Johnny didn't make an appearance today

Fun Fun Fun. That's my sarcastic response to this week's bout of testing. On Tuesday I went to have adrenal testing that involved having an IV put in so that they could draw blood, inject some sort of hormone and then draw blood two more times a half hour apart to see if there is any reaction to the hormone. I also had blood drawn for another test but I can't even tell you what that was for. The good news was I didn't have to wear my ol' pal Johnny and they allowed me to drink water during the testing. Even so, by the time the vampires were done my eyes were glazed over and I felt like I had been drugged, likely because I can hardly spare a thimble's worth of blood before the POTS sets in. The nurse said it looked like they take a lot more blood than they really do but I did the math- 66ml which equals around 13 teaspoons. I was surprised though that as the day went on I returned to normal and even had quite a bit of energy. That is until I woke up Wednesday morning. After deciding early Wednesday morning that sleeping in was my best bet I finally dragged myself and the 3 kids out of bed around 7 to head for work. Once I got to work I realized that I wasn't sure how or why I had gotten there and could barely carry on a conversation. It didn't take long to figure out that staying wasn't a good idea especially if I was expected to make a decision about something. That and I had plenty of people looking at me and telling me I looked pretty bad. That's only helpful when you feel crappy. I decided to cut my losses and head back for home and a nap with my pooch.

You can only imagine my glee when after sleeping for two and a half hours I was woken by a phone call from the nurse at the Doctor's office. Seems the blood was all bad and I needed a complete do over. Did I mention that the RN doing the test was new to it and had to dig around for a vein and then I had to move my arm around like an antenna reaching a signal to get the blood to come out? Well apparently that "breaks" the blood and doesn't work. Whatever, so I told them I'd come back today for round two. As luck would have it, the nurse decided that she'd make sure this time it worked by forgoing the IV and just sticking me each time in a new place. Yay! She's the first nurse I've ever met that didn't use a butterfly needle and there was more of the of "oh I can't find it"than I like to hear so by the time we were done I had 4 fresh holes and very little sense of humor left. Now the trick is holding it together tomorrow. I packed my lunch bag this morning with lots of water and Gatorade and I'm still pumping the fluids. That and keeping a positive attitude will hopefully make tomorrow go better than yesterday did.

In other news I have been working on my backyard oasis. Eric finished building a patio a few weeks ago so I've moved my swing there and have started some planting. Eventually he'll enclose the hot tub so I'll be able to use it this winter. I wanted to plant a garden around my pussy willow so this weekend I did it! Yes it looks kind of sparse right now but the roses will each get to be 3 ft around and tall and I wanted to keep it simple, unlike my other gardens. I was ecstatic when I found a light purple rose bush, the first I've found in all the places I've searched. I'm hoping to do lots more roses everywhere I can. I'm most excited about my wisteria, which isn't yet planted but is the one thing I have wanted for years. It needs something to grow on so it'll be planted right outside the hot tub wall so it can grow up the side of the screened windows and onto the roof, which will be clear plastic. I can't wait to sit under that next year!