Kidney Infection

Yes, I was feeling almost better.  Almost Ok, and then one debacle after another.  The end of the story: I had a kidney infection.  I just finished the last of my course of antibiotics (and I took my probiotics too, those are important!) and I go to my own doctor next week so I will get tested to make sure the infection is gone.  Plus, since I had a kidney stone, and endometriosis around the area of my left kidney, I will also ask her what I can do to encourage kidney health.  So far, I've just been continuing to drink some cranberry juice (well cranberry juice and other juices mixed because straight cranberry juice is not something I enjoy at all, but for the purists out there, I did manage to finish a bottle of the organic straight cranberry juice and it was certainly... Tangy).  

Kanye West: IT IS NOT OKAY

I know that I need to update about where I've been the last couple of weeks, and I will, but there's something I would normally give three seconds of thought too that has been sitting with me.  I find it cringe-worthy to be about to write more about this person, but I am feeling the need.  As those of you who keep an eye on entertainment news already know, Kanye West had a concert recently.  For those of you who don't already know to what I am referring, at this concert, Kanye demanded that every single person in the audience get on his or her feet.  (Already obnoxious... these concert-goers are basically paying his salary, they should be able to sit or stand as they please).  He then stopped his show entirely because he saw two people in the audience who remained sitting.  It turns out that both of those two people were handicapped and that is why they did not stand.  One person had a prosthetic leg and the other was confined to a wheelchair.  Kanye then had his security go VERIFY with the person in the wheelchair that the person had proof of disability.  First, I don't even know what that is.  A wheelchair seems like pretty good proof to me.  Second, he has already embarrassed these two people who paid money to go to his concert.  And third, and this is what gets me, what would Kanye have done if there was someone there who had a disability or handicap or injury that WASN'T readily apparent to the eye?  What if someone was in the early stages of pregnancy and feeling dizzy?  Or recovering from knee surgery but off of crutches?  What if this was a hemophiliac who didn't want to get too jostled by the crowd?  Or, because this blog is all about me, had endometriosis.  It didn't click with me how absurd this stunt was until I thought about if I had been in attendance at that concert.  

9/6/2014

* I was reluctant to write a new post until I got FIVE good comments on my previous post HERE... but I had a thought as I was up all night and felt like sharing because I don't know if I cover my everyday life very well.  So while I would still very much like to get some comments (random, creative, far-fetched, whatever!) on my previous post (PLEEAASSSE) here's an expanded post of what I jotted in my pain/endometriosis journal last night:

Sometimes I feel like I spend all day just trying to minimize the pain that may surface at night.  That's an annoying way to spend the day!  I talked with my doctor about it and she confirmed that most people who suffer pain do feel worse at night.  She also talked some about normal cortisol levels and how they are different for pain patients, which made total sense while I was there talking to her, but now I can't remember exactly what the difference is.  (I'll have to Google to refresh myself).  At least I learned that there is a physiological reason for pain being worse at night and the irritating part is that pain at night throws off an entire day, if not more.  I either sleep in too late and then I'm not tired the next night, or I try to wake myself up at a regular time and then I'm just the Walking Tired for the rest of the day.  Also, for me at least, the less sleep I have, the more pain I feel.  It's almost always that inverse relationship.  So it's likely that while I'm up and unable to sleep, because pain that I can deal with during the day can definitely stop me from getting comfortable enough to fall asleep, I also have these thoughts and knowledge in the back of my head and that can't help my subconscious with the sleeping part either.  I do experience nighttime flare-ups of pain.  I can deal if it's a night when I went to the gym and expect it but on random days when I have done nothing of consequence I do get an occasional bout of extreme pain and that is extremely frustrating.  That happened to me this past week and it sucked but I felt improvement the next day and better the day after that, so that's a pretty quick turnaround.  It used to be a flare in my pain level would last a week, so if we are grading on a curve, my grade is improving.

Ready To Take MY Challenge...?

I have recently been thinking about two things and I have only now realized that they are basically the same thing.  First, I was thinking about an answer to the question I have been asked by so many people: "What can I do to help?"  I don't really have an answer to that because other than love and support, the things I need are medical.  Second, I kept thinking about how, on all sorts of websites, I am being inundated  by videos of celebrities doing the "ALS Ice Bucket Challenge."  I thought that was a cool and fun way to bring a lot of awareness to a terrible disease.  So then it hit me... What would be the most helpful would be to find our own "ice bucket challenge" to raise awareness about endometriosis!