Quick Health Update
Posted on January 26, 2024 by Ching under Health.
Every now and then I get a random text from a friend asking me if I got my results back or if the doctors have figured out what’s going on with me, etc. I forget who I have shared my health problems with and who I haven’t so I guess it’s time for a general update. This is for anyone who has been aware of my struggles and wants to know the recent developments.
My problems really started a couple of years ago. Since I started menstruating, I have been blessed with a very predictable and consistent monthly cycle. I have zero cramping. I bleed heavy for a couple of days (heaviest on the second day) but, by day four, my period is over. It is as regular as the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening. And, up until a couple of years ago, pretty painless.
Over the last couple of years, I started getting headaches and menstrual cramps. The period cramps are excruciating and terrible to the point I just want to crawl into a ball and die. My periods have become quite irregular also. They’re not coming on schedule. Sometimes I’m skipping months. I have spotting in between periods and sometimes I bleed for several days. It is completely abnormal.
The unpredictable bleeding is very inconvenient (and quite embarrassing at times) but I was thinking maybe this is what happens when you hit menopause? I was enduring it all but the cramps were getting worse and, having had to play in pickleball tournaments while suffering through the agony of period cramps, I started to wonder if this is at all normal. Not having period cramps for most of my life, it definitely did not feel normal to me. It finally bothered me enough to consult my doctor at my last well-woman exam, which resulted in a succession of tests including lab work, a sonogram, and even an MRI.
First there’s the fibroids, which I have known I’ve had for a long time but have never bothered me. Brian thinks the fibroids flaring up are probably causing my cramps. Anyway, what’s special about my fibroids is that they’re not in my uterus lining but rather outside in the muscle. I don’t even know if I’m explaining it right. Speaking of my uterus, it also has a very weird texture apparently.
One of the solutions we talked about was an ablation but, because of where my fibroids are, you can’t really scrape them out. Also, the texture of my uterus is just that way it is so even if you scrape the lining eventually it’ll be back to the way it is again. A more permanent fix would be to get a hysterectomy. But I’m thinking, I should be menopausal. If my cycles are going to eventually come to an end, is it really even worth it to go through surgery. Also, I am very anti-surgery and would rather not have anything removed that doesn’t have to be removed. Honestly, if the doctor hadn’t been so stern with me years ago I probably wouldn’t even have gone through my thyroidectomy.
We agreed maybe I should get on birth control pills to help regulate my monthly cycle. They’ll be more predictable and the pills could help alleviate the period cramps as well. So I am now on Lo Loestrin and, with the exception of the time in November (while we were at Nationals) when my period lasted two weeks and I suffered from menstrual cramps almost the entire time, it’s actually working. Brian really wanted me to pull the plug on the birth control pills because he was concerned about the side effects and didn’t really think it would work. And then, having suffered through two weeks of hell, he was thinking that maybe the pills were actually making things worse for me. However, I was only a couple of months into the treatment and so I was thinking maybe my body was still trying to make sense of everything and trying to establish balance. I decided to keep going and my period in December was almost like it was before I started having problems – short (about four days) and painless. It’s been pretty good since then. I haven’t had menstrual cramps since November so I think it’s working.
So my cramping problems are pretty much resolved but now we’re looking into some other things. Because, as with anything, when you start investigating stuff you end up finding some other potentially related or unrelated issues. After my well-woman exam when I shared all the problems and symptoms I’ve been suffering the past couple of years, they looked into my labs and it showed that my prolactin was elevated. I had to provide a blood sample again a couple of weeks later just to make sure it wasn’t a false reading. Anyway, it was still high so then that’s where the MRI came in. Apparently, sometimes your prolactin can be high if there’s a tumor in your pituitary. We did the MRI to make sure I didn’t have some sort of tumor that we didn’t know about. MRI results came back good. No tumor but no answers as to why my prolactin is high either so then they decided to refer me to an Endocrinologist, who was supposed to call me to schedule an appointment.
When I had my follow up appointment at Center for Women’s Health late last year, the doctor asked if I had seen the Endocrinologist yet. I told her they haven’t called me. She’s like, “That’s strange. I need to look into this because they should have seen you by now.” Come to find out, the Endocrinologist’s office had been trying to reach me but they had an incorrect phone number down so they never could get a hold of me. It was really a blessing in disguise because, in the meantime, I asked Brian to see if Dr. Dany Zayour was still in town. He is the doctor who helped me with my thyroid issues. As luck would have it, he’s still practicing. He’s just not with Ascension Via Christi anymore. We ended up not going with the Endocrinologist I was referred to but we ended up scheduling with Dr. Zayour instead. Even though it’s been ten years, I felt more comfortable seeing someone who knows my history.
While all of this is going on, Brian and I went in for our annual checkup and screening with our general doctor, Dr. Scott Hane, last month. A couple of years after my thyroidectory, once my medication was stable, I didn’t have to see my specialist Dr. Zayour anymore so he turned over monitoring my thyroid hormone levels to my general doctor. Dr. Hane looks at my labs at our annual checkups and decides if my Synthroid dosage needs to be increased or decreased. At my checkup last month, Dr. Hane and I both agreed I probably need to increase from 112 to 125 (because I’ve gained a bit of weight in the past year) but, after I told him I was seeing an Endocrinologist again, he decided that we should wait and see what the Endocrinologist says. They are, after all, the expert on these things.
Here’s a picture of me and Dr. Zayour when I met with him last week. He looks almost the same as when we first met over 12 years ago. He was a new physician at Via Christi back then. Now he has tons more experience and several awards and accolades to add to his CV. LOL.
Part of me hesitates going through with all of these doctors visits and tests (all of which I have to pay for) because the birth control pills have pretty much resolved the main issue that I needed help with anyway. I am no longer suffering from my debilitating cramps and my menstrual cycle is under control. My high prolactin is a concern but it’s not really hurting me. I don’t think it’s causing me adverse symptoms as far as I can tell. I think my doctor at Center for Women’s Health (and also my general doctor) recommended that I continue down this path to cover their bases. Their obligation is to inform me of what they found and refer me to a specialist and then, if I don’t take their advice and something happens to me, then it’s on me and not on them. I think it’s just everyone trying to cover their butts so no one gets sued. Honestly. Because I feel totally fine right now.
I love all my doctors but sometimes I feel like I’m just paying for all these tests and it’s just busy work. It would be nice to know why my prolactin is high but is it keeping me up at night? Not really. I feel healthy. I feel good. And, other than the fact that I’m actually starting to feel my age, I have zero complaints. And, I am extremely grateful for it.
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The Joys of Home Ownership
Posted on January 19, 2024 by Ching under Home Ownership, Relationship.
We were having problems with our Nest thermostat over the weekend. The furnace kept shutting on and off and the thermostat display showed this error message. It would cut out and then turn back on but our biggest problem was that we didn’t know how to make it come back on when it would turn off and it just did it randomly so we really didn’t know when it would be working and not. It was both temperamental and unpredictable.
Anyway, we decided to call one of our friends who referred us to one of his BNI acquaintances who specialized in this sort of thing. But it was Monday – Martin Luther King Jr. Day – night so Chad (tech/service guy) said he could come out but it would be overtime. Well, I am way too cheap for that so Brian and I decided to tough it out and have him come out the next day.
Well, on Tuesday morning we woke up to a 55 degree house and the Nest thermostat display was all black – no error message or anything, it was just completely blank. Brian thought the thermostat had finally gone kaput. I’m like, “No way! That thermostat is only six years old and they’re supposed last ten.”
We didn’t really know what was wrong so we called Chad but Chad couldn’t come out until the afternoon because he already had appointments scheduled for that day. In the meantime, we were in the midst of the coldest days in January so we turned on the electric fireplace downstairs, the gas fireplace upstairs, and I moved our little space heater to the living room to help bring the temperature up in the house. I figured that should get me by until we can get the furnace/heating issue resolved. Brian went in to his office and they have heat there so it was mostly just me freezing to death. I decided to work from home on Tuesday so I could let Chad in the house when he did arrive.
Around lunch time, the Nest thermostat kicks back on again. The furnace comes on and everything seems to be working as normal. Of course, we still want to Chad to come because we can just have the furnace randomly turn on and off, specially when we don’t know how to get it back on. That’s just not going to work.
A little bit later, Brian tells me he is on his way home because Chad is on his way to our house. Brian is completely convinced the thermostat is broken (either that or he just really wanted a new one) so he stops by Lowe’s and buys a $250 Ecobee. Chad fixes the furnace and replaces the Nest with the new Ecobee. When I get the low down from Brian (it turns out there’s some kind of sensor on the furnace that has rusted out due to condensation) and realize the reason the thermostat was going off and on was because the furnace was going off and on, I am livid. I’m like, “Why did we buy a new thermostat when there was nothing wrong with our thermostat?”
I felt like we could have saved ourselves the expense. Plus, I’m thinking we’re probably going to pay the labor for having Chad install the new thermostat when we didn’t have to replace our existing thermostat to begin with because there was nothing wrong with it. I just couldn’t get over how wasteful it all seemed.
Looking back, it was interesting to me how I was overwhelmed with feelings of anger, irritation, and frustration every time I looked at the new Ecobee thermostat whereas every time I looked at our new faucet, which we spent about $300 on, I was filled with so much joy and appreciation. The amount we spent was about the same – the thermostat actually cost less. I believe the two things elicited different feelings in me because I felt the faucet was necessary and Brian painstakingly installed it himself; while the new thermostat was a completely unnecessary expense. We could have used the $250 to pay Chad who we still needed to pay.
I felt like we could have avoided having to buy a new thermostat by asking two simple things, “Is our thermostat broken? And, do we need to replace it?” The answers would have been no and no, and we could have saved ourselves $250. But we don’t ask questions. We just spend money because that’s what we do.
I was so annoyed that I actually picked a fight with Brian about this, which I immediately regretted. Well, maybe not immediately. I was still kind of pissed off when I went to bed but then came to my senses when I woke up in the morning. In the grand scheme of things, this is a really stupid thing to be pissed off about. Yes, we spent $500 that we did not expect to spend when we probably could have gotten by with spending half that but it’s a stupid thing to fight about.
I realize now that Brian’s intention was not to “waste” money. He was unhappy with our old thermostat (even though it still worked) much like I was unhappy with the old faucet (that was also working perfectly fine) and so he wanted to replace it. I think the main difference between the two scenarios is that we were aligned on replacing the faucet but we were not aligned on the thermostat expense.
My key takeaways from this:
- We won’t always agree on everything but I think we at least need to make an effort to get alignment before making decisions.
- Brian gives me grace when I screw up – not saying he screwed up but rather he made a different choice than I would have – so I need to allow him the same.
- Brian tries so hard to make our lives better and doesn’t deserve me questioning his judgement every step of the way.
- I was wrong to pick a fight over this. Brian and I have always prided ourselves with being very rational and approaching everything sensibly and I was completely irrational in this situation. If I had to psychoanalyze myself, I think I would have concluded that I was pissed of and frustrated about other things and this just happened to be thing that I could blow up about.
- I just need to be better.
I don’t always apologize because I feel like I’m usually right (LOL) but I did apologize for how I reacted. I hope he knows that the apology was sincere and I do regret my actions. Seriously, though. We haven’t had a fight in over ten years. I wouldn’t have thought it would be over this. What a stupid thing to fight over!
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New Board Games
Posted on January 16, 2024 by Ching under Games, Hobbies.
Brian and I learned to play a new board game last week. Zach and Lisa taught us how to play Blokus, a 2-4 player strategy game using block shapes.
When Zach first told me about it a few weeks ago, I thought it sounded fun so I went ahead and ordered it (XL version) and Trigon (triangle shapes version) off Amazon. When my Trigon game arrived, we went over to Zach and Lisa’s place and they taught us how to play Blokus (that was our first time playing) and then we also played the Trigon version.
I’m not sure if this is a well-known fact but Brian and I love playing games. We love card games, board games, really any games. Brian’s actually playing chess with me again too (and kicking my butt, I might add).
Anyway, I thought I would share our most recent game purchases:
- Blokus XL – This is the same as the Blokus game but with bigger pieces.
- Blokus Trigon – Same as the Blokus game but with triangle shapes instead of squares.
- Blank Slate – Super fun game that Colby brought to Susie’s house last month. I ended up ordering it that same night. We brought the game to Christmas Eve lunch at mom and dad’s and it was a hit. It was $25 was I ordered it but it’s actually on sale right now for $19 so if you want to buy your own game, now is the time to order it.
- Qawale – This is a two player game Brian and I discovered via an online video. It’s quick and fun.
Are there any other games we should check out? We are open to suggestions. Let us know in the comments.
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DUPR Mixed Doubles Mini Tournament
Posted on January 12, 2024 by Ching under Pickleball.
I’ve been playing with the Swish Sports app the last few months and trying out different functions. They recently deployed their DUPR integration and so I wanted to test that out on a tournament format. Thankfully, Jeff Bally was nice enough to let us use his courts for a trial run.
We had six teams participate. The list below shows the teams ranked in order of performance after the round robin.
- Fernando Martinez and Sarah Berry
- Seth Mountain and Julie Pauly
- Zach Nguyen and Fong Witte
- Bobby Weisbrodt and Olivia Banks
- Zach Holt and Alice Tunks-Jones
- Jeff Bally and Shawna Geist
After the round robin, we finished the event with a single elimination bracket. At the end of it, the winners were:
- First Place – Bobby and Olivia
- Second Place – Jeff and Shawna
- Third Place – Seth and Julie
I usually only have prizes for first place but Shawna had some extra pickleball tumblers made by her daughter in law that she wanted to donate so we decided to use those as the prizes for second place. Ironically, Jeff and Shawna finished second so Shawna basically won her own prize that she brought. They ended up giving them to the third place team, which worked out well.
Congrats to Bobby and Olivia on the win. These two have turned into quite a formidable duo on and off the pickleball court. Until next time!
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The Belmont
Posted on January 9, 2024 by Ching under Food and Drink.
We’ve made two trips to the Belmont this year already but who’s counting? LOL. Brian and I were so excited to hear that our favorite chef, Jen Reifschneider, recently joined the Belmont team. The Belmont is our “go-to” place to eat and we went there nearly every week last year. I told him we will probably go even more now. But I hope they don’t get rid of the pork belly banh mi sandwich. It is my absolute favorite.
Here are some pics I snapped from our recent visit.
We got the pimento crab dip. Did you know that the chips are pretty much bottomless? All you have to do is ask.
We weren’t very hungry so we just had the crab dip and fries that time.
I did get two of my new favorite drink – the Johnny Applesage.
And then we shared a creme brulee for dessert. I really like the creme brulee there. Brian says he still likes the one at Bonefish better because they give you more. The one at the Belmont is absolutely perfect for me.
Anyway, we went back again after my pickleball (and Brian’s gaming) last Sunday for late lunch/early supper. SIDE NOTE: Sunday is the best time to go because it’s happy hour all day on Sundays.
I got me a yummy Berry Manilow this time.
Brian got his usual ham and cheese sandwich and I tried to get the pork belly banh mi but they only serve it at lunch. We were there too late.
One time I was there for dinner and the server offered to ask the kitchen if they could make it and they actually did make it for me. Our server didn’t offer that option this time and I didn’t want to be difficult so I just chose their chicken salad sandwich instead. It is also very good. The square-shaped croissant they use in the sandwich is perfectly flaky and delicious.
The day before this I was at Red Bird with Alice and had the magpie (their version of the chicken salad sandwich) – also good. I guess it was a chicken salad kind of weekend for me. Anyway, if I could have the bread at Belmont filled with the chicken salad from Red Bird that might just be the perfect chicken salad sandwich.
By the way, you might have noticed that I am no longer closing my posts with “GNG.” That was short for “Good Night, Grandma” which was Brian’s grandmother’s request. She can’t see anymore so Brian got rid of her computer a few months ago. Anyway, for a long time after, I was still ending posts with “GNG” but then realized the one and only person who actually knew what that meant was no longer reading the blog so I have since stopped.
One could argue that I should also stop writing in the blog altogether but it has existed long before Brian’s grandmother started reading it, and actually a form of it was existed even before Brian. The online version has existed for about 30 years but I have always kept a journal or diary as far back as I can remember. Whether or not anyone is reading is of no consequence because I’m keeping this log for me. It will be fun to look back and read about all that I’ve experienced when the time comes – long after my memory is gone.
So, yeah.. It is now 2024 and we’re just going to keep on going.
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