Archive for "Life"
Ching’s 2026 ER Trip
Posted on June 29, 2026 by Ching under Life.
I’m calling this post “Ching’s 2026 ER Trip” because I’m really hoping it’s my only ER visit of the year.
Unfortunately, emergency room visits have become a little too familiar for our family. In fact, Kansas Medical Center should probably name one of their exam rooms after us. It was the same room I ended up in after fainting at YaYa’s 15 years ago, and the same room Brian was assigned during some of his health emergencies, including his bowel obstruction.
We’ve landed in a different room once or twice, but it honestly feels like this particular room has been our designated spot 99% of the time.
How We Got Here
As many of you know, I’ve been dealing with fibroids and endometriosis since 2022. After months of symptoms, I talked with my gynecologist about treatment options, including an ablation and hysterectomy. At the time, though, I wasn’t eager to pursue either. My thinking was simple: menopause couldn’t be that far away, and surely all of these issues would eventually resolve themselves.
By late 2023, my periods had become wildly irregular, and the cramps were sometimes so painful they were debilitating. However, since I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of having surgery, my doctor prescribed birth control pills to help regulate my cycle and reduce the pain. I’m thinking I just need to hang in there for a little while longer.
For almost two years, they worked remarkably well. My periods became predictable, the extended bouts of bleeding disappeared, and the cramps were either minimal or nonexistent. For a while, life felt normal again.
Then my blood pressure started creeping up. Because I’ve historically had low blood pressure, we initially assumed it was a fluke. But after several months of consistently high readings, my new gynecologist (around this same time, Center for Women’s Health closed, forcing me to transfer my care to Associates in Women’s Health and establish a relationship with a new doctor) and I decided to stop the birth control pills to see if they were contributing to the problem.
Stopping the pills didn’t help my blood pressure at all. Poor eating habits, less exercise, and the extra 20 pounds I had gained since this all began probably didn’t help matters either. I gained quite a bit of weight last year while Brian was undergoing cancer treatment because people kept bringing us food and, since he couldn’t eat, I was eating all of it. Eventually, my primary care doctor prescribed blood pressure medication – which is ironic because prior to Brian’s cancer diagnosis, he was the one who was on the verge of being prescribed blood pressure and cholesterol meds.
What stopping the pill did affect was my menstrual cycle. All of the symptoms I thought I’d left behind came roaring back: unpredictable periods, prolonged bleeding, miserable cramps, and all the fun that comes with them. Since I wasn’t planning to go back on birth control, I basically accepted that this was just my life now.
Things Started Going Sideways
Fast forward to May and Parker’s wedding in Kansas City. I felt awful that entire weekend. I was crampy, bleeding for unusually long stretches, and then it felt like my cycle started all over again just a couple weeks later. Around the same time, I began noticing back pain and shortness of breath. Because I had recently bought new shoes for Zumba and pickleball, I initially blamed the back pain on that.
I pushed through it anyway. I taught classes, worked, and kept up my usual schedule, even though the pain was becoming more constant and intense. One weekend, while playing pickleball with Huyen Nguyen, Angie Farlow, and Diona Marshall, I had to ask Michael Farlow to fill in for me every other game because my back simply couldn’t handle it.
The next day, I attempted to practice with my MiLP v3 team and was in so much pain that I immediately knew I needed to give up my spot. Still, I convinced myself this was just my new normal.
The Friday before my ER visit, I tried playing in Friday Night Fiesta. My back hurt, I was completely out of breath, and I felt terrible for my partner. Thankfully, Heide Bartel was there and finished the rest of my games for me.
That weekend, I ran the IPN mini tournament at TapNPaddles on Saturday but took it easy on Sunday. I stayed home, rested, and did nothing because I had absolutely no energy. Since I work from home on Mondays and Fridays, I was able to get through my work day on Monday by resting in between meetings.
The Day Everything Changed
Tuesday, June 2, started like any other workday. I felt awful but I didn’t realize how sick I actually was.
I drove into the office despite feeling miserable. When Chris texted to see if I wanted to grab coffee that morning-something we do regularly—I told him to go ahead and get coffee without me because I wasn’t feeling well.
I was crampy and also felt constipated, so I headed to the restroom. No luck. I returned to my desk and tried crocheting a few rows to distract myself from the discomfort. When that didn’t work, I leaned forward, pressing on my abdomen. A few moments later, I looked up at my computer and realized something was very wrong.
My vision had become blurry. I wasn’t blind, but I couldn’t read anything. I could see my screens and the lines of text, but the words themselves were unreadable. I felt disoriented and scared. I immediately called Brian and told him I needed to go to the ER.
While waiting, I was so out of it that I ended up lying down in the lobby. Alicia happened to see me on her way in. She waited with me in the lobby and walked me to Brian’s car.
The drive to the ER felt endless. The wait at the ER felt even longer. We arrived around 9 AM, but I don’t think I got a room until nearly 11. Brian stayed with me the entire time, only leaving briefly to grab lunch and bring back a hoodie because he was freezing in the exam room.
Finally, Some Answers
The ER team discovered I was severely dehydrated, so they started IV fluids immediately. They also found that my hemoglobin had dropped to 6.5, low enough to require a blood transfusion. They gave me Toradol for the cramps, and at some point I fell asleep.
When Brian came back from lunch, he asked how I was feeling. I paused for a second because I was genuinely surprised. The cramps were gone. The mental fog was gone. For the first time in what felt like months, I felt clear-headed and normal. Other than being attached to a collection of tubes and needles, I actually felt pretty good.
At one point I told Brian he could head home to check on Saki and just come back when I was discharged. He refused. His reasoning? Every time he stepped away, I seemed to come back wearing a new bracelet. When they added the blood-transfusion bracelet, I joked that he didn’t need to worry unless they started tagged my toe.
Most of the day was spent waiting—waiting for doctors, waiting for tests, waiting for bags (of fluids and blood) to be depleted, waiting for results. And waiting to eat. Because surgery was still a possibility, the nurses wouldn’t let me have food until they knew exactly what was going on. It was 2 PM by the time I finally ate lunch. The hospital lunch was surprisingly good.
The Diagnosis
The CT scan confirmed my known fibroids, but it also revealed something unexpected: colitis. Since I’ve always been somewhat prone to anemia, the combination of prolonged menstrual bleeding and colitis likely pushed my hemoglobin down to the dangerously low level that landed me in the ER.
The ER physician prescribed two antibiotics for the colitis (which I had to take for a week) and a 30-day iron supplement to help rebuild my blood supply. He also stressed the importance of follow-up appointments with both my gynecologist and primary care physician.
As he explained it, the ER could treat the immediate problem, but I needed a long-term plan for the underlying issues.
Looking Ahead
Overall, I’ve felt much better since the ER visit. The antibiotics are finished, and I’m still taking iron. The cramps haven’t disappeared entirely, but they’re much more manageable. Interestingly, the back pain that had been making me miserable is gone, which makes me wonder whether it was related to the colitis all along.
I’ve been paying much closer attention to my diet, tracking what I eat and how it affects my symptoms. I’m also making a conscious effort to stay hydrated.
We have our annual health screening coming up in July, and there’s a good chance a hysterectomy is in my future this October. For now, I’m grateful to finally have some answers—and I’m feeling better than I have all year.
And hopefully, this will be my one and only ER trip of 2026.
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Valentines Weekend 2026
Posted on March 6, 2026 by Ching under Life.
I took a break from my usual Friday night routine last month during Valentines weekend to spend some quality time with the hubs. We began our weekend at Bonefish Grill. We hadn’t been there in a long time and dinner the day before Valentines Day seemed like the perfect reason to go.
The crab cakes we had for our starter and the chocolate creme brulee we had for dessert were definitely the highlights of our meal.
We’ve yet to find better crab cakes in Wichita.
Brian loves the creme brulee at Bonefish and when they have the chocolate kind, which is seasonal, it’s even better. The last time we went they had just dropped the chocolate creme brulee off the menu so we were so happy to be able to order it on our recent visit.
My friend Laurie Adams came down to visit so, after a morning filled with errands, went to meet her at Chicken N Pickle on Saturday to get our free Valentines heart cookies. Chicken N Pickle is the best!
On Sunday, we enjoyed a delicious brunch at Newport Grill which is a favorite for both Laurie and my sister Jenni.
We finished the day with a couples massage at home with Michael Blyn and Jamie Eaton. We could not have had a better Valentines weekend.
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2025 End of Year Recap
Posted on January 13, 2026 by Ching under Life.
Before we dive into the 2025 end of year recap, let’s catch you up on what happened last year…
I can’t even begin to summarize everything that happened in 2024. In the wake of all the health issues I was having in 2023, at the end of September 2024, Brian got diagnosed with Cancer. That was really the big bombshell of 2024 for us. I decided to lay off tournaments for the year, which helped us save a bunch of money, which in turn helped us pay off our house.
No sooner than we got our house paid off in August, Brian got his cancer diagnosis a month later. We were actually quite fortunate that we paid off our house in time because I don’t know how we would have managed dealing with everything if we still had to pay for our house on top of it.
Despite the bad news we got toward the end of the year, 2024 wasn’t all bad. I still played some pickleball, even though I was on a tournament sabbatical. One of my favorite events was the Chicken N Pickle KC vs ICT Ambassadors Showdown in Overland Park. That was a ton of fun. I also got to visit Tres Palapas Pickleball Resort in Mexico with some friends. And that was even more fun.
The year ended with a lot of uncertainty but Brian had some good doctors on his team and we had a good plan going into the new year.
Brian’s cancer diagnosis in late 2024 caused him to miss the Tres Palapas trip but he totally could have gone actually. Why? Because insurance didn’t approve his chemotherapy right away so treatments didn’t begin until after I got back from Mexico. I don’t think he really wanted to go on the trip so that wasn’t as much of a loss for him as it was for me because I really wanted to share the experience with him. Anyway, daily radiation treatments started mid-November and then his weekly chemotherapy began soon after. What we didn’t realize was that the chemo drugs would cause him to get so constipated that we had to make two fun trips to the ER. That was a scary experience but we also learned so much.
We were lucky that Brian’s cancer was discovered early enough that he only had to be in treatments for about three months. By the time Valentines Day rolled around, he was finished with both radiation and chemo. We spent the Valentines at the cancer center getting his PICC line removed.
One of the big spends we made last year was on a recliner. I never really thought we were recliner people but Brian really enjoyed sitting in them during his chemo so he decided he would like one for our house. We are now proud owners of a La-Z-Boy loveseat recliner.
The other big splurge of 2025 was our Alaska cruise. Brian wasn’t excited about it when I first booked the trip for us at the end of 2024 but I wanted to give him something to look forward to at the end of his treatments. The cancer treatments really did take a lot out of him. He got all the way down to 140 lbs at one point and really had no energy so it’s hard to feel excited about anything. However, once he got his feeding tube removed in April, he started eating normally again. He put on some weight and had more energy and he felt more excitement about our cruise at that point. We had the opportunity to visit several places in Alaska and Canada on this trip, including Juneau, AK; Skagway, AK; Fraser, BC; Endicott Arm Fjord (this was supposed to be Tracy Arm Fjord but the conditions weren’t conducive for cruising that fjord during the time of our trip — we got rerouted to Endicott Arm for safety reasons); Ketchikan, AK; and Victoria, BC. It was the trip of a lifetime and one that I wouldn’t mind doing again in a few years.
Between Alaska and the recliner, we didn’t have much left in the budget for other trips so we just did little road trips here and there the rest of the year. We drove to Dallas (Grapevine area) for our anniversary weekend (I wanted to check out the Meow Wolf in Grapevine). Returned the following month (Allen area this time) for the Chicken N Pickle ambassador event. And then drove to St. Louis for my birthday road trip (I wanted to check out the Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles). Honestly, road trips are a fun way to travel/vacation without spending a ton of money. We also get to bring Saki with us on these trips which is a huge plus.
Anyway, although my self-imposed pickleball tournament sabbatical was technically over, I didn’t get too crazy. I only played in a couple of leagues and a couple of tournaments. I also organized some events for National Pickleball Month. I ran a slew of IPN DUPR round robins (per usual) and helped with charity pickleball tournaments (mainly EPIC for the Wichita Children’s Home and Zach and Susie’s Miracles & Mentors Pickleball Tournament benefiting Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Youth Horizons).
That’s pretty much it for 2025 highlights. If you’re curious about previous years, here are some recaps…
I continued to play in pickleball tournaments but decided to focus more on local and regional ones. Aside from the US Open, USA Pickleball Nationals, one PPA tournament, and one APP tournament, most of my tournaments were local and within driving distance. It was an eventful year and I got to meet a ton of people from all over the world. Brian and I also had our first colonoscopies that year. He doesn’t have to go again for 10 years but I’m due back in 2028.
This year I played in pickleball tournaments all over the nation. I traveled to Florida a couple of times — played in my very first US Open in April and then played in the Diamond Amateur Championship in December. I also went to the opposite coast and played in USAP Newport Beach. This was the first year I won money at a pickleball tournament (WPT Kansas City Classic). Brian’s grandmother turned 100 and we attended Erica and Phillip Case’s wedding in Mexico. This was quite a year and my most expensive tournament year.
This is the year that I started traveling to pickleball tournaments and earned my first ever PPA tournament medal. I played in a bunch of tournaments including APP Delray Beach, Middle States Regional, Great Plains Regional, and some tournaments in Oklahoma City, Lenexa, and Great Bend. I also organized my first pickleball tournament.
COVID-19 happened. This was a super strange year. All the gyms were closed and we couldn’t leave our homes for nearly two months. I had a really rough time. Jenni also got married this year. And we managed to survive all year without getting sick until December when we both got COVID.
Probably the most significant thing to happen this year is that I went all-in with my pickleball obsession — started the Facebook group and even signed up for a lifetime membership to USA Pickleball. We also got to travel internationally twice — Costa Rica in April for Jay’s 40th birthday and Mexico in November for me and Becca’s birthdays.
There was a lot of Zumba this year. Not only did I attend the Zumba Instructor Convention (ZINCON) in Orlando but Brian and I also went on another Zumba cruise. I also picked up a side job teach Zumba classes at VASA Fitness. Brian and I did “Coffee Chats” on our FLIP + CHING page.
I hosted my first Zumbathon and raised money for Kansas Big Brothers and Big Sisters. Brian and I were inducted into the Society of 1865 at WSU. We attended a crap ton of parties and fundraising events. Brian helped design a Keeper of the Plains statue (that still exists today). We visited a couple of places that we’d never been — Alaska and Great Exuma.
Brian and I went on the first ever Zumba cruise where I met J. Perry (he sings many of my favorite Zumba songs) in person for the first time. I also got to meet Max Pizzolante at #ZINCON. I had the opportunity to tour Zumba Home Office. And I finally made the Wichita Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.
This year we hosted a Super Pi Day party. Brian and I completed Citizen Policy Academy. I visited New York for the first time. And we added a couple of new family members: Rex and Saki.
This was the year that I attended, not one, but two Zumba instructor conferences was definitely a highlight of the year. I was glad I had the opportunity to attend the 2014 Zumba Instructor Conference in LA because it was the very last one. Later that year I attended the 2014 Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando. Other highlights include my short stint as a Stella & Dot personal stylist, getting our landscaping redone, returning to bowling, trips to San Diego (for work) and the Dominican Republic (for Brian’s 40th birthday), and having Molly rejoin our family. We were blessed with the opportunity to attend our favorite fundraising events: Labor Run, Zoobilee, Lights on the Lake, and Brew Ha-Ha. I completed Leadership Wichita (Class of 2014, baby!) and met some of the truly amazing people. I was also an Adventurous Babe for a year until I resumed being my normal boring self.
There was Cards for the Cure, a visit from the Orbases, a few appearances on Splurge! Mag, his and hers handguns, first time back at the Filipino ball, Leadership Elite, Brian’s parents’ 40th wedding anniversary, Cards Against Humanity, my first Zumba Instructor Convention (ZINCON), first trip to Minneapolis and Davenport, completed group exercise instructor training and started teaching Zumba for the Greater Wichita YMCA.
We attended a few weddings, most notably Cousin Tracy and Jeff’s destination wedding at Coral Cove Resort in Jamaica. I attended the Gina & Tanya Rock the Stage Tour. I got my Zumba Basic 1 License and I took Brian to Nashville for his 38th birthday. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by closing on our house and then I ended the year with a thyroidectomy.
We started the year by getting stranded at McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas). That didn’t deter us from traveling, though. We traveled through the East Coast with the Dills that summer and had a lot of firsts. We also got to see James Taylor perform twice: once at Intrust Bank Arena and again at Tanglewood. I also had my first ER trip and my first biopsy.
This is the year that we spent a lot of time with the Dills. It started out when we rang in the New Year at Kansas City Power & Light with Jay, Becca, and Mama Dill. A month later, we were traveling with them again. This time to San Francisco. Lots of traveling!
We had a lot of firsts this year. We attended Zoobilee for the first time. Brian had his first trip to Germany. He also visited the Philippines for the first time. I completed Leadership Westar. Tita Sol adopted Molly.
Brian started working for Viega. I completed my MBA from Wichita State University. And, we dealt cards on a cruise ship.
Brian was super into World of Warcraft around this time. I played some but knew instantly I would get addicted so I tried my best to stay away from it. Plus, all my time was consumed by grad school and my poker addiction. LOL. This year was our first major travel vacation since our honeymoon. We went to Couples Tower Isle in Jamaica and had our first nude beach experience.
This is the year I graduated from Wichita State with my Business Administration degree (Management Information Systems major and minors in Accounting and Management). Rewarded myself with my first brand new car (a 2006 Toyota Corolla we named Bebot) and a puppy. However, since I went straight into grad school to pursue my MBA (still at WSU), I was never home and Molly bonded with Brian more so than me. I was super into poker around this time and even Brian was starting to get into it too.
This year saw Brian through a couple of job changes. He first worked for Cox Communications and then later that year quit that job to start working for Engenio Technologies which later because LSI and then NetApp. We also got sugar gliders this year.
I officially became a naturalized US citizen, continued kicking butt at school, and after a couple of years as a customer service representative was promoted to supervise my team. This was a rough year for our marriage. Brian struggled with depression and was prescribed Zoloft which was super rough for our sex life. We pursued hobbies like poker (went from playing online to playing bar poker and playing in local tournaments), racquetball, chess, and blogging to get us through.
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I had originally dropped out of college in 2000 when my four-year scholarship money ran out. I decided I didn’t want to take out student loans. Anyway, I started working for my current employer in May 2002. After a year, I realized I was eligible for tuition reimbursement/assistance so this is the year that I went back to school. This is also the year that I discovered online poker. Brian also started our 24/7 live cam. |
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This is the year that Brian and I were married and the year that I started this blog.
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Reflecting on Another Year
Posted on December 24, 2025 by Ching under Life.
Brian kept asking me what I wanted for my birthday this year and I really couldn’t think of anything. I knew I did want to have some crab legs, though. As luck would have it, I found out about Rock & Brews Casino in Oklahoma from some friends who regularly go there. They have all-you-can-eat crab legs every Friday. So I told Brian my only wish for my birthday was to have some all-you-can-eat crab legs for my birthday and for him to go with us.
Oh, I almost forgot that I told Brian I wanted Whole Foods’ Berry Chantilly cake also and he delivered on that as well. The smallest one was still too big for me to finish by myself so I ended up sharing it with my friend Tom Grace who happened to be in town for the weekend.
Tom was in town for nails and drinks with me, Brian, and Chris Townley.
We hit the “Nightmare on Brew Street” Halloween pop-up at Nortons Brewing after our nail appointment. Their Halloween decorations were lackluster but the drinks and food at NBC are always fire.
The next morning, the four of us met for brunch at Homegrown.
Later in the month, Brian and I went on a road trip to Missouri to check out the Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles. Before that though, I also got to play at the Ellisville Missouri Pickleball Club location thanks to my friend Christie Pink.
She got her friends Monika and Monet to play with us. It was a blast!
Here are some pics of the St. Charles Chicken N Pickle. I’ve now officially visited 8 of the 13 existing Chicken N Pickle locations. It was super nice meeting fellow Chicken N Pickle ambassadors and actually being able to play in ambassador play because I hadn’t been able to make any of the ones in Wichita all year. Anyway, we had a great time and I look forward to checking out even more Chicken N Pickle locations in the coming year.
While in St. Louis, we also got to do some sight-seeing. We walked around down town and went up in the Arch. It didn’t quite live up to my expectations but we can now cross that experience off the list. LOL.
October was a fun month and Brian was super great at making all the things that I wanted to do during my birthday month happen. Here’s to another great year!
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September Activities Round Up
Posted on October 6, 2025 by Ching under Events, Life, Travel.
I met another one of the guys from the chess club, Austin. He was a good sport and tried pickleball after we played chess. Their regular weekly meetups, which I have yet to attend since I joined the chess group several years ago, are at the Delano Braums on Wednesday evenings, and the Advanced Learning Library on Sunday afternoons. A few of them have come out to check out TapNPaddles, though. I hope they can add Friday nights at Tap to the regular rotation.
I participated in a super exciting team-building activity with my workmates. Our afternoon began with volunteering at the Kansas Food Bank, happy hour at the Monarch, and we were to wrap up with a baseball game, which ended up getting canceled due to a hailstorm.
We ended up just hanging out in the suite until it was save to walk to our cars and head home. There were two storms that night. The others stayed but a few of us decided to take off during the intermission, aka the break between the two storms. Tom Grace came down from to Topeka and he walked from his hotel to the meet us at the Monarch so I ended up giving him a ride back to his hotel. Literally, no sooner than I dropped him off, it started hailing again. I could hear the hail hit the roof of my car as I was driving down Kellogg. I kept looking around me to see if there were holes because the hits were so loud. I was afraid (because it sounded like the hail could punch a hole through thick steel and could really hurt you if you got hit with it) but also secretly hoping I had some hail damage because I have a crack on my windshield that’s getting bigger by the day. I was hoping to get hail damage money and use it to replace the windshield. Brian checked my car after. Alas, no such luck. I guess I’m going to have to pay for my new windshield out of my own pocket. Currently a low priority so I’m putting it off.
Brian and I had tickets to the ballpark for the next day. It turned into a double header. They played both the game from the previous night and that night’s game back to back but reduced it to seven innings. We couldn’t take off work so we only went for the second part. The Dills (Becca and Jay) and the Huntees (Tina and Justin Huntington) met us there. It was great seeing Tina and Justin as we hadn’t seen them in ages.
Speaking of things we hadn’t seen or done in a while, we went to Zoobilee for the first time in a long time. Free tickets are kind of hard to pass up.
We went to Allen, Texas (DFW area) for a quick weekend getaway so I could participate in the Chicken N Pickle ambassador event. More on that later.
We went back to Chama Gaucha, which has quickly become one of our favorite places to eat down there.
Checked out a new restaurant in town that we had never been to yet. More on this later too.
Got a plant for work.
We celebrated the Wichita Pickleball Facebook group reaching the 4K members milestone with a special Friday night open play and a huge Friday Night Fiesta, one of the biggest ever!
We met up with some of our pals at Napoli to celebrate April Phelps’ birthday.
And, we completed some home projects. It was a productive month overall.
I’ll do a deep dive into some of the things that we did in September next so be sure to check back. Until next time!
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