Re-evaluating

Yuck. Image from MedicineNet.

It has been a crazy week. Besides all of the good stuff like the Princess turning 6 (no superheroes this year) and going out for Mother's Day dinner, there's been some less fun stuff too. Like trips to the doctor and the ER.

Just a couple of months ago, I wrote this about hydration and how important it was because I had recently been diagnosed with a UTI and we concluded it was from dehydration. I may have been wrong. Not in the importance of drinking water and staying hydrated, but in the cause of my UTI.

On Mother's Day I ran 6 miles with a couple of friends who are MUCH faster than me. Midway through the run I needed to stop at one of their houses so I could pee. Blood. Yup, peeing blood again. Awesome. I returned to running, drank more of my water, and attributed it to running with people much faster than me. Then a couple of days later I did a nice easy 4 mile run early in the morning. I had made sure to drink plenty of water the night before and I think I may have even had water with me as I ran... and I peed blood again. That's no good. I went to the doctor the next day (Wed) and she prescribed me antibiotics in case I had another UTI and sent me for an ultrasound. I went to the ultrasound on Thursday and the tech just happened to be a runner. So we chatted a bit and she was a little more forthcoming with the info than any other tech I've seen. She told me right away that I had kidney stones. Argh.

Here's where it gets really fun. I started to feel less than 100% on Friday. Light headed, shaky, back hurt, cramps. Had I not known better I would have thought I was going into labor. I got in touch with my doctor who told me I did not have a UTI but that I had kidney stones (I pretended not to know already). I described what I was currently feeling and she said it sounded like I was passing the stones. Or trying to. She instructed me to go to the ER if I started to feel worse because I didn't need to just sit there in pain, I could go and get medication if I needed it. I talked to my mother who has had a zillion kidney stones and she described her symptoms when she wound up being septic and she said they would probably do a cat scan at the hospital and I thought I might as well get that done instead of having to schedule one later and well, for once I decided to play it safe and just go to the ER. I sat there on a stretcher in a hallway, alone, watching trauma victims come in and wondering what the hell I was doing there. I had started to feel a bit better (really it was the shakiness and feeling like I was going to pass out that concerned me, not any pain) except for being hungry. They took my blood and tested my pee again and said they would do a cat scan... and then they didn't. The doc on duty didn't want to expose me to radiation. So they did an ultrasound instead. I still had the stones (I'm not sure if they moved or not since we didn't have the first ultrasound results to compare it to) and some "weirdness" where my ureter joins my kidney. The doc on duty recommended I take ibuprofen, which is when I decided I needed to go home--since everything I had read said to NOT take ibuprofen. A different doc discharged me and said take tylenol, follow up with urologist. Oh and pay $70 on your way out.

Waste. Of. Time.

I suppose it was good to know I wasn't septic or suffering from a kidney infection. But other than that, I really didn't need to be there. I could have just gone to lay down and been okay. Oh well.

So here I am now, drinking water like there's nothing else to drink, and while I didn't quite pee blood during today's scheduled mile repeats, it was darker than it should have been. I have a follow up with my primary doc tomorrow and an appointment with a urologist scheduled for next week. I am planning on trying the mile repeats again tonight after the kids go to bed and I've spent all day hydrating. If I have the same problem... well... I'm planning on doing an easy 4 mile trail run on Thursday evening. If I still have the same problem then I'm going to have to accept that I need to re-evaluate my race goals. You know, for that race I have in 11 days.

The importance of hydration

Be smart. Drink water.

I've never been good at drinking water in the winter. I am constantly cold and drinking water doesn't help that... unless it is hot and comes with a tea bag. Since I've had to stop drinking my 10 thousand glasses of milk a day I've been drinking water with lunch and dinner.

But it's not enough.

Runners need to drink water. Breastfeeding moms need to drink water. Running breastfeeding moms need to drink LOTS of water. Do not underestimate how much you will need. Don't make the same mistake I did.

I wasn't going to post about this but I figured hey, when do I ever hold back?

A few months ago I ran intervals and when I went to the bathroom immediately after there was blood in my urine. I instantly thought, crap, I'm getting my first postpartum period. But it didn't happen again and I didn't think of it again. The last couple of weeks it's happened a few times--always after a hard intervals run or a much longer run than I usually do--and I realized that it's not like menstruation, there's blood IN the urine. I come from a family of kidney stone sufferers so this wasn't exactly what I wanted to see. In the past it would happen and that would be it. But this last time I had lower back pain too. Uh-oh. Long story short I had a UTI. And running with a UTI is NO fun. I caught it before it got too bad so I never got a fever or really bad pain. The back pain was actually the worst problem. I've been on antibiotics for almost a week now and should be all cleared up. When I peed after running my intervals today there was no blood but it was a bit darker than usual. This can happen from an empty bladder slapping against um, other organs I guess, while running. "They" recommend not emptying your bladder before a run. Which is the exact opposite of what a mama of 4 does... I'm not sure if that's it or if it's just plain ol' dehydration. I did pretty good drinking tons of water when I first had pain last week but the past couple of days I've been pretty busy and haven't been that good.

I'm back to drinking at least 1 liter of SmartWater (it has electrolytes in it) a day in addition to my lunch, dinner, and snack water (from our filtered water). I usually buy a 6-pack of SmartWater from Target but I might have to buy a whole case... I think I like the electrolytes... I can drink a lot more SmartWater than I can regular water. I'm going to be running a lot more over the summer and next fall when I start training for my first half-marathon. I can't be worrying about UTIs and bloody pee.

So, please, breastfeeding running moms, don't make the mistake of forgetting about yourself. Drink your water!

*No, SmartWater did not pay me to write this. But I would love some free water if they felt like sending me some. :-)

A little crap... followed by a little pee

I had kind of a sucky day.

Lots of money snafus, whiny cranky baby, whiny cranky constipated school-boy, my sinuses-allergies combined to kick me when I was down. I got the van stuck in the snow while backing it up the driveway after getting SkyWalker off the bus. It stayed there until Vader dug it out at bedtime. I spilled hot tea on myself. I didn't run. It was just a crapilicious morning.

But then, my little monkey, the one who can't sit still did something amazing. She's been sitting long enough for me to read her books (multiple books!) and that in itself is noteworthy. But today, at bath time, she sat on the potty long enough to actually PEE in it! She's been sitting on the potty... for a second here or there before she tries to jump off. Today she sat and I said "Are you going to pee?" and by golly she nodded her little head and she peed!! Real PEE! In the potty!

Sometimes all it takes is a little pee to brighten your day.

Defeat

I accept it. 

SkyWalker is just not ready to stay dry at night. Despite the fact that he has done it numerous times, I don't think he really *wants* to do it and that's the key... Last night he peed in his bed BEFORE he fell asleep. He was awake. He said he "forgot." Maybe he's just trying to get our attention? He peed AGAIN less than 2 hours later. And then again this morning. I told him that if he couldn't stay dry he would have to wear a pull-up. I thought maybe he would be motivated. Nope. His response? "I want to wear a diaper like the Princess." I am not putting him in a diaper. I still want him to pee on his own and a pull up is easier for that. So tonight he will wear a pull-up and perhaps we will all get some sleep. He slept until 8:30 this morning. He has dark circles under his eyes. He's refusing to nap during the day but he's clearly so tired. Maybe pull-ups will help.

He also hasn't pooped since Tuesday. He told me yesterday that he was going to poop but then thought it was going to be a bad one so he decided not to. WTH? I am ignoring it and just putting the laxative in his drinks. It hasn't worked yet but he hasn't accepted a full dose yet! I am definitely going to give him the laxative every day now to try to prevent this from happening again. Hopefully he will grow out of this nonsense!

The Princess is also wearing a pull-up right now. The other day I put her on the potty before her nap and she peed and we clapped and then I said "Try to squeeze out a poop so you don't wake up cranky" and lo and behold people she SQUEEZED out a poop. Immediately. It was amazing. 

My house is full of yin and yang.

The Princess is awake after just an hour of napping... SkyWalker didn't even let himself fall asleep. I probably should have taken a shower since I have that whole work thing tonight, but why should I start to care now? You know those moms who wear makeup and look nice? Screw you. I'm proud of my unwashed hair and my hairy toes.

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Pee

Yes, I know. I usually talk about poop. But sometimes pee is blog worthy too.

Twice this week I have put the Princess on the potty and she has peed. SkyWalker and I clap and dance and sing and she claps and it is funny.

Twice in the last week SkyWalker has NOT peed his bed. Yay for progress, however slow it is.

I stepped out of the shower and SkyWalker ran behind me, slapped my butt, sang a "hairy heiney" song and then asked where my balls were. I said I don't have them. He said rather dismissively, "Well, what DO you have?" and I told him what I have and what the mens have. He then chased me as I tried to get my underwear on and sang "Where are you heiney?"

This, however, is the kicker. It happened at least a week ago but it was too traumatic for me to blog or even tell anyone about it.

Brace yourselves.

I was sitting on the potty, peeing, when SkyWalker came in and announced he wanted to pee on my pee. Sure, fine, whatever. Before I had a chance to get up, he aimed his little wee-wee for the gap between my rear and the toilet and peed. He did have very good aim.

He peed on me.

An almost 4-year old peeing on you is much different than a newborn.

I don't think I'll ever be the same.

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A hodgepodge of numerous things

The hideous wallpaper in the kitchen (if you look closely you can see the blue counters):

Before & After:

100_2590

100_2878

100_2593

100_2879

100_2591

100_2881

100_2592

Even without being painted the walls look so much better without that wallpaper!! I am nowhere near being done in the kitchen though. My goal is to finish that and then have someone else do the rest:

100_2594

100_2596

Who puts wallpaper in the shower? Who DOES that kind of thing??

I had to laugh at how many people suggested yellow for our kitchen... When Vader first laughed at light green he said "Well, it's not as bad as yellow." It's going to be fun in my house when we have to make a decision.

We had lunch at the park again. We're enjoying it so much. SkyWalker doesn't really talk to anyone, but he laughs at the other kids and he's not running away from them. He felt comfortable enough to pull his pants down and pee in front of everyone. Twice. The second time his little train buddy stood right next to him and was fascinated with his progress. They looked like they were standing at urinals... in the middle of the grassy park. Good times. We're getting used to going to the park every week. I don't know what we'll do in the winter... I guess go to the library. ;-)

Speaking of which... I try not to talk too much about work because that's not who I am anymore but this just is so overwhelmingly ridiculous... instead of hiring another children's librarian to help do programs and improve services to the town, the board has decided to pay a "guard" to deal with the teenagers who hang out here after school. I'm assuming that's what his responsibilities are but I'm not sure since there still has been NO memo notifying us of who this person is and why he's here. That's another post. Anyway, the town taxpayers are paying this man (a hall monitor from the school) to sit outside the building and sun himself for a few hours. Is that not a colossal waste of money?? A librarian would be working! I am so glad I am not a taxpayer in this town. This in addition to the unnecessary 9-5 hours on Saturdays in the summer... at a time when taxes are going up and up, gas is going up, everything is going up, to be wasting taxpayer money is just so wrong.

We have another playdate at our house tomorrow. I didn't even attempt to clean today since I know it will all be a mess again. I'll do the guest bathroom tonight or tomorrow morning and try to get the kitchen organized, but with two little tornadoes throwing toys around the living room there was no point in doing anything today!

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Court

I just got back (a little while ago) from my court date for that speeding ticket I got back in October. I walk into the village court and ... it's a hallway. It was so funny. I met with the police officer who asked me if I was hoping for a reduction (um, yeah) and he immediately changed it to a parking ticket. No points on my license. No insurance problems. No surcharge. Just a $75 fine. Oh yeah. I'm glad that's over with! 

I even managed to get home in time for bedtime, albeit too late to feed the Princess. Not that it would matter since she's not eating for more than 3-4 minutes now. As it was she only took 2 1/2 ounces. She is eating a lot of solids, but not more than she was before... I think it's just her teeth that are bothering her. The first popped through a couple of weeks ago and now the second is ready to break. Sigh.

Her new car seat came today. She hasn't outgrown the infant seat yet, but she's pretty damn close. And getting really hard to carry around. It's not like she stays asleep in the carrier, but it'll still be a pain in the neck to not have it. I can leave her in the carrier on the floor and walk away for a minute. Can't really do that without a carrier. 

I should probably head to bed early. I'm pretty sure we will be up again tonight. For the teething baby? No. For the peeing preschooler. We put his singing potty in his room but I doubt he'll use it tonight. We've been going up there right before we go to bed and having him pee, but all that's done is changed his wake up time from 1:30 to 4 am! And that's much worse. And even when he does pee, sometimes more than once, his diaper is always still wet. I can understand having a small bladder but he's not drinking in his room. How much can he really need to pee? Which of course makes me think there's something wrong with him. My brother had to have his pee-pee hole stretched because he could never get it all out at once... but SkyWalker had surgery on his. I would think they would have made the right size hole. Of course then I wonder if something has gone wrong with his surgery... but most likely he just has a small bladder like his father who gets up every single night to pee. 

And with that, I am going to go pee. 

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