Lura Thoughts

No Answers Yet

So Marlo's colonoscopy went well.  She was a real trooper.  She only got really nervous right before they took her to the room for the procedure, but by then things moved so fast that she didn't have time to have a full-on panic attack. 

But, the visual alone didn't give any answers.  From just looking, they would have been able to tell if she had Crohn's Disease or ulcerative colitis, but everything looked good.  They took plenty of blood and did a ton of biopsies, and now it's just a waiting game.  Hoping to hear from the doctor soon!

Marlo even went to school the day after the colonoscopy.  She said she felt pretty weird in the morning, and almost even called me to come get her, but then she started feeling normal by noon and decided to stay.  It's so difficult to miss that much school that she felt pressured to stay.  If she misses school, then that's just a ton more work that she has to make up. 

This morning (Day 2 after the colonoscopy), she was complaining of pain in her lower abdomen.  Apparently it is not the normal pain that she gets from diarrhea or the pain that she gets from "bubble tummy."  I gave her some Tylenol (she can't have Motrin for a week), and sent her to school.  She texted me earlier to say that she was feeling a lot better. 

Now we wait...

Getting Ready

Yesterday went great for Marlo's colonoscopy and endoscopy prep.  She had a great attitude about the whole thing.  She came home from school a little early to start the prep.  According to the doctor's directions, we mixed 64 oz of gatorade with a 255 g bottle of Miralax, which she drank in 12 oz portions for a couple of hours every 20 minutes.  When she was done with that, she had to take 3 Dulcolax tablets.  Luckily, she had already talked to several kids and many adults that have had this and knew what to expect.  She took some books into the bathroom with her and camped out.  Today, she can only have clear fluids, clear jellos, and light-colored popsicles for the day until 4 hours before the procedure, when she has to stop eating or drinking anything.

I'm really hoping we get answers today.

Trying to Guess...

Well, in my last post, I was talking about giardia.  We had hoped that curing the giardia would be the cure for my daughter's stomach problems.  Since then, things have not gone exactly to plan.

First, it turns out that the cure for giardia is not pretty.  I'm not sure that even my daughter's doctors knew this, but from google and from personal experience, it turns out that getting rid of giardia is a lot like getting the stomach flu.  She had fever, body aches, diarrhea, and severe fatigue.  But, then she was done with the meds, and these symptoms never went away.  About two weeks after she was done, we did more tests, and according to the doctors, the giardia was gone.  But her symptoms were not.

Now we're doing more tests.  Since then, we've been researching the Select Carbohydrate Diet, SCD, which is advertised by bloggers and the people on Amazon as helping to cure stomach and intestinal ailments.  Actually, we were already working towards a diet very similar to this, because now my daughter becomes ill when she eats anything but simple carbs, proteins, and fats.  We got her into seeing a pediatric GI doctor (not the same one as before, definitely, and not easy to find one that has appointments available quickly).  She is having an ednoscopy and a colonoscopy tomorrow.  Wish us luck!  Clearly, they are looking for ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, and I don't know what else, and I'm not sure I want to know what else. 

I'll update after the testing....

Giardia -- a Very Hardy Protozoa

There's been a couple of times in my life that I've considered myself an expert in something.  For a while, I worked at NASA and would consider myself an expert in flight flutter, and for a while after I retired, I was a little bit of an expert in writing and getting published.  But being a parent has caused me to become an expert in things that I would never in a million years have anticipated.  Right now, one of those things is poo.

All parents go through the phase where the kids are in diapers.  You start out with simple-looking diapers and work your way up through when the kids are eating crayons or drinking grape gatorades and can identify which from their diapers.  Usually, though, it stops there. 

For a while after we got Chip, our first yellow lab, he had very bad bouts of Clostridium, which is the technical term for he had constant diarrhea.  Many, many times, I had to collect the "specimen", bag it, and drive it across town for analysis.  I worked very closely with two vets to figure out why he kept getting Clostidium and what we could do to prevent it.  I thought I knew something about poo then, but I was wrong.  Very wrong.

In 5th grade, Marlo started having some stomach issues.  We did tons of tests, and nothing came up positive, so we assumed it was stress. I honestly can't remember what tests were run. The about 2 years ago, she started having what she termed "bubble tummy."  I started taking her to her pediatrician.  We've been prescribed Zantac, Prevacid, and Prilosec.  We went gluten free, which definitely helped.  We changed other medications, which definitely helped.  We got her into acupuncture, which definitely helped.  We took her down to Children's Hospital when literally water was making Marlo's stomach upset.  We saw a PA there because hers was the first available appointment with a GI specialist.  She told us that if Marlo wasn't better in about 6 months, she would consider putting her on a mild anti-depressant, and she gave us a handout titled "Chronic Abdominal Pain."  After a full three weeks in July of constant diarrhea, I called one pediatrician and described some of the symptoms to him.  He said to take Metamucil.  Finally, we visited our favorite pediatrician, asking for her specifically, thinking maybe there were more prescription stomach meds Marlo could take, and that doctor FINALLY ordered a stool test.  Once again, I found myself collecting a "specimen" and driving it across town.  I've always wondered what would happen if I were stopped for speeding:  "Ma'am, what's in the vials?"

So Marlo was positive for Giardia.  But what the doctors didn't mention was how difficult it is to get rid of the giardia.  Getting on the meds seemed to us to be similar to getting rid of strep -- take the antibiotic, feel better in a few days.  Except it doesn't work that way.  Apparently, as the body expells the parasite, things get a lot worse before they get better.  Marlo had a fever, chills, fatigue, body aches, and the much more frequent trips to the bathroom. 

We have no idea how long Marlo has had giardia, or if getting rid of it will cure all of her stomach problems.  We also don't know if one dose of this med will get rid of it completely.  The doctors certainly aren't telling us anything.

I really want to go back to that PA at Children's Hospital and tell her that the giardia probably weren't depressed.  Would it have been that hard for her to order the stool test?

I kind of wish I had just taken Marlo to Chip's veterinarian.  He ALWAYS checks for giardia.

Is Facebook Taking the Place of Blogs?

I just recently looked at my blog, and I realized that I haven't had a post in over a year.  That's a long time!  I asked myself why, and I think the answer is that I only blogged as a way to put up cute, funny, or thought-provoking things.  And a couple of pictures.  Facebook allows me to do that, but I don't have to think as much.  I don't have to put together a whole thesis or anything fancy, I can just post a couple of words and a picture.  And, on Facebook, more people read my thoughts.  I can see where keeping a blog on a particular subject is more worthwhile, bur for what I was using it for, I had to ask:  Is Facebook taking the place of blogs?

Tea at the Dushanbe Tea House

One of the favorite things that the girls and I do together is to have tea.  We've had tea at George V in France, at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas, and several times at the Brown Palace in Denver. 

So I was pleased to learn that the Dushanbe Tea House is now offering an afternoon tea.  I asked if the girls would like to go, and of course they said yes.  It's sort of become a custom for us to do something fun with just the three of us on the last day of a vacation, so we went yesterday, at the end of our Christmas break. 

What a delightful time!

I don't know if it was the excellent company, the beautiful surroundings, the odd mix of Boulder people, or the three-tiered plate of luscious things that aren't on any diet, but the trip was a huge success.  

First we had to choose a tea, and I went with the Blue Moon, a mix of vanilla and blueberries, among other things, which I wholly enjoyed.  The list of teas is long, so choosing wasn't easy.  We were presented with a pasta salad as an appetizer, and then came the sandwiches, scones, and desserts.  Honestly, the scones were a tad crumbly and could have stood to be served warm, but other than that, the food was quite good.

 
 

We left happy and full and laughing.  I couldn't have asked for a nicer tea.

Oscillating Make-up

It's not often that my former life as an vibrations engineer and my current life as stay at home mom, trainer to the yellow dogs, and chauffer for the kids coincide.

But today, as I was letting four 13 year old girls loose in the mall, I enjoyed a little shopping of my own.  I happened upon the Lancome counter, as I was in need of some pressed powder.  And what did I see there?  Yes, it's true, it was Oscillating Powder Make-up with SPF 21.  Who would have thought?  Vibrations meets make-up.

I knew it was a little gimmicky, but really, I had to see, didn't I?  In fact, it is very gimmicky, but I kind of needed some make-up with an SPF in it.  The application brush vibrated, which I think was supposed to give your face a massage.  Truth be told, you can't really feel it on your face, but I gave in to the total coolness of it.  Or nerdiness.  I'm not sure which.

Of course, if you're going to have Oscillating Pressed Powder Make-up, then you also have to have the Oscillating Mascara.

I think that goes without saying.

No Palinphobia Here

While I've been not blogging, but instead running with my dogs, playing with the kids, and vacationing, the world just gets more and more interesting.  SC governor Mark Sanford went missing for a while, President Obama went to Russia, and, while I was at the Broadmoor competing in the rubber duck races, Governor Palin announced that she was quitting.  When I first heard about her quitting, I thought she meant that she simply wasn't running for re-election.  Of course she wasn't, I thought, she'll be running for President.  But then I found out that by quitting, she meant she was really quitting.  As in, done.  No more governor.  And she somehow insinuated that she was doing so because she isn't a quitter.

But the really interesting thing about all of this is what I've been listening to on the radio and reading on RealClearPolitics; it seems that democrats are SCARED of Sarah Palin.  It must be true because Dan Caplis says it all the time.  The right-wing commentary boards proclaim it loudly.

I just want to clear the air here.  Sarah Palin holds no fear for me.

As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind having her over for tea.  I'd even cook up some scones for her, and I bet we'd have a nice time chatting about parenting.

I also wouldn't mind seeing her run for some more elected offices.  I'd even welcome it, because I'm pretty sure my yellow labs have a better chance of getting elected than she does.  I mean, come on, my labs are seriously cute.

And, if it really came to it, I'm pretty sure I could take Sarah in a fair fight.  I couldn't beat her in a marathon, and I think she'd actually be tough, but I could take her.

But scared of her?  Hardly.

Sunday Lijit Stats

I've blogged before about how much I love the Lijit statistics.  I can log into Lijit at any time to find out how many readers I have and what people are coming to my blog to read.  On Sunday evenings, I get an e-mail with the same information.  Useful stuff.

Interestingly, the terms that bring people to my blog most are still Slim4Life and Deeptone, even though I blog about a cornucopia of topics. 

Unfortunately, though, I haven't blogged in months.  Every week I get those Sunday e-mails, showing lower and lower numbers of readers. 

I've come to hate those Sunday Lijit stats because they are a weekly reminder of a commitment that I've been completely neglecting, like a teacher giving me a failing grade.

Maybe I'll have to blog more.

Living with the Kindle for over a year

Let me just say this:  I love the kindle!

We went on a vacation to Phoenix over spring break, and I had downloaded one of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books.  The books are very, very light.  They're not great literature, but they're fun, fast reads.  Unfortunately, they're a little too fast.  By the time we had arrived in Phoenix, with all of the waiting at the airport and reading on the plane, I had already finished my novel.  If I had carried the actual book with me, I would have been stuck on vacation with nothing to read, a fate practically worse than death, since vacations are about the only time I really do a lot of reading.  Luckily, though, I had the kindle instead.  I simply downloaded the next book in the series.  I went through three of Evanovich's novels, in addition to reading several other things.  The kindle made it so that I didn't need to carry a bunch of reading material, and I could choose real-time what I was going to read.

I've also always been a fan of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.  My mom bought an entire bag full of these magazines when I was about 16.  We spent the next three weeks or so reading every one of them.  Each edition has about 1 or 2 stories that are really good, well-written with a great twist.  I love those stories.  Each edition also has several that are pretty good, and 1 or 2 that you read and ask yourself how they could have published that story.  As a writer, I have submitted several stories to EQMM, none of which they've published (but several of them found homes elsewhere).  Unfortunately, I found that life got in the way of my reading, and I let my subscription slip.  My mom sent me out a couple that had a lot of really good stories in them about a two years ago, and my dog ate them.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that EQMM is now available on the kindle!  Now they download automatically to my kindle, and I read them as I have time.  Sometimes I miss an entire issue, sometimes I read the entire issue, but it's inexpensive and nice to turn on my kindle and find a new EQMM, and the dogs have not expressed in interest in eating the kindle. The only drawback is that the kindle still has no notion of page numbers, a difficult problem for them because page number would change with they're varying font size.  Still, I wish they could at least publish the page numbers as they might appear in the actual magazine, because I have no idea how long or short a story is going to be.  If I start reading a story, should I stop soon because it's so long?  Or will I be done in a minute anyway?  I just don't know.  That's frustrating.

The other problem with a kindle over an actual book comes when you're reading a reference book or other type of non-fiction where you want to keep a couple of pages marked.  It's very difficult on the kindle, even with their bookmark feature, to go back and reference a page like you would a book.  My most recent example is in reading a diet book that I want to go straight to the actual diet.  Sometimes you can't tell from the table of contents where the diet is, but in a real book, you can flip through and find the diet easily enough.  With a real book, too, you can mark a couple of pages, have the recipes that you want available, and have the diet available.  If you reference those pages enough, the books just naturally opens to them. 

However, the best thing that I've found with the kindle is the ability to increase the font size as my eyes get worse.  My last diet book had a tiny, tiny font (okay, my kids could read it easily).  Who needs reading glasses, though, when you've got the kindle, that can make each letter practically the size of the page so that I can read it?

Overall, the kindle rocks!