Bed Resting

Well. That week was a doozy for me. (Somebody start a business and call it Doozy. What a fun word.) Here comes a blog post about my urinary tract! Feel free to scroll onto the pictures if that's not your favorite.

Early last week I suddenly started having UTI symptoms. Unfortunately I suffer with a lifelong health condition called Interstitial Cystitis (IC), which happens to have the exact same symptoms/feelings of a UTI. Because of this, I shrugged off my symptoms as an IC flareup and started quadrupling my water intake to try and stave it off. A day or two later, I was feeling worse and a bit debilitated. I had Jared grab me a UTI test strip from his work. The test came back as positive for leukocytes and blood in the urine. Unfortunately, that could just as easily be a sign of an IC flareup as it could a UTI. Ugh. "Hey Laura, just get on some UTI antibiotics, just in case!" You and my husband are telling me as you grab me by the face. Not so simple. Antibiotics often make an IC flareup worse, so I wasn't willing to take them without being absolutely certain it was a UTI.

At this point my only option to verify the presence of UTI bacteria would be to go to a primary care doctor or urgent care and have them send in a urine sample for cultures. Jared told me it would probably take 3-5 days to get the results back. I was like, "No, I'm pretty sure it's just a bad IC flare, triggered by the stress of preparing to move." Then I started to get depressed because if that were the case, then this flare could potentially last for months. My condition worsened over the next few days until Saturday, when I was feeling SO awful and realizing that no amount of resting or water drinking was making this any better (water almost always helps with my IC flares). Then I checked in with myself again and realized that I felt like I was coming down with flu symptoms (achey and fevery). This was the red flag I needed in order to say, "This is definitely a worsening UTI. Get me on some antibiotics STAT." These are the moments when I feel so dead inside grateful for the sacrifices we made getting Jared through med school and residency. He was able to call me in a prescription and pick it up from our local Rite Aid in less than an hour. With a dose or two of antibiotics in me, I started feeling much better on Sunday. Three cheers for modern medicine. 

And now for some pictures of the better moments from this last week:

^^The kids running out to greet me enthusiastically as I arrived home from thrifting Alice some birthday presents. One of the perks of the younger years of kids. They are so excited to see me when I get home. 

^^Surviving our way through a painful afternoon by laying on the grass. The rainy season will be here before we know it, so we'll enjoy these nicer days while we can.

^^We're starting to collect moving boxes. The kids keep busy by "decorating" them.

^^Alice in nursery. Featuring me also in nursery, taking this picture, because if I leave her alone in there she will have a panic attack😎 Separation anxiety going strong.

^^Pjs all day because mom was in survival mode.

^^We got brave and ventured out of the house one afternoon to try one last time to see the salmon jumping up Granite Falls. September is salmon run season, but we've never been lucky enough to see them. In hindsight I think we weren't looking in the right places. This year we saw tons of salmon jumping! I didn't catch any pictures of them but it was really neat.

p.s. Today is Alice's birthday! I am writing this post the night before and scheduling it to go up in the morning so that we can spend the day celebrating Alice and exploring Camano Island. Very excited to have an adventure with our little girl while big brother is at school. I'll write about it next week.