Hey there 28.... So far I don't think we are friends.

As I mentioned before I had an injury 9 weeks ago (I think...I'm loosing track of time now so it could have been 8 weeks ago). Regardless, it was a Wednesday and it happened to occur around the time of my 28th birthday. I think I gave a brief description HERE.

So it's kinda confusing and I have this natural reaction to suddenly have a massive head ache and want to fall asleep when I think about it or talk about it but I'll try to break it down the best I can.

- Spondylolisthesis
- Fracture in the Spine
- Degeneration of the Disc
- Nerve is pinched in the spine (in between the vertebras? the vertebrae and disc?) Just know it's pinched and there is pain.
- Someone else told me I have a pinched nerve in my flexor muscle?

Yuck.

So they gave me an oral steroid that did NOTHING. I'm back on an anti-anflamitory that makes it possible for me to walk. Which is nice. Come to find out you cannot do physical therapy for this pinched nerve business going on. You have one of two options:

1. Have a spinal injection of steroids into the spine. It's done in a surgery center, I'm sedated and they inject a steroid into my spine. Fun. Even better is I can only have this done three times in my life time into this one area. It wears off eventually- oh wait....that's IF it even works at all. The good news is it will get rid of the leg pain. Bad news is it won't get rid of the back pain. That is something I'm kinda stuck with....you know for life. So eventually option #2 happens. It's just a matter of when.

2. Spinal Surgery. The doctor goes in through my stomach, around my abdominal muscles and REMOVES my deformed vertebrae. He replaces it with a "cage". If that doesn't sound like enough fun he will then flip me over and puncture my back (his words, not mine) to place rods and screws into my body and screw/ bolt everything into place by using my existing bones...... Good news is I will never have back or leg pain again! Apparently. Where do I sign up???

So....I'm opting for the injection. Hopefully it will take. The good news is he said I can still run, even now, and I'm not doing any damage. So as long as I can work through the pain I'm fine. So I've been running this week and every time I do I want to die, but at least I'm out there I guess.

He probably doesn't realize I'm still pushing Georgia in the jogging stroller as I hack out 3 miles at Memorial (Did I mention she will be 6 next week?)...but hey those are just minor details. I have a marathon to prep for. So what if I can barely walk when I'm finished running- he said it's just my nerve.

Did I mention I don't like getting older so far?

Prima Ballerina

Exciting news for the day! Georgia is back in at the Houston Ballet Academy for Fall 2013!

Yay Georgia!!!!

Sooo if anyone is around downtown say 6pm Tuesday nights Georgia and I will be looking for some dining partners juuuuust about that time. Who wants to drive home in traffic when the Aquarium is RIGHT across the street???

Mother's Day 2013

My favorite Mother's Day Gift- "My Mom is Special" by Georgia Clare Bedre

"My Mom Is Special"

"I Love you Mommy"

"I like my Mommy because she love me"

I love my mommy because she is special"

"My mom is special because she can go to work"

"I like my mommy because she can dress"

"I love my mom because she takes me to the toy store"

"I love my mom because she goes to the Gap" <--apparently Georgia likes where I buy most of her clothing. Good to know.

"I love my mom because she takes me to Fudruckers"

 

A girl after my own heart- I can dress, I buy her clothes from Gap and she loves a good cheeseburger from Fudruckers.

Medical Alerts

Winston had his surgery and is at home recovering just fine. I have to say the day of I felt like the WORST dog mommy ever. He was absolutely pitiful. I worried he would never be the same animal again. He kept me up all night long whining. Well now I realize he's really just MAJORLY irritated over the cone he has to wear (I don't blame him) and when you take the cone off he's the same dog and happy as can be. Though...he doesn't jump when he has the cone on his head so I might just keep it around for awhile.... (kidding....kind of)

On the way to surgery. He was so excited to be able to ride with us that morning to drop Georgia off at school....Poor buddy had no idea what was coming....

This is what he looked like when I picked him up from the vet. SO mad at me. I felt horrible. Look at those eyes. Ugh- poor thing. :(

That afternoon at the house. He's depressed about the cone.

 He continually tries to lick but he can't so he is licking the inside of the plastic cone. Pretty comical when you have nothing better to do but sit around and laugh at your poor dog who just went through surgery I guess. At least it kept me entertained for good 5 minutes. Apparently I didn't feel like folding laundry....Gosh my life is super exciting.

Aww cutest puppy! He's feeling better!

  

And here they are- Georgia (in full protection gear she insists on wearing, helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, GLOVES....seriously she was just skating inside. All about self preservation that one is) and Sweet Winston- how cute is he in this pic?

Yes, after all the guilt I felt I know I made the right call now. We will all be much happier and I don't have to worry about him getting old and marking stuff around the house one day. Win/Win. Let's just say for the millionth time yet another reason why I'm glad I never had a son. If I had THIS much trouble debating on having my dog neutered (and it wasn't even an issue over me breeding him...I was never going to do that) can you imagine how crazy I would have made myself over whether or not to circumcise a live child? Ugh- Sometimes even thinking about it drives me crazy. Nope... baby factory closed. That is one decision I'm happy to NEVER have to make.

Picture Catch Up!

We have been running around like crazy lately....Here is a quick catch up (from my phone pics) on things that have been going on. It's getting hard to keep up with everything but here is the important (Georgia) stuff. I am happy to say I have officially nailed down her summer schedule. Registrations have been turned in, Nanny has been hired and everything should go off like clockwork. Along with summer registration I also finished up Fall registration for fall ancillary classes and ordered school supplies for FIRST GRADE this week. Ummm what? Honestly I'm just thrilled to be able to say I'm done with registrations!!!! I also booked and planned her birthday party this week- we had a change of venue and theme (naturally). Mailed invites went out yesterday and school invites are going out today. I only have a couple more finals to go and then I'm finished for the semester and I will finally be able to breathe. Whew! Oh yeah and the leg/ back issue. So over it. I'll go into detail later.... meanwhile, here we go:

Let's start two weekends ago.....Field Day! Whoops- no. Wrong day. We were ready. I didn't realize it wasn't field day until we were in the parent drop off line and there was not another blue shirt in sight. Sure hope she enjoyed her trial run through...

That Friday night we went to the Zoo for Zoobilee..

 The Fashionista sometimes accessorizes herself

Saturday soccer game and my Mom came to watch!

 I'm loving the "look" we have going on this year.

Sunday- Shriner's Circus! Pretty cool!

Ahhhh- the mystical wand that was taken away....

I had never seen this before...

 Eli and I at the Circus

Last weekend starting with Field Day (the real one) Yay! FIELD DAY is FINALLY HERE!

After field day a trip to the museum for "Destination Egypt" Georgia passed out on the way home but you can see the "Cleopatra Cat Eyes" she had done while at the exhibit. Fun fun!

The next day on our way to the dance recital!
(I'm missing some pics from a soccer game that was that morning before the dance recital)

 

 Post Dance Recital with Mommy

 

After the Dance Recital time to head over to a friend's birthday slumber party!!

See ya later! Sure hope we didn't pack too many activities into your weekend ;)

 
Rounding out last weekend with dinner at Ninfa's on Navigation to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.
(How is she still going?)

Oh Winston...

Oh Winston.... Once upon a time you were the sweetest dog ever. It was slightly cute that you jumped all over everyone and were SO excited to see us when we walked in the door. We loved to cuddle with you because you knew how to cuddle and respect personal space. I didn't mind you sleeping on the bed because you kept to the foot of the bed.

My oh my how things have changed. The jumping is OUT.OF.CONTROL. you have officially become annoying. I still love you but I cannot stand the way you aren't satisfied with cuddling up on my side in the evenings while I'm doing school work on the couch- you INSIST on curling up ON TOP of my laptop!!! My dear...it just isn't working. As much as I love you it completely creeps me out the way you somehow maneuver your body under the covers and I wake up with you laying next to me, head on the pillow, covered up to your neck...how do you do that?

We try to give you lots and lots of attention and I know it's my fault for taking too long in booking your neuter appointment but you convinced me at 2:30am last night that it's time. I do feel guilty about doing this to you but I think you and I are going to co-exists on a much happier level once this is over with. Of course, as long as you stop eating Georgia's Barbie's that is....

Once you have recovered from surgery tomorrow get ready- it's time for doggie boot camp. You are going to be the best trained beast in Memorial.

Don't you want to be on Santa's "Nice" list again???

Oh. So it's NOT a torn muscle then?

6 weeks ago I was running at Memorial Park. I was on mile 5 when I felt something weird in my right hip/leg. Almost like a pop of some sort. It kind of felt like something had been dislocated. I shook my leg out and kept running because I almost felt like I could "pop" it back into place. By the time I finished running and made it back to the car I was in pain and kind of limping but still had that feeling that I could just "pop" my leg out of it. So I went home and did Tae Bo. Needless to say I couldn't walk by the end of the night.

I went to a Physical Therapist a week later who told me it was Piriformis Syndrome. It added up and seemed to fit with the pain, etc. I was having. The only problem was he told me it would go away within 2 weeks. 3 weeks later still in pain, still can't run. I was taking anti-inflammatory medications and I thought I was healing then I would go a day without them and would not be able to walk.

After going through the rounds with the PT guy I finally made an appointment with another doctor. Prior to seeing him I went to Nashville. When I arrived I realized I forgot the medicine and I literally had problems walking the entire trip. It was embarrassing. When I returned home I pulled out some crutches I had and I started using those to get around the house I was in so much pain.

I went to the first doctor and he did x-rays of my hip, found nothing but referred me to an orthopedic doctor whom I saw yesterday. The orthopedic did x-rays of my back and lo' and behold I have a spinal fracture and something called "spondylolisthesis".... fabulous. So I have a vertebrae that never formed correctly from, oh I don't know, way back when I was in the womb and it "gives" or slips and now it is fractured. So that is what it has done and it slipped right on my sciatic nerve which is causing all of my pain.

Ugh- anyway now I am waiting to go in for an MRI sometime this week (hopefully) and then we will put together a game plan to fix this.

P.S. I have a marathon to run in September. I don't have any more time to waste.....

*****Editing this to add- I showed Georgia the x-rays last night. She thought they were cool. Then this morning we were talking on the way to school and she asked how it happened. I said "I'm not really sure but I think probably when I was running. That or maybe you've been stepping on too many cracks and you finally did break your poor mother's back!"

"MOM! That's JUST a joke!" She totally thinks I'm funny.