Ups and Downs

This has been a pretty crazy week - full of extremes.

>:^( It all began last Friday with strong frustration as my computer died - again. This was the fourth major problem I've had with it in the last year and was very afraid that we wouldn't be able to bring it back to life this time.

:^D However, I chose not to let that weigh on me as James and I headed to San Antonio that weekend for our romantic Valentine's Day get away.

:^/ The high from the weekend was rather short lived as I prepared to see the local orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday morning. I've been having back and joint pain since December. I've had problems like this before and tried my best to fix it by exercising more, but it didn't work. The doctors on base recognized my pain was probably related to my back, but were rather intimidated by the magnitude of my surgery so they referred me to an orthopedic surgeon who could take proper X-rays and say for sure if there was anything wrong. I figured I just needed some good physical therapy to set me right again, but the doctor seemed to think it was possible that I would need a second surgery...which, I'm not going to lie, is a rather terrifying idea.

So, I started out the day by getting up while it was still dark outside to drive James into work (because I needed the car for my appointment). Around 11:30 I headed over to the local hospital. They had told me that the appointment was actually at 1:00 but they wanted me to get there an hour early to fill out paper work and get my X-rays taken. I figured I'd be out of there in an hour and a half or two hours tops. Of course, that's not how it worked out...and three and a half hours later I couldn't help feeling extremely worn out and anxious.

:^) Thankfully, all the waiting was worth it because when I finally got to see the doctor she took one look at my X-rays and said that everything looked great, the hardware was solidly in position, and said that with a little stretching I should be just fine. That was a HUGE load off of my shoulders and I couldn't help but hope that change of fortune would mark the end of this dismal period of poor health.

ERRRR - WRONG!

:^( Somehow I ended up coming down with a wicked sinus infection late that night and am still feeling really bad. It's as if my evil body knew I was feeling triumphant and wanted to spite me. Actually, I probably just caught something from one of the people at the hospital, even though I tried really hard not to touch anything unless I had to and washed my hands every chance I got. SO, it was back to the doctor on Friday morning for some medication. They were not particularly helpful and only consented to give me a box of Mucinex so I've been left to my own devices and hope that my super weak immune system will somehow manage to fight this off soon.

:^) I felt slightly more hopeful yesterday as I got word that my good friend Ryan promised to call and help me fix my computer. He said he thought it was just a software problem and I should be able to fix it and still keep all the info on my harddrive.

:^( Turns out we COULD have fixed my computer with no problem if I had spent the money to replace my fried CD drive last spring. But, because I had to rely on an external drive, the install discs couldn't run diagnostics or fix anything. Soo...unless I want to drive back to San Antonio and take it to an Apple store and pay a whole lot of money to have them fix all of my problems, my computer is irrevocably broken. It's not the end of the world because James does have a computer that I can use for internet, but I preferred my own and will very much miss it.

:^) On the upside, even though I'm still feeling bad, James was very thoughtful and went out and picked up some Quizno's for us to eat while watching The Oscars! Hopefully things (particularly my body) will normalize soon.