The Winter of our Discontent

So yeah...

The past few months have been challenging.  This is not a whine post.  Everyone here is good, in fact, better than we deserve but we are not without some new hurdles to face.

Kevin had been experiencing some strange symptoms for the past several months.  First, he had been super tired.  I admit to being annoyed by this.  He has a Cpap.  He generally sleeps well. But for a few months, I found him asleep at any and all hours on any soft spot in the house.  I didn't think "My beloved husband is sick."  I thought "This dude is too lazy to exist."  In retrospect, I feel bad about that.  He also started losing weight without trying.  Can you even imagine how much that bothered me?  Kevin has no weight to lose plus from Halloween to New Year's, he ate anything he could get his hands on.  And every morning, he would jump on the scale and gleefully exclaim "I'm down another pound!"   I didn't think "My beloved husband is sick." I thought "I hate this man." In retrospect, I feel bad about that.

Eventually, the symptoms went from being aggravating to troubling.  I started to realize that something had to be wrong so I sent him to his doctor to have some bloodwork done.  He explained all his symptoms to the doc. She made no diagnosis but ran the tests.  Two weeks later, I opened a letter from her and this is what I saw:

Yep.  No phone call.  No "Hey Mr Kline, could you come in so we can talk about your test results?"  Nope.  Just a hastily scratched out message informing my husband that he had a debilitating disease. 
We were able to see a Physician's assistant that same afternoon. (Lucky us!)  She was very helpful.  Kevin had EXTREMELY elevated blood sugar...like 'how did you not end up in the ER?' elevated.  And it had been going on for a while, which explained his lethargy.  His body was working so hard to try to regulate his blood sugar that it left little energy for stuff like staying awake.

Since his blood sugar was so high and had come about so suddenly, the PA wanted him to have a CT to make sure there wasn't any sign of pancreatic cancer or other horrible possibilities.  After waiting for four very long days to get the results from that scan, we were relived to find out that Kevin 'just' had diabetes.  (Or 'diabeetus" as we have started calling it in honor of Wilford Brimley.) 

We've had a chance to adjust to this diagnosis.  Kevin is adapting as well as can be expected.  He ate a pretty healthy diet beforehand and he isn't overweight so it's mostly a matter of getting the right meds to help him control his blood sugar.  That, and giving up Heath Blizzards from Dairy Queen.  He's not totally onboard with that one yet.

While all this was going on, I got to have my first mammogram.  No.  There are no pictures.  It was just a 'precaution' suggested by my doctor.  They like to get a scan when you are young(er?) so they will have something to compare to scans when you get old(er?).  I had the test.  No pain.  No big deal.  Then got a call (on the same day we got the 'you have diabetes' letter) that there was 'something' in my left breast that the doctor wanted to rescan.   I went into complete denial.  I schedued the retest and went back to obsessing about Kevin's blood glucose.  A week later, I went back for the retest.  The tech took the picture.  Turned her screen around and said "Yeah, there is definitely something there.  we are going to need to do an ultrasound."  I just sat there stunned.  All I could think is "I can't have breast cancer, I have a ton of laundry to do."  They took me in for an ultrasound, the doctor came in, did the scan and said "Oh, that's nothing.  Come back in two years."  Now understand, I was thrilled that 'it was nothing', but...it seems like that whole deal could have been handled a bit more delicately.  The best part is that insurance covers your first mammogram at 100% but any subsequent scans cost you 300 bucks.  I'm not saying it's a scam.  I'm just saying that I paid a lot of money to get the crap scared out of me. But I'm fine and I'm grateful...yet still annoyed.

Also, did I mention this?

Ava has been snoring most of her life.  I always assumed it was her allergies.  (She is allergic to everything.)  But after a year of allergy shots, the doctor thought it might be time to do a sleep study since the snoring had not gotten any better.

Her sleep study showed that she does have sleep apnea and the specialist recommended a tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy.  In 90% of kids, that surgery cures sleep apnea.  She has never had strep throat or tonsillitis but, apparently, her throat is just too small for her tonsils so they obstruct her airway and cause the apnea.  Who knew?

So to sum up:

Kevin has diabetes.

I do not have cancer.

Ava has sleep apnea.

Also...Anna has a stomachache, Katie hates school, Savannah is tired, Kaylee talks too much, Dylan has a new job and Emily has a new tattoo.  So mostly, everything around here is back to normal. 

So, yeah...