Saying it like it is... thanks! I don't know how far I agree with her second paragraph, but I DO agree with the first!

I had been sick lately, so 2 weeks ago (on the 6th) I went to the doctor and he put me on antibiotics and prednisone. The antibiotics have been making me bloated (painfully so - imagine a guy looking three months pregnant or so) and just plain "off" so I haven't wanted to do much in the way of typing. But they'll be over with in about 3 days.

In my family's news, my "oldest younger" brother has officially signed on with the Air Force! He'll be heading into basic training a week after my sister's birthday in July. My mom is officially missing my "youngest younger" brother (#3) - he's been gone a week now. And brother #2 wants to come back here and take college classes.

When brother #3 left, he had to go via Tokyo and Los Angeles until my grandfather and my uncle could pick him up in Salt Lake City. He got through Tokyo all right, but when he got to LA, he was told his ticket wasn't paid for... computer error on somebody's part? We were lucky. I make up a packet when I travel with phone numbers, ticket information, airport maps/bus information, etcetera - I know how forgetful I am - and this time, I had done one for him. A good thing. He was able to call the church and they got him another ticket paid for the next flight, which was only 1 hour later. Was a little scary.

That, and while we got to the airport early enough, we didn't get to say goodbye to him, because by the time he got to check in, the airport people ran him to his flight because he had 15 minutes to get there. I would have had to run over a group of old people to keep up (I was at the counter with him), and the rest of the family was in even worse positions. That was VERY disappointing.

And speaking of my sister - here's ( a few pictures we got recently (2x700x500) )

( Personality test... )

Happy birthday, strryeyedgrrl! Maybe I should have this icon say "Thinking different" or something like that - it'd fit me better!

Today has just been a pretty good day. Nothing major - just went to church (had to go to meetings first... I thought I was done with those, but somebody is out of town for 6 weeks, and I'm his replacement), went home, slept, and now I'm going to type some stuff up for Dad - he's writing a YA-level story. Looks interesting so far.

Thursday and Friday were hectic, and by Saturday, I was sleeping half the time (I was getting painful on Friday - ate the WRONG thing Thursday night, I think) getting things done. I'll have to call Salt Lake tomorrow night - my brother's plane tickets have not gotten here yet! We're getting worried - we asked for the 9th!

Mom got more stuff sold at the flea market on Saturday - the pile of boxes in my room is not quite so tall now! maybe in a month or two I'll actually have room in my room for MY stuff!

Tuesday I've got a doctor's appointment (I need to call tomorrow and verify that - I've forgotten exactly when it was. I THINK it's this Tuesday at 2) and I'm helping some people out in the morning.

Two things:

I went to a fun concert last night - Jericho Road came out here. I didn't think I'd like their music all that much, but I actually did. My brother (the one who speaks Japanese) was on of the two people doing the MC duties (the other being a native Japanese who knew English).

Saturday afternoon I saw an interesting newspaper article on one of my e-mail lists. This is one great kid!

First things first: My GNUpg public key is here. Messages sent from the laptop will be signed using it...

Yes, I know it'll expire in a month - that's deliberate. I'll make a better key around Halloween and put it up.

[Sunday night 11:30am]

Well, got a paying job - we'll see how it goes.

One of these seconds I'm going to set up my "laptop web server", too. (I accidentally wiped out the index page I had.) Any of you more computer-expert people know of scripts that handle the caldav protocol that Evolution can use? Or am I going to have to write my own mod_perl module to add to Apache?

Looking into getting America: Freedom to Fascism - Looks interesting. It's on Google Video, as well as on a DVD. Wish I had a version of Flash Player that'd run well - oh, well.

Church today was good. Was a little too wiped out, however. Fell asleep during sacrament meeting. I don't do that often. Got up too early, apparently.

[Wednesday 10:55am]

Well, it's almost set up. I've got one more area to configure, then I start putting down the screws and securing it. (There are some areas I don't want EVERYBODY viewing.)

[Wednesday 12:45pm]

Called my friend - got our public keys each signed. (I'll make the phone call to get another public key signed if you'll do mine, by the way.)

Did about 80 pages of scanning for that paying job this morning - still got 150 to go, and then I have to OCR them and double-check them before the job is half done. (The other half is writing a program to USE all that data.)

Had a fun lesson for family home evening Monday, too.

Did find a script that can display .ics (iCalendar) files - and since Evolution can write iCalendar files, that works fine for now!

Yesterday I looked up the printer I want to buy. I wouldn't mind if it was at the exchange, but if not, I can order it. (I wanted a networkable, Linux/FreeBSD compatible printer. $180-200 is fine.)

I'll do more on the web server tonight/tomorrow. For now, gotta finish eating lunch, take my meds, and get back to work.

Well, more news. I picked up my passport stamp yesterday. I now have a "Designated Activities" status of residence (I've been calling it a visa - it isn't, they just changed the type of landing permission I have), which is basically their "catchall" status for somebody who doesn't fit into their normal categories, but is given permission to stay in Japan. It's set for 1 year from mid-July (when I first applied for it), and then I'll have to renew it again. I still can't legally work (I think that had to be specified, and since we didn't request it (would have been a contradiction with my wanting to stay here due to my medical condition), I can't get work eligibility.)

Cost ¥4000, but that's a LOT cheaper than a visa run to Korea! ($200 for the ticket, plus spending money and the place to stay for 1 night or more, plus, the last time I did it on my own (October 2005), I got throwing-up sick while I was in Korea - which I don't want to have happen again if I can avoid it!)

I had just been getting "Temporary Visitor" status before. (You don't need a visa if you have a US passport to get that, it's the automatic status they give you when you show up at the airport and they put the landing permission stamp in your passport. You need to have applied for a visa - or apply for a change of status like I did - to get anything else.)

I'm feeling wiped, but other than that and the bouts of the runs, my health has been doing quite well lately. I'm thirsty a lot, but that may be self-defense!

Went to the exchange Tuesday afternoon and bought a bunch of stuff - CD-R's, aftershave and razor blades, a toothbrush and whitening strips, stuff like that.

So I'm happy right now with the way things are going!

Well, went to the doctor Tuesday. Paid some money on my hospital bill. Have only ¥250,000 left to pay on my hospital bills now!

[Friday] Perl Best Practices came in... It's quite useful for me, even though I disagree with some of the more "formatting" practices that it wants - I LIKE to cuddle my elses, for example! Other than that, great book!

[Sunday morning] Well, I've gotten paid for a few computer jobs this past week. Got myself over $200! That'll go a long ways! One was for setting up 2 laptops.

Also got invited to do some stuff with my Church friends last Saturday and Monday... That was fun, especially Monday, when we went bowling. I bowled a 70, a 52, and a 24. (My arm wears out after 2 games.)

One minus - I've had the runs a lot this past week - must finally be getting that "usual Crohn's symptom"... I don't THINK I've changed my diet that much!

I did see World Trade Center back at the end of last month - I liked it a lot. Wasn't the tear-jerker I was expecting.

( Quiz from Wednesday or so... )

We do not have to defend the Prophet Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ will defend him for us. —President Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, May 2005, 9

[Tuesday] One of these days I need to figure out how to get Semagic to work with Media Player Classic like MSN Messenger does... I could probably code it and get back to them, I CAN do that much, they're both in C/C++! Maybe make that my next project?

[Wednesday] Not feeling well today - crampy, runny, tired all day, you get the picture. Usual small Crohn's flare. I'm going to go back down and rest. All I've been doing today is sleeping.

Well, it's typhoon season again... and you know what that means... I get hit at least once!

We're currently at TC-2 [I think it's a bit early, I'm not expecting the high winds for 36 hours, not 24.] right now, because Typhoon Ewiniar is coming our way. The estimate about when it's coming closest is at midnight between Saturday and Sunday right now, with 100 knot [115 mph] winds (gusts to 120 knots [138 mph]) as my best extrapolation from what I'm seeing.

Here's the track picture...

( Track Picture (559x331, 34K) )

This is updated every 6 hours at https://metoc.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc/warnings/wp0406.gif, of course. It should be updated in about 2 hours.

I've been doing better today than the last few days. I went down and made up the branch council packets today. I figure we have a 40% chance of not having church at all, and a 40% chance of just having a sacrament meeting right now [We go to all-clear between 6am and noon on Sunday, we have a sacrament meeting only at 2pm] - but that means a 20% chance we're having it, so I've made the packets just in case.

Also did a bit of shopping - our printer needed a color cartridge, and I needed some cardstock. (I found where the wallet card was I liked to list my medications on.)

Yesterday and the day before I had a period each day where I had a nausea spell. In Tuesday's (the 4th's) case, I got to the singles branch activity and immediately got slammed with the pain and nausea. I ended up having to go home after about 20 minutes. Wendesday, I was at home when it started, so I just stayed there and in bed. Today? None, thank goodness. Some small cramps, but I am doing better. Hopefully I can keep doing so.

(lyrics [multilanguage English/Polish/German/Russian])

Not feeling well today... just "off", basically. Maybe I'll be better later. I can feel gas moving through the GI tract, and it hurts when it does! Needed a narcotic (a Vicodin) for the first time in about a month. Went down to 10mg pred Tuesday - may need to go back up to 15, I haven't talked with the doc yet. Will do that tomorrow if the pain doesn't go away.

Went with the branch president to church Tuesday night to get stuff done I needed him for - finally! (We've been meaning to get together for 3 weeks now!) Got it all done.

Sunday was a LONG day. Had a meeting at 7am with the other clerks and branch presidencies in the district, so I had to get up at 5:30 to get ready. Then had branch council at 12:30, church at 2, all the usual stuff.

Went to the Place of Gut Poking [otherwise known as Chubu Hospital - thanks for the idea, phinnia!] to see the doctor on Monday. Was doing all right gut-wise then (which is why I'm down to 10 on the pred) but was so tired we (meaning the doctor and I) figure I'm badly anemic, so I'm taking two high-dose iron pills a day now instead of one. (by "high-dose", I mean the 325mg FeSO4 pills that give you 65mg of iron [360% of the RDA] per pill) I've also got to do blood work in two weeks. Gained one kilogram, also. (I'm now up to 55.20 kg on their scale - clothed, but without shoes. That converts to 121 pounds.) Could stand to be more fit, but I've got to live with what I can do, not what I'd like to be able to do!

The Wikipedia Crohn's Disease article has been much improved lately... I like it! (warning - some of the pictures in the article are not exactly stuff you want to show to kids!)

One of these minutes when I'm more comfy, I've got to go to the library and trade some books!

Here’s the first stretch of pictures from my hospital stay – I brought my camera this time!

Pictures are all under cuts, as usual – and pictures that I’d possibly classify as non-worksafe will be in the next entry…

( All pictures 320x240 (30K) - 39 of them... )

Well, 11+ hours until my doctor appointment. And considering I threw up yet again 8 hours ago... I'm going in. Will phone-post this time! I'll be thankful to anybody who transcribes!

Got a blessing before Dad went to bed.

Well, I didn't have to go in today. I'm likely to Thursday, however. I see the doctor then.

There's talk about sending me back to the States EARLIER than the current (April 16th) plans and having me getting the surgery set up for as soon as I can. Mom and Dad are getting worried (I think I've mentioned that before) and I'm not sure I shouldn't be.

From lynsey (15 days and I'm just now getting to it... last of my catching up from February...)

Get your own spectral analysis from Area 23®

Well, it's Tuesday morning, and I'm going to have to call the doctor in a few minutes. He's probably going to tell me to come in to the hospital for a few days... Reason being that I ended up throwing up yesterday. Again. Yeah, I even throw up that liquid diet stuff... Now THAT'S getting bad! I threw up 4 times yesterday. 3am, 8am, 7pm, and 10pm... He gave me the choice last week of either going in for a few days or doing the liquid diet thing... and since it isn't working... I'm getting worried that I may have to go in for surgery eventually.

[This was written last night - just forgot to hit that "Post Entry" button!]

(4pm) Well, the doctor does NOT like what's happening lately. Throwing up twice in the last two weeks since I've seen him is NOT a good sign.

So I'm on antibiotics for one more week, I'm back up to 40mg prednisone (I finally got down to 20 today), and he wants me to stop eating and go back on 2 packets a day of the Elental for a week. SO fun! (not!) And I see him next week so he can see how this is going... and I get blood work again! Vampire!

That stuff tastes pretty bad. But if I have to, I have to. And if it gets me better than what I am doing now, it'll be worth it. I'll start it tomorrow morning. The condemned man DOES get a last meal, after all!

Two bits of good news:

1: My blood work is good, my iron level is up to 11.3 - so I'm not very anemic at all compared to previous tests - and it doesn't indicate acute inflammation. I wonder if I beg to differ on that last bit the way I've been hurting lately.

2: I got more of my pain medication. I was needing it.

(12:30am) Yeeowch... CRAMP! Maybe shouldn't have been so generous with that last meal! Time to dig out the Vicodin I've got... (We're talking 2-3 out of 10 right now, but let's hammer it down before it gets worse.)

(5 mins later) Just took a 5mg/500mg pill along with another 500mg Tylenol. Hopefully this gets the pain down.

FYI: For those of you who weren't on my list last March, here's the description of Elental from this entry:

Mentioning nutrition, I have a specifically-perscribed powder that I mix with 8 to 10 ounces of water - it's called Elental. It's what's called an "elemental diet" - it's already predigested proteins and carbohydrates (and I THINK fats, as well) and right now, I'm drinking 2 packets a day. I drink half a packet with each of my "medication times" indicated below. (I mix a full packet at a time before my Morning and Evening meds) It's not the greatest, but the flavor packets they give you give it at least SOME taste - it's tolerable (actually tastes better than just "tolerable" to me, but then, I've had to drink a LOT of medical-type stuff, and I've had MUCH worse.) Doctor Shinoura (my gastro-intestinal doctor) is talking about eventually having me on 4 packets a day - whether in addition to my "regular" diet or to replace it I should check with him. Each packet is 300 calories.

Problem is, the Elental packets aren't covered by my insurance, since the US equivalents are not technically "perscription REQUIRED", they're "intended for use under medical supervision". And they're over 500¥ ($5) EACH! At least I still have enough for this week from when I was using it last year! If you want to try something like it, go here and order one can. It's not like it contains medication - it's just a specially designed nutritional drink that is usually perscribed rather than sold in stores.

Well, I went back to the doctor today... (Thursday)

Unfortunately, I started having some pain again Wednesday afternoon. Not nearly as bad as what I just went in for, but it should have been GONE for the time being, especially with this list of medications:

	Morning	Afternoon	Evening
Pentasa	750mg (3 tabs)	750mg	750mg
Imuran	150mg (3 tabs)
Prilosec	20mg
Prednisone	30mg (1 1/2 20mg tabs)
Iron	325mg (1 tab)
Cipro	200mg		200mg
Flagyl	250mg	250mg	250mg
Multivitamin	1 tab
Calcium		600mg	600mg

[I'm not taking the vitamins right now because of the antibiotics, whcih I'll be taking until March 1st or so.]

(Well, it's finally almost gone as of Sunday morning, but right now, I'm in "narcotic fog", so I'm still not heading to Church. This makes the 3rd week in a row I haven't been able to go.)

( Curiosity information about my name in Japanese... I typed this in Friday... )

Well, today's been hectic:

First, I got out of the hospital, of course! Right after breakfast, they did the usual temp/blood pressure/pulse check, and then brought in my perscriptions for the next 5 days and told me that I'd be getting the bill in 30 minutes. [It was 255,332¥ by the way. ($2200 and change at current ¥116 to $1 rate)] When I got the bill, I asked them where to go to make arrangements for my insurance to pay. At first they misunderstood what I meant and had me signing a payment plan for 40000¥ every 2 weeks. They also didn't understand that I needed an ENGLISH translation of the bill (which I've been able to get from them before) for the insurance people. After Mom got there and we carried my stuff to the car, we ran into someone we knew who had helped us out before, and she got us the translation and the stuff straightened out. We'll be sending it out Thursday, because we're going back for a follow-up appointment that day, so I'll be adding that to the insurance paperwork as well as my previous doctor visit in January that hadn't gotten sent out yet.

After we got out, we went to a 100 yen store and got some stuff for Mom for church, and then went to Popeye's on Kadena to get a chicken lunch. (My sister gets good enough grades that AAFES gives her a great coupon book. One of the coupons in it is for a 3 piece chicken meal [with side and biscuit] for free [usually $5] at Popeye's or Church's, whichever your base happens to have - but she doesn't like their chicken, so we got to use it!)

After that, we headed home, unpacked, I typed up the last entry, e-mailed my brother, took a bath, and started cleaning my bags and my room (after emptying the bags, my room NEEDED cleaned, especially since it wasn't too clean when I left it last week!). I've gotten some of the rest I needed, too, and I helped my sister with her homework (she's behind because she sprained her ankle a week and a half ago and has been sick herself.)

As for what's on the list for tomorrow:

• Mom wants to go to the gift shop - a new shipment is coming in...
• We need to go to the exchange and get laundry soap and an ink cartridge for our printer.
• I want to go to the library and do some book trading.
• I've got a bunch of "clerk work" to do at church after a week and a half without stopping by the office (I had good intentions, I just haven't been healthy enough to do them!)
• I want to finally write about the second half of the Korea trip!
• One of the other branches called me and asked if I could fix their computer - right before I went in. I need to call and apologize and arrange an appointment with them to get their computer fixed.

I was listening to this song on the way home about 20 minutes ago... it's very appropriate. Why, may you ask? Well, I haven' t been able to be on the computer all week. I've been in the hospital. Yup, AGAIN. And I'm grateful to be out and home again. This is the first "computer" thing I'm doing - then I'll take a bath and a nap, and check e-mail and type in a few other entries I wrote while I was in the hospital plus an e-mail to one of my brothers.

I wrote the rest of this entry "on paper" while I was in the hospital - italics refer to when I wrote it.

( Rest of entry... )

So that's why I haven't been on this past week. I'll describe today after my bath, if I can get on the computer... (The brother who was in the hospital is now on the computer playing a game, so I'm having to wait.)

2am: Feeling better (unfortunately, it's because I just threw up again!)

8am: Well, still better. There may actually be hope for today.

At any rate, I realized last night (discussed with Mom) what was going on - turns out I had BAD gas problems (the Crohn's doesn't help any, either!), and that was what had doing me in since Tuesday (all that gas pressure made things go reverse easy...) so she got some Gas-X type medication and I took it last night... can you say "brain on SPIN CYCLE???" That's what I felt like after about an hour! I was so dizzy I didn't DARE get up. I probably looked like I had a hangover (not that I'd ever know, just from what I've been told.) When they say take it AFTER a meal, they MEAN it. But it's looking like it worked so far.

I've been tossing my cookies, and everything else that went down, for about 3 days now (since Tuesday afternoon. It's now Friday morning) That's why you haven't been hearing from me yet... Hopefully I'll be better soon.

Well, yesterday Mom and I went to the exchange (had to pick up a new CD case - the old one was getting smelly for being left in my (middle) brother's car too long - his car is NOT clean! - plus some other stuff my Dad and said brother needed), hit the bank to get a bunch of yen to pay the hospital bill (since the Japanese don't do checks, we have to get actual bills), got a key made, stopped by the post office (to send out more insurance claims, went to Platters, went to the hospital to pay the bill there, went to the USO to donate (and trade) some books, and finally got home after about 4 hours! Then 3 hours later we went to the Officer's Club for their Membership Night - I'll always take a free meal - and it was a good one!

Unfortunately, that was too much.

I overdid it yesterday, and I've been paying for it today... (Thursday) living on sleep and Tylenol because I've been cramping (but then, when your family has a 500-pill bottle of generic Extra Strength Tylenol, you don't need to worry about running out any time soon! :) )

Well, had 3 major things happen today: the Korea trip's dates finally got set (the 18th and 19th), my doctor's visit went very well, and I can't mention the third yet.

I say VERY well, because my blood work is getting better. I saw the numbers. For example, 2 weeks ago, my hemoglobin level was at 4.8 g/dL (I think that's the correct units). Now it's at 7.0, and hopefully going up from there. (Personal baseline is between 9.0 and 10.5, Red Cross allows blood donations at 12.5, normal is 13.5 to 18.0, but I'll never get high enough for the last 2 with the problems from the Crohn's.) Doctor Shinoura wanted to give me a transfusion 3 weeks ago, it was that bad. (I think there was a degree of "and you're able to walk around and not sleep 24-7???" there.) I asked him to "wait and see" until this visit and see if things improved. Since they did, he's not so worried. And yes, I want it to continue improving. I'm also running a low white blood cell count, but in my case, I think that's a good thing, up to a point. He wants to see me in 2 weeks again (I think it was 2 weeks since my last visit), and draw more blood then, for another CBC and liver function tests. Yeah, he's being a vampire.

As for the Korea trip, I've wanted my mom to go and buy the tickets for a week. She finally was able to do it this morning. The problem is, the schedule is horrible. I couldn't get the 19th and 20th, because the return flight on the 20th is too full. (On the 20th, the flight leaves in the late afternoon, so I'd have time to DO stuff while I was there...)

OZ171 18 Oct 12:50 - 15:05 OKA-ICN
OZ172 19 Oct 09:30 - 11:45 ICN-OKA

Well, things are looking up. After that Friday, the only thing I think could be a side effect is some diarrhea on Sunday (no fun, to be sure, but not so bad, all things considered.) And I took two iron pills again last night (from Friday night until Sunday night, I took only one iron pill with the Reglan, just to make sure it wasn't "one is perfect, two makes me nauseous" as opposed to "one makes me nauseous, two makes me throw up" without it)

That, and I actually went out to eat without throwing up! The last 4 or 5 times I went out (practically every time since I got back) I've thrown up. One time, I didn't even get out of the Officer's Club (it was their membership night, so Mom, my sister and I were eating there for free.) before I had to hit the bathroom.

And, I'm catching up on the Church work, too.

So, things are on the up and up. I'm happy about that.
( Political note... )

I'm checking out Free Talk Live, too. Looks interesting so far.

SO not feeling well...

went to the doctor yesterday, he said to take my (2) iron pills with a 5mg Reglan pill... I tried it at 3am this morning (I've been conking out at weird times) and this morning I was "I don't feel good/I want to throw up" until about an hour ago (at least it's better than throwing up 30 minutes after taking them like I usually do), AND I have a bad bout of diarrhea that started after that (about 5am) that I haven't gotten over yet... I'm supposed to call him back to see what my blood work was last night, and I couldn't (Dad took off with me when I was supposed to call in order to help another branch with their financial records. Apparently we're the official troubleshooters of the district when it comes to finances!), and I caouldn't get ahold of him this morning... I'll try at 2pm. He said he may want to give me a transfusion if the numbers look bad enough.

My sister is singing this song as part of her next high school choir concert (I missed her first one because I was just too wiped from the anemia to stay awake - it was a Patriot Day performance on September 12th. [it was delayed since 9/11 was a Sunday.]) The version I saw was very well arranged for making it SATB instead of a SA duet.

Another entry coming when I have the uninterrupted time, I'm almost done with it.

Saw an icon I'm interested in... will scarf it. You'll see it on my next entry... maybe... Or at least the next entry that deals with the Crohn's.

Can't believe it is August already!

Well, my trip to the States went well for the most part. Got to go around Portland quite a bit... Had a few medical appointments to deal with (one of the reasons for the major trip) - I'm doing as well as can be expected.

I didn't do too much stuff the last few weeks of the trip... Did do one major thing, however. My friend picked me up and we went up and around Mt. St. Helens on the way to his house - the back way (WA 503 to Forest Service 90 (and 83 and 8303 to get to Ape Cave) to FS 25 (and 99 to get to Windy Ridge) to US 12 for those of you who live in that area). Windy Ridge was quite beautiful, and so was Ape Cave. I'll put up pictures once I get them resized.

The traveling back was just plain HORRIBLE... I got scheduled for SEA to SFO to KIX to OKA this time... I stayed up the whole night because I wasn't wanting to miss my flight because I fell asleep - and that started a flare-up. On the first (Seattle to San Francisco) flight, I got assigned to a middle seat. In an exit row. Luckily, I had my "get out of jail free card" going off... I can ask for out of exit rows due to the Crohn's (what if I'm flaring (which I was) and they needed the door opened? I couldn't do that.) and did, so I got an aisle seat. On the way back over from San Francisco to Osaka the flare had kicked in. I was throwing up the whole flight - I needed 5 airsickness bags. I pity the poor person who was sitting beside me (unfortunately, they gave me a window seat.) I got through Japanese Immigration and Customs at Osaka with no problems, called Mom to let her know I had gotten through, and once I got on the plane to Okinawa, I SLEPT the whole 2 hours. I needed it, I got maybe 2 hours sleep out of the 10 1/2 I was on the previous plane!

I haven't done too much since I got back... did a little bit of walking, but it is just too hot here! I got some of the insurance checks, so now we're down to 150,000¥ to pay the hospital (we had to spend some of the money to get me back and for Dad to travel on) rather than 850,000¥ - did that yesterday, along with some other running around. Got more to do today.

Can't believe my sister is 14 now... where did she start sprouting so fast?

Still in Portland - getting checked out by another GI tomorrow...

Went and saw Howl's Moving Castle last week... VERY good movie!

Dad's here now - he brought his laptop - but it is tough to type on for me!

More will be in a phone post soon...

Okay, I'm leaving my friend's house today for my uncle's place in Portland... we had some fun. Not as much as planned, but still some!

His daughter is cute - she occasionally chimes in with "I love you, Curtis.." - snd she even tries to manipulate me to let her do things her parents won't let her do (I try not to fall for that - that isn't a good habit for a kid to get in, and they agree) - her two brothers (one older, one younger) are cute, too. The older one occasionally wakes me up in the morning.

Wednesday I tried to go up to downtown Seattle and do a few things (go up to the observation deck on the Bank of America building, go see the Klondike National Historical Park visitors center, etc...) - all I got to do was the first, and I didn't get to do that before I got hit with a 4 out of 10 pain attack - WITHOUT any Lepetan or Pentagin closer than 50 miles away! Whoops! After I got down, all I could do was take some tylenol (1650 mg worth) and lay down in the lobby of my friend's work until we could go home.

The last two days we did some geocaching (he has a GPS device) in his area and in the area we both used to live in (about 15 miles away) - we found one spot! Visited his mom Friday, too!

Other than that, it was just recovering from the jet lag (which may have been part of my problem Wednesday - too much too soon, considering I had just gotten there Monday.) and doing computer stuff.

Edit: After I submitted this the first time, all 3 kids popped in - the older 2 dancing (they like this song, apparently) [the youngest one can't stand yet] - they can't know I'm talking about them!

Well, I'm halfway to my friend in Seattle... I paid for an hour of Internet time at Incheon (S. Korea) International Airport while I have this long wait! So I'm here.

Starting to feel better - I've been MISERABLE the past 3 days - been having just enough pain to be annoying and make me not want to eat, but not enough pain to REALLY worry about or to throw up. Was even having problems on the plane from Okinawa, but I'm all right now. Maybe it's because now I'm not so stressed now that it is actually happening.

Do need to find myself lunch (and call Mom) once my time (25 minutes left) runs out.

Having a good "long" day so far!

It’s not out of reach - just out of sight, Do you think I’ll get it? Think I may, say I might..

Happy birthdays to christineedaae and pixiekitty015 (they should come up tomorrow!)

A quote I like: (Thanks, tiassa!) "Children are the brightest treasures we bring forth into this world, but too large a percentage of the population continues to treat them as inconveniences and nuisances, when they're not treating them as possessions or toys." --Charles de Lint

As for me, I got VERY good news - I now have medical insurance! Dad filed some paperwork with Navy Human Resources in Hawaii and I'm now covered.

That does NOT mean I'm command sponsored to stay in Okinawa - that's a different story, which means I'll still have to leave before May 31st when my Japanese visa expires (the command sponsorship got refused, but Dad's appealing that decision - and we have grounds to appeal, believe me!) but it looks like I could stay for my uncle in Portland for a month or two while the appeal goes through, plus, my best friend Adam from when I was young is now in the Seattle area.

Plus, this rash/break-out is FINALLY starting to go away! It'll be another few days before it completely goes, but it is starting to! :)

And, I'm almost done with a program Dad had me write!

Everything's coming up roses today!

This is a follow-up to my entry of last week: (in curecrohns)

I'm STILL having the aforementioned problem. We finally found my mom's test kit today, and did a test at about 4pm my time. 248 mg/dL for a blood glucose level. There's enough question about it (we haven't used this kit for 6 months) that I'm going to do another test tomorrow morning before doing a call to the doctor. If a level greater than 180 mg/dL repeats on a "before breakfast" test, we WILL be calling.

Doing well Crohn's-wise. Only soreness now, except in the mornings before I take my list of morning meds. Today was my first prednisone reduction day - to 30mg. I'll see him next Monday (if I don't end up seeing him earlier), and we will see about dropping it further.

Edit: That before-breakfast test ended up only hitting 89 mg/dL. That's practically normal. So no phone call today - but if this continues until Monday, I'll be mentioning it again.

Well, one good thing about all this - I'm losing weight. I weighed myself Sunday morning and I'm 135 pounds now (My goal weight is 130-132, I weighed 122 when I was a HS senior) - I was 160 as recently as November, so I was a little overweight. I can afford to lose it. Yes, I know a good part of it is the Crohn's. I can live with that.I should start exercising and convert what bulge I still have (and I still have some) to muscle.

Just before this last hospitalization, I finally had to start buying new pants - I went from a 34 waist (and being tight at that) to having a 32 waist be comfortable (not tight). All my 34 pants now drop around my hips! Let's hope I keep it off!( 12 pictures )

I really need a good icon for my "medical" entries... help! Contributions or mentions of communities that do icon requests are welcome.

This entry was a tough one to title - I went through 4 songs and 6 possible titles before settling on this one.

I felt well enough for pictures finally today. I'm gonna take a nap after this, but here's a look in. ( Pictures (6 of them, they're 320 by 240) )

I'm having a little setback today - I'm in pain and tired. Tired for two reasons: because of the pain and because I wake up 3 to 4 times a night to go to the bathroom. The pain is because I've just started eating 4 days ago and sometimes it's a guess as to whether I should eat something or not. I guess tater tots are a "not" for a while... I'm at 3 out of 10 at maximum, usually 2 out of 10. I've taken some pain pills with my usual afternoon meds, it's gone for now...

I have no more hobbit feet, however. That went away yesterday. So there's some good news to go with the bad.

Happy (belated) birthday, octoberust and meganmerie!

I'm still getting better. Only my feet are puffy now, and even that is starting to go away. Only minus is I get woke up 3 times a night to hit the bathroom, and just as often during the day (not diarrhea, that is thankfuly gone). I'm eating now. Being VERY careful about what I eat, but I am eating. Have a little pain, but not that much. Tylenol level, rather than narcotic level pain, at the worst. I'm a little slow walking, too.

It turns out the acid reducer I take (Takepron is how they romanize the name) is the same stuff as stateside Prevacid. It's just a different name for it.

Went to the doctor yesterday, he's keeping me on the same stuff for now. I go back down to 30mg prednisone on the 12th (I'm currently on 40mg after the problems I had last Thursday trying to eat the first time). The problem is, those Elental packs cost like a value meal at Burger King each - and while they taste decent to me, they don't taste THAT good! I see him in 2 weeks, and I'm going to ask him to cut me down on that, as we can't afford ANOTHER $100/week (well, ¥10500/week) in perscriptions. I'm on 3 per day right now. The pharmacy didn't have enough packs, or any of the flavors, so I had to go back to get the rest today.

Got to sacrament meeting Sunday and that was it - I was not up to my usual 2 1/2 hours of church, much less the branch presidency meeting before, or counting the tithing and the other clerk stuff afterwards. Tuesday night, I had to do the financial audit - wasn't too bad. One or two things to fix, mainly from disorganization (I'm waiting for file folders to be shipped in to help me get organized)

Oh, I finally ordered a book I've been wanting for a year now, as well as 6 months of paid time here.

I started having lack of energy on Sunday the 13th - so bad that the people at the branch presidency meeting were wondering if I was all right - but it went away.

Tuesday, the 15th, I started throwing up... felt miserable, decided to skip my doctor's appointment that day - shouldn't have, the hospital stay would not have nearly been as long!

By Wednesday, I was STILL throwing up, and wondering whether I should go in, but not finding the energy to get up out of bed. Wednesday afternoon, Dad took one look at me and said "You're going in, you are WAY TOO SICK to stay home". He told me to get up and go to the bathroom and clean up and I collapse twice before I can even get on the toilet. This scares him. I just could not stay vertical, and I was turning non-sensical fast. We have a roller chair at the computer, so he rolls it to the bathroom and I get into it (with help) and he rolls me out to the car, gets me in, and takes me to the hospital, where it turns out I'm SEVERELY dehydrated and shocky.

As I mentioned earlier, I had been throwing up. The reason is my Crohn's had gone ballistic and the portions of the small intestine it affects swelled up to the point that they "all-but-blocked". I could have had a septic abdomen if I had waited longer (from the blocked area perforating) - 12, 24 hours? As it was, Wednesday afternoon was one for heroic measures. I had a transfusion, IV's in about 3 places, including my neck, a catheter, a nasogastric tube (to start sucking the stuff up I had been drinking that didn't get thrown up), an oxygen mask, and I was in a diaper.

The first "tubes" out were the neck IV and the NG tube - those came out Friday, the 18th - to my great appreciation... that NG tube did not feel good! The catheter came out the day after that. So Sunday, the 20th they let me drink water and other clear liquids (gatorade-type) and that was well tolerated.

Had LOTS of cat scans and X-rays this trip in - I must have had 2 X-rays and a cat scan the first day, and then two cat scans and an X-ray before I was allowed to eat.

Monday, the 21st, they tried to have me eat for the first time. Had massive diarrhea that night, and was super-tired the next morning... couldn't even get out of bed for 15 minutes. Neither was obviously a good sign. They scheduled a second transfusion (which I ended up getting Wednesday afternoon) and I stopped eating things until Thursday morning again. They also scheduled a small bowel follow-through for Wednesday, just to make sure I didn't have a fistula (I didn't, but it looked like it) and ended up having yet another cat scan Wednesday as well to confirm that fact!

Tuesday or Wednesday, my tongue and mouth started hurting all over. Made drinking the barium problematic for the SBFT, and made even drinking gatorade painful!

By Thursday, I was able to eat a little (they gave me some stuff to deaden the pain that I could coat my tounge with) and had no diarrhea, so I could head home Friday, the 25th. They took out the last IV line Thursday night (to my relief, it had infiltrated my arm and it was going all puffy). They perscribed bunches of stuff and home I went to lay down for the next few days...

Well, I'm healing up, slowly but surely. Tried eating a few normal meals Wednesday, had some cramps, so went into the doctor Thursday. No such luck on eating until next Tuesday. Still on liquid diet - now up to 3 Elentil packets a day. Other than that, I'm healing up fine. Call it 92%.

(no, I don't feel that much better, I just thought the title "fit". Wish I did.)

I'll post about my hospital visit and the lead-up to it in a few days, but here's how I'm doing right now (Easter Sunday afternoon):

My left arm was infiltrated Thursday night by an IV that must have wiggled (it took them 20 minutes to find the spot when they put it in), it is now back down as of Saturday afternoon. I still have puffy lower legs and feet, and lots of bruises on my right arm. I did NOT go to church today at all - I was not expected to, either by my family, or by my branch president.

I have areas on my tongue that still hurt. Basically, it feels like all the front of my tongue hurts when anything touches it. It started hurting real bad Wednesday morning. This is because my nutritional state was so bad before and during the hospital stay. (One known problem with Crohn's, especially during flare-ups, is that absorption of nutrients is a problem, so this wasn't just "diet", so to speak) Because of that, I'm not eating, only drinking. I've just got to let it heal the best I can and give it the nutrition to do so. I do have some stuff to gargle to coat my tongue as well.

Mentioning nutrition, I have a specifically-perscribed powder that I mix with 8 to 10 ounces of water - it's called Elental. It's what's called an "elemental diet" - it's already predigested proteins and carbohydrates (and I THINK fats, as well) and right now, I'm drinking 2 packets a day. I drink half a packet with each of my "medication times" indicated below. (I mix a full packet at a time before my Morning and Evening meds) It's not the greatest, but the flavor packets they give you give it at least SOME taste - it's tolerable (actually tastes better than just "tolerable" to me, but then, I've had to drink a LOT of medical-type stuff, and I've had MUCH worse.) Doctor Shinoura (my gastro-intestinal doctor) is talking about eventually having me on 4 packets a day - whether in addition to my "regular" diet or to replace it I should check with him. Each packet is 300 calories.

I see Doctor Shinoura Friday, April 1st, for my follow-up appointment. Here's what I have to take now, as well:

Medications
	Morning	Afternoon	Evening	Bedtime
Prednisone	30mg *
Pentasa	750mg (3 250mg pills)	750mg	750mg	750mg
Imuran	100mg (2 50mg pills)
B Vitamin pill	1 pill	1 pill	1 pill
Regular multivitamin***	1 pill
Acid Reducer** [Takerone? 30mg]	1 pill
Elental	1/2 packet	1/2 packet	1/2 packet	1/2 packet

* I have 5 and 20mg Prednisone pills available, so I'm using a 20 and 2 5's at the moment. This SHOULD decrease weekly if things go well.

** I'm not sure of the spelling of the name, I need to look it up... and realize that this is a Japanese medication. They DO label in both English and Japanese.

*** This is just a regular "1-a-Day", not anything Dr. Shinoura's perscribed. I just think this is a good idea, considering my nutritional state was so bad.

I just had a 9 day hospital stay - there will be a longer entry in a few days about it (Mom forgot to make the post for me saying I went IN, so I'm mentioning it now that I'm out.)

I'm still recuperating, however. (call me at 85% right now) so if I don't notice that you're wanting me to comment in order to stay on your friends list, that's why. Give me at LEAST until Wednesday, and comment with a link here.

It was a hard one - I had a "all-but-complete" blockage of my small intestine. They had to drain me out, calm the blockage down, then baby step me back to eating again.

Well, the last few weeks have been rough - I've been microflaring for the past few weeks (e.g. I wake up sore) and things have been busy. Well, yesterday it caught up with me. I'm not doing too badly, but bad enough I'm taking my pain meds to keep from screaming.

Also got some news today - and it's not good. Don't want to mention it here yet.

More later.

1. Progressive dinner was fun. More later.

2. Mom made it on the flight. She'll be back less than 16 hours from now (touchdown is 1300, Tuesday, it's 2320 Monday now, which is actually less than 14 hours, but you know how airports are - the military is even worse!) That also means we didn't spend the $600, either! And that's at government-passport rates from this end (united.com is quoting over $1200 for a one-way trip) That will help MUCH.

As for how sick I was Friday, Dad came home Friday evening and said to call the doctor - right now! - rather than possibly having to do another expensive (in comparison) inpatient trip before Monday. We called, they said to come in, so we do that, go to the ER, get seen by the doctor, get told a GI doc won't come in until 11, but that I could get 5 more Lepetan, and to stay on a soft diet to calm things down. Did that, used one at the hospital Friday (well, "swallowed" doesn't exactly work when it's the OTHER end you use it at) - one hour later I was pain-free - for the next 18 hours! You wonder why I like it??? That's why! And by the time the pain did start again, I was down to 1 out of 10 occasionally and decreasing rather than 3 out of 10 most of the time and screaming! And that was gone by Sunday morning.

It's back tonight, however.... my ride to the progressive dinner was driving a stick shift for the first time, and all that slamming against the seat belt did NOTHING for my gut!

Gotta finish washing the dishes, and then go to bed!