Today has been quite the eventful day. Woke up this morning at about 4am needing to use the restroom. Looked outside and there was a really light dusting of snow - certainly nothing like the weather people were calling for. Went back to bed and woke up again at 7. There was a good 2.5 inches sticking to the roads. Fun! Not. It was snowing pretty heavy. Found out the kids' school was closed. In fact, all of the school districts in the area (except for one up north) shut down today. I was surprised given that there was less than 3 inches (at least where we live). According to our district's website, they decided to shut-down to be proactive since the storm was supposed to continue throughout the day and into the night. Okay, whatever. The daycare was still open so we got ready to go and Dan dropped me off at work. (I'm so glad I bought a pot roast this week - tossed it in the crock pot with some veggies so we'd have a nice, hot meal when we got home.)
On the way in to work this morning, we witnessed two accidents - both of which were cars right in front of us. The first one was the car spinning out of control and slammed into the curb pretty hard. May have jacked up his/her axle. The second one was this SUV in front of us when we were in the right-hand lane. He slid into the left lane, narrowly missing another SUV, before sliding into the median. He then somehow managed to turn a 180 and came right back into the left lane where the SUV he'd narrowly missed ended up slamming into his back end. The first SUV then drifted across our lane again before coming to a rest on the right-hand shoulder. Thank heavens we were giving him a wide berth in front of us.
So anyway, I got to work, did the whole work thing, all the while waiting for the daycare to call and say they were closing early. Amazingly enough, that call never came. Dan's work, however, did tell all of their employees to leave at 3 and to not come in until 10am tomorrow - unless they decide to shut down. Wish my employer would do that stuff! Ha!
I was able to take some pics, which I'll post at the end of this post. Got some really cute ones of the kiddos!
The other semi-eventful thing that happened to me today is medical-related. Last week I went to the doc and had some bloodwork done. I got the results today and the doc faxed me all of my results. My thyroid is all out-of-whack again so I need to see my GP to get put back on Synthroid. I think I'm going to have to stay on that stuff for good instead of going off of it. Fun times. I also found that my ESR was elevated which, surprisingly enough, has not been elevated in years, despite my lupus and fibromyalgia flares. Go figure, right? So I decided to google up what the medically-accepted normal ranges were for ESR.
While googling for that information, I found a site that talked about Temporal Arteritis. It's apparently one of the diagnoses that can start by finding an elevated ESR. Being the curious person that I am for medical conditions I've never heard of, I decided to read about it. The page had a list of symptoms - common and rare. Every. single. symptom was something that I have right now. It was kind of creepy to see that. Now, keep in mind that pretty much every symptom that I have can be explained away by various ailments that I have - lupus, fibro, Raynaud's, cold-like symptoms (despite the fact that I had the flu over Labor Day and it's been nearly 2 months)... but this was ONE diagnosis that covered every. single. symptom. Dr. House always dismisses ideas that symptoms can be explained by multiple things going on - he always believes it is one thing causing everything. (Yes, I know the show is fictional and thus the character is fictional, but ya know what? That belief is kinda right in my mind!) So I called my doc and left a message for him to call me back.
He did actually call me back this afternoon and we had a pretty long discussion. The one symptom that I have that seems to really stand out is I've been having this headache (been there since Friday) that's in my left temple but the pain radiates down into my jaw. At first I thought it was wisdom-tooth related, but realized that wasn't the case. (There's more to it, but I don't feel like typing it ALL out.) So anyway, he said that it was extremely rare in anyone under 50, though it is much more prevalent in caucasian women, especially those with rheumatic illnesses. It isn't completely unheard of in someone at my age, but it is very rare. He wants me to see an ophthalmologist first since they would be able to see if there was any inflammation in the vessels behind my eye(s). The only way to truly diagnose Temporal Arteritis is by doing a biopsy of the temporal artery (basically going into my temple and taking a very tiny biopsy of the artery). He doesn't want to do that unless there's more to go off of than an elevated sed rate, which I can understand. So, now I have to see if my insurance will cover an ophthalmologist. Since my rheumie is referring me to one, I can't see why they wouldn't, but with insurance companies these days, you just never know. Blugh! I do need to get in with my GP to get my thyroid stuff going, too. Too many doctors!!!! Oh, and I should add that the treatment for TA is relatively simple - a semi-long-term course of prednisone. It would suck to be on it for even a short term, but when blindness is something that can happen in untreated cases of TA, I'd rather be fat and cranky from 'roid rage than blind. ;-)
At any rate, the day was actually a good one, all things considered. We came home pretty early (well, a bit earlier than normal, that's for sure) and the kids played in the snow for a bit. Our front yard didn't get as much snow accumulation because of the way the wind was blowing but our back yard got pretty blanketed. The kids had fun while I snapped some shots. Here, look!
To warm them up, I made some homemade stove-top hot cocoa. The kids even helped!
Mmm... look at this chocolatey goodness!
And now we pour in the milk (which is actually half milk and half heavy cream because, despite it being much more unhealthy, the cream just makes it taste so much better)!
Ahhh, the milk and cream mixture has been completely blended with the chocolate mixture. It's nice and smooth now!
And here's boy-child stirring it up.
Girl-child, of course, had to get in on the stirring action, too!
Hot cocoa, fresh pot roast from the crock pot, and a cheesecake for dessert. A high-calorie evening but a very nice one spent with family. Wouldn't trade it for the world!
On the way in to work this morning, we witnessed two accidents - both of which were cars right in front of us. The first one was the car spinning out of control and slammed into the curb pretty hard. May have jacked up his/her axle. The second one was this SUV in front of us when we were in the right-hand lane. He slid into the left lane, narrowly missing another SUV, before sliding into the median. He then somehow managed to turn a 180 and came right back into the left lane where the SUV he'd narrowly missed ended up slamming into his back end. The first SUV then drifted across our lane again before coming to a rest on the right-hand shoulder. Thank heavens we were giving him a wide berth in front of us.
So anyway, I got to work, did the whole work thing, all the while waiting for the daycare to call and say they were closing early. Amazingly enough, that call never came. Dan's work, however, did tell all of their employees to leave at 3 and to not come in until 10am tomorrow - unless they decide to shut down. Wish my employer would do that stuff! Ha!
I was able to take some pics, which I'll post at the end of this post. Got some really cute ones of the kiddos!
The other semi-eventful thing that happened to me today is medical-related. Last week I went to the doc and had some bloodwork done. I got the results today and the doc faxed me all of my results. My thyroid is all out-of-whack again so I need to see my GP to get put back on Synthroid. I think I'm going to have to stay on that stuff for good instead of going off of it. Fun times. I also found that my ESR was elevated which, surprisingly enough, has not been elevated in years, despite my lupus and fibromyalgia flares. Go figure, right? So I decided to google up what the medically-accepted normal ranges were for ESR.
While googling for that information, I found a site that talked about Temporal Arteritis. It's apparently one of the diagnoses that can start by finding an elevated ESR. Being the curious person that I am for medical conditions I've never heard of, I decided to read about it. The page had a list of symptoms - common and rare. Every. single. symptom was something that I have right now. It was kind of creepy to see that. Now, keep in mind that pretty much every symptom that I have can be explained away by various ailments that I have - lupus, fibro, Raynaud's, cold-like symptoms (despite the fact that I had the flu over Labor Day and it's been nearly 2 months)... but this was ONE diagnosis that covered every. single. symptom. Dr. House always dismisses ideas that symptoms can be explained by multiple things going on - he always believes it is one thing causing everything. (Yes, I know the show is fictional and thus the character is fictional, but ya know what? That belief is kinda right in my mind!) So I called my doc and left a message for him to call me back.
He did actually call me back this afternoon and we had a pretty long discussion. The one symptom that I have that seems to really stand out is I've been having this headache (been there since Friday) that's in my left temple but the pain radiates down into my jaw. At first I thought it was wisdom-tooth related, but realized that wasn't the case. (There's more to it, but I don't feel like typing it ALL out.) So anyway, he said that it was extremely rare in anyone under 50, though it is much more prevalent in caucasian women, especially those with rheumatic illnesses. It isn't completely unheard of in someone at my age, but it is very rare. He wants me to see an ophthalmologist first since they would be able to see if there was any inflammation in the vessels behind my eye(s). The only way to truly diagnose Temporal Arteritis is by doing a biopsy of the temporal artery (basically going into my temple and taking a very tiny biopsy of the artery). He doesn't want to do that unless there's more to go off of than an elevated sed rate, which I can understand. So, now I have to see if my insurance will cover an ophthalmologist. Since my rheumie is referring me to one, I can't see why they wouldn't, but with insurance companies these days, you just never know. Blugh! I do need to get in with my GP to get my thyroid stuff going, too. Too many doctors!!!! Oh, and I should add that the treatment for TA is relatively simple - a semi-long-term course of prednisone. It would suck to be on it for even a short term, but when blindness is something that can happen in untreated cases of TA, I'd rather be fat and cranky from 'roid rage than blind. ;-)
At any rate, the day was actually a good one, all things considered. We came home pretty early (well, a bit earlier than normal, that's for sure) and the kids played in the snow for a bit. Our front yard didn't get as much snow accumulation because of the way the wind was blowing but our back yard got pretty blanketed. The kids had fun while I snapped some shots. Here, look!
To warm them up, I made some homemade stove-top hot cocoa. The kids even helped!
Mmm... look at this chocolatey goodness!
And now we pour in the milk (which is actually half milk and half heavy cream because, despite it being much more unhealthy, the cream just makes it taste so much better)!
Ahhh, the milk and cream mixture has been completely blended with the chocolate mixture. It's nice and smooth now!
And here's boy-child stirring it up.
Girl-child, of course, had to get in on the stirring action, too!
Hot cocoa, fresh pot roast from the crock pot, and a cheesecake for dessert. A high-calorie evening but a very nice one spent with family. Wouldn't trade it for the world!
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