Merry Christmas Eve!

Cass is working and the kids and I are hanging out at home. I've made gingerbread cookies for Santa, and now we're just waiting for bedtime!




My Dad used to have this train under his tree, but he gave it to me for Luke a couple of years ago. Luke has been asking for days about it, but finally he insisted and I got it out for him. If we can keep it on the track, I'm sure it will run until its batteries run out.

Beer

Yesterday, we decided to go try Kyoto, the new Japanese restaurant in Rockwall. Even at 2:30pm on Sunday, there was a wait - but it was only 15 min. While we were waiting, we got some seats at the bar.

Luke looks up, observes the taps at the bar, and says to me, "Mom, look. They have Buzz Light."

Recitals

I was going to post the videos from the girls' piano recital, but they were too big and would take forever. So here's the photo from last night. You can tell Logan was thrilled.



Logan played "Deck the Halls" and Cameron played "Away in a Manger." It was short and sweet, because a lot of the kids didn't show because of the icy weather.

Tonight was Cameron's voice class recital. It was packed, because they also had piano recitals for 3 other teachers. Cameron's class sang "Silent Night" and "Frosty the Snowman." They were great - the best class that performed. I posted a clip of Cameron's part in one of the songs, but I don't know which song it is. It may be a little hard to hear her, because she was singing a little bit softly - plus, she's got all that ortho gear in her mouth that makes it a little hard to enunciate. She did great!

Tomorrow night is the school Drama Club production of Twas the Night Before Christmas. Cameron is playing Orange Playdough (not purple like I said before).

Medical update

I called yesterday morning to let the doctor know that I wasn't tolerating the medicine well, and I waited all day for a return call. Finally, Cass got impatient and called to rake them over the coals a little bit. I had a return call within an hour. :)

He switched me to Benicar. I hope I can tolerate this one. Let's just say that I'm finally back up to 109 lbs. tonight. And I was actually able to stand up long enough to fold a load of laundry. Yay! My first BP reading after taking it was 115/84 (the other one started out like this, then got worse a few days later).

I also got sent for a kidney ultrasound this morning. It took an hour and a half! Who knew the kidneys were so involved? I had to do a lot of "take a deep breath and hold it"(indefinitely) - which wasn't a good combination with my light-headedness. But I survived. She also did doppler readings of my renal arteries. I hope they'll send the results to my doc tomorrow.

The kids got a day off of school today. We had gotten up and were ready to walk out the door, and I turned on the TV to find that our school district was closed. We had freezing rain all day, and the temp never got over 30 degrees. I was still able to make it to my ultrasound appt and a dentist appt (where my BP was 135/102 - I hadn't taken the new med yet), though. They probably could have had school, but better safe than sorry I guess.

Tomorrow, I'll post pictures and video from the girls' Christmas piano recital that was tonight.

BP Meds

OK, so if I had known the side effects from taking BP meds in the beginning, I might not have ever started taking them. Seriously. Since Wednesday, I have been nauseated, dizzy, light-headed, fatigued, and just generally felt pretty crappy. I've spent most of each day in the bed. I can't eat, and I've lost a lot of weight (for me).

So far, the meds have gotten my BP down to about 120/90, but my pulse rate is up - in the 90s and 100s. Which I can feel, all the time.

I still haven't heard back from the doctor's office re: scheduling the ultrasound of my kidneys. I left a message on both Thursday and Friday, but they haven't called back. Maybe on Monday.

We went to the id Software Christmas party last night. It was a sit-down dinner, but I couldn't eat. I'd had a few bites of some pizza with the kids before we left, but when they served dinner I didn't think I could eat. Didn't want to "vomick" at the first company Christmas party we attended. :) Somehow I made it until 11pm. But I woke up with a headache this morning.

A little while ago, I was craving a Wendy's hamburger so I went and got one. I was able to eat almost half of it and a few french fries. Woo hoo!

Dr visit

I went back to the doctor today and my BP was 151/104 (or something like that - the numbers are starting to run together for me!). He had gotten back all my labs, and they were perfect. My cholesterol is 141 and everything else (liver, kidney, CBC w/diff) was within normal limits.

He looked over my BP readings, and agreed that it's hypertension and not a fluke. He prescribed Lisinopril for me to take daily. If it's essential hypertension (high blood pressure for life, probably genetic), the BP med will start to help within 24 hrs. If it doesn't have any effect, it's likely renal artery stenosis (unknown cause). He ordered an ultrasound of my kidneys to help determine which it is.

So now I'm waiting to hear from the doctor's office about the scheduling of my kidney ultrasound. I kind of hope it's the kidney thing, even though it will probably require an angioplasty, because I don't want to start BP meds for life at the age of 36.

153/106

That was my blood pressure reading this morning.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. I went in for something mundane, because I wanted to establish with a doctor here without waiting until I was deathly ill. The nurse came in to take my vitals, and my BP was 141/108. She thought it was wrong because she had to do it over my sleeve - so I took my arm out of the sleeve. It was the same. She tried the other arm. Same.

Doc comes in and takes it. Same. I'm 36 years old, healthy, active, most definitely not overweight - so what gives? For about the past 2 months, I've had unusual migraines, dizzy spells, and the sensation of my heart racing. I chalked it all up to the usual stress of the season. Apparently, it's not. The doc mentioned a few things that could be the cause, but he wanted me to monitor it for a few days to make sure it's not a fluke. If it stays up, we'll start investigating what might be causing it. Basically, he says either it's inherited/genetic or it's renal artery stenosis. Um, I'll take neither category, Alex.

I've been monitoring my BP since yesterday morning, and the diastolic number hasn't gone below 100. This morning when I went in to let them draw my blood, it was 153/106. I wanted to cry. He told me that if it got over 150/95 to make an appointment to come in ASAP. I've got one for 8:45am tomorrow. Ho ho ho!

December already

I'm not doing much blogging these days. I guess I don't really have anything to write about. We're just doing the usual - trying to get the Christmas decorations up, putting off the Christmas shopping as long as we can, working, schooling.

Logan's Jump Rope Club marched in the Rockwall Christmas Parade on Saturday. I had hoped to have some pictures from that, but we didn't get to go. Luke has been sick all weekend, so Logan went to the parade with her friend Kaitlyn.

Cameron's Drama Club is doing a production of Twas the Night Before Christmas sometime before school is out. Cameron is going to be Purple Playdoh. I think she has a couple of lines, but I can't imagine what Purple Playdoh has to say. :)

Both girls have music recitals next week. Their piano recital is Tuesday night. Logan is playing Deck the Halls (which I never want to hear again!), and Cameron is playing Away in a Manger. Cameron has a voice recital on Wednesday night, and I don't have any idea what she's singing. It's a voice class, so there will be a few other girls singing with her.

Luke's class is doing a Polar Express party in the classroom on Friday. I'm not sure if he'll be there, though. He started coughing last Wed/Thurs, started running fever on Saturday. If I had to guess, I'd say it seems a lot like the flu. I didn't race him off to the doctor, because 1) it was the weekend before he started running temp (of course!), and 2) he had an allergic reaction to Tamiflu last time he took it. I'll get him an appointment today just to make sure his cough isn't anything more serious.

I didn't realize this, but we get out on the 19th. For some reason, I had the 22nd in my head. But we've got the whole week of Christmas off.

Luke made this one day last week and taped it up on our fireplace mantle.

Oh Santa,
Wold U look at this picture.
I hope you bring toys for us.