A New Year & a New Me.

Happy New Year! 

It is 2012 and I am ready for new adventures. Like I mentioned in my post Transitions, I am ready to become a newer and improved version of myself in the form of maturity. My dad will be so proud.

After the lastest events of 2011, I am on a mission to become healthier and take care of my body. Don't get crazy though, vegetables are still the enemy, but I will compensate with multi-vitamins and eating lots of fruit. I have also made the tough decision of limiting my carbohydrate intake. It will be hard, but it will be worth it... I just have to tell that to my thrice a week mac and cheese intake. Oy.

Aside from the excitement of my new nutritional values, I am extremely excited for my upcoming trip to Indianapolis to see Blake. We finally picked a time and then realized it was also during Superbowl Weekend.... in Indianpolis. Woot! I can't wait to go tailgating near the Colts stadium, should be a great time. Not to mention I finally get to spend time with Blake, it will only have been 4 months since our last visit. I am not truly counting the hour we spent during his layover in the Phoenix airport. I mean anytime spent with my wonderful boyfriend is the best time in the world but just the one hour is hard.

In other, and less depressing, news: the secretary at my work is on bed rest until she gives birth to a little boy in the next few weeks. This is good news and bad news because she will be having a little baby soon but also because now I have to run the front desk.

I know, it sounds like running the front desk at an insurance agency wouldn't be so bad, and it really isn't, but then you have to consider the mundane tasks of answering the phones and watch it turn into amateur hour brought about by all of Arizona.

I had a lady call this morning asking for an agent who is involved with the personal policies, like homeowners and personal auto insurance. The lady said she had called the agent but it kept going to voicemail. Then I asked, as I always do, if she left a voicemail because then the agent would return it as soon as she could. I then mentioned that she was on the other line because I could see her light blinking on my switchboard thingy. Then the lady says, and I quote, "Oh I don't leave voicemails." And the old Lauren would have "Oh well then don't expect to get in touch with the agent then." But I bit my tongue and said  she could leave a message or call back but my hands were tied. Give. Me. A. Break. LEAVE A MESSAGE.

Once when I was covering the front desk, this guy called trying to explain to me that he had been in an accident.. in SPANISH. I know pretty much zero Spanish. I took French for 6 years and it has obviously been helpful living in the town I am now... not. All I could say was "No habla Espanol and uno momento" and then tried to transfer him to a lady who I thought spoke Spanish in our agency.... she doesn't. I made a horrible stereotypical error. Lo siento por favor. The guy was on his own.

Then I constantly get the "I cannot get a hold of so-and-so, is there anyone else I can talk to?" I give me to three other people because they keep calling back and then I ask if they left a message... LEAVE A FREAKING MESSAGE. They will never learn.

Boom Posted.

In the Blink of an Eye.

Yesterday I was looking like this:

Feeling great, about to head to the gym to get my run on and showing Blake how cute his Christmas present was on me.

Then at about 4am this morning, I was looking like this:

Waiting for my results in the ER because I had horribly unbearable pelvic and back pain at 1 o'clock this morning. 

Let me set the scene. 

I wake up with terrible cramping in my let pelvic region and the lower left side of my back (which was very unusual). I crawl out of bed completely doubled over in pain, pop a few ibuprofen, and lay in the shower for about 20 minutes with no relief. I eventually make it back to my bed and have to call my roommate on the phone because of the pain. Its about 1:30 at this point and she comes into my room with a heating pad and some bread. I feel totally nauseous and cannot get the pain to subside at all. I finally call a good family friend who is a nurse and tell her my symptoms. We ruled out appendicitis because it was the wrong side but the possibilities included kidney stones and an ovarian cyst rupture. She gave me the go ahead to take some Vicodin to ease the pain but about 5 seconds after I swallowed it I had to crawl to the garbage can and started vomiting. So badly in fact that it eventually turned to blood and at that point I told Grammy to get dressed because I had to go to the hospital. 

After a little bit of a delay waiting for our neighbor to come with us in case anything happened that Grammy couldn't handle, we finally made it to the ER with no waiting time. The nurse took my vitals while I writhed in pain and I was set up in my own little area. I rated my pain a 9 out of 10 and the whole time I was thinking about an old Brian Regan sketch about being put on morphine. 

Pretty funny now but I was in no condition to positively recollect. I was struggling until the nurse left and I was waiting for the doctor. 

By that point I had changed my previous praying that the pain would go away to accepting the fact that God would not give me anything I couldn't handle and almost instantly the pain subsided. It was pretty miraculous.

Then the nurse came back with the medication and the doctor decided to perform a pelvic examination because of my symptoms and was leaning toward the ovarian cyst rupture as the cause. He also wanted to get an ultrasound. Now all of this is happening at 4am and I have never experienced any of this. Every time I went to the ER in the past it was because of some lame gymnastics injury, nothing totally critical.

So I get wheeled to another room where I am informed that I have to get a catheter inserted for the ultrasound because your bladder needs to be full but not with water incase you have to get surgery... just another bonus to the night. And let me tell you, not a pleasant experience. Then I get the ultrasound which doesn't just stop with over the stomach view. That would be too easy. 

So after I am completely vulnerable and been rung out to dry I go back to wait for the results. It seems as though I did have a cyst rupture and I am prescribed pain medication and told to schedule an appointment with the OB/GYN so they can figure everything out this week. 

I am finally able to be discharged at 8 o'clock only to be surprised with a $250 co-pay... I can't think of a better way to end 2011, can you? I am very grateful and blessed that is was nothing more serious and everything looks healthy and normal on the inside. Needless to say, I did not go to work today, the insurance world just had to do with out. 

My good friend Amy came over to console me with blueberry pancakes. She is a tech at the same hospital but in the ICU unit. I texted her hoping she was working and could come see me but she came to my house instead :)

I am feeling much better but pretty weak, I'll keep my faithful readers posted... haha get it?

Boom. Posted.