A lil' o' this... n' that.

New Years Eve is tomorrow (true story: I honestly had to double check..) and I've been catching up on my blog reading from over the last few days (yes, I've actually been busy... but we'll get to all that). Everyone's been blogging about post-Christmas craziness, or their Fav's from 2010 (everything from TV show's to pictures to books), or what they hope for out of the fresh start the new year brings. I'm a huge list maker. I don't venture out of the house to buy more than 1 or 2 things without a list, something would surely be forgotten and I'd have to go back, and who has the time for multiple trips to the store... that's just crazy talk. I've seen a few ladies out here in Bloggy-Land recapping their lists from 2010 (what happened, what didn't, what turned out to be an epic fail). I'm starting to ponder this idea. Keep you're eyes out for that. I like that it's not a resolution to lose 10 lbs, it's more of a bucket list for the year... and I dig it.

I know I missed Wednesday but I've been busy (I'll recap what I've been doing next) I have to let everyone know I desperately WANT a massage! My back has been killing me. Either my boobs are getting bigger (Lord help me) or this bed has really taken it's toll on me. Either way... the back is aching.

Monday, I went with the girls down to the gym- we were ready for a Volleyball throw down! Sadly, no one showed. You see what had happened was, the ladies' husbands failed to register for the tournament in time to play and the other two teams that did take the time to register felt like they had better things to do- and didn't show. That makes us the undefeated-first place champs! HA... We showed up an hour early at 1 to practice and wound up staying until 4.... I hurt afterwards (could have something to do with the back pain huh? But that was 3 days ago... Anywho. Fast forward a day (Tuesday) a new couple we like took pity on us. We squished into the car and jumped on the Autobahn and headed over to Ramstein. The Autobahn out here where we are isn't too crowded- we're in the middle of no-wheres-ville, but it was still an experience driving 120MPH and it being legal. eeeek. Ramstein has the biggest PX (pardon me, "Exchange") in the world! It's a mall- straight up. Last week I told you all I wanted the Jack WolfSkin Ontario Parka in Black.. they had it at in Ramstein. No I didn't get it. I have a perfectly suitable winter coat. :( I still want it though. It's something to be excited over when our "exchange" here is the smallest I've ever seen and the Commissary only has 6 registers. We had Chili's for dinner and headed back in the snow... we made it back and all in all had a great time with our newest homies.

Today I'm off to schedule my hair appointment, take my USAREUR drivers license test (wish me luck), and get our application submitted for our travel passports. Do you know thanks to RyanAir the hubs and I could have flown to Dublin (Ireland!!) on this 4-day weekend for 127 Euro total, no each (round trip)?? Yes, we'll be getting our Passports ASAP!

Happy Thursday All.

It's not always easy

1st: I was helping my sister look for her wedding ring (that my nephew had climbed up onto the counter to get; took outside and through into the air when he was finished playing with them) yesterday and burnt my arm pretty badly on her lawn mower... it's a story that's pretty long to type so I won't bore you with the details.

The point:

Yeah-- I was attempting to move the blades up on the lawn mower and bumped the exhaust.

YUCK. OUCH. That'll be pretty {sarcasm} for quite some time. It's already a darker-purpleish color and the blister is still intact which is good. The blister and the blister juice is the body's way of protecting itself. It's still ugly.

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Kevin has been home for 10 days now. Unlike some other welcome home stories I've heard/read and contrary to both mine and Kevin's expectations for this time period; it's been rough.

There are a number of factors to why things haven't been honeymoon-esque for the Hubs and myself:

• The habits I created while Kevin was deployed.
• Re-learning how to do things for two (vs. just lil' ol' me)
• Kevin learning remembering I'm not one of his soldiers.
• Kevin's attempt to quit smoking -- if you remember a few months back I blogged about how Kevin had quit smoking (which is what I was told, mmm-hmm). Well he wasn't successful. He didn't tell me this. Basically, he returned home last Wednesday and Thursday was his first day of not smoking in a while.
• Taking responsibility for being unemployed, thus our current financial situation.

Those are some of the reasons that Kevin and I have had a difficult time reintegrating over the course of the last week. Kevin has been extremely short-tempered; flying off the handle at the smallest, most inane things. These are things that Kevin has admitted and owned up to, fully. However, I am a strong believer that a marriage is about both parties. If something is wrong or isn't working it's on both people involved. It's up to the couple (together) to work it out; get through it together!

You all know the drill after they return to work, briefings, briefings and more briefings. Well he mentioned some of our/his difficulties with getting adjusted to Behavior Health. Kevin brought home some literature home about Soldier Combat Stress. This isn't quite PTSD but it's pretty much what the name implies.

I'm here to tell everyone if your redeployment/re-integration experience isn't picture-perfect, or the smoothest of transitions it's ok. It's not the end of the world. Kevin and I are working on it and we're already doing better. So don't let the love-birds get you down. ;)

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I'm off now The Santa Claus is on TBS this is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE movies.

LOVE. IT.

PS:

I wanted to let the people know that my knee feels much better now! I took every one's advice: rested, ice and motrin! :) I forgot that in all of my other dramas.

Ouch!

Ok, so maybe 9 out of 10 of you being runners will be helpful at this point. I think I injured my knee at the gym yesterday. I was doing calf raises. I know that as a rule of thumb you are not to lock your knees during this exercise (it's BAD, BAD, bad to force your knees to bear all of the weight). But I have never been able to do these calf-raises without locking my knees. All the same... my right knee HURTS!!! I looked it up on WebMD and based on the picture it looks like my meniscus..? =( the pain is just under my knee cap. There is no swelling or bruising- nothing like that. It just hurts to put weight on it or to stretch it. So I've been icing, keeping it elevated and trying not to gimp around since yesterday afternoon. Since there is no visible inflammation I've been skipping the vitamin M (800 mg Motrin). My plan currently is to keep up with the ice and resting it until tomorrow, then if it's still hurting go to the doc.

I'm curious runners, what do you know about knee injuries? Should I be concerned? Is there something other than ice I should be doing?

Story of my life!

As reported this AM I went to Urgent Care (of Base) for my neck issue! Well, come to find out I sprained/strained/pulled in some way my trapezious muscle. Good news huh? Well not so much. This is the biggest motivator for ER visits and most commonly associated with trauma (such as a car accident). Well at least I'm not alone in my "pain". This was not an all together unpleasent experience- Urgent Care. I brought my ipod and watched a movie and just as I set it down to take a nap in comes the Doc. We discussed what was going on and he prescribed me a muscle relaxer (which I can't remember the name of- put will insert later), 800 Mg of Motrin (SHOCKING!), and Vicodin (woohoo) for pain. I was in and out of there in 1 hour and 25 mins!.. success!

Here is where the nonsense started. I headed over to the clinic on Pete to have my scripts filled... Well Pete Clinic doesn't fill written scripts, only the refil pharmacy located in the BX/Commissary does. So I had to journey all the way across the base to the refil pharmacy where I waiting in line behind every elderly person in the county only to be told that TriCare won't fill my specific muscle relaxer and vicodin together?!! Grr... "What, your kidding right?" was my reaction. "So I can either treat the pain or the problem but not both?" The disgruntled Government Employee behind the window replies "I still can't fill it." I thought to myself "that's not helpful at all but F-you." It isn't her fault so I didn't say that- of course. Doesn't make me any less discouraged though... So I filled the muscle relaxer and the motrin (as if I didn't already have that stock-piled in the cabinent)... but wasn't going to wait an hour and a half for it... so here I am at home blogging about it because that will surely effect change in some way right? ha ha All the same I have only about 15 more minutes before I have to go back and pick them up. If the pain doesn't stop within 7-10 days next step is an MRI to determine if there is a disc issue! Fingers crossed!!

OO... almost forgot they gave me a shot in the "back" for pain, but can't remember the name of that either. Starts with a "T"? I don't know about you but I cannot for the life of me figure out why the medical community says the shot is going in your butt and ask you to turn around and drop your pants when they never put the shot in your "cheek"!!! Ps this one actually hurt... =( And I feel no better- no worse.

ALSO! this nice civilian doctor told me that there are at least 3 studies that indicate 800Mg of Motrin 3 times per day is actually more effective and better for you than Vicodin/Muscle relaxer combination... I found this very interesting for 2 reasons:

1) It made me laugh and giggle because it sort of reinforced the Militaries need to prescribe Motrin like it's the only medication on Earth.

2) Again, I laugh and giggle because if this is better (in any way) than the muscle relaxer/Vicodin combination why would he give me all of the above? I found humor in it... But here is how it was rationalized:
Motrin- for inflamation
Vicodin- for pain
Mystery Muscle Relaxer- to 'relax' the muscle and decrease the spasming!

Any who... hope the combo works!

Any one now how much it costs to fill a prescription for Vicodin off post? Maybe I would be better off getting it off the streets...? Totally kidding! =p (off I go, no time to proof-read, sorry for any and all mis-spellings!)

Very Interesting....

So you know how I've been more or less bitching about only being prescribed Motrin for my neck- which has prohibited me from going to the doc for it? Well, I called this AM for an appointment on Base; Some Background: My pops was Air Force for 21 years, and retired from Peterson AFB. So my records are at the clinic on Pete and really it is closer than Ft. Carson/Evan's Hospital so I saw no reason to have my records moved. So basically I am still receiving medical attention on Peterson... ANYWHO... When I requested the appointment, there wasn't anything available for a while (I suppose) so they schedule me a walk-in at an Urgent Care place off Base. Who knew?! When I was living in DC I know that with the huge military community out there, people were often assigned a PCM off base/post/whatever. Well that is still fairly new for this area- hence my surprise! All the same I will be seeing a doc today about my neck. I've had a few people tell me they think it's a nerve thing because it doesn't hurt like a muscle ache...! URG... time will tell!

Other than that I spoke with Kevin this morning and he's going out on mission today. This is part of the gig I suppose but it still sucks to hear! Fingers crossed and I'll talk to him tomorrow!

I'm just waiting for my sis to pick up Nathan- she had more appointments this morning so I'm on kid duty! We played some Wii, which he loves by the way (Mario Cart rocks!) and now we're watching Shrek. So whenever his mommy is done at the doc and they pick him up i'll be going to hang out at the Urgent Care place.. New Territory for this girl who's spent her life receiving medical care on a military installation! I wonder if this will be like the Social Security Office or DMV. Time will tell.

The Pain... It's Back!

My neck is killing me... Tomorrow I call good ol' TriCare for an appointment! I still don't have any faith that they are going to do anything other than give me motrin! But we shall see.. No- that isn't me being bitchy or pessimistic that is me being realistic!!

PS: Brody has really REALLY awful gas! It's just bad..! :(