Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful time with my family in the pool. First it was my son and I, then my daughter and I then all of us once my husband got home. I really enjoyed the time, but I was very active for hours. I lifted my son up and threw him into the water, he loved that, I don't know how many times he said, "again, again". We made whirl pools, I pulled the kids around. My son is doing so well with his swimming this summer. He loves to swim underwater. Today my lower back isn't feeling to good. I guess I overdid it a bit. We had a little 3 inch visitor that kept checking us out. This huge beetle kept coming over our wall in the same spot. We joked that it was a remote control beetle and that someone was on the other side of the wall controlling it. This was a huge bug! My husband took this picture of it for me.

This is an awesome video! Be sure to turn my music player off before watching.

Update

As of Monday I no longer have dizziness! It was only when I laid flat and turned my head to one side. The fact that's it's gone is a good thing, still not sure what it means in the whole scheme of things. I had gone to Physical Therapy on Wednesday and my PT told me to go home, since I was no longer dizzy, yeah! I do have another appointment next week to follow up though. I also have an appointment with an ENT Doctor in early July. Apparently he's pretty booked, I wasn't able to get myself in on my own until the end of July. My Doctor's office was able to get me in sooner. I'm anxious for that appointment, since he's more experienced with the symptoms I've had and what my MRI showed. I look forward to hearing what he has to say and learning more about what has been going on. I continue to take antibiotics twice a day for another 2 weeks. I'm taking acidophiles because I'm taking the antibiotics for so long.

Our summer has been going good. My son has been taking swimming lessons and has been progressing well. Our temperatures are around 112 degrees these days, yuck. Not much activity going on outside anywhere around here unless you are in a pool. The Junior High Schools in our city have pools that open to the public. They have water slides and other cool features at them that the kids love. There are also the water parks we can go to, but the costs at the Jr. Highs are only $1-$1.50 a day so that is a much more affordable option. With gas at it's all time high, the schools are also closer. We don't have an in ground pool at home but rather an above ground. We drain it after the summer is over so we don't have year round maintenance. It's a really good one that was pretty pricey when we bought it way back when. The sides are soft and supposedly you can drive a truck into it and not knock it over. It's a good way to stay cool. My son can actually touch bottom this year, he's pretty excited about that.

If you give a Mom a task to do......

Can anyone relate with me here? What I just did so reminds me of the "If you give a Mom a muffin" I have posted below, however in my case it was more like, I was going to clean out my sink and also thought about running the dishwasher. I went into my laundry room where I keep my cleaning supplies and remembered I was going to wash my husbands work clothes, so I did that and then walked out of the laundry room and was faced once again with the sink remembering I wanted to clean it but that I also wanted to run the dishwasher which I put the little cleaning tablet thingy in the dishwasher realizing that I wanted to clean out the sink, which I then did then my thoughts about all this compelled me to write this post and now I need to get up and turn on the dishwasher! Read something similar below because I know I'm not alone with this :)

I Wanna Muffin.
If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it. She'll pour herself some. Her three-year-old will spill the coffee. She'll wipe it up. Wiping the floor, she will find dirty socks. She'll remember she has to do laundry. When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer. Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper. She will get out a pound of hamburger. She'll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With A Pound Of Hamburger.) The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail. She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow. She will look for her checkbook. The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old. She'll smell something funny. She'll change the two-year-old. While she is changing the two-year-old the phone will ring. Her five-year-old will answer and hang up. She'll remember that she wants to phone a friend to come for coffee. Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup. She will pour herself some. And chances are, if she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.



by Kathy Fictorie
based on "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff

Today I want to wish my Husband a Happy Father's Day!
We Love him so much he's such a great Dad to my children, an awesome provider, hard worker, total sweetheart, Mr. Fix it with total perfection, we think he can do just about anything and he's an all around awesome guy!

New word, Petrous Apicitis

I had my MRI done on Tuesday of this past week. On Thursday I received the results of the MRI. I was a little freaked out because my Doctor's office called and asked if I could come in for my results. For about 4 hours the thoughts that went through my mind, let me tell you, God help me! My appointment was early afternoon, my Doctor came into the room and proceeded to tell me that what they suspected I had was pretty rare. She said the Radiologist seemed to feel it was either "Petrous Apicitis" or a Cyst. The Petrous Apicitis being the one they felt should be treated as if I had it first. What on earth is that? My Doctor even had a hard time with it, I'm guessing she's never encountered it before. She attempted to explain it to me the best she could. I've copied some info. taken from the Internet here:

It is an infection of petrous apex (the top of the petrous bone). The petrous bone is a bone in the skull. The petrous portion of the temporal bone lies in a complicated anatomic position and has critical relationships to important neural and vascular structures.

Before the advent of Antibiotics in the 1940s, infections of the petrous apex, termed petrous apicitis, commonly progressed to meningitis, brain abscess, cavernous sinus thrombosis, and death. Since the introduction of Antibiotics, the prevalence of such serious complications has been drastically reduced.

I am now on Antibiotics for 3 weeks, twice a day. The hope is that if I do have this infection, that the Antibiotics will take care of it. Otherwise we are talking draining.... I've been referred to an ENT Doctor (Ear, Nose, Throat) This is connected to middle ear infections apparently. Prayers that the antibiotics do what we are intending, would be greatly appreciated. I am continuing with my Physical Therapy twice a week. My only symptom still remains to be minor dizziness while laying flat, and I mean no pillow flat on my back and turning my head to the left. Thankfully I'm not usually in that position. I'm just so glad I felt prompted to go in to see my Doctor!

Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy

A couple of years back I had what was thought to be "Labyrinthitis". We had gone camping in the high country and I woke up to find I was unable to focus my eyes. I felt like a google eyed doll. I woke my husband and told him I needed him to call for the paramedics. I couldn't stand up I was so dizzy and nauseous it was a horrible experience. The paramedics came and I was barely able to get up onto the gurney to take me to the nearby hospital. I had to lay on my right side to avoid a terrible sense that I would throw up. The details that follow are pretty much a blur other than I heard they did an MRI and found nothing. I was given medication to control the nausea.... I was released later that day and we headed back home, I left most of the way. When I went to see my Doctor she said she'd thought I had Labyrinthitis. It is an inner ear infection which can cause vertigo symptoms. It seems in the spring when my seasonal allergies are at their finest, I would be able to put my self in a particular position that could cause slight dizziness. Thankfully it's not a position I usually find myself in. After dealing with this for a couple of years and thinking it just was the residual effects of the Labyrinthitis, or something aggravated by the seasonal allergies, I decided to follow up with my Doctor. She prescribed Vestibular rehabilitation therapy. Yesterday was day one where I met with a Physical Therapist. God is so awesome putting me in touch with just the right people. She told me that she knew my Doctor, she is also her Doctor as well as attending the same Church. Now mind you I basically pulled this place out of a hat so to speak. I had a bunch of names and locations and picked this place myself at the suggestion of the Therapy from my Doctor. She had me sit on a table and quickly pulled be down and flipped me over on my back telling me to look at her so she could watch my eyes. She did that a couple of times in an attempt to get the crystals in the ear that have become dislocated back to where they should be. Oh now that makes sense that is what causes the dizziness. She also had me bounce a giant ball and watch it go up and down. Then I had to stand on one leg and look from side to side, you try that! I couldn't balance very well. There was a huge guy behind waiting for me to fall over, never did though. Then I had to lay down and keep turning my head to the left (that is the side giving me trouble) Praise GOD! I didn't feel dizzy, during the whole process it lessened and lessened. Normally laying flat on my back and turning my head to the left was the position where I would feel slightly dizzy. I go back again next week a couple of times and we'll see what happens. For me it should clear up by the sound of things, praise GOD. I am going for an MRI next week to make sure all is normal with my ear.

On Tuesday night we went to the drive-in to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Our nights in the desert are still pretty bearable. The movie didn't start until 8:15 PM because obviously it has to be dark in order to see it outdoors..... It is really affordable compared to taking the family to the movie theater. We bring a cooler with drinks and a bag of snacks. We have a pick up truck and the kids bring blankets and pillows and get pretty cozy in the back of it. My husband and I bring camp chairs and usually sit in them. This time the kids got so comfy, they both fell asleep. In fact they both fell asleep for the latest Narnia movie as well. That's ok they didn't seem to mind. For Indiana Jones, it's just as well for our son at least, there were images in the movie he's probably better off not having seen. The movie was good, a bit on the corny and unrealistic side though. I still enjoyed it though, as another friend posted on her blog, I would have rather seen a different story line. I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say. It was full of the usual adventure and drama. My son loves the idea of Indiana Jones and all the adventure, and of course the whip. He has a toy whip from the movie that he loves to play with. He really wants this Lego game for the Playstation of Indiana Jones. We'll have to look into it. I'm not sure how many more bearable nights we have ahead of us so we'll have to take advantage of them while we can.