So my exciting thing of this week happened on Wednesday at work. I was on the phone with a patient and Cassie was standing in front of my desk. So when I got off, she told me that the patient she just roomed had questions about his meter and she figured that I would be the best to help with that. So I was just like, sure, I'll give it a shot and see what I can do. I walked into the patient's room and he told me that he just got this meter that morning and could not figure out how to work it and the test strips. Well, he happened to have a similar meter to mine and the exact same test strips. So I told him how to use the test strips and where to put the blood (with the free style lite test strips it goes on the side instead of the bottom).
I asked him if he had a one touch meter before (where you put the blood in at the bottom of the strip) and he told me that he did. I then explained that the free style lite were great because they require less blood and give you more time to get all the blood you need for the strip (this is a big deal, believe me). So he asked if I could help him test his blood sugar, and he poked his finger and I put the strip in and then put it up to his finger so the blood was sucked in (wow that sounds kinda gross...). He thanked me for helping him out because he hadn't been able to test it that morning as he could not find out how to work it. I told him it was no problem.

Well, that was the most fun ever! My passion is diabetes and I wish every patient had diabetes related questions. I know a whole lot more about that than pain medication and procedures. So, it was 5 minutes of my dream job of being a CDE (certified diabetic educator).

A picture montage from December (mostly)

Here are some pictures from the Holidays. I didn't take a whole lot, but here are some.

Nothing says Merry Christmas more than a big decorated tree! Such an improvement to our little 3 foot tree. I love my in-laws!

My mom made us this placque, which I have been asking for, and in a goofy moment, we decided to take mug shots with it. I would like to think we don't look this bad all the time.

I love Temple Square at Christmas time!

This was Brad's goatee he decided to grow during the winter break. His goal was to keep it until we visited my family, but I'm pretty sure he shaved it before Christmas. I thought it was funny looking and he hates how itchy facial hair is.

This deliciousness is the marble chocolate cheesecake I made for Valentines day! It was delightfully yummy! I got the recipe from my friend Anita Draney.

Stress, Its a Killer

On monday I went to for my check up/lab work with my doctor and we talked about things that could be causing my blood sugar to be low. We came to the decision that it was stress. I am stressed alot. I just feel like I have too much on my plate and am spreading myself too thin. Poor Brad only gets to see a worn out stressed version of his wife. But, since seeing the doctor, I decided to try and work harder to calm down, breathe, and not stress out at work or my class. Well, this week was just awful. At least twice this week I almost marched up to my office manager and told her I was quitting. I have been so overwhelmed and over worked this week with people being sick or having time off. It's just that my job is demanding. If the phone rings and a patient has a question, an MA has to take it. When someone needs a pill count, a UA, to be roomed, a provider needs a report, or a procedure to be scheduled, etc. that is all part of my job. So when there were never more than 2 MAs at work, it was nuts, to say the least.

Basically after starting out the week with a crazy busy presidents day (of doctors appointments and work) it only got worse. You know its bad when our slowest day (Thursday) never gets slow. So by the time Friday came around, and I was not getting a lunch break because I had too many questions to take care of and the phone wouldn't stop ringing, I was ready to quit. I had to go back and clean rooms and get control of my emotions cause I started crying from being so overwhelmed. Granted my blood sugar wasn't the greatest, so that probably aided in the break down of my emotions, but I was fried and couldn't take any more. Now, I didn't quit, cause I need my job. After I got my breathing under control I just went right back to my list of things to take care of and the rest of the day finished out okay, for the most part.

So this weekend Brad has been focusing on what will help me de-stress and relax. I got a lot of sleep, have watched a lot of olympics (which unfortunately has mostly been curling...how is that even considered a sport?) and we were able to hang out with a lot of friends this week as well. On wednesday, all of us Rocklin girls got together because my friend Katie had flown out to visit from California. So everyone and their spouses came over and we ate food and talked. The girls had so much to catch up on that we didn't even play games, we just talked and ate. Meanwhile, the boys watched the olympics together. It was so good to catch up and see everyone though. Then Friday, we went out to sushi with Brad's friends, Dan and Joni. We learned that Asukas no longer has all you can eat sushi, so we headed over to Sukuras. They actually have a bigger selection of sushi, waiters who speak english, and a better appearance overall, so Brad was happy. And I ate chicken teriyaki while everyone else enjoyed there uncooked fish and seaweed.

Saturday, we relaxed, went to Hilary's wedding reception, and went to Red Robin and bowling with Madison and Joni. It was so much fun, and I was once again a horribly inconsistent bowler, but we laughed and enjoyed seeing each other. Plus, we all got to eat a ton of fries and ranch! Yum! Plus, it was just fun to see our Ute friends and here how the wedding planning is going. So I have officially recovered from a crazy week, and I so hope that everyone is at work this week and that it is not as crazy otherwise I might just loose my head. I still would love to have a vacation though. A cruise would be so nice right now!

Sore Teeth and Narcotic Induced Nausea

So ever since I saw our last dentist, Dr. Moody, my teeth have been killing me to some degree. So we switched dentists to Dr. Payne, who all my co-workers recommended. Despite the name, Dr. Payne has been really good. Dr. Payne had me try sensitive toothpaste to see if that did the trick for my painful teeth. After this didn't work, and the pain only got worse, I went back in and he did an evaluation of the trouble area. After an x-ray and several different tests, Dr. Payne told me that he thought I had a tooth that would need a root canal. He explained that the filling in it was pretty close to the root, which can affect the root and cause it to be painful and start to die. As that tooth felt no cold when he did a temperature test, it seemed pretty clear that the molar was no good. He made some adjustments to my bite and then told me to see if that did the trick, otherwise I would probably need a root canal.

Well, the next week I unfortunately came down with a cold. All of the congestion caused a lot of nasal pressure, which in turn made my tooth hurt like the dickens. After a night of crying due to the agonizing pain, I called the dentist and went in again. Dr. Payne explained that congestion can put a lot of pressure onto the roots (and as the problem tooth was in my upper jaw, it probably was getting pressed on a lot). So he prescribed an antibiotic to help clear up my sinuses and some Lortab for the pain. And wonderful Dr. Payne told me to call him if it still hurt a ton and he would do the root canal over the weekend. Well, almost immediately the antibiotic helped! It was wonderful. Within a day of using it I was feeling much better, cold wise and tooth wise. However, I did notice that biting down was uncomfortable for 2 particular teeth : the problem tooth and the tooth right below it. So, after a week, the dentist office called to check up on me and I told them about my bottom jaw hurting now. So I went in again to have my other tooth looked at. And guess what?! After an x-ray, Dr. Payne showed me that there was an infection under the new problem tooth cause on the x-ray it was all dark under the root. He told me the only way to fix that was a root canal. Wonderful! So the upper problem tooth didn't hurt, but now the one right below had an infection.

So yesterday I went in to have the fabulous root canal. The actual root canal wasn't bad and Dr. Payne gave me an ipod with every type of music on it to listen to. During the root canal, while drilling, he told me that a healthy tooth will have a lot of blood. Then he told me that for my tooth there wasn't a single drop. That indicated to him that this tooth has been bad for a while. He was surprised I hadn't come in sooner. Well, after an hour of killing the root (which Dr. Payne told me aren't even really necessary or helpful to the teeth) Dr. Payne told me that I was good to go. He then prescribed me more Lortab because he was concerned I would be in a lot of pain due to the fact my tooth had been so rotted.

Well, I took a Lortab with lunch to help with the soreness as the numbing wore off. All yesterday my stomach was not feeling good and I thought I was going to toss my cookies two different times. I didn't think too much of it and today when my tooth was hurting again, I took another Lortab. Well, then I got a headache and just felt gross. I spoke with one of our nurse practioners and some of the girls at work, and found out that this was pretty normal. All the girls I work with don't like Lortab and don't think it works for anything (except maybe bone aches). Well, all I can say is I don't understand why some of our patients overdose on this stuff! There goes my career as a narcotics addict!

Oh well, hopefully this root canal does the trick and my teeth stop hurting.

How to Sleep like the Dead

So I survived my first crazy week of work and night classes! Yay! The sad part is that this week my teacher made the classes shorter because she said she wanted to give us a week before we actually stayed for the full 4 hours of class. Yuck! Basically what I have learned so far in my first week of CNA class is that I appreciate my job as a Medical Assistant. I'm not gonna lie, I have never been interested in geriatrics. So learning about caring, washing, whatever for old people is just not appetizing. Granted, we haven't really gotten into that stuff yet, but my teacher did have us a watch an overview movie the first class and it was kinda gross. I love working with people and feeling like I can make their day better, but I really don't want to deal with cranky old people.

In my class we have all of one guy, 5 high school students, a mom, and the rest of us. So everyone is 16-30. Haha. My favorite part of the class is the two girls who comment on everything! My favorite students! It's even better when you know you have to deal with the comments for 4 hours that night. Then, on the first day of class, the teacher was going over the rules, schedule, etc. and one of the rules was no food. I was about to tell her "I'm diabetic and if i need to eat i'm going to!" but she added that as long as we were not disruptive she did not mind us snacking. Good thing, so I eat teddy grahams and granola bars during class. Plus, the food helps keep me awake. I leave from work on Tuesday and Thursday and drive straight to school and then want to crash as soon as I sit down in class. Luckily, the teacher (Pat) seems to understand that we need to do more than sit there, so she gives us a break and activities. Otherwise, I would sleep through the lecture. Instead, I go home and crash. Poor Brad. He has been wonderful and cooks dinner on those nights. Then, after our late dinner, I go to bed. As soon as a close my eyes I am out! Honestly, if you have trouble sleeping, you should try this schedule!

Wednesday was my one week night I came home before 6. I went visiting teaching and then had dinner and did my reading for class the next day. So I still did not get in bed as early as I would have liked. I totally had forgotten that my pump was almost out of insulin, so at 2am my pump went off. I was so dead tired I just put it on suspend (which makes it so the alarm only goes off every 15minutes instead of every 3), took it off, and put it on the floor next to the bed so it wouldn't vibrate the bed. Well, I went right back to sleep. However, poor Brad shook me a little later and asked if I knew I was out of insulin. I told him that I did and rolled back over. He later got out of bed and went and slept on the couch because he couldn't sleep with the alarm going off (the alarm isn't that loud either but Brad has ultra sensitive hearing and he told me that he is extremely sensitive to anything diabetes related). When I woke up at 6am I was totally shocked to not see him in bed. I felt so bad. Brad told me that I slept really soundly. That is basically how I have been sleeping all night.

Last night I did a basal check, which is where I woke up every 2 hours to check my blood sugar to see how it fluctuates at night and if I need to adjust the amount of insulin I receive every hour. Well, I was so surprised I woke up for all my alarms. It sure didn't help me get out of bed this morning (and I had some smeared blood on my finger I had poked that I apparently hadn't cleaned so great by the light of my cell phone). Brad was kinda concerned that I didn't get up to my last alarm this morning and started tickling my feet to make me move and check my blood sugar. He gets worried that I am low in the morning when I don't move. But I was fine of course and I feel like last night did nothing to help with my blood sugar except stress and tire my poor body out.

Wow, So i have noticed how boring our blog is, but well, I don't take alot of pictures and posting them is the biggest pain. I am blog retarted. So sorry about all the writing, it's the only easy thing.

On a side note for this week, I have had some wierd cravings, wierd as in I normally only crave chocolate or sweets. But thursday I really wanted chicken nuggets, so Mandy and Cassie got when some when they went to Wendys. I don't think I have ever been so satisfied with chicken nuggets before. Then last night Brad and I were supposed to have this asian thing for dinner, but I really was craving fries and ranch, so we went to Red Robin were I had chicken strips and LOTs of fries and ranch! Yum! Well actually, now it doesn't sound so great, but at the time it was wonderful. No I'm not pregnant, my stomach has just been really wierd this week, maybe from the lack of sleep....

Now Entering the Crazy Life

So I am starting a CNA evening class this week. I'm kind of nervous cause well it's almost been a year since I've taken a class and I will have even less of a life than I do now. Basically I will be working full time and then on the 2 nights I get home early, I have to go to class. I didn't really realize how much this limited any social life I could have, until the other day when Brad was trying to plan something with some of our friends and he had to tell them that Monday doesn't really work because I work until 8:30-9, and Tuesday and Thursday I will be in class till 9:30. So hopefully I don't have a lot of homework to do for this class. But while I'm kinda nervous and anxious, I know that this class will be good. Getting my CNA is a step to one day getting my RN since most places require, or at least encourage, you to have it. So, let the craziness begin! And then I can try to have a life again in May when all this is over.

Holidays

Well, I guess we should talk about our holidays. Christmas was spent up in Kaysville, UT with Brad's family. We were very happy to b e out of Happy Valley and spend time with the family, especially with all of Brad's siblings home from school. On Christmas Eve we all went up to Temple Square to look at the lights. Kimber took a ton of pictures, which I'm sure are awesome. Elly took some too. Elly was excited because going to see the lights is one of her favorite things to do. Temple Square was beautiful of course and the coolest part was that we got to use some of the underground tunnels to get there because Brad's dad works for the church so we parked in the underground parking and walked up the stairs right into the Temple Square.

Christmas was a nice day, other than the news of the Grandpa's death. Elly read an entire book. Brad beat at least half of the new Super Mario Bros. We also did puzzles and had a nice dinner with the family. Brad was pretty excited about getting an ipod and super mario brothers. Elly got her favorite picture of Jesus and Wii Fit Plus (which is amazing as long as no one is watching you play). The next day we went to Grandma and Grandpa Steven's to celebrate the season with the Steven's side of the family (Brad's mom's side). We lucked out in the gift game and got a new game and slippers (other gifts included Sarah Palin's book and necklaces). We had fun playing games and visiting with the family. The funniest part of the evening was when Brian's wife, Camile, who at the time was 8 months pregnant, had to borrow one of Grandma Steven's shirts because she was hot in her sweater. It was definitely entertaining.

After Christmas with the Taylor family, we went back to Provo for one night and one day of work, then we headed out to California. We left Monday night so we could spend more time with the Cramer family in lue of the funeral services. Also, a storm was supposed to be coming in on Tuesday through Nevada. So Monday we made a nice night drive across BEAUTIFUL nevada! haha We truly hate that state, but such is the drive to Sac-town. So all was good and clear, until Reno. Then we ran into the snow and had to put chains on to get over the pass. 50 miles worth of chains! From Reno to Alta! Took us 2 hours to go what normally took 40 minutes. But well, we made it safely, and we had some nice guy help us put the chains on in Reno so Elly could sit in the warm car.

Well, California was CRAZY. Before Grandpa's death, we had been planning on doing all sorts of fun things with the family. However, with a funeral to prepare for, fun kinda went out the window and stressed craziness entered. Elly's mom was freaking out about flowers, pictures to display, and programs. Elly did what she could to help. Brad was able to escape and go snowboarding with Steven at Boreal (which Brad laughs at due to it's small size compared to Utah's resorts). We did get to eat our favorite pizza though (BJ's) and Robyn "indoctrinated" us on Psych. Grandma and Grandpa Bennett came up from SoCal to see Brad and Elly. It was good to see them and play some card games. We all learned that Grandma is the Apples to Apples queen! That was a shocker! Cards I never thought she would have put down were hers! Plus, Elly got to walk Sadie every day and love her puppy (which made her wonder who walks the dog when she isn't there). New Year's Eve wasn't very exciting, we mostly just played Super Mario Bros (Brad's escape from the craziness). But New Year's day the whole family went and saw Invictus. Elly also got to catch up with a few friends while in town.

Saturday was the funeral. Elly actually help up better than Brad thought she would. However, she did start to cry on the drive to the funeral due to a certain country song that mentioned someone dying. She also had a hard time at the viewing. But the service was very nice, and the casket spray was actually not ugly. Elly's dad gave a great talk reviewing past memories that had everyone crying in parts. After the service, the family had a nice lunch. Brad got to meet Cramers that Elly had never even met before, such as Great Uncle Dick, Grandpa Cramer's youngest and only living brother. After the lunch, Uncle Dick was invited back to the house for dinner. It was really nice to get and talk with him and hear all of his stories about the family, such as how Great Grandma and Grandpa met. G. Grandma Cramer was teaching an electrician class at the college and Great Grandpa was a student in that very class. Dad then told Elly that now they know that she got her math smarts from her great grandma. So other than time with the family, Elly also completed her 2 favorite puzzles and we had a second Christmas, opening the presents from Elly's family.

Sunday we drove back home and we so excited to come back to our bed and quite apartment. The only downside to being home was that we had no food.