Pre-Holiday Update


My body still feels out of whack. I felt like I bounced back a little on Monday in time to fly out to California. Grant and Hollie had a holiday party just before I left, and I was so proud of myself. I had half of a turkey-cheese sandwich, a few olives, three bites of jello, and some deviled eggs. And small cups of soy Nog and pomegranate 7-Up. The food didn’t even take up half of the plate. I didn’t touch the chips n’ dip, creamy soup, cheeseball, pumpkin yule log, sugar cookies, candy, pie, or other desserts.

In California on Tuesday, I went out to lunch with my old coworkers at Montclair and Chino hospitals. We ate at Rockin’ Baja Cantina, and it was the most food I’d eaten since I started getting sick. I had some chips with guacamole and salsa, surf-n-turf tacos, and all of us split a fried ice cream dessert. The surf-n-turf tacos had lean carne asada and juicy shrimp…delicious! It felt good to eat enough to actually feel full, but not totally overstuffed.

In the evening, we had the Bullock/Bluhm Christmas party. There was pizza and fried chicken for dinner, but I didn’t really like how either tasted. The frosted sugar cookies, on the other hand, called my name all evening. As the party progressed, I started getting some intense lower back pain. I’d had unusual back pain all day, but it hit me like a brick wall at the party. I started developing a little bit of a fever and general malaise, but it was so close to 9:00 pm that my favorite Urgent Care in Chino Hills was closed. It felt a lot like the pain associated with a kidney infection, and I didn’t want to mess around with an infection like that (espeically not knowing if I had C. Diff conclusively yet) I checked my ER copay ($25) and decided to go back over to Montclair Hospital’s ER. They’ve got a 2-hour ER guarantee, and I was in and out in 70 minutes. I didn’t have any infection in my urine, but was told that it was likely the after effects of all the GI symptoms over the last week. He said to rest, take it easy, and tank up on fluids.

I started today with 2 hours of last-minute shopping, but spent the rest of the day with family. I went to Trader Joes, and had the most successful shopping trip there ever! I didn’t touch all my TJ’s favorites (only bad because I can’t control my portions once I open the packages up):

Sweet Salty and Nutty Trek Mix
Chocolate-covered Edamame

Sweet, Savory, and Tart Trex Mix

Ritter Sport Corn Flake Bar
Pirate Booty

And for Christmas Eve dinner, Taylor had a micro-date to In-N-Out.

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