all for $21

When Chris and I went to Carrabba's last month to celebrate Match Day, we received a small coupon book from them with free appetizers, free dessert, etc.  Several of them expired today.  Luckily, I remembered this little coupon book on Monday and told Chris that we had to go to Carrabba's last night to get our free appetizer!  He did not reject the idea of course.

So we went.

We ordered the large calamari.  Not on my diet.  But it was a special occasion and it was oh-so-delicious and was free.

They brought us bread.

We ordered our meal, both of which came with a salad.  So we ate that.

Then they brought our food and Christopher's was wrong.  So the waitress boxed it up and let us have it for free to take home.  (She said it just would have gone in the trash otherwise).  She went back to the kitchen and put in the order for the right thing.  Meanwhile, the manager came by and told us that because of the mix-up and the long wait for Topher's food (mine was gone by now!), that his meal was on the house.

Therefore, we left $21 on the table for our meal, which included a generous tip.

We got a large calamari, salads, bread, and THREE entrees, all for $21.00.

Yeehaw.

p.s.  I ate my leftovers for lunch today.

my boys

Is this not the cutest combo you ever did see??  I sure do love my boys.

UK Internal Medicine Grand Rounds- 4/2/2010

Last week, I was given the privilege of speaking at UK's Internal Medicine Clinical Pathologic Conference for Grand Rounds.  Six times a year, the IM team selects a case to present and mine was picked for the April 2, 2010 edition.  My doc asked me if I would participate so that the physicians and residents would have the opportunity to hear the patient's perspective on a difficult and prolonged disease diagnosis.  She asked me to talk about my symptoms, fears, frustrations, pain, etc through the whole process this past summer.  I was scared to death to talk in front of all these smart people (ha!), but I agreed to do it.  They have never had a patient speak at conference before, so I was honored to have been asked!

The audience seemed pretty captivated, but they were a tough crowd. I tried to crack a few jokes to lighten my spirits, but like, no one even chuckled. What is wrong with these people?! I guess I'm just more easily amused than most.  Christopher told me he heard people laugh and that I just couldn't hear them because they were all sitting in the back of the auditorium. It's possible... but, eh... I don't know. In any event, it stressed me out when they didn't audibly laugh- it made me that much more nervous.

Anyway, I did pretty well through the whole thing until my last five minutes when I tried to give my compliments to the Internal Medicine team. I started crying when I told them I received excellent care. The Chair of the IM department spoke up and helped me out while I was trying to pull myself together. He said I had a lot of courage to come speak at this event. One of my doctors gave me a hug after the presentation- it was so sweet. My PCP (who is an IM doc and the one who invited me to speak) clapped real big for me and said I did wonderfully. Oh, hurray! What a relief.

It was a really neat presentation. The residency program director told me it was the best one all year.  How cool.  I really enjoyed listening to my pulmonologist's part of the talk about how they diagnosed me and the tedious process they went through to get there. Fascinating.

Fun fact of information: Less than 0.5% of IBD patients develop a true pulmonary manifestation of the disease. Of that 0.5% of people, more than 90% of them have Ulcerative Colitis... the other 10% or so have Crohn's. I am a rare bird.

My loving supportive husband attended the presentation of course, and my daddy also flew up with his flying buddy, Joe.  It was so nice to have a personal fan club there.  We all went to lunch after it was over. 

Anyway, I'm glad that's over with.  :)

april

I love the month of April.  I'd say that it's my favorite month of the year.  First of all, it's my birthday month.  I was born on Easter Sunday- April 3, 1983.  When I was 11 years old, my birthday fell on Easter again.  This year, it's a day off, but close enough to make me happy!

April is the time when all the flowers and trees start blooming, everything looks beautiful and it's not too hot yet....I hate being hot.  I love watching everyone pop out of hibernation- they're jogging, walking their dogs, riding bikes, kids are running around in the yards- it's a pleasant sight.  When I was younger I always liked April because it meant that the school year was quickly coming to an end!  :)

Anyway, I hope no one plays any tricks on you today for April Fools..

HAPPY APRIL!!!

Supposedly I can post on my blog from my cell phone... So this is a test. :)

where's home?

I've been pondering and I am just so ready to have a home.  I hate moving from place to place, making friends, then leaving them.... getting to know a city, then leaving it...  becoming involved in a church, then leaving it...  and Lord knows I hate packing and moving.

I'm from Oak Ridge- a nice little town outside of Knoxville.  I had a great time growing up there- I always felt safe, I had a good church home, and an excellent education.  I lived there for 18 years.

Then I went off to college.  Chattanooga, TN was my "home" for four years.  I loved it there.  I met my husband there.  :)

Then I graduated and moved to Knoxville, TN because I was going to grad school.  After my two summer classes, I decided that I was too sick to pursue any further education at that point.  So I hung out for a while and worked at Walgreens for 8 months.

Then Chris and I decided we were too far away from each other, so I followed him and moved to Memphis, TN.  I never did feel like Memphis was my home, but I made some of my best friends there, I had a wonderful church family and an amazing job.  And a really cute house.

Then Chris graduated from medical school and off we went to Lexington, KY.  We'll live here for at least 4 years...  just enough time for it to feel like "home."

So I guess the saying is true that "home is where the heart is..."  but when your heart is shared across a million different places, where's home?

great-gramma is 93!

Christopher's great-grandmother turned 93 years old on March 15, so Chris, the MIL, FIL and I drove up to Wisconsin last week for a 4-day visit.  It was a great time!  Well, a great time minus the painful 12-hour car-ride there and back.

Beginning of the drive... still in a good mood...

Gramma & Donya

Pa & Christopher cookin' up some chicken wings

Four generations: Erna, Will, Donya, & Christopher

All of us with Gramma

My two cute little friends on the farm

Hiking around Aunt Mardelle's farm

(couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather!)

Chicken egg straight from the coop!

(we bought two dozen from Aunt Mardelle)

The Putz family's favorite activity...  CARDS.

Gramma blowing out her candle at her birthday lunch

Sweet little baby moo-moos, only a day old!

(on our tour of Uncle Randy's dairy farm)

Overlooking the Mighty Mississippi

WISCONSIN CHEEEEEESE!

Enormous cow

Match!

Christopher matched his first choice!

University of Kentucky- Internal Medicine

We don't have to move again.  Praise the Lord.

good lung report :)

I saw Dr. Bensadoun on Friday and he said my chest xray is clear.  Yippee!  I'll be on 15mg of prednisone for three weeks, then 10mg for three weeks.  I see Dr B again on April 9 and will get a CT done to check for any disease not visible on the chest xray.

Hopefully I will have no updates for you until April 9th... and hopefully it will be nothing but improvement!  :)

Thank you again for all the prayers.  The Lord is so good and has showered me with His blessing and protection.

giant update post :)

I am incredibly behind on my blogging.  There have been so many things I needed or wanted to write about in the last couple of weeks, but due to time constraints, lack of motivation, busy-ness, or pure laziness, I have not written anything.  Sorry. So here goes a monster-post!  :)

Deadly Car Crash- 1/19/2010, 11:30 pm

http://www.lex18.com/news/coroner-releases-name-of-victim-killed-in-wrong-way-crash/

http://www.allvoices.com/s/event-5075804/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5rZW50dWNreS5jb20vbGF0ZXN0X25ld3Mvc3RvcnkvMTEwMzI0NS5odG1s

About two and half weeks ago, Christopher was witness to a horrible car crash in which a lady sadly was killed.  A drunk guy in his young 20s was driving down the wrong side of the highway, allegedly without his headlights on.  He side-swiped one car, then crashed into the lady driving right in front of Chris head-on.  Chris was riding with our friend, Dusty, who safely avoided being slammed into by the drunk guy’s spinning car.  Chris called 911 and was obviously the first responder on the scene. 

Words cannot express my gratitude for the Lord sparing Christopher and Dusty’s lives that night.  My prayers and sympathies are with the lady’s family who passed away.  My prayers are also with the young man who has repeatedly made very poor decisions and now has murdered a woman.  I hope he comes to know the Lord one day.

New Bible Study!

Last fall I joined a small group and we did the book study called “Me, Myself, and Lies” by Jennifer Rothschild.  It was a really good book on cleaning out your thought-closet and getting rid of the trash that piles up in there.  I developed new friendships with the women in the group while growing in my relationship with the Lord.  After a short hiatus during the holidays, our group started back up again last Thursday night!  I was so excited- I really missed the fellowship of Christian women!  Anyway, we are doing the 10-week Beth Moore study “Breaking Free.”  I am anxious to see how the Lord will change me through this study.  I believe all of us have some type of stronghold in our lives that prevents us from the full blessing of living in Christ.

Prednisone and Diet Update

I’m on 20mg daily of prednisone at the moment (started at 60mg on Dec 19).  I will be on this dose at least until February 19, which is when I go see Dr. B again.  Much to my dismay, I am developing chipmunk face again.  Blast it.  And I want to eat all the time.  And I get hot flashes.

The diet is going ok, but not super.  Because I’m on the steroids, I have been allowing myself to “cheat” on more things.  I still don’t eat fried food or drink soda, but I’ve had some white breads and pasta and desserts with all kinds of bad ingredients.  There is no reason to cheat, but I concoct reasons in my head.  I don’t know whether I just have a short pity-party moment and grab that little gold Hershey’s Nugget, or if the food cravings and appetite increase from being on prednisone make me want to eat “bad” food… I don’t know.  Either way, I’m gaining weight again and I attribute that to my diet.  Steroids cause weight gain, but I was doing well with the weight in November and December when I was adhering to the super-healthy diet. 

Fortunately, I cannot continue this eating madness once I get down to about 10mg of prednisone and certainly not once I’m off completely. 

My lungs may continue to cause me problems and I may have to end up on Imuran or some other immunosuppressant after all.  But I believe the Lord has called me to eat properly out of respect for my GI system and I know He blessed my decision.  I have been symptom-free since November 1 when I started my diet.  I need to honor the temple God gave me and get back on track.  I pray that the anti-inflammatory diet will keep my lungs from flaring as well.

Job Update

I am really enjoying my job at the Neurology Center.  I love working with the Alzheimer’s patients and their families.  I am getting more skilled with phlebotomy and doing EKGs.  I am learning a lot about Alzheimer’s, which has been of great value since my grandmother was diagnosed with the disease recently.

Hub Update

Many of you know that Christopher resigned from his Emergency Medicine residency at the end of October.  He quickly figured out that he had chosen the wrong specialty… and that decision primarily came from going through the hospital experience with me this summer.  He wants to be in a field with continuous patient care.  So after a lot of prayer and contemplation, he chose to pursue Internal Medicine.  In January, he interviewed at UK and Wake Forest.  We plan to stay here at UK...  and Match Day is March 18th, so we'll find out for sure on that day.  :)

AVON

Try it.  You'll really like their products.  :)  www.youravon.com/swaynick

New lipstick coming out on Monday 2/8: Ultra Color Rich Mega Impact!