Wednesday - January 11th
Alissa and I woke up early this morning, like always because it's a school day. Parker managed to wake up early also. We were relaxing in the living room. Parker and I were sitting by the fire and Alissa was bundled up in a blanket on the couch. She had her head leaning against the wall while she watched a show on her phone. She said that it felt like her neck needed to pop all of the sudden. She hates when her neck pops because it feels extra scary for her. It makes one side of her face go numb for a little bit and she feels like she is going to pass out. She had told me about how that happens before, and it scares me a lot, but I never knew what to do about it. Anyway, she was scared that it was going to pop, so she sat up and moved hoping to stop it. She said when she sat up there was a little pop and her neck started to hurt really bad. She bent her head to one side and the pain wasn't as bad, but when she tried to bend it the other way, the pain was horrible. She started to cry and was totally freaked out. She had to keep her head bent to one side. She managed to calm down and tried watching a video to get her mind off of it. I called Linda (my 'ask a nurse' sister). I told her what was happening and she suggested that we take Alissa to the doctor as soon as possible. I called and made an appointment. They couldn't get us in until 11:30am, so Alissa had a couple more hours that she had to suffer through. She managed to get in a good position where the pain wasn't has horrible and she fell asleep until it was time to go.
She was so worried we would hit a bump or something on the drive there. She was in a lot of pain and couldn't bear the thought of the pain she'd experience if we went over any big bumps. The roads ended up being really bad. We have been having the craziest weather lately. This morning we woke up to 4 more inches of rain. The rest of the day it snowed and slushed (what I call snow that is almost rain) on and off all day. The freeway really took a beating from all this crazy weather. There were a ton of pot holes all over the road. It was kind of scary. I think Heavenly Father must have really been helping me, because I managed to avoid hitting all of them. On the way back after she was on medicine and not in such horrible pain, I wasn't as good at missing the potholes.
The doctor checked her out and asked her a lot of questions. She asked her to try and put her head up straight. Alissa moved it as far as she could with out the excruciating pain. Then the doctor asked her if she could move it further than that. Alissa told her, "I probably could, but it will make me cry." So, the doctor told her not to do it. Alissa is scheduled to go in for an MRI of her neck on Monday. The doctor seemed to also be concerned when we told her how it feels when Alissa's neck pops. I'm glad she will be getting things looked at and I'm glad she has some medicine so it doesn't hurt as bad. She has 3 different pain meds that she is taking. She said they don't get rid of the pain completely, but it hurts a lot less and she can put her head up straight.
After Alissa's appointment, we went to Walmart to get all her medicine, then we chilled in the truck while we waited for it to be time for my doctors appointment. I had made an appointment with Dr. Wilding to ask him about my knees, my thyroid, and my weight loss goals. I wanted to know what I could do for my knees. I told them that they don't hurt right now, but whenever I try and start jogging again, I have to stop, because my knees hurt so bad. I have to take it easy for a while until they recover. I was really hoping that he would suggest some kind of knee brace or something to help, so I could run without the pain, but that didn't happen. I asked him what I could do and he simply said, "Don't jog." He told me to walk and use other exercise equipment until I lose the weight, then I can try jogging again. He said it is too hard on my knees when I weigh this much. It made me laugh when I talked to him, because it was such an obvious answer that I hadn't even considered before I talked to him. I have been telling myself that the way I would lose weight is to start jogging again. I'm really glad I got that gym membership so I have more ways to get in shape and lose the weight. Doctor Wilding said it wasn't time to check my thyroid yet, so I didn't need to worry about that, and he prescribed me some Phentermine to help with my weight loss. We had a good laugh about that also. He asked if I had tried it before. I said I had in 2006. I didn't use it for very long but I like it. He laughed when I said I liked it, because he was telling me it can be an addictive medicine, so he was checking to see if I would have a problem with it. I don't know how to explain the whole conversation, but we had a good laugh about it and Alissa told him I do have an addictive personality. He prescribed the medicine for one month. I will go back and see him in a month, so he can see if it's working and if I want to keep going with it.
Another nice thing about that appointment was, when I went to pay, they said I had a credit on my account. Doctor Wilding used to put money in my account for me so I didn't have to pay a copay when I visited him. He hasn't done that in a long time though, so I was super surprised that there was a credit on my account. I love that! It makes me feel so special and cared for. Dr. Wilding is a really good guy. I'm so glad to know him.
Roger had an interview at work yesterday for an AMT position. They said they had to interview one more person today then they would let him know. He doesn't have high hopes that he will get it. He is the most qualified and he has been working in that position for the last 6 weeks while they have been working on the hiring process, but Autoliv is not run by super smart people and they have always been about hiring their friends for the big positions. Roger is not friends with the guy doing the hiring and he kind of feels like the guy doesn't like him, so who knows what will happen. Roger's at work now and he still hasn't heard anything. If they don't hire him, the other guy they are considering is a guy who is already an AMT in a different area. He is someone who has never worked in Roger's area before, so he knows nothing about what they do down there, and if they move him, they will have to hire another person to be the AMT in his area. It seems extremely stupid to move that guy over, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's what they do, because the guy is friends with the person hiring and he asked if he could have the position. It is sad how stupid they are in their decision making there. Roger had worked in that area for 13 years. He knows it all very well. He has also been working the job that he is applying for for the past 6 weeks and he has done an excellent job. Roger heard that the guy hiring had asked another employee who he thought he should hire. The employee told him to hire Roger. He explained that Roger has been working down there the longest, plus he's been working in that position for over a month. He told him that he thought Roger deserves it. I guess we will see soon enough if they do the right thing or not. I feel bad for all the stuff Roger has to deal with at work. I'm so thankful that I get to stay home with the kiddos. I am a %100 sure that I couldn't handle what he does at all.
I am feeling weak and super tired tonight, so I am going to go to bed now. Also, my upper back hurts and I don't know why. I feel like I overwhelmed myself with starting my vlog. I was super motivated and determined to post a video every day. It is fun, but the editing is so time consuming and youtube is frustrating because sometimes it uploads a video in mpeg4 format just fine and other times it won't. When that happens I end up having to produce the movie in other formats until I find the one it will accept. That takes forever, because it takes at least an half an hour for it to produce, then more time for it to upload and process. It's just frustrating and time consuming. I don't have enough time with homeschooling, crocheting , feeding my family, and taking care of the house. I think I need to get more organized and prioritize things so I'm not stressing myself out trying to accomplish everything.
