Back To the Doctor

I posted before about how out of place I felt as a woman in a urologist’s office…take a look at the educational material in the examining room and you’ll see what I mean…

Oh – and there was more: lots of posters on the walls with diagrams of the male anatomy in great detail (all sponsored by pharmaceutical companies selling solutions for erectile dysfunction). I think I know more now about the male body than I ever wanted to.

I posted my self-diagnosis a few days ago – it was half-right. They do want me have an MRI done again in six months to keep an eye on the cyst on my kidney.

However, I didn’t have a copy of the report from the urinalysis to include in my Internet research for my control-freakish self-diagnosis. One of the tests – the “FISH” test – showed some abnormal cells, so the doctor wanted to do a cystoscopy in the office this afternoon. A cystoscopy uses a flexible tube to examine the lining of the bladder – I can’t even begin to describe what THAT test was like!

After I got home (and soaked for a LONG time in a hot bath), I – of course – got on the Internet and looked up the FISH test (also known as the UroVysion test). Apparently, it’s an extremely sensitive test that screens for bladder cancer. The good news is that the cystoscopy looks good right now – the bad news is that I have to re-do the FISH test in two months and if it comes up positive again, I’ll have to have a more invasive test done.

I am not at high risk for this form of cancer – I’m not a smoker , I don’t work with dangerous chemicals and I’m under 40 (if only for a few more months) – so it’s probably nothing. I’m just going to put this on the back burner right now and re-examine it in a few months…stay tuned to see how it all turns out.

Finally, Some Progress!

No – there’s still no progress on the job-front, but at least I’m making progress in other ways.

I posted some months ago about wanting to lose weight and take control of my life – but in reality, it turns out that I still wasn’t really motivated to do much about it.

A few days before Christmas, I came across the Discovery Health National Body Challenge and I thought I’d enter my information. Well…it turns out that given my weight, height and measurements, I’m now considered obese.

In the last 3 years, I’ve put on about 40 pounds due to various surgeries including a hysterectomy. But I never thought I was obese. That was a real wake up call.

Even with all the weight-loss information on the market right now (especially right after the new year), it’s still the same basic formula – eat less and move more. But it’s not easy -and it’s not a lot of fun sometimes.

But given my apparent obesity, I’ve been more motivated to watch what I eat and I’ve been pretty good about keeping my calorie count low. I’ve also started to exercise regularly again – which, as a nice side effect, has also helped with some other hip-related issues I’ve been having.

Anyway, as of today, I’ve lost 12 pounds. Not earth-shattering, but still – it’s some progress in at least one part of my life…

Daisy’s Dancing On the Table

We had a little bit of snow this afternoon…

Not much snow – just enough for the dogs to have a little fun.  For some reason, Daisy got up onto the table on the deck – maybe to get a better view of the neighborhood coated in white…

Breakfast Is Back

One of our favorite breakfast spots, Fireside Family Restaurant, reopened today.  It was closed after a car drove into the front of the building.  Apparently, the car also took out a stop sign…

Craft Re-Org

I received my PaperCrafts prize the other day:

Such cool stuff! I finally had a chance to put it all away yesterday after kicking off a whole cleaning effort…

My craft room has been a disaster for a while now – I haven’t even been able to vacuum because I couldn’t get to the floor! But since I’ll be going back to work soon (God willing – that’s a story for another post), I figured I’d better do it now. So I reluctantly decided to clean it up and reorganize. It looks better now – not perfect, but it meets my “better than it was before” cleaning criteria (if I set the bar low enough, I’m assured success):

During the cleanup process, I was also inspired to finally finish some baby gift projects I’ve been meaning to work on (out of the three babies, one is about 3 months old now, one was just born and the other is due in a few weeks – so I’m not THAT far behind).

I made some more of those baby play/changing/nap mats that I’ve posted before:

But this time, instead of giving the mat and a blanket, I made these cute little fleece booties:

These are super-simple to make – I saw the project on Creative Juice on DIY. Here’s link to the instructions – they are easy even for a non-sewer like me (and their photos are better – I should have stuffed the little toes for the picture).

Basically, you cut the pattern (on the DIY site) from a small piece of folded fleece, add the elastic, sew around the edges, add a ribbon and cut the fringe at the top. Cute and easy.

I also received my latest Paula’s Kit Club shipment yesterday – I didn’t cancel it because a) I LOVE her stuff, and b) I thought I’d be working by now (again – I’ll save that for another post). In addition to the usual paper stuff, she has now included small jewelry kits from French General. LOVE IT!!!! This month’s was a bracelet made from vintage buttons and other pieces (which of course, I HAD to make right away):

Cool, cool, cool!!!! And now that I’ve done this project, I may try to take some of the buttons from my own vintage stash and make some designs of my own.

And I can do that now that my craft room is clean (and I’m STILL not working)…

Matt Makes Me Proud

Today was presentation day for Matt’s PEP (Pitman Enrichment Program) class.  The kids wrote reports on heroes – both famous and local. 

Matt is a very shy kid, and when it came time last week to rehearse the presentations, he decided not to do his in front of the group.  We went to the presentations today anyway, hoping he would change his mind…

Matt was called upon to do his presentation last and when he asked his teacher if he had to do it, she said, "Yes."  That was just the push he needed.  He read his report on his local hero – his dad!

It was so sweet – he talked about Mike being a hero because he was in the Army when he was young and then how he keeps planes safe now while working for the FAA.  I couldn’t help but get teary eyed…

He did, however, mention that "…even when Daddy yells, he’s not doing it to be mad – he’s doing it to teach me something" which got a laugh out of everyone.

My friend Denise took some wonderful photos (as she always does) – here are Mike and Matt after the presentation…

I’m so proud of him – Matt is such a sweet and sensitive kid.  He really is the most gentle and kind-hearted person I’ve ever met.  Even with all his quirkiness, he is a genuinely selfless person.  I’m glad I’m lucky enough to be his mother…

It Looks Good…

This morning, I picked up the report from last week’s MRI.  Yes, that’s right – I’m such a control freak that I actually like to see my medical reports for myself.

Of course, after I picked up the report, I ran right home and searched for all the terms on Google so that I could diagnose myself.

And I’m pretty sure that it’s all good news. 

So far, I’ve had two CT scans and an MRI to try to determine exactly what’s going on with my kidneys. 

And I think the results are all good – there is one main lesion that is "a subcentimeter complex hemorrhagic versus proteinaceous cyst in the upper pole of the left kidney…T1 hyperintense…"….blah, blah, blah…

Basically, from what I read this afternoon, it’s relatively small and has the characteristics of a benign lesion.  They’ll probably just want to follow up with future scans to make sure it hasn’t changed.

Or at least that’s MY diagnosis.  Now let’s see what the doctor says at my appointment on Friday.

Boys and Basketball

I just got home from Andrew’s basketball game – I tried to take a few photos, but none of them turned out well.  I don’t know if it’s my camera or just the fact that I was trying to use a flash in a gymnasium from far away…

Anyway, here’s the best one:

Matt also had basketball yesterday morning – here’s a photo taken by Mike during Matt’s practice:

Thank goodness for indoor sports during the winter!

Scrapbooking with Angie

Yesterday was our monthly Scrapbooking Ministry Crop at church.

I did take a photo of everyone at the crop, but was threatened with certain legal action if I posted it here on my blog…

However, my friend Angie gave me permission to post a photo of her…here she is working on our "Joy" page:

Thanks for being a good sport, Angie…

Completed Knitting Projects

Now that I’m full-steam into knitting again, I’ve managed to complete two projects.

My scarf (just plain knitting – something to warm up my skills again):

This was the first time I’ve ever added fringe – it was fun and very easy to do.   You just take a crochet hook and pull the yarn through some of the knitted loops.  Too cool!

And…a dishcloth:

The dishcloth was my first attempt at trying the purl stitch, and now I’m hooked. It’s amazing how such a simple stitch can create such different effects with yarn.

Oh – and before you scoff – knitting dishcloths is apparently a big thing. I was at the craft store today and saw several books and pamphlets containing nothing but dish cloth patterns. Who knew?!?

So…now that knitting has piqued my interest again, I picked up a few pattern books and am going to try a few more projects. Next I’m going to try a felted tote bag. I can’t wait to play…

I figure knitting is the perfect craft to do while I’m commuting back and forth to work at my new job. No…I still don’t have a start date – but here’s hoping it’s soon…