“You look so much better” and “You look like you are doing well!”

I’ve heard these statements a couple of times lately. And I was so confused how that could be, considering I’ve had mind scrambling headaches for all of 2010 (or close enough, the first couple of days I may or may not have had them, I can’t remember now), it’s not been an easy year. After hearing the second time a week or so ago I started wondering what it was that was so different about how I looked, and what had changed that I was looking better. The friend who said these things the most recently also said “You were looking so pale, but you’ve got color in your face again!” and I wasn’t sure why that would be. After wondering for awhile I realized there are three things that likely (physically) contributed to the change. 1) I have not been running as many errands or going out as often. I’ve been out only 5 or 6 times that I can think of in the past month and a half. Maybe a couple times more, but definitely a lot less than I used to be. I used to run errands up to 3 times a week (usually no more than 2, but sometimes another errand would come up) so this is a significant change. I have been out for 3 doctors appointments, and have run errands just a few other times (thankfully in town, the trips out of town to the doctors have really been taking a lot out of me this year), so I haven’t been exhausting myself as much by going out. These headaches have kept me pretty close to home. 2) I’m on better pain meds. This actually started in December, just before Christmas, when I requested stronger pain meds because the low pressure systems coming through our area were causing so many pain issues for me. I have more energy, and (when not fighting an actual migraine or dealing with my cyst) I am able to be more active around the house, though I still stick to lower energy activities so as to not send myself into a flare. 3) Since I’m having all these headaches and am stuck in bed more often than I used to be, I’m getting more sleep, and even when I’m not sleeping, I am at least laying there resting. The cyst has complicated this as I’ve not been able to get very good sleep since yesterday morning, but I am still resting more than I was.
On top of that, although hearing “Get used to the pain and fatigue there is currently no treatment to help you get those more under control” was difficult… it had me down for a couple of days, but then I realized that it meant I had a more realistic view of how these diseases would affect my life, and I’ve been able to deal with that rather than continuing to have extremely high hopes of a sudden and drastic improvement. This is not to say I’ve given up hope or stopped fighting, but it does mean I have been able to deal better emotionally.
Also I realize certain vitamins and other things will help with my energy and pain levels, some of them I’m already on, others I can’t afford right now but plan to go back onto (magnesium I’m looking at you for one) when we have a bit more income again. Please don’t give me suggestions of treatments that “have helped so and so and it’s been miraculous” I’ve heard about a lot of things that way and quite honestly it gets old! On top of that I have a treatment plan laid out with my doctor, and am on medications (and other supplements) that could cause bad reactions when mixed with your suggestions! Both E and I (and my doctor as well) have researched the different treatments and things I take and discussed them, I don’t just willy nilly say “Hey, We’re adding this in now” or try something that someone recommends. And on that note, I turn to my friend Perpetual Spiral who wrote a post on this topic last year. She wrote it incredibly well, and has all the words I want to say on the topic of med/treatment/health suggestions in there.

I took some pictures of myself (face shots) the other night with the use of my webcam, and I have to agree that between my new hair cut and the things I listed above I do look better. For those seeing this linked on various social network sites that have pictures of me, I will be posting the new pictures soon, and you can compare to how I was looking before now. For those seeing this only through my blog, I will try to post pictures later today that show me both in the months leading up to now, and the pictures I took the other night… that post will be password protected (as usual with any identifying photo posts) so sorry for those who don’t have the password and who I don’t know… if you are interested in the password (or if you’ve lost it) let me know and I’ll try to get it off to you.

 

Attn IC patients with Vulvodynia!

I can’t take part in this because I am on narcotic pain pills… but after seeing it I wanted to draw attention to it for those of you who aren’t!!! (Plus with me it seems to fit more with Vulvar Vestibulitis, though I’ve heard some places that they are almost interchangeable)

Here’s a blog post that talks about a clinical trial for IC patients with generalized Vulvodynia, and here’s a link to the trial .. Please, if you can take part do so… more needs to be learned about both of these conditions, and the link between them, if there is one (which would certainly make sense to me)!!

 

I have a lot to say..

And no energy to put it all together in a way that would make sense… so I’ll sum it up.
Headaches still aren’t gone (started somewhere between Jan 1 and Jan 4… pretty sure it was the 2nd) and they ended up worse again in the middle of the week last week (It’s Sunday today right? That would make it last week? It was the 3rd of Feb or the Wednesday right around then that they got worse again).
Had a period only 24 days after the last one.. .so a 23 day cycle, while on birth control. Getting ready to ask doc to take me off the med that is making me stay on the birth control as it’s not making much difference and I’m really tired of pumping that crap in my system.
After no cysts (that E or I can think of) since right before the first miscarriage (so last June) I seem to have one again. I should say no definite cysts, at one point in the fall I thought I had one again but I never had the pain from it popping, so not sure. Definitely having all the normal symptoms this time, we’ll see if it pops or if it resolves some other way? But sudden horrible pelvic pain (post period, at a point in my cycle where I should be in THIS much pain), a weird cycle leading up to this, lots of swelling on the left side of my abdomen, pain that centers on the left ovary when the rest of the pain is more under control, and ovary tenderness in the last few days (which I was chalking up to heading to ovulation, since I do still ovulate on birth control, it just keeps my lining thin enough to not implant)….
In other news I have two blog posts I want to point my readers to. I had another one but I can’t seem to find it or remember what it was.
First off I want to point all Interstitial Cystitis patients to Jeanne’s blog post about educating Congress about IC … she received an email about it from the ICA and they want patients to email them their IC stories. (Sorry for scrunching this in here Jeanne, I just know you word it all better than I could and I want to make sure the info reaches more IC patients…)
Secondly Kate at Busted Plumbing is doing a giveaway at her blog which I recommend for all people with fertility issues or infertility! I had a great post planned out just for this, but I have not been feeling up to doing anything with it, though I do want to spread the word (Sorry for bunching your contest in with everything else Kate) so… Please go see what it’s all about and take part if you are interested.
I think that is all I wanted to post about over the last couple of days (including this morning since a couple of these things just came to my attention) … sorry that it’s a shorter post and for not giving more info about the links… I’m just really unsure how to explain all of it right now.

 

Someday will things be better?

Ok, let me preface this by saying I’m in the middle of my period, and it started out of nowhere, through birth control and with a short cycle…..
Over all I’m doing pretty well with the miscarriages. I’m definitely a ton better than before Christmas, and so on. However, I should be somewhere in my 9th month of pregnancy now if I hadn’t had the first miscarriage, and although overall I’m doing ok with that fact, it still stings at times. I would have been due somewhere right around the last week of February if I’ve done the math right the many, MANY times I’ve done it. It isn’t easy to realize that fact, but it doesn’t hurt as much as I would have expected it to…. probably because I’ve had long enough since I was last pregnant that pregnancy isn’t running through my mind as much now… and we’ve stopped trying so my focus isn’t on pregnancy. It’s been mostly on taking care of me, taking care of E, and getting rid of these stupid headaches.
On the headache topic – as long as I take my Plaquenil twice a day like I am supposed to (I’ve only missed one dose since the beginning of the month) they aren’t as likely to turn into migraines, but they are still bad headaches that are there almost constantly. With vicodin I can get the pain down to around a 3, and when they get really bad I also take an alleve (which overall I’m avoiding due to the digestive issues that run with me taking NSAIDs) which helps bring the pain down to about the same level. I’ve been getting breaks in the pain, not frequently and not for more than a couple of hours, but I have been having breaks from the headaches finally! These breaks started somewhere around a week ago and I’ve had 3 of them.
On the topic of E – His pain is extremely bad tonight. I took him his morphine almost two hours ago and he’s still in bed unable to get up due to the pain. An hour ago I took him a vicodin (his doctor has him on morphine consistently and vicodin for breakthrough pain) and he’s still really hurting. I wish I could take his pain away. I don’t care if I’d have to feel it myself if he just weren’t in so much pain. It’s so difficult watching him hurt, and understanding chronic pain, even if I don’t understand his exact form of pain, makes it even more difficult because I know that although it becomes less with the meds (usually) it doesn’t go away, and I know how difficult that is. He had wanted to be out of bed almost two hours ago, so I took his meds to him and started waking him up, and he has been unable to get the strength and lessened pain to be able to get out of bed. I would take his pain on myself if I could to make him feel better, and I know he feels the same about my pain. It’s just so hard to watch the one you love suffer.
As I mentioned I’m in the middle of an unexpected period. My PCP and I have agreed that we think the Nuva Ring will be worth a try to see how I do… I just need to make it a couple more months until I can go back off the blood pressure medication for awhile (which isn’t making enough of a difference for me to want to continue, but I want to try it through the whole winter and see how it goes) and start trying again, if the rest of my health is in order. He (my PCP) tried to recommend an IUD for me to see if it would help with the endometriosis, but we both agreed that is definitely a long term investment, and I’m hoping that going back off hormones (or changing them) will bring my health back a bit better and I’m hoping to potentially start trying for a successful pregnancy again in a couple of months, so we’ll see what happens. Obviously though this birth control pill is not for me. And although we agree with my rheumatologist that the migraines are due to my lupus, we aren’t wanting to up the estrogen content on a pill any further. I know that I can’t do progesterone only birth control pills or shots, so the Nuva Ring is our next method to try. If these migraines and nasty headaches continue for more than another month or so (Dr. Rheumy is unconcerned unless they go more than a couple months) I will be going off the birth control and blood pressure medication… this is my own decision, which will be discussed with both doctors when the time comes… but I want to go back to the basics if they continue… and since both of these were started within a couple months before the serious headaches started I’m not convinced they should be continued if the headaches continue, I want to go back to where I was before all the changes and see if I can get my body a bit more under control. Those two things and cutting out beef (mostly, other than the rare meal with hamburger) have been the only real changes in my life other than a couple stressful situations which have been cleared back up. When I was just on Plaquenil I was not doing great, but I was definitely better than this. And since I can’t take the blood pressure medication without being on birth control (other methods don’t work for us for a variety of reasons) both are going to have to go. I will be sad to go back to having my fingers not work with the things they put on your fingers in doctor’s offices to check O2 levels (and pulse?)… but that is about the only thing that has noticeably improved while on the blood pressure medication (which was supposed to help my Raynaud’s a lot more than it has) so I’m ok giving that up to get back to feeling a bit better. Going off of those medications is not guaranteed to improve my health, but I want to at least give it a try.
I had other things I wanted to talk about but I can’t remember what so I guess this is the end for now lol! I’ll do another entry at some point with an update on things.

 

Wordless Wednesdsay Legos!!

 

Doctor’s appts 1/19/10

I’ll start with my appointment since I was actually there for it (they managed to squeeze E in with the orthopedic surgeon at the same time I was with my doctor… they are in the same office).
My appointment started a bit late, and my meds stopped working while I was in the waiting room, luckily they have this cool coffee/tea brewer in the waiting areas (there are two different waiting areas, depending on which doctor you are a patient of decides which side you are on) so I was able to make myself some coffee and get some caffeine in. I have to eat to take any of the meds that help my headaches, so I had to wait awhile to take them, thankfully I was able to slow the headache enough with the caffeine to help keep it from turning into a migraine. I kept my eyes closed most of the time I was sitting in the waiting room too. I was up over 100lbs again when weighed, and wearing about 5 lbs of clothing and shoes… so I probably weigh about 98lbs again finally! The nurse did the rest of my vitals when we got into the exam room, and I was at 101.4 for my temperature, my O2 levels were normal, my blood pressure was 124/74, and my heart rate/pulse was my normal 94… so I still have unexplained tachycardia. After going over my medications with me the nurse got my rheumatologist and I had my appointment with her. First she looked at what’s been going on with me and asked how my headaches were so I filled her in on them, and the thing with my eyes. After that she had me sit on the exam table so she could check my eyes, listen to my lungs and heart, and do a general exam. My lungs sounded great, my eyes looked fine (she used three different instruments to look in them, the last one was extremely bright and painful), the vessels in my eyes look fine, and everything was fine with the exam except for my tachycardia (fast heart rate), we still can’t find a reason for that (I’ve had EKGs, CT Scans and and Echo cardiogram – there is no obvious physical problem with my heart other than a very minor murmur), and she thinks since I haven’t had any seizures that it’s just my lupus doing a massive headache flare rather than joints. The fever lends to that conclusion as well. She said to pick up tracking my blood pressure, pulse and temperature again, as we stopped when I started dealing with the headaches. Also, she said Excedrin would be a good way to go with these headaches, but I have a bad history with Excedrin making me ill, so we are continuing with one alleve every 12 hours, 1/2 vicodin every 3 hours, and a flexiril every night when I go to bed to help me sleep through it. She said she doesn’t like to do MRIs on lupus patients unless there are other neurological symptoms besides headaches since lupus flares can cause nasty headaches. If these don’t let up and I’m still having issues in a few weeks then I’m supposed to call about them because she wants to make sure they don’t continue too long. We are to keep an eye out for seizures and signs of seizures, and if my headaches start changing at all (so far they’ve been consistent for nearly three weeks) I am to contact her immediately. Also if i start having numbness in any part of my body (which could signal a stroke) I need to get checked out immediately. I don’t need to see her again until May unless something seriously changes, so that’s a relief, especially since there for awhile she was trying to get me in every month to see her. My MIL has been trying to get me to do medical marijuana for the pain and the weight issues, so I brought it up to my doctor today and she said she can’t prescribe it because she has a job working for the government as well, but that she is not against it and if I am comfortable with it to go ahead and find a doctor who will prescribe it and use it. Her other remark was “it’s not going to cause harm and it could help, so if you want to try it you can.” She told me where I should be able to find a doctor who would prescribe it, and give me a medical marijuana card, if I decide to give it a try. I’m not sure if I will try it as being around people smoking marijuana gives me headaches, but we have discussed possibly making brownies or other foods with it for me instead, which the doctor agreed to as well. She prescribed my blood pressure medication for my Raynaud’s again, and told me to call when I need my pain pills again. I don’t need any labs done between now and my next appointment, and everything looked great last time she had any labs done. So all organs (other than my heart) are functioning normal still, which is awesome news! Oh also, I asked about adding another treatment in and she said that at this point it would just give me side effects and not help, that unless a new treatment comes out or a cure is found I can expect a certain amount of fatigue and joint pain the rest of my life.
Now E’s appointment (which I wasn’t around for since they squeezed him in early). His summary is “We just talked about my hip.” The doctor looked at the xrays that were done last May and said E needs to have a MRI done on his hip so they can look at the damage better, and figure out if he needs a hip replacement or if they can shave down the bones in his hip to get them into the right shape again and take care of the bone spurs in his hip. Unless there are major changes in how they deal with hip problems like this he will have to have a hip replacement at some point in the future. We don’t know when we’re going to be able to do the surgery, and we’re going to have to have help just to do the MRI at this point. E is unsure if it was worth him going to the orthopedic surgeon at this point since we can’t afford him taking 3 months off of work post surgery, but at the same time my feeling is we needed the second opinion to find out what we are looking at with his hip, as well as to find out options. We can’t keep having him in this much pain either, so we’ll see what happens… we will likely have to have a room/housemate or move in with family to be able to even consider the surgery, but unfortunately if he’s out of work we lose our insurance due to not being able to pay premiums, so that’s a sticky point we are discussing as we’ll have to pay for surgery out of pocket unless he has his surgery done right after work pays for his premiums so they are covered, and all medications he’s on, etc. will be out of pocket. It’s unlikely we can do this before I have my disability pay even if we do move in with family or have a housemate. :/ We’ll keep looking at options and discussing what we want to do. We have a paper from the doctor (paperwork from Walmart that they require) saying E can take “x amount of time” (a day I believe) off each week without it affecting his job, so hopefully management will approve that… so it will help his hip, and keep him from losing his job over the time he has to take off for his hip.
I think I’ve covered all the bases about the appointments, so I’m going to go rest some more now.

 

The latest with me…

So I haven’t posted any “real” posts in awhile, as in they’ve been fun posts mainly, when I have posted anything. I’ve also been quiet online, I’ve played around on facebook, and chatted on and off with a couple of close friends, but more or less I’ve been quiet and not around a whole lot. Part of this is because a friend bought a collection of the entire Harry Potter series for me, and I’ve been reading them. The other reason isn’t as fun and is more serious. I’ve been having migraines. A bit before Christmas I cut my dose of my main lupus medication down so I was taking one pill a day rather than two. This has been discussed with my rheumatologist, and I do it when I don’t have enough pills to make it through to when we can afford my next prescription or when I have gone several days with little to no appetite and need to start eating more again. This time it was because my prescription at the pharmacy was going to expire while she was out of the office and before my insurance would cover another refill (yes, I finally have insurance!), and because the pharmacy won’t take another prescription for the same medication until after the previous one has expired. So I was going to be unable to fill my prescription at the time I was going to need the refill. The big issue is that when I cut my dose down I’m prone to headaches and migraines. I had been doing okay with my dose cut down (minor headaches, but nothing bad) so I kept it down like that hoping to keep eating and gaining weight back. Right after the first of the year I suddenly got hit with migraines, after having just minor headaches for over a week (I normally have migraines within a day or two of cutting my dose down), and I started back on my full dose of my lupus med. My migraines stayed for 3 or 4 days, then went back down to really bad headaches that weren’t quite migraines. Normally going back on my full dose gets rid of headaches entirely within 3 or 4 days. This time, I have continued to have head pain for pretty much the entire time since t he first migraine struck. I’ve had a few hours of no head pain, but otherwise I’ve got a constant headache, ranging from there just a little bit to full blown migraines. Even vicodin isn’t ridding me of the pain entirely. I’ve started back on alleve (I’d stopped taking it due to my digestive issues, and found it was part of the cause, though not the entire reason for all the issues) and take one every 12 hours or so. Even with both of those pain meds the headaches are there consistently, they just vary in severity. On Tuesday I noticed my left eye was red (again)… just about the entire white of my eye was blood red. This was not the first time I’d noticed this since the headaches started, but I hadn’t put them together until Tuesday. It took two days for my eye to go back to normal, and it is normal still today, it cleared up yesterday. Hopefully it will stay clear until I see my doctor next Tuesday, though I’m not sure it will. Sometimes it’s one eye (the left one this time) sometimes it’s the other, and sometimes both do it. I’ve noticed this over the past 15 months or so, but it’s usually a very rare occurrence, not one that happens 3 or 4 times in a 3 week period. I called my rheumatologist’s office on Tuesday and left a message about the headaches (before I noticed the eye thing), and didn’t get a response, then I called again Wednesday and mentioned the eye thing and they called back and told me they were calling in a prescription for pain meds for me, and that there was no big emergency, they could wait to see me until my appointment next Tuesday morning, but I CANNOT miss that appt, they have to see me. I’m glad, because I am not sure how much longer I can live with these headaches. They’ve had me in tears multiple times (which is how you can tell the pain is really bad, since not even having cysts burst puts me in tears anymore, and that’s some pretty major pain) and I actually was crying to E at one point that I wasn’t sure how much longer I could live with them. I’ve also had a couple of nights this week where I’ve been on the couch and all I can do is lay there and moan and cry and whine. I’m begging anyone who can possibly hear me (usually just M) to somehow put an end to this pain, because it literally feels like my head is exploding and imploding at the same time and my head is being torn apart. Even with vicodin and alleve. I’m taking vicodin often enough that I’m constantly woozy from it, and sleeping a lot. I take 1/2 pill every 3 to 4 hours… that’s a lot for me since normally I take 1/2 pill every 6 at my most frequent dosing… but the headaches start getting worse at that 3 hour mark. (Yes, I am still within the doctor’s prescribed dose taking them how I am.) I really hope she has some answers for me on Tuesday, because this is really wearing on me, and I’m not sure how much longer I can go.

Here’s a picture of my eye when I realized how it looked on Tuesday:

You can click on the picture to view it larger… the medium size doesn’t show just how red my eye was very well. I highly recommend doing so.

 

Busted Libs!

So Busted Kate at Busted Plumbing came up with a new idea… “Busted Libs” and asked her readers to take part…. that’s what this post is. (I’ll do an update on me post later on) If my readers want to do this please go back to the post that this puzzle came from and put your link in as well so everyone can see yours too!

The Rules: Copy and paste this section on to your blog. Fill out the blanks before you insert your words into the story (no peeking ahead!). I’m going to put the story in white so you won’t be tempted (let me know if that works ok for cutting and pasting!). Show your words (with the story still in white) first, and then re-post with the story in black (so everyone can see your masterpiece!). Finally, include the Mad-Awesome Busted Libs Button!

Been a while since school? This might help:
Noun: Name of a person, place or thing. For example – books, tuna, Dennis, butterfly.
Adjective: Word that describes someone or something. For example – smart, interesting, cold, funny.
Verb: An action word. For examples – sleep, run, hop, skip.
Adverb Word that tells how something is done; it modifies a verb, and usually ends in -ly. For example – include quickly, softly, speedily, carefully.

1. An Emotion
2. An Emotion
3. An Emotion
4. Body Part
5. Body Part
6. Adjective
7. Color
8. Adjective
9. Adverb
10. Adverb
11. Verb
12. Famous Celebrity
13. Adjective
14. Plural Noun

Your First Visit to the Reproductive Endocrinologist
Your first visit to a Fertility Specialist, also known as a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), can be [---] (1: An emotion). But don’t worry! Your RE can be your first step in finding both the cause of and solution to your infertility. Infertility problems can make you feel [---] (2: An emotion) or [---] (3: An emotion), however a good RE will take time to address these feelings. The RE may then do an examination of your [---] (4: Body part) visually or by using an ultrasound. The RE may also examine your partner’s [---] (5: Body part) for any signs of abnormality. The doctor will ask you some pretty personal questions, like if your cervical mucus is [---] (6: Adjective) and (7: Color), and if your menstruation looks [---] (8: Adjective). The doctor may suggest that you have intercourse [---] (9: Adverb) rather than [---] (10: Adverb), and for you to [---] (11: Verb) after intercourse. And don’t feel bad if you have fertility challenges, even famous celebrities like [---] (12: Famous Celebrity) have received infertility treatment. The most important is to keep a [---] (13: Adjective) attitude, and turn to your [---] (14: Plural noun) for support. Good luck in your journey!

Here are my choices and the puzzle all filled in!

1. An Emotion – Depressed
2. An Emotion – Joyful
3. An Emotion – Enraged
4. Body Part – Elbow
5. Body Part – Knee
6. Adjective – Funny
7. Color – Orange
8. Adjective – Pretty
9. Adverb – Craftily
10. Adverb – Angrily
11. Verb – Run
12. Famous Celebrity – Alanis Morrisette (I confess the only reason I could even think of her name is because she was on a tv show we watched recently – I’m bad at naming celebs lol!)
13. Adjective – Itchy
14. Plural Noun – Cats

Your First Visit to the Reproductive Endocrinologist
Your first visit to a Fertility Specialist, also known as a Reproductive Endocrinologist (RE), can be [Depressed]. But don’t worry! Your RE can be your first step in finding both the cause of and solution to your infertility. Infertility problems can make you feel [Joyful] or [Enraged], however a good RE will take time to address these feelings. The RE may then do an examination of your [Elbow] visually or by using an ultrasound. The RE may also examine your partner’s [Knee] for any signs of abnormality. The doctor will ask you some pretty personal questions, like if your cervical mucus is [Funny] and [Orange], and if your menstruation looks [Pretty]. The doctor may suggest that you have intercourse [Craftily] rather than [Angrily], and for you to [Run] after intercourse. And don’t feel bad if you have fertility challenges, even famous celebrities like [Alanis Morrisette] have received infertility treatment. The most important is to keep a [Itchy] attitude, and turn to your [Cats] for support. Good luck in your journey!

*snort* (Yes I snort when I laugh) I think everyone can tell I didn’t look at anything relating to the puzzle (including the name) until after I had already picked out all my words.

 

Wordless Wednesday – The Frost Edition

 

Christmas thing….

Via Sonja

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here’s what you’re supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy this entire post. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then post this on your blog.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I’m not great at wrapping, but I like putting the time and effort in.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. I like the smell of real trees, but that’s not enough to get me to ever have one. Growing up we had one every year until I was 17 or so (I think, it was somewhere in my teen years) and I’m just fine having an artificial one. Plus it’s not as expensive, or as difficult to deal with each year. My inlaws gave E and I an artificial tree this year (we haven’t had a tree the past couple Christmases) and it’s decorated and sitting on some drawers in our living room. Our room isn’t big enough for a full size one, but we both like the little ones too.

3. When do you put up the tree? When I feel like it once we are getting close to the holidays. Growing up it was always Thanksgiving or the day after. This year I put it up as soon as I had it… somewhere around a week before Thanksgiving. And it will stay up until I get my yearly ornament from my grandmother and can have that on there for a day or two before putting it all away.

4. When do you take the tree down? Around New Years… it may be a bit after this time though, we shall see.

5. Do you like eggnog? So far I only like Southern Comfort brand Egg Nog (and I don’t drink it with alcohol… it’s just that they make eggnog as well as their whiskey)…. We want to make homemade eggnog at some point which I’m sure I’ll like too.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Hmm. I’m really not even sure … there have been a lot I’ve enjoyed greatly.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Anyone but the kids and E? My sister is pretty easy to buy for too… but overall I’m not too good at the gift shopping.

8. Easiest person to buy for? There are three: E, Gamer and Duckling.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Nope

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail!

11. Worst Christmas ever? Hmmm… The first one we lived here was pretty rough, having moved away from all of my family less than two months previously, and our living arrangements. The year before that (2006) wasn’t easy either… I was a month from my most recent surgery and in a lot of pain, though there was a reunion among some family members and some pretty awesome stuff that year! Also the Christmas after I turned 16 was pretty bad.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie(s)? The Santa Clause movies and White Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As soon as I see something I think someone will like… though if that’s at the beginning of the year I usually can’t wait until Christmas to give it to them lol!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don’t think so.

15 .Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? /shrug … food!

16. Lights on the tree? Multicolored… it’s a fiber optic tree

17. Favorite Christmas song? I have several favorites.. it depends on my mood… A big hit every year is “War is Over” by John Lennon. Then comes all the funny ones like “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” and The Chipmunks Christmas song (which I can’t think of the name of right now).

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I haven’t traveled more than a couple of hours at Christmas yet… but I also haven’t had the money since moving away from my family to go back and visit… and I don’t count those couple hour trips I used to do as traveling since it was to my “second home”… lately though we’ve either lived with my inlaws or been about 15 minutes from them, so I’m practically at home even when I do drive to another place for Christmas.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? I used to be able to, not sure if I could now or not…

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? The tradition is one on Christmas Eve, the rest Christmas morning… though the last couple years that hasn’t been able to happen, as my gifts are either not here the right day, or they aren’t at my home (packages go to my inlaws PO Box)…

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Crowds! (And also the last minute shoppers… E was going to go shopping after work this morning for some groceries and couldn’t because the store was busy his entire shift, and even worse after his shift.)

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My ornaments from my grandmother… no real theme unless you call them the “grandmother gift ornaments” and count that as a theme! I could do a whole small tree with just them, and probably would still have some on another tree! (some have been series, such as the Little Women ornaments I have, which came out one per year for four years, others are just cute animal ones)

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I don’t have a favorite, though I prefer not to have turkey again… I get enough of that on Thanksgiving.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I was kind of rough to shop for this year actually… books would be something I want. A cure for these illnesses. I’m trying to think what else.

Now it’s your turn. If you play, please leave me the link so I can read your answers.