Johnson Family Dish

Feeling Better!!

I got word from the Dr. today, all is well!! The virus and all of the symptoms are mostly gone. I only have a smallish headache left. I am feeling stronger and have more energy. Now my challenge will be to keep my activity level subdued, or mellow for 2 more weeks.

Sandi and I went to my Dad’s cabin last weekend and I managed to accomplish quite a bit, considering. I completed 32 pages, with a bit of napping and lazing about.

My tongue still looks a mess, my kids just love it.

We are reading Harry Potter #7 and are not disappointed, it is a great story just like the others. We are anxious for the twists and turns that are coming.

Randon and I are off to Id. to take it easy together this weekend. We leave tomorrow afternoon, I can’t wait.

I can’t tell you how wonderful it feels to feel better, pain free and be on the mend!! There just are no words. I am thankful for the friends who have helped me out so much this past couple of weeks, thanks guys.

Viral Menengitis

That is what has been vexing me!

The liver levels were elevated as a natural response to a severe viral infection. My glucose was also elevated also a normal survival type response to an illness. The glucose alarmed me because I hadn’t held any food down for well over 24 hours. I feel so relieved!! I was affraid that….well I was afraid of a lot of different possibilities, I didn’t even sleep last night. I am just glad that this is easily treatable and within 4 weeks I will be back to normal. The fever, vomiting, chills, etc. well that is just part of menengitis. It is so painful. The worst headache/migraine I have ever had in my life!!

I am going to have to forgo our rafting trip and not be able to run for 3-4 weeks, that is gonna be really hard but so very doable!! So much more doable than facing some of the other conditions that were suspect.

It is not contagious but I can relapse if I do not rest fully for 3-4 weeks. I cannot take on my “full load”, as the Dr. put it. If I feel a headache coming on I have to stop and rest. I think I might get a lot of reading done during this time. No running or physical excertion of any sort, that is gonna be hard!

You should see my tongue!! The Dr. had to show all of his staff because apparently it is rare but it is how some of us react to viral infections.

I am going in again in one week (to make sure that everything is under control) and then again in one month for a full well woman physical with all possible blood testing to get an idea of my healthy enzyme and hormone levels.

Can’t sleep

I am worried.

I have a headache that began last Tuesday and that advil or motrin would not tame. I just had no energy and felt generally running at 80%. Then on Saturday I felt at about 50% so I laid down and rested most of the day, except to go pick up Kelcie. I began to run a fever and by Sat night it was clear that I was not leaving my bed. I was pretty upset about this because Randon was speaking in our ward the next day and I had helped him with his talk and I was eager to see how it all turned out. I was feeling really, really badly on Sunday and by the time that my family had come home from church my temp was 102.7 with Hydocodine in my system (with little or no effect). I had been shaking and shivering all Sat and Sun and now I was also vommiting (sorry guys, it was bad). I think the hardest part was watching my four girls see me like that (Scott was out back in little boy land, oblivious). To see the fear in their faces was terrible! We decided to go into the emergency room where they hydrated me and gave me some FABULOUS pain killers and anti-nausea meds and anti-biotics, I felt pretty good for the 5 hours I was there. They sent me home attributing it to a UTI, which I had NO symptoms of.

My headache and chills returned as soon as those meds wore off. And I had a rough night because they perscribed the same hydocoddine to me, it just is not effective AT ALL. So I was back to burning up and then freezing, I am so sick of that!! Late today I took myself to urgent care because my Dr.’s office could not see me today. They checked to see if the UTI was clear, and it was. But the fever and headache persisted. I am so frustrated! The Dr. at urgent care gave me copies of my blood work up and recomended that I have a CT scan and/or a spinal draw *horror*. And they described my color as yellow and said that my liver enzymes were not normal *more horror*. He also asked me if I was an alchoholic *still more horror*!

I promptly went to wal-mart, got some excedrin migraine, and what do you know, NO PAIN!! I cannot express the joy I feel with no pain. I did make an apt with a collegue of our family Dr. for tomorrow (our Dr. is OOT). I keep telling myself there is no need to worry, what ever will be will be. And yet here I am at 1am typing this because I just can’t sleep.

I like to think that I am tough as nails. Sadly, I am not. I hope that tomorrow I am writting something simple and explainable, like it was just a bad reaction to the hydrocoddine or some such.

Our Weekend

Kelcie came home from girls camp where she had a wonderful time. It was so fun to talk to her about all that she learned and all the fun that she had. I could not help but think of my years at camp and how much fun it was to be with my friends with no cares.

Randon took the three older children to go see Harry Potter #5. Morgan was disappointed in it, the others enjoyed it very much.

I got so sick!! I won’t gross you out with the gory details but suffice it to say I am just now starting to feel remotely normal again, though weak. I am so glad that the kids are not in school right now, they are such a comfort to me when I am not feeling well.

Kelcie is off

to girls camp this morning. She was SOOO excited! She had been packed for 2 weeks. Two weeks ago when she was packing for camp she asked me if she could have the last two cookies that I had made, for her lunch for camp – 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE ACTUAL DATE – funny, funny girl. I advised her to wait until at least the week that she was going to be leaving, and much to her chagrin, she complied packing her lunch on Monday this week. I am sure she will have the time of her life there at camp Lo Mia, I am so excited for her.

Happily, Kelcie made it through her physical yesterday. She was dreading this event so much, it was somewhat funny. She needed a physical so she could participate in sports this year at school. She is going to play basketball. I think this is going to be a great sport for her for many reasons. First, she has the perfect personality for this sport. She is assertive, somewhat agressive and she knows how to take charge. Second, she is quite tall. We found out yesterday that she is 5ft. 2 1/2 in. This puts her in the 90th percentile of her age group. She is in the 50th percentile for her weight, 98lbs. She is tall and lean. I cannot wait to go and watch my girl play ball.

I am so proud of Kelcie. She is a responsible young lady and beautiful too. She is truly a joy to her father and I.

Girl Friend Time

My life has been so blessed with an abundance of really good friends. I have been particularly aware of this lately and so very thankful for this blessing.

I don’t want to sound corny, but I wanted to record some of my thoughts of why these friends have been so important to me.

I love finding the best parts of them and gleening knowledge from them.
I enjoy learning from thier strengths.
I enjoy how they accept my weaknesses and take me as I am.
I love how together we seem to balance eachothers strenghts and weaknesses, sharing advice and counsel when wanted.
I love sharing this life experience with them, joys and sorrows.
I love laughing with them, it is such good medicine for a difficult week.
I enjoy how we encourage eachother to do and be better, just by being who we are.
I enjoy the support we give eachother.
I love talking about everything!

A good girlfriend, or many of them, are a wonderful supplement to our relationships with our children and husbands and so often the means of God answering our prayers. I am so thankful for these relationships that bless my life, and my families lives, immeassurably.

What we have been doing

I haven’t had a whole lot of time to write this summer because we have been moving at the speed of light! Here is a quick recap of some of the things that have happened.

Fathers Day was wonderful here. We pampered our favorite Dad in the whole wide world, making him meals and treats of his requests, and showering him with love and a few gifts too.

Morgan went away with her friend Lisa, and her family, to Holbrook for 10 days. We all missed her so much! She went and had a great time roaming the country. She visited the petrifired forest and the painted desert too.

All of the children are doing swim lessons. I am SO HAPPY that for the first time, since we began swim lessons, I do not have to be in the water with anyone! I am certainly NOT a water baby myself and so I am enjoying this 1/2 hour watching and reading my book while they swim.

My dear friend Sharon has returned from Slovakia, 2 weeks ago, and so we have been having some fun with her family lately. Our children have enjoyed catching up.

We are taking advantage each day of the FREE lunches for kids 18 and under at the AJ high school. This has helped a lot with the strain that summer puts on the food budget. And the kids and I get to visit with our friends each day while they eat.

I have been trying to paint my kitchen. I was washing the walls down and couldn’t get the grime out of the texture of the dry wall so I decided it was high time for some new paint in there. It is just a lighter shade of yellow, a butter yellow. I haven’t gotten very far yet but what I have done looks so much more clean!!

Also have been trying to teach my children the value of thrift store shopping. They were incredibly resistant to the idea until I took Kelcie out and purchased 2 outfits (one a skirt and blouse for church), a pair of shoes, a bra, and a purse for $30.00, all in new or gently used condition, and fashionable right now. They got my point. This is the first year that Kelcie will be given a clothing budget for the year, from our family budget, and she has to make that money stretch and purchase all of her school supplies and clothing needs on her own during the year. Because we are frugal people I want very much for our children to learn the value in a good bargain. I may take her to some garage sales when it cools off too teach her about this resource. I also found a very cute purse and a couple of T’s for myself.

We have been reading together “The Summer of the Monkeys” and have enjoyed every minute of it. We are anxiously awaiting the 7th and final Harry Potter book release on the 27th of July and are confident that we will have that read by the time school starts up again Aug. 14th. We are excited about the 5th movie coming on July 11th.

Kelcie is getting ready for her first girls camp adventure. I am so excited for her! I am really glad that my friend Randi is the girls camp leader for our ward this year. Kelcie and she are friends and I know that she will feel safe going to her with any problems that may come up. I am going to miss her though.

Randon and I are getting ready for a trip to Idaho again the last week of July. I can hardly wait!! I am going to cross off one of my life goals, white water rafting. We are taking a full day trip, you can read about it and see picts of the trip we are taking here http://www.cascaderaft.com/raftingadventureous.asp , it is called the plunge. YEE HAW!! We want to learn to kayak next trip.

I twisted my ankle really nicely and bumped and bruised my elbow and hip in the process last Saturday during our improvised Boot Camp. Our instructor is out of town this week and a bunch of us who attend regularly just got together in the gym to do it ourselves. We were going up and down on the bench, on one leg and I came down wrong and twisted my ankle, heard it POP! and went down like a ton of bricks. I have never twisted my ankle like that so I was shocked at the pain. It swelled up and looked yucky but is almost back to normal now. I still have some mild tenderness and swelling. So, I have taken the week off of my running routine and I think I am going to go stir crazy! On one hand it is nice and on the other it feels rotten.

I have been running at the high school track in the mornings with some ladies from church, one of them happens to be a track coach so she has been coaching me on how to breathe, my stride, my posture and my speed. She is about 6 ft. tall and slender, her stride alone is a challenge for me. All the time she is running with me and pushing her baby in a stroller!!! I am dying and she is a picture of strength and grace pushing her daughter along. I must have someone take a picture of this, it would illustrate my point so much better than mere words. Many of us are training for a 10k (another life goal for me). By the way, there are a couple more women who come and run pushing double strollers, one of whom is pregnant, talk about Super Moms, I am in awe!

I hope not to wait so long between posts and I appologize to my few but faithful readers.

Summer of the Monkeys

We have been reading this delightful book, we LOVE it! It is by the same author as where the red fern grows, Wilson Rawls. I couldn’t recomend it more highly for parents and children alike.