our last visit and I actually drove myself to the doctors office on Friday. All by myself to Houston - and I didn't get lost and only made 3 U-turns (and there were no signs telling me that I couldn't make those U-turns). I was pretty proud of myself and consider that quite an accomplishment!