We are officially out of our minds

We made the mistake of going into a puppy store today after Church. We had time to kill before a movie that started at 1:00. Well, as you can imagine, we didn't go see the movie... we had to tend to our new puppy. Neither of us could leave this adorable little girl there. It was love at first sight! Announcing our newest addition, Cecelia (Ci-Ci for short):




In other news, I had a job interview on Friday for a part-time position at the BEST hospital in town: St. Vincent's! I LOVE St. Vincent's hospital and am SO excited about the possibility of working there. I am hoping it will lead to a job as an RN when I finish school. I should hear something this week! Keep me in your prayers!

Tired of this heat!

It has been SO hot out lately. I think today is a record or something. I about died walking up to the school building (a quick 30 second walk!)

I am officially done with summer semester! Only 2 more semesters and I am a nurse! I got 2 A's and 1 B, and I am very content with that considering several people failed out!

Jimmy only has one more step in the JSO police academy application process: his medical physical, which I am sure he will pass with flying colors since he is so active. He had his psychiatric evaluation this morning and he says he did well. Keep your fingers crossed! We are hoping he will be able to start the academy in January instead of October so that he can finish his bachelor's degree. He only has 4 classes left that he is registered for this Fall and will graduate in December. I'm so proud of him!

We had another health scare with Bella which ended up costing us hundreds of dollars. Jimmy took her to the dog park on Sunday, as is his weekly ritual, and when he got home she was squinting her eyes, or just keeping them shut altogether, and she was whining, breathing weird, having difficulty swallowing and was drooling. Jimmy said she collided with a large dog when they first arrived at the park but they stayed for over an hour and she played and seemed fine. Well, I was worried that she had cracked her wind pipe or torn her esophagus, so we gave her a bath and watched her for a few minutes. Once she rolled over on her back in the "dead" position as though to notify us that she was dying, I told Jimmy we needed to take her to the animal ER. $300 later we discovered she had a lot of air in her stomach and throughout her intestines that was causing her pain and nausea (thus the drooling). By the time we left the ER (3 and a half hours later!) she was completely fine. I was upset about the $300, but at the same time it could have been something serious and we love Bella too much to just let her die an agonizing death.

Not much else is going on. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday to see if the medicine worked (i.e., whether or not I am pregnant) and to diagnose me with PCOS based on bloodwork I have had to get periodically through this cycle (3 times!) as well as an ultrasound the doctor will be doing on Thursday of my ovaries. This is all just so crazy. Humans are meant to reproduce, why is it so hard?!?! In any event, wish us luck and say a little prayer.

Illness and Puppies (a lot of them!)

I have been sick the past 2 days, and currently can't fall back to sleep so I figured I would update my blog. It started Saturday morning with a tickle in my chest and then progressed into coughing throughout the day, and then turned into coughing and aches Saturday night. By Sunday I was miserable... and I had to study for an exam I had Monday morning. I ended up studying for all of 1 hour and slept the rest of the day. It was awful. I think I did OK on the exam though. I got a 100 on the last one we had two weeks ago and I didn't study much for it, so I am hoping for at least a B on this one.

Two weeks ago we noticed my sister's black Labrador looked different... her nipples were more prominent and she was acting funny. Last night (roughly two weeks later) she had a litter of 10 puppies (yes, I said 10!). My sister is so overwhelmed. The father is the golden retriever my parents got after Bruno (their little yorkie) died last July. Once Beau (the golden retriever) got bigger, they realized he was too big for them to handle, so my sister adopted him. He ran away about 3 weeks ago and Erika never could find him. Anyway, neither Beau nor Deezle (the black lab) were fixed... so apparently at some point they mated and this is the result:








Moral of this story: spay or neuter your pets unless you want a litter of puppies!!

I guess it's time I make a new post

Well it has been an interesting past couple of weeks, to say the least. I enjoyed a much needed, though very short, break from school. This next 8 weeks is going to be sooo easy, so it is kind of a break in itself. I am glad to have made it to the top of the nursing school hill and am slowly making my way down the other side. In other words, it's all downhill from here!

This week has been strange. I decided to go see a specialist about all the issues I have been having since stopping birth control... i.e., very irregular periods, breaking out on my face, slight weight gain, and we haven't gotten pregnant (when most people get pregnant straight away). The doctor suspects I have something called Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (or PCOS). Basically, it means you don't ovulate. The signs/symptoms are: irregular periods, acne, weight gain, facial hair, male pattern balding, infertility and the scary list goes on. So, she has me on this crazy regimen for testing. I had to start a pack of birth control so that it forces me to have a period in 28 days (like a normal woman should) and then on day 3 of my period I go in for some blood work that checks certain hormone levels (that are only accurate on "day 3") then I start a drug called Clomid on days 4-8 (5 days) that will force me to ovulate. She said if we want, we can use this opportunity to get pregnant (Clomid is a fertility drug... it helps people get pregnant who have PCOS) but the main purpose of taking this drug this time is so that she can do a "day 21" ultrasound to see what is going on with my ovaries. Jimmy and I haven't fully decided what we are going to do. On the plus side, if we got pregnant with this round of Clomid the baby would be due in May, which is after graduation and before I would take the NCLEX (the test required to become a registered nurse) so I would have a few weeks before I would beging working as a nurse. Another upside is I would only have to pay for this one round of Clomid, and I wouldn't have to worry about having to take it again. The major downside is that with Clomid, there is a higher chance of conceiving twins. In Jimmy's words "Rach, I don't want to be like Jon and Kate" (from Jon and Kate + 8). The chance of having twins is only 30%, but that is still huge for us... we do not want twins!

I am beyond frustrated and brokenhearted that something is wrong with me. I never in a million years would have thought that I, Rachel, who has ALWAYS wanted to be a mother, would meet such an obstacle. However, that is not my main concern. Women with PCOS can get pregnant... it isn't a question of "will you get pregnant" it is a question of "when"... my main concern is all of the other adverse affects of PCOS. I do not want to be overweight, I do not want to have hair in unwelcome places, I do not want acne, and more importantly, I do not want heart disease or type 2 diabetes in the future (there is an increased risk for both of these with this condition). Luckily there are medicines out there to help with this, but I have always been anti-medicine. I rarely even take tylenol for pain. I just can't imagine living my whole life depending on medicine. But, I am trying not to freak out prematurely. I am trying to just chill out and wait for my upcoming tests to see what is up inside of me. Maybe I don't have PCOS, but the more I read about it, the more I am convinced.

In closing, if you could say a prayer for us that everything will work out, we would appreciate it.

New Do

Not sure if I like it. My husband has admitted that he, in fact, does not care for it! Luckily my hair grows fast... but while I wait, I will enjoy how easy it is to style and how much cooler I am during these hot Florida days!

Tornados in Jacksonville

We had crazy storms yesterday that resulted in 3 tornadoes in our area (one was literally 2 miles from our house), one of which Jimmy saw from the window where he worked. The link below takes you to a video that some guys took of a couple of the tornadoes. (Note: if you read the description of that video it talks about St. Vincent's hospital... that is where I have been for clinical the past 6 weeks!) Crazy!

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=95527044982&h=kMC18&u=4Dego&ref=nf

I'm Back

It's been a very long time since I posted, but I have been extremely busy. I finished Adult Health I in nursing school which was a really difficult course. We had 150 clinical hours to do, plus a million chapters to read and study, 2 projects, 3 exams and 1 final. It was an insane 8 weeks! On top of that, I was nannying for a lady's 4 month old little boy and 4 year old little boy (who had special needs). I nannied 30 hours the last week of school. I finally had some time off this past week and have been nothing but lazy. We don't start our next class until Wednesday. I will be taking Psychiatric/Mental Health nursing and Leadership Nursing for the next 8 weeks. It should be pretty easy, according to those who have taken it before me. Then this fall we start OB and Pediatric nursing, which should be a lot of fun, although I am worried about how I will be able to deal with dying children. It isn't going to be the bald children stricken with cancer that you see on TV smiling and asking for your donations, it's going to be the balled children stricken with cancer, laying in bed, wasting away, unable to open their eyes, waiting to die. So, hopefully God will give me some strength during that time.

Anyway, I ended up with a B+ (1% away from an A) in Adult Health. I could have done better on the final to get an A (I got an 89 on the final) but I was so busy with nannying that I didn't have much time or energy after I got home to study. I am still happy with a B though.

Our friends Sarah and Tommy told us a couple weeks ago that Sarah was pregnant. Jimmy and I started trying end of January and Sarah and Tommy started trying mid-March and they are pregnant already. Kind of amazing. She must be fertile myrtle. She is 8 weeks already. It makes me wonder if something is wrong with us, but deep down I know God is waiting for the perfect moment, which will probably be in a few months so that I don't have the baby until after graduation, which is fine. As stressed as I was these past 8 weeks, I couldn't imagine how much harder it would have been if I had morning sickness. Sarah has been SO sick. We had dinner with them last night and she kept having to leave because of the different smells that were making her sick and then when we got back to our house she fell asleep on the couch. So, I am kind of thankful I'm not pregnant yet, although I can't wait for the day we find out I am!

Not much else is going on. Jimmy and I are about to head to the YMCA to burn some calories and then I am nannying for a few hours this afternoon.

Until next time...