Take her perfume…PLEASE!

I had to take B to the doctors last week:

Scene: Doctors waiting room where all crohnies can be found on any given day and today an old lady wearing an entire bottle of the worst smelling perfume ever.

Enter: Sweetpea (me, btw I already have a bad headache) and B



I immediately smell said awful perfume. It fills the room like a bug fogger. I sign B in and we take our seats. They are the only two seats together that are left in the room and they are way too close to smelly perfume lady. Mars would be to close. I’m not sure I can take it. I pull B towards me to try to block the smell. If I could I would bury my face in his armpit because I know it would smell a lot better but I would look even more ridiculous. I say even more because the entire time I am sitting there I have my hand up under my nose as if I am covering a cough…only I am not coughing. I continue to pull B towards me and inform him that I may have to hurl on his shoes. I am just about ready to go up to the window and say “Listen you need to either take her back to a room or us because I can’t stand the smell of her anymore”. Since I know that will get me no where I decide that I’m going to make a run for the hallway when the door opens and they call the woman’s name. I thought for sure her last name would be stinkbug. I was so glad to see her go until I realized she left the awful perfume smell behind. So I continue to sit with my hand under my nose looking around at the other people wondering how they can stand it. Finally they call for B and I almost knock him over as I run to the door. “Room 1” says the nurse. We rush in and I turn to the door as she is closing it “NOooooo this is the room she was in” B (who just happens to be sucking on a cherry lifesaver starts blowing in my face. Ahhhhh cherry lifesavers have never smelled so good. I continue the hand under my nose position. The doctor comes in, checks B’s incision, and gives us his instructions which include returning in two weeks. I try not to knock the doctor over on my way out. We check out with the receptionist and go back in the waiting room. Smelly perfume lady is gone but her perfume remains just as strong, just as smelly. Holding my breath I race to the door and into the hallway. I grab B and say that smell is still in there…what if its still there in two weeks??? Does anyone know where I can buy a cheap gas mask and a sign for the door that says “For the love of God No one is permitted to wear smelly old lady perfume EVER”.

Love, Laugh, and Always know where the nearest bathroom is
(and pray that smelly perfume lady hasn’t already been there)

Kinda Crazy!!!

Hate by itself is the emotional dynamic of the ability to sustain long periods of concentration and meditation. It does not require an object to focus on (it mirrors pure love in this respect) ; it is a general-purpose tool for cutting positive attachments, especially in relationships (for example, pride in hate mode rejects another person, whereas hate by itself rejects any pleasant attachment to the other person). Hate produces clear thinking and strengthens a person’s will power. It supports the desire for solitude. It cools the mind and may easily be mistaken for a mild sense of peace. It is likely to be the prevailing mood when a mediator claims that they are no longer acting from a sense of ego. The skilful way of using hate is to clear the mind of redundant attachments and desires.
Copyright © 2002 Ian Heath All Rights Reserved
Psychologistworld.com

Hate is related to hurt out of a sense that someone has done you wrong and you deserve better treatment.
http://thecapt.blog-city.com

I HATE to think that I am a HATER but there seem to be more and more people that I am certain I HATE. I’ve thought a lot about this emotion because I would much rather LOVE. I came to the conclusion that most of the people I HATE are people who have been HATEFUL to my kids. I have always been of the opinion that if you don’t like me that’s fine because chances are I don’t like you either. I have certainly allowed many people to walk all over me and treat me badly and haven’t really cared one way or another but doing that to my kids is a whole other thing. I freak, flip, have a “CT”. I’ve already mentioned Mr. FF in previous posts. Well there is another person…we will call him Mr. Pee. He was very HATEFUL to my son for a period of time and unfortunately I run into him here and there. I am not one to be rude to anyone so I just keep my distance. If I must walk past him I do just that and say nothing. If he says something to me I answer politely and move on. If he approaches a group that includes me I move on to another area. Recently my son and I ran into Mr. Pee and he came up to my son and acted like they were best friends. J was very polite and answered all his questions about where he was going to school and how college baseball was going for him and I just kept on walking and paid no mind. Mr. Pee went his merry way and J joined me. A few days later I saw someone who knows very well how I feel about Mr. Pee. He saw Mr. Pee a few days after Mr. Pee saw J and I and proceeded to tell him that I stared at him and shot daggers at him and he doesn’t understand why I f-ing hate him and he told him that I am crazy. I told him that Mr. Pee is well aware of why I f-ing hate him and is clearly paranoid (among other things) because I barely looked at him and if I had stared at him I would have to gouge my eyes out. So I came across this t-shirt (which is the reason I am sharing this story with you). It is now my favorite t-shirt and I hope to be wearing it the next time I see Mr. Pee (and I will be sure that he knows exactly what it is like to have daggers shot at him). CRAZY…he ain’t seen nothing yet!!! Hahaha



Well now that I got that off my chest I can tell you what a nice relaxing week I’ve had. No baseball has meant that 1. I can catch up on all the things I’ve let go around the house. (This is going to take a while) 2. We took a weekend and went to the camp which was pure relaxation and enough free time to read/finish a book.



3. Then more relaxing time at home (I started reading another book). I even spent time relaxing on the deck. I haven’t done that since early spring. 4. Shopping (for something other than baseball stuff) 5. Eating three (or more :) meals a day. I haven’t done that since early spring either. 6. More time to blog…I know you all are thrilled about that! The only thing missing is the beach oh how I would love to go there for some R&R.

The crohns beast has been quiet during this resting time except for the last couple days. I have had some pain but so far today I’ve been fine. I think the Cimzia is helping keep the beast happy for the most part. The Vitamin B12 and D3 seem to be keeping my joints happy (very little joint pain since I’ve started those). The new medication for my migraines has been helping but I’m still getting headaches a few times a week so he increased the dose. I hope that helps. J will be moving back to school next week :( and B is having surgery again (the cyst is back) on August 20th. I’m trying not to let the stress of that feed my beast!!! Well I think I'll go relax...

Love, Laugh, and Always know where the nearest bathroom is

A little bit of this a lot of that!!!

Busy bee was me…

Don’t know where to start. I’ve been so busy busy busy yet I feel as though I’ve gotten nothing done. How can that be??? Oh yeah…I’ve spent 90% of my time behind third base!!! Baseball season is officially over. J had his last game a few days ago. B had his last game last night and his last workout this morning. I am ready for a break before fall ball starts.

Heres whats been happening:

My crohns beast has been somewhat calm with a few flares here and there. Nothing major thankfully. The new med for my migraines is helping but not as well as the last one that made me crazy. Now that baseball is over I need to schedule the rest of my follow up appoints…Ugh hopefully there won’t be any more poking or prodding. I’11 be getting my Cimzia shots tonight…woo hoo! I've been on it now for over a year and it seems to be working well.

As if I don’t have enough baseball in my life I went to the Pirate game with my hubs, sister, and my lovely girls and some of their guys.



I love this baseball field!!!





And it was fireworks night



We spent a week in Atlanta with B and his team. They played in the Perfect Game tournament and did very well. They placed in the top 25 of over 200 teams.
This was my first gluten free trip and well it wasn’t really all that gluten free…Yes I cheated and I ate gluten foods. Yes I paid for it. I know shame on me but there were just some foods I could not resist while eating on the run. I just had a nibble of these because everyone was raving about them.





While the food was great the hotel was...well NOT. Our room/problems were not too bad (compared to others) but its hard to believe they stay in business. Heres why:

We had two phones in our room



Neither one worked. The maintenance guy could not figure it out and he was very creepy looking so when he offered to come back later I said that’s ok we have cell phones so we don’t really need these to work. Except when we had to call the desk for something and convince them that we were guests of the hotel and no we don’t want someone to come and check the phones.

Our air conditioner did work



But as you can see we had the temp set at 50 degrees and the room was a constant 70+ degrees

Housekeeping was a bit daft. We started off with 4 towels but the next day we got 3
Then the next day we got 4 towels but no wash cloths. Then we got 3 towels, 4 wash cloths and no hand towels and so on for 6 days. They never gave us more shampoo.





One family was moved 3 times because the AC didn’t work at all in their first room, the second room they tried to give them they couldn’t even get into because there was a problem with the door. The third room the toilet didn’t work (a crohnies worst nightmare). Then there was the day the creepy maintenance man pulled a mouse out of the pool filter and a RAT out of the pool drain. He had a little trouble with the rat. He kept trying to pull it out by the tail with pliers and pieces of the tail kept breaking off…needless to say we stayed far away from the pool after that!

If all that isn't enough there was a storm and the hotel got struck by lightning...8 hours without power and we were on the 9th floor. However they had food and an open bar in the lobby to keep us happy.

Right before we left for Atlanta our pool collapsed…a wall of water down the street…14,000+ gallons of it!



J’s season of coaching is over. Other than a few hairy moments with crazy parents and umpires I’d say he enjoyed it. Heres a pic of him coaching:



So thats about it in a nut shell.

Love, Laugh, and Always know where the nearest bathroom is

I Think I'll Plant Flowers

We had a lot of rain this week but last weekend was beautiful and we were able to get a lot of work done outside around the house. This is the first spring in a couple of years that we have planted flowers. Having two sons playing on several baseball teams makes it difficult to keep up with watering and weeding beds of flowers so we have opted for some well placed potted plants the past couple of years. This spring and summer with J in his second year of college and B now too old for rec. ball B is only playing on his AAU traveling team so we will have a little more time for weeding flower beds but not much so we just planted a small row of flowers along two walls around the driveway and have flower pots and hanging plants by the front door and back deck as seen in the pictures below:
















We will be pouring a new bigger front porch and sidewalk soon so it would be a waste to plant anything around there like we use too. We also ripped out our front hedges and front gate…yes all gone no pics of that yet. Hubby has been wanting to do that for some time now. He has always hated trimming them. Now are you ready for this news sun bathers…. Yes the pool is open…now all we need is the SUN! Getting the deck furniture out and the pool open explains why we have had rain and cold weather most of the week. That’s just always how it works. It’s the same way in the fall. It’s cold so you close the pool and then it gets hot again. But it is warming up again so let the pool side cookouts begin!!!

I went to the doctors on Monday for my blood work results and it was all good news. My B12 and D levels were all up to normal levels. He gave me a new med for my migraines that I can take daily for preventative measures. I am gradually working to get to the regular dose so it has not kicked in yet. I hope it helps because I really can’t take the headaches anymore. The Imitrex is great and works well but my insurance will only cover 9 pills a month and I get the headaches almost every day.

We thought J’s baseball season was over but they qualified for the ECAC tournament and won their first game so they will move on to play in Delaware this weekend. He got creative with his hair for the tournament:

To the Doctors…Again!!!

I think I spend more time with doctors then I do with my family. I know that can’t be true but that’s how it feels sometimes. So in case you haven’t guessed I went to the doctor’s office yesterday. This was supposed to be my yearly check up/yearly TB test. The office called me last week to tell me that my doctor was going to be out of town this week so I could either reschedule or see the Nurse Practitioner. I choose to keep my appointment and see the Nurse Practitioner. I had some second thoughts in the morning thinking that I would be wasting my time and that I should just cancel and reschedule with my doctor when he gets back but I went. I went and I’m so glad I did. She was absolutely wonderful. Not that I don’t like my doctor, I like him a lot. He has always been wonderful but she was WOW. I talked to her about everything that has been going on lately, all the Crohns problems, GYN problems, and Cimzia problems. She had a very interesting take on all of it. She does not think it’s the Cimzia at all that is causing all the joint pain and headaches, and fatigue. She believes that it is hormonal, perimenopause to be exact. Now normally I would have been very insulted by such a diagnosis. After all I am still way way way to young for that (stop right there those of you who are tempted to leave a comment with malicious facts when the truth is I have always done things ahead of my time why should this be any different…so there). Okay back to the point, I am not insulted because I’m thankful for any answer that explains the problems and any help that can be received. Joint pain, fatigue, bad headaches can all increase from the hormonal changes. She is also sure that the joint pain is also Rheumatoid Arthritis (not the Cimzia) I also have swollen lymph nodes in my neck but no sign of infection. Apparently this can also be a sign of Rheumatoid Arthritis. My other doctors have been telling me that my B12 levels are fine but she feels that by the new standard my level is too low and I should be getting the shots. She also agrees that my vit D level needs to be checked. I go back Thursday morning for a boat load of blood work. She is going to check everything. When I go back on Thursday I am going to schedule a follow up with her so I can find out exactly what my results were and what I need to do. I think I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel………I hope it’s not a train!

Love, Laugh, and always know where the nearest bathroom is

An Update and a Special Request

I am happy to report that this week I am feeling a little better. Still exhausted but the joint pain is not as bad, I have less nausea, and I think I went an entire day without a headache. I am hoping the next three days will continue to be good ones because, are you sitting down, on Sunday I have to prep for my colonoscopy!!! Blahhhhhhh!!! So think of me in my corner sipping my clear liquids and toxic waste but try not to picture me running to the bathroom.

I am also happy to report that I (with the help of my wonderful husband) made my first loaf of gluten free cinnamon raisin bread last weekend and it is very good. I am so happy to have some bread in my life again and I am looking forward to finding/making other wonderful gluten free foods.

Now I would like to ask a favor. If you happen to have an extra $5.00 or are looking for a wonderful cause to support please consider making a donation to a fellow crohnie who is participating in the Take Steps for Crohn’s & Colitis walk this summer. You can donate online at:

http://online.ccfa.org/site/TR/Walk/Chapter-SouthwestOhio?px=1957383&pg=personal&fr_id=1797

More than 1.4 million patients across the country suffer from Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Beyond raising money for research, Take Steps brings together the community in a fun and energetic atmosphere. Participants are encouraged to make noise and be heard—raising awareness of these little known diseases.
If you are able to please consider supporting their efforts by making a tax deductible contribution.

Your support of even $5.00, will help fund important research and raise awareness of diseases that affect millions of people.

Another way you can help spread awareness:

If you have a twitter account on 3/14 please use #Crohns at the end of all your tweets in hopes of a trending topic to spread awareness.

Thank you so much

Love, laugh, and always know where the nearest bathroom is

Because of Crohns…..

I have very bad headaches that almost always turn into horrible migraines. What? You have very bad headaches and or migraines but you do not have Crohns? Yes unfortunately that is possible and I’m sure if I didn’t have Crohns I might still have the occasional very bad headache that turns into a migraine. Why do I claim that my very bad headaches/migraines are because of Crohns? I thought you would never ask :) Here is how it goes. I have Crohns. One of the “perks” of having Crohns means that if I eat I will require quick access to a bathroom not just once but many times. As you can imagine this makes going places a bit difficult especially if you can’t or don’t want to spend most of your time in the bathroom. My solution over the years has been “don’t eat”. This worked well at first. I could spend an entire weekend on a baseball field with only strategically planned sips of water. Understandably after doing this for a couple years my body said enough of this. Now if I don’t eat for even half a day I start to get a headache and if I don’t get to food quickly the headache turns into a very bad headache at which point it is too late for food and I am on my way to the horrible migraine. If I can’t get to food I’ll try to take a Tylenol as soon as I feel the headache coming on but Tylenol rarely helps and it’s the only thing I’m allowed to take. Aspirin and Ibuprofen are a no no for Crohnies (I do cheat sometimes and take an Ibuprofen especially when I have a headache for days and days in a row.

Going to the grocery store…don’t eat. Going to a baseball game…definitely don’t eat. Going to the mall…I will eat now and try to stay close to the nice bathrooms. Going to…well you get the picture.

Love, laugh, and always know where the nearest bathroom is