Another MRI

Yup, I had to have another one recently. I really do not enjoy them. But at least this time it was on my liver and not my brain. Slightly better, in that I could at least move my head around.

I am a tad bit claustrophobic – not like full-on panic mode, but enough that I have to psych myself up each time. This time, the techs working with me were kind enough to demonstrate that my head would be quite close to the opening in back, and that if I turned my head rather sharply to the side and looked up, I could see the opening the entire time. That helped immensely.

I was also able to listen to the music again, and this time I chose to listen to OLD country rather than NEW country so at least I knew the songs playing and could follow along with them, even though I could barely hear them. MRIs are incredibly loud, plus this time – since the liver is located just under the lungs – they kept breaking into the music to tell me to hold my breath please… okay, breath now… hold your breath again please… okay resume breathing… etc…etc.

And of course, they had difficulties finding a vein for the IV again. They tried the right arm first then the left arm, going back and forth until they finally got one. I now have a tiny little bruise on my arm (but hey, it matches my toe at least!).

The truly amazing part of all these MRIs and Ultrasounds and blood work being done is that all the results are online. I can actually see the pictures of my brain if I want to – which, of course, I do. Next on my list of things to do today is to log on and take a look at my liver.

The other amazing thing is that the results are available within 24 hours. My doctor knows the very next day and calls me to discuss things as soon as she can. Which means that I already know this particular MRI was negative. They did not find what they thought they would find. Which means that they STILL don’t know what’s wrong with me.

But at least they know what’s not wrong with me – right?

Memorable Moments on an Airplane

I’ve traveled a fair bit in my time and have had more than a few moments worth remembering. Feel free to share your moments in the comment section below!

Once, when I was in high school, I went to Ketchikan to visit a friend of mine for a long weekend. The airport in Ketchikan is on an island across the bay from the main town and flying into that airport is always tricky. This particular time, it was probably the closest to crashing as I’ve ever been; the plane bucking all over the place and was nearly tossed upside down a few times, even. The poor lady sitting next to me had a death grip on the arm rests and was shouting over and over, “OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD!”

Another time I was traveling to Valdez for work when a guy tried to open the door mid-flight. He was in full-on panic mode, and it took four grown men to subdue him. The plane had to turn around and land back at the Anchorage Airport, where the guy (who, coincidently, happened to be my boss) was escorted off and we resumed our flight. He ended up driving to work that week!

When my brother was going to school down in Seattle, I decided to spend a 4-day weekend to visit him. Normal flight times from Anchorage to Seattle are roughly 5 hours – this particular flight lasted over 17 hours! As you know, Seattle has horrible weather at times, so my plane had to circle Seattle for a while in hopes that a break in the weather would allow it to land. We ran out of gas, so had to be re-routed to Vancouver to fill up. Vancouver is a foreign country, so we were not allowed off the plan at that time because no one had their passports with them. We went back to Seattle and continued to circle until we ran out of gas a second time. This time, they sent us to Denver to refuel – where they made us all get off the plane to go through Customs, because we’d been in a foreign country (even though we never got off the plane there). Then we boarded our plane again and went back to Seattle to circle some more. Sure enough, we ran out of gas a third time! They sent us to Portland this time, to refuel and restock the drinks, which by this time had bee freely flowing - before once again heading back to Seattle to circle some more. FINALLY, we got to land and get off that damned airplane. Sadly, that turned my 4-day visit in to a 2-day visit, but it was still cool to visit my brother a while.

On a flight to London one time, the guy who was seated next to me was suffering from food poisoning. Man, he looked terrible: pasty white with tinges of green around the edges. Thankfully, the flight was barely half-full so the stewardess managed to give him the back row of seats so he could lay down, and he had one of the bathrooms dedicated solely to him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more miserable person.

Coming home from Hawaii back in ’82 the airplane took off like normal, then within two or three minutes made a very sharp turn and landed again back on the runway. The pilot came on the intercom to inform us that they literally just dropped an engine. Like, it fell OFF THE PLANE! Maintenance crew transferred us to a different plan so they could reattach the engine. Thankfully our new plan made it home safely.

The best one, however, was coming home from Seattle once – I don’t remember the trip, but I certainly remember that flight. Mid-way home, some high school kid thought it would be a good idea to strip down and streak naked from the back of the plane all the way to the front and back again, all the while shrieking in a loud voice “Yeeeaaaahhhh!!!” The stewardesses grabbed him, with the help of a few passengers, and locked him up in one of the bathrooms until we landed. We were not allowed to disembark until the police came and hauled him away in handcuffs. I heard later that he actually went to jail for that little escapade.

Medical Update

I had my MRI a week ago, along with an ultrasound on my liver.

The Ultrasound was no big deal: just lay back and have goo squirted onto your belly. At least they heat the goo up for you! Bryan says when he had one at the urologist’s office they did NOT heat it up first. Anyway, I was not concerned about that test in any way – except to say that the prep for it required me to fast: No Food and No Water for at least 8 hours prior to the test.

No problem. The test was at 9:15 in the morning, so I simply went without my morning cup of tea.

The prep for the MRI, however, was that I should arrive “Well Hydrated” to facilitate the IV process. How exactly am I supposed to be Well Hydrated for this procedure and yet have no water for 8 hours for that procedure?!? I compromised by drinking a LOT of water the four or five days prior to fasting.

It didn’t really work, however. The tech running the MRI machine had the darndest time finding a vein. He tried for a good 15-20 minutes, looking at first this arm and then that arm. At one point, I had a tourniquet tied around both my elbow AND my wrist, hoping to make one appear somewhere in between that was big enough to handle the needle. He finally had to call in his supervisor in hopes that she would have better luck. Eventually they did manage to find one – and she was able to insert the needle with minimal pain or bruising afterwards.

The MRI itself was just horrible, no other way to say it. They were looking at my pituitary gland which is located pretty much dead center of my brain – so I had to have my head in this cradle thingy, with a helmet on that focused the x-rays right exactly where they needed them to be. I was able to wear some earphones with music piped in, so that helped to distract me from the fact that I’m basically tied down onto a conveyor belt and squeezed into a tube just barely big enough to fit my shoulders into. And of course the noise levels are horrendous so I could barely hear the music, even though I had ear muffs on.

Of course, I had a migraine that morning – stress will do that to me every time. One of the weird things about my migraines is that they do not like to lay down. The MRI required that I lay down for at least 45 minutes, as well as deal with with loud noises and tight spaces. I was NOT a happy camper, to say the very least.

Eventually I got to go back home to recover, and ended up having a great day. Surprisingly my doctor called me the very next day with the results – I thought I’d have to wait at least a couple weeks.

MRI = negative, which means no tumor!

Ultrasound = positive, which means … well, heck. I don’t even know what that means.

The results really caught me off guard. I totally expected the reverse! Now I don’t know what to do. I’m supposed to get a phone call soon from a specialist about my liver to find out what’s wrong with it.

Living the GF Life

It’s been over a month now, since I started eating Gluten Free. I have to say it’s not as hard as I thought it would be. My diet in general was pretty much GF anyway, so there really wasn’t that much to give up. I also have to say that I feel no difference at all. I’m neither better nor worse – I still have headaches, I still have joint pain, and I’m still exhausted all the time.

The hardest part has been trying to overcome the “I can’t have it anymore” attitude. Now that I know I can’t have toast or bread or cookies or, or, or… I find that I WANT TOAST AND COOKIES AND BREAD AND, AND, AND… I also find that I am absolutely STARVING and could literally eat all day long. Hopefully that will go away soon, before I have to buy a whole new wardrobe.

I did find a cool ap for my phone to help in the grocery store. All I have to do is scan a bar code and the ap tells me if it’s GF or not! I know, I could figure that out on my own by reading the ingredients list – but more often than not I forget to bring my reading glasses with me, so can barely even see the ingredients list let alone read the darned thing. There are the occasional items that the ap does not know about, but for the most part it’s been really helpful.

We were happy to find out that The Palmer Alehouse, one of our favorite places to eat out, not only offers GF burger buns and GF pizza crust but also a GF veggie patty, so whenever Bryan feels the need for one of his giant jalapeño burgers I can get my veggie burger too!

We also discovered that my favorite fast food truck, Elwood’s, located right in the Credit Union parking lot, has a GF version of their Buddha Bowl so I can still treat myself occasionally when I’m out and about. To be honest, their original version tastes a whole lot better – but at least I can still eat there occasionally. You just need to watch them – the other day I ordered the GF Buddha Bowl and ended up with a regular one.

We had a hankering for sushi a while back and discovered that our favorite sushi restaurant in Eagle River (Jimmy’s Sushi, next door to Jitters) offers up a wide variety of GF sushi rolls, GF soy sauce, and is quite happy to work with you to make whatever you wish to order more palatable for you! We will definitely be going back there again.

And finally, there is The Omnivore restaurant in Palmer (located in the building where Humdinger’s used to be). Everything on their menu is GF! Admittedly, this is not Bryan’s kind of food – but at least it is somewhere I can go and order whatever catches my eye without needing to ask if it’s GF or not.

Interesting Things Seen While Driving in Palmer

Just a few random things I’ve seen lately that seem worthy of note:

There’s this guy who rides his bicycle all over town. That, in itself, is not exactly noteworthy - because there are a lot of bicyclers in town. But this guy – he rides his bicycle while singing and playing a guitar! He’s quite good, too.

Then the other day I saw a car with a sunroof. Again, not exactly noteworthy on its own – but this one had a rather large husky with his head sticking up out of the open sunroof. He was perfectly centered in the car, and his was like, “oh, I’m driving down the road watching the world go by.” It was so cute.

And finally today up by the high school I saw two teenagers taking their caribou for a walk. Yes, you read that correctly: they each had a caribou on a leash with a halter, and they were on the bike path just taking a stroll. I thought to myself, “Only in Alaska!”

Bowling!

Mother has been talking about how much fun going bowling is and how much she wanted to go again – so finally I took the hint and organized a Bowling Party. I invited the whole family to join us, knowing full well that not everyone would be able to. The final tally was Me, Bryan, Mother, Lisa and her friend Josh. That made for a very fun afternoon! We rented two lanes side by side, so it was Me, Bryan and Mother on lane 17 against Lisa and Josh on lane 18.

Bryan blew us all out of the running with a very strong pitch (is it a pitch when you’re bowling? I don’t know the proper terminology) with Mother following closely and with me trailing along behind… way, way, WAY behind. The scoreboard that keeps track of everybody’s score also clocks how fast the bowling ball travels down the lane: sometimes Bryan’s ball went over 20 mph! I was doing good if mine went over 10 mph…

We worried about mother’s balance and coordination, but she did really good. Her thumb is all swollen today, and she has new bruises up and down her arm – but she had such a good time, she’s talking about going again! Maybe more of the family can join us this time.

Talkeetna is Amazing!

It doesn’t matter how long you’ve lived here or how many times you’ve seen her, Denali never fails to elicit such awe and excitement! This weekend didn’t start out very good, weather-wise – but by Sunday, we got the full view right outside our front door!

The cabin we rented this time was right on the Susitna River. Such a gorgeous locations – I’m sure it’s really nice in the summertime! We just might have to go back when the fish are running. Inside the cabin was warm & toasty, with a gas fireplace and a small kitchenette. They said there was a grille and a picnic table outside, but it was buried under 4 feet of snow – so we just made do with the electric skillet and crock pot for our meals.

Bryan worked on his fly tying, getting ready for Pike season. I (as usual) worked on some cards and got caught up on my letter writing. I realize this is just a repeat of the last fifteen weekend get-aways, but honestly we look forward to them so much and thoroughly enjoy our time together. I would prefer to have had my kittens with me, but they did just fine at home with Grandma.

And since you can’t go to Talkeetna and NOT go to the local brewery, we of course went TWICE! Once for lunch at the Brewery itself, and a second time at the Brewpub downtown for dinner. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked into the main brewery; they’ve really spruced up the place since our last visit. They even have a wood-fired pizza oven now!  I opted for a kale salad and a blueberry mojito, while Bryan had a bowl of chili and a flight of their tasty beer.

Did I Say That Out Loud?

Back in my younger days I had not yet learned to think before I speak, so more often than not my mouth would get me in to trouble. Thankfully I have (finally) learned to keep my thoughts to myself – but here are a few examples of me putting my foot in my mouth:

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One time when I worked at the pipeline, I headed upstairs to talk to the engineer who’s drawing I was working on at the time. When I got there, he was telling a story to his buddies about the horseback riding he and his wife had done that weekend, commenting on how sore he was today. I opened my mouth and said, “Well, now you know how us women feel all the time.”

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Another time, I was sitting at the dinner table at our company’s Christmas party, talking to the President of the company – and I proceeded to tell him that “I go home and play with my Thing every night.” What he didn’t know was that Thing was the name of my cat.

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And finally, there is the time where I was having issues with my annual PAP smear so kept having to go back in to the doctor’s office to get yet another one done. One day during all of this, I happened to go to lunch with some friends of mine at a local Thai restaurant. Right as we were walking in, my doctor was walking out with a bunch of his friends. He said something like, “Oh! Imagine running in to you here!” and I said, “Well, at least I get to keep my clothes on this time.”

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Feel free to share your stories in the comments below!

Migraines, Doctors, and Tests

After a good 10 years (if not more) of avoiding the issue entirely, I finally broke down and went to my doctor to talk about my migraines. They are getting worse, and it worries my mother too much. 

Rather than just giving me a bunch of pills to try, this doctor is taking a rather new approach: she is basically going back to the very beginning and running all the tests again to see if there is an underlying cause that has been missed all these years.

The first thing she did was order a barrage of blood test. Not your normal cholesterol and blood sugar tests,  but more in-depth ones that aren’t normally run. She also noticed that I have a heart murmur, so – since a heart murmur could indicate a hole in the heart, and that may in turn cause headaches, she sent me to a specialist to have an Ultrasound and a Push Test done.

The Ultrasound was no biggie at all – pretty much exactly what pregnant women get all the time. They took all kinds of pictures from all different positions and did not find anything. The Push Test, however, was a whole different story. They hook you up to an IV with just your basic saline solution, then they take a big needle and push really hard and fast, agitating the solution until it bubbles, and then they force all those bubble into your veins leading to your heart. Trust me, it’s no fun at all. But, at the end of the day, they determined that I do not have a hole in my heart – or at least, not one that is big enough to cause any problems.

By that time the results from the blood test had come in, so I got a phone call from my doctor to go over the results of that. There were some surprises, actually. Apparently I have the Epstein-Barr virus in me (it either causes or is caused by Mono, which I had as a child): it’s not active, thankfully, but it is there.

More surprising, however, is that I am apparently Gluten Intolerant! She recommended a gluten-free diet from now on, so I am dealing with that now. How to adjust my diet to avoid all forms of gluten, and what I can and cannot eat anymore. Bryan is – as always – very supportive and is actively helping me find new ways of cooking some of our favorites meals.

Yet another result of the blood test is a bit more alarming. There is a marker in the blood: the name has lots of letters in it that mean absolutely nothing to me, but normal levels are anywhere between 5 and 60 = mine are at 226!  She told me that there is a distinct possibility that I have a tumor in my Pituitary Gland, so now I get to have an MRI scan to see if there is one. If there is, I will have to have it removed (yup: brain surgery). On the bright side, the doctor doing it is my Neurosurgeon, Dr. Kralick. I like him.

I am also on a waiting list to see an Endocrinologist in Anchorage – just in case the MRI actually does turn up something worrisome. Not sure what to expect from that, but it will certainly be interesting, whatever it is.

And today I gave yet more blood for even more tests. I guess my doctor is leaving no stone unturned in her search for why my head hurts so much.

Weekend Get-Away in Girdwood

The Weekend Get-Away for March took us back to Girdwood for another Skiing Trip. And yes, he actually got to ski this time!

The place we rented was nice – not somewhere I’d want to live exactly, but for what we do it was perfect.

Bryan cooked us a special meal: steak for him and portobello mushrooms for me.

He hit the slopes all day Friday, while I got to watch movies and play with paper.

The only thing missing was my kittens!

My Brother, The Hero

As most of you know, Palmer got hit by a major wind storm a few months ago, with winds gusting up to 91 miles per hour and temperatures dropping down to well below zero. All of this went on for a good 3 days, knocking trees down and causing considerable damage to houses and businesses.

My brother Reed is a lineman for the Electric company. He and his coworkers worked around the clock the entire time, and for a week afterwards, trying to keep the power going. Can you imagine climbing a pole 20 feet up in 91 mph winds and -45 temps all while working with hot electrical wires! They worked 24/7, taking quick power naps in their trucks and then heading back out in the storm again.

The Mayor of the Mat-Su Borough recognized their efforts as being above the call of duty and awarded them with a certificate of appreciation. Well Deserved, if you ask me!

These photos were not taken in the actual storm, but they do give you an idea as to who my brother is.

 

The California Condor

One of the coolest things I got to see while at the Grand Canyon was not one but TWO of the California Condors!

 

These birds are extremely endangered, with only 500 left in the world. The Grand Canyon is home to around 100 of them, and I got to see TWO of them!

 

Of course, these photos are about as bad as you can get… But it’s the best I could do.

The Riders and Their Mules

Joyce and her mule J-1

Becky and her mule Cuco (pronounced Koo-Koh)

Ruth and her mule Sansa

The three of us!

Love That Mule!

 The mule I got to ride down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon was named Sansa. She was the greatest mule EVER! I loved Sansa. She was feisty and tried to sneak a snack all the time (they’re not supposed to eat on the job). But all I ever had to do was tug on the reins a bit and she’d behave again.  The following pictures are from our lunch break the first day: I went over to say hello and she took the opportunity to scratch her head all over me. Thankfully the girl who offered to take a picture got it all on film.

The Grand Canyon!

I recently had the opportunity to go on such an amazing journey! Thank you so much to Becky and Debbie and Joyce for allowing me to tag along. It was truly awesome. We rode the Mules down the Grand Canyon!

We got to the canyon Thursday afternoon. After checking in to our hotel (the Bright Angel Lodge) and dropping off our gear at the mule barn (it went down ahead of us to greet us at the bottom) we had time to explore a little bit, so we decided to go to the Mather Point Overlook. The canyon is truly a Grand place, that is for sure. What spectacular views!

After a good night’s sleep, we met up with our mules and headed on down the canyon. Unfortunately, Debbie decided not to join us, so it was just Becky, Joyce, and me. We really missed Debbie’s company, but her health just would not have enjoyed the trip.

The Bright Angel Trailhead is at elevation 6,840 ft. – after about 4 hours in the saddle, we stopped at Indian Gardens (elevation 3,800 ft.) for a break and a bite of lunch. Two hours later, we finally landed at Phantom Ranch (elevation 2,470 ft.). We were quite saddle sore and sweaty, but certainly happy to get there.

Our cabin at the ranch was cozy: two bunk beds and a tiny bathroom with just enough room for a toilet (and that’s it). The food they served was good with very generous portions. No chance of anybody going hungry down there.

Temperatures down at the bottom were averaging around 94 degrees, so we decided to do our hiking early the next morning in an attempt to avoid the worst of the heat. We chose a nice little hike called The River Walk that took us across one bridge and along the trail that the mules took, then looped us back around to another bridge and back to our campsite.

Sunday morning put us back in the saddle on the same mules we rode in on: I rode Sansa, Joyce rode on J-1, and Becky rode on cuco (pronounced Koo-Koh). The ride up was not quite as rough as the one going down; but we were still quite happy to arrive back up at the rim and to meet back up with our lost companion.

To celebrate our fabulous ride, we treated ourselves to dinner at the famous El To Var restaurant! Good Food, Good Conversations, and a Great Vacation!