Wednesday, May 6, 2009

I'm Engaged!

I almost forgot how to log into this, it's been so long. But priorities have changed...and I'm very very thankful :) Ben proposed to me at Disneyland the night before my birthday. It was the single most perfect proposal I have ever heard of, and I cried like a little girl. It was beautiful, and I don't know how I managed to snag such a stellar man.

So now we're in uber wedding-planning mode. We decided we're going to get hitched in October of this year, which means not a whole lotta time to pull it all together. But we're ready for it! I already bought my wedding dress, and I la la love it! It's really a great dress, and I'm super excited to put it on in October and see Ben's face :) Now we're just finalizing the venue and the date. We should have that done by the beginning of next week.

On top of all of that, we're buying a house. Super exciting, and at times very fun, but a lot of stress to add to wedding planning. We put an offer on one house already but it fell through. So it's back to the drawing board. We've got time though, so that's good.

All in all it's been a very exciting month! I'm pretty impressed with how I'm handling the stress of it all. Working out has taken a deep back seat to my new priorities, but that can't last long. I'm lookin' to lose 20 pounds by wedding day...so I've gotta get those tennies strapped on! Speaking of that...

The health side of things has been a roller coaster. But I have to say, it's been a much more enjoyable roller coaster to be on recently. I'm feeling ok most of the time. I can get out of bed without too much trouble, I'm losing weight, I'm actually able to work out here and there. It still cycles though. I've gone through a couple of "bad spurts" when I couldn't move in the morning, I gained all kinds of weight out of nowhere, I got a rash on my legs/arms, I broke out...the list goes on. But those spurts were short compared to the good times recently, so I'm very thankful.

The one piece that just won't go away is the endometriosis...and all of the joys that come with that. Right now my rib pain is under control, but that's not constant. It comes back from time to time and it's gnarley! And then there's the rectal bleeding (sorry, I know)...and the lower right quadrant pain, ouch! We've been investigating these pieces quite a bit more lately, and the Mayo Clinic docs want to actually look into them as individual problems aside from the endo. So today I had the joy of a VCUG and a cystoscopy...I want to hurt the nurses who said those were no big deal. Yeah, no big deal for them. But could you prepare me for the ridiculously painful urination afterward, the bleeding urethra, the impossible bladder spasms?? awkward. I'm also getting a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy in a couple of weeks...NOT looking forward to that. They want to check to see if the endo has imbedded in my bowel, and if I for real have Celiac Disease. Doc thinks I do, but I'm not so sure. Either way, I'm getting the shaft of this deal. What a horrible day that will be...

Cushing's testing has been put on hold for the time being...and that was my call. Dr. Friedman gave me all of the scripts to do everything, but I'm just not able to get to that right now. I can't take time off to do 24 hour urine collections and such. No time. I'm sure I've had a couple of "highs", if that's what we want to call it. But I can't deal with all of that on top of everything. I just want to pretend like I'll be all better forever...and maybe I just will be. But if not, right now I want to live in my fairy tale and enjoy my wedding preparation. Once in a lifetime :)

11 comments:

Erin said...

CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement! this will be the most stressful, wonderful time of your life!!

judycolby said...

Congratulations on your engagement!! How exciting.

Anonymous said...

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I'm sure you'll be very happy!

Amanda and Tim said...

OH WOW I am SO happy for you guys I almost want to cry I'm so happy for you :o) Cannot wait to hear your wedding plans and eventually see piccies of the big day!! Yay!!

Sorry to hear that the endo is still causing you problems - it sucks. Been wondering how you were but never quite got around to checking in - life is definately busy right now it seems! Take good care of you and I will be thinking of you going through all that stuff!

My Endo Journey said...

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Glad to hear from you!

Anonymous said...

All women with endo need an expert's opinion, there's a dr hilgers in phoenix, but also dr redwine is amazing in oregon

the CEC is fabulous

Painful sex / bowel movements can be related to endo in the cul-de-sac / pouch of douglas, located between the rectum and vagina.

These are some great sites, surgery can help. Endo can get worse without surgery :(

centerforendo.com (they're great!)

endometriosissurgeon.com

endoexcision.com

pelvicpain.com

endo-resolved.com

erc.activboard.com/

endo101.com

johnleemd.com

endometriosis.org

naprotechnology.com

fertilitycare.org

http://www.womensinternational.com/ask_a_pharmacist.html

http://www.ovarian-cysts-pcos.com/supplements.html

http://www.pelvicpain.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=383

Anonymous said...

Congrats again Ames! You deserve all the happiness in the world. I am so excited for you! October will be here before you know it!

Jeanne said...

Congratulations on your engagement & buying a house! We did the wedding and house prep at the same time (building a house with our own hands, no less) and it was very overwhelming. So try to factor in rest time to give your body a break... even from the happy things.

I've had 4 cystoscopies and 4 colonoscopies. So if you ever want to chat about those, you know where to find me. My last colonoscopy was in April. I too have rectal bleeding (cyclical) and it had progressed to clots too. So they had to take a look. (Details are all on my blog for that whole deal).

Best of luck to you and happy to hear your good news! :)

Jeanne

Alex said...

CONGRATS that's awesome news! Sounds like a busy next couple of months, good luck and hope you get good news from all your tests/procedures!

TMass said...

I just wanted to say congratulations on your future nuptials. As a man married to a woman who suffers from Endo, I commend you both on not allowing life to stop, halt, or stand still. I love your blog and will commit to follow. Thanks for sharing!
TMass

Amanda and Tim said...

Just dropping by to see how you are health wise and how the wedding plans are going? It's roughly a year since we met (what a year) and in true form to us going through similar things, Tim proposed to me whilst we were in Italy for another wedding... so I'm spending more of my online time on research and inspiration rather than checking blogs. That being said, I really wanted to check in, say hi and that I hope you are feeling better/getting somewhere?

Take care
Amanda x