Fibromyalgia Study - Week 2

So I started my study the week before Christmas. I went in twice a day for four days. Each time I went in I did traction and the wobble chair exercises and then the Dr worked on my spine. At home I have a traction unit and a portable wobble chair. I took these with me to New Mexico for our Christmas vacation. I was supposed to do them both twice a day and I only had one day that I didn't. The trip down, 15 hours, was a lot easier on my body. I only took one nap and really didn't have any aches. In the past when I have traveled home I usually need at least one day of rest before I can do anything. This time I didn't! We went to church the next day (which always makes me hurt anyways) and I felt like I do here at home. I really had some pretty good days until Christmas (and that may have been in part to getting up so early!) I had a headache and just felt awful and had to go back to sleep after breakfast. My little niece was so cute the first time I did the wobble chair. First she watched me, then after a couple minutes her eyes lit up and she said, "I want to try that!" I told her she could try it once. So when I got done I put her on. She is just 3 and her little legs couldn't reach the floor, so I held on to her and wobbled her back and forth a couple times. Then she said, "I think my legs are too little to touch the floor." Some how the wheat bucket that I was using to put my wobble chair on kept migrating around the room. Although never seen in the act, I think my nephew and niece helped it.

The trip home was a little harder and I took several naps and my right knee began hurting quite early in the trip. But I did drive for a few hours so Kaleb could have a nap. And we did finally make it home safe to our own beds!

On Monday I went in to the Dr. and he worked on my spine again. He said that I could start coming in only once a day. He also gave me my first molding block, made out of foam. I have to lay on it every night, preferably just before bed, for up to 20 minutes. It is placed under my neck. The Dr said that some people can only stay on for a few minutes to start and so I should try and work up to 20 minutes, but no longer. Sometimes people fall asleep while laying there, so you have to set an alarm so you don't go over 20 minutes. I set my alarm and laid down and felt ok, except that my right knee was hurting me. I stayed on the whole 20 minutes.

Today, Tuesday, I went back in and he was impressed that my neck was still in the right position and so he didn't have to work on it. He did work on my knee a little to see if it would feel better. I have been quite tired today, but what do you expect after a long vacation?

Fibromyalgia Study

About a month ago my friend called me saying she saw an ad in the newspaper to cure fibromyalgia. It sounded interesting, so she cut out the ad and brought it to me. Kaleb and I called and signed up to go to a meeting about it. I was worried they were going to say they had found the perfect pill to cure fibromyalgia, but it just had a "few" side effects. Luckily it doesn't involve taking a pill at all!! The doctors theory is that Fibromyalgia pain can be taken away by using the Pettibon system to realign and strengthen the neck. It sounded very promising! Kaleb and I both felt that this was something that could really help me! So we signed me up. They had tons of people want to participate! There was only 10 fully paid for spots and 30 spots to do another study, at cost. I had to fill out paperwork and get a couple x-rays. Then the dr selected those that fit the study criteria and then randomly selected those that got in the group of 10.
We told everyone to pray that I would get in the group and our prayers were answered! We received a call saying that I was in the group of 10! We went in and found out more of what I would have to do and then we got to see my x-rays. First the dr put up a sample x-ray of how a neck should look, with a nice curve and how they measure the alignment from the pituitary gland. Then he put up my x-ray. Wow!! No wonder I have felt like crap for soooo long! I have absolutely NO curve in my neck, completely straight! Also he showed us on the x-ray where you could see that I have 2 torn ligaments. The alignment from my pituitary gland is 29mm off, causing my head to put 30lbs of pressure on my neck instead of the normal 15lbs! Then he put up the front x-ray that showed that my spine leans to the right. At this point I wasn't sure if I should shout for joy or cry. For the past 10ish years I have been trying to get the many doctors I have seen to believe me that there was something wrong with my body! I have done so many tests and they always come back in the normal range, and now, finally, there was a test that showed how messed up my body was!!!
So on Monday I started the 6 month study. First I have to "hang" from a traction unit. Then do exercises on a wobble chair. Then the dr adjusts my spine. But it is not as easy as it sounds! My body is totally in shock! We are trying to move the spine and let the spinal fluid flow through my body like it is supposed to. Imagine a kinked hose and how much pressure is released when you let it go! I can definately feel a change in my neck, but also have pain with it. I also have been feeling sick to my stomach, which the dr says is normal as your body starts to recognize the toxins that have built up in your body and as it tries to eliminate them. Of course I am in pain, but the pain is different from fibromyalgia pain and we are very hopeful that this pain will be for a short while and then I will be feeling better for a long while! I've had so much fibromyalgia pain for so long, that I really don't care how much pain I am in now, as long as I get better!!
This week I have to go in 2 times a day for the first four days. Next week we will be in New Mexico for Christmas, but I will have the equipment I need to take with me to continue the exercises twice a day. As I progress the schedule changes on how often I have to go into the doctors office. I will keep posting and let you all know how I am doing. Wish me luck!

All I Want for Christmas

Maxwell: (singing) All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth

Jensen: All I want for Christmas is for my 2 front teeth to fall out!!!!!

-Poor guy, he's 7 and hasn't had any teeth fall out yet.

What?

(conversation overheard between Kaleb and the boys, after Kaleb had been at his parent's house for the weekend)

Kaleb: Did you know your Grandma is already listening to Christmas music?

Maxwell: What?! She skipped a holiday!!

Jensen: Ya, doesn't she know she should be listening to Thanksgiving music!

Happy Halloween!

Kaleb's pumpkin

Jensen's scarred pumpkin

Maxwell's first pumpkin carved on his own

Alicia's spider web pumpkin

All of our pumpkins in our kitchen window

The Junk has Come!

The junk has come to the Otteson house. I started feeling yucky on Monday. Then Tuesday morning Jensen had a headache, cough, and temperature. So he and I stayed home sick. Wednesday was no better, in fact worse! So we borrowed some movies from one of our great neighbors and vegged all day. This morning Maxwell had a cough and a temp. So we ate breakfast and Jensen, Maxwell, and I all went back to bed! Kaleb hasn't gotten it yet, knock on wood, and has been taking care of all of us. I'm so glad he came well trained in cooking and cleaning!! Tomorrow, unless a miracle happens, I won't feel up to classes....but we will have to see with the boys. It's hard to miss 4 days of university classes!! ......And now I hear Kaleb coughing while he is out fixing us dinner.....wish him luck!

Jensen's Surgery --Round 2

We were so excited when Jensen had his first surgery to put plugs in his feet. The plugs were put in the natural hole that occurs in your ankle when your bones are in the correct position. They create a perfect arch, keep the feet from colapsing, and stop the prikly pain in the bottom of the feet. So the plugs went in great. The arch looked great. The feet went pigeon-toed. The knees bowed out. The feet got tired really easy. The feet hurt whenever they got touched/bumped. And poor Jensen had a hard time balancing and running. The Dr. said the plugs need to come out. The Dr. was very disappointed as were we!

So this morning we went in bright and early and the plugs came out. And the Dr. said that his feet didn't colapse as far, so we are hoping the scar tissue will help out some. He has to elevate his feet for a couple of days and then slowly start walking on them again. Luckily, no big boots this time. He can get back to school on Tuesday. And hopefully back to running and playing!!
He is doing good and is the bravest little guy in the world. On the way to the hospital he said that his tummy was hurting cause he was nervous. So I told him we would say a prayer as soon as we got there. We did and then he was ready to go.

Top Ten

1. We've all started back to school!
2. Kaleb and I at USU. I will graduate in December and Kaleb the following May.
3. Maxwell is in 3rd grade and Jensen is in 2nd grade.
4. Maxwell wants to learn to play the cello and join the orchestra that they have at his school. We will go to a meeting this week and see if it can work into our budget and schedule.
5. The boys will have to go to after school club two days a week because my ceramics class doesn't get out until after they are already out of school. They are excited to go!
6. Kaleb has taken up scrapbooking! Really! For his weeds class they have to collect and press weeds and then organize them on papers.
7. Watch for pictures of my ceramics as the semester goes on, if they are any good.
8. We are all trying to get adjusted to our new schedule and work load.
9. Kaleb was able to quit working on-call maintence! Yeah!! We've been looking forward to this day for a long time! His summer job will continue through the year and the difference in pay will make it so we can survive without him being on call!
10. We finally got enough tomatoes to make salsa! One of our big canning events every fall. My whole purpose in planting a garden is having the ingredients I need to make salsa, tomatoes, onions, jalepenos, (I always buy garlic at the store). We love it and always have it all eaten before it's time to can again. I am hoping that all of the green tomatoes will ripen and I can make another batch in a few weeks.

Maxwell's Lego Party

Here's the cake:

The boys thought I did a good enough job that I could go on "Ace of Cakes"!

We had a Lego building contest.

Everyones cool creations!

Maxwell got some really cool presents! Can't you tell by the look on his face?

Maxwell has grown-up so fast and we can hardly believe that he will be 9 tomorrow! He has less than a foot to grow to be as tall as mom. We love having him and his awesome imagination in our family. He is super excited to move into the Bear den with mom and dad at Cub Scouts. Maxwell worked super hard and earned as many arrow points as his dad did when he was a cub scout, 8 total! Way to go Maxwell!! We love you!!

Antelope Island with People

We have been wanting to go to Antelope Island (K has never been even though he has lived in Utah his whole life!) and our library has a State Park pass that you can check out for one week and use to get in free to any of Utah's state parks. So the other day when we were at the library we were lucky enough and got to check it out. We called my sister, who lives about 10 minutes from the island, and invited them to go with us. We had a fun time and took way too many pictures to post them all, but here are a few:

The kids and the dads playing in the Great Salt Lake.

Cousins, Jakob and Becky, Jensen and Maxwell. (Maxwell thinks he needs to "pose" in every picture that we take!)

At the old ranch you can touch anything you want. So Maxwell climbed on this old tractor.

Of course Jensen wanted to climb on too! We had fun seeing all the old things at the ranch.

Maxwell and Jakob running down the boardwalk to the Great Salt Lake. They hardly stopped running the whole time we were there, but had a great time!

If you haven't been to Antelope Island, you should go. And check your local library and see if they have a state park pass.

Antelope Island

I had so much fun taking picutres when we went to Antelope Island a couple of weekends ago. Here are some of my favorites.

Taken at the old ranch on the south end of the island.

My favorite flower

At the ranch

At the ranch

The bison are free to roam the island.

More Lake Pictures

This turkey kept throwing rocks in the water while we were trying to take pictures!!

Maxwell, Kaleb, Jensen, and Alicia


My boys!

Kaleb and the boys, throwing rocks, looking for more rocks and testing the temperature of the water.

Kaleb trying to scare Jensen.

Bubba, trying to push this big rock into the water.

Hannah, in a perfect picture pose!

Da Weights

Jensen, throwing everything within his reach into the water.

The kids looking for rocks to skip.

Wyoming Trip -- Day 2

On the second day we decided to try and find the lake that the men had seen on the map. The men went in one car and the women in the other (so we could talk of course!!!)

It didn't take the kids long to start throwing rocks in. For the most part we were the only ones there. The sky looks really dark but it really only sprinkled on us when we were getting back in the cars to leave. Supposedly the far mountain is actually in Utah.


Kaleb teaching Maxwell how to skip a rock.

Love this picture of Ardis and Henry!!

Jensen had a hard time getting around as fast as the other kids and across all the rocks, but he still had a good time throwing stuff in!

He loved the water and I think he would have stayed there and thrown more rocks in if we had let him.

Hannah with her "camera" rock she found.

Love this one of the lake right before we left.

After dinner the second day we had to leave, though we really could have stayed longer. We had a fun, relaxing time with our bestest friends. As we were pulling out of the driveway Maxwell said, "Dad you need to get a job in Wyoming so we can move here!"

On the way home we stopped and took a picture of Devil's Slide.

Wyoming Trip -- Day 1

We drove to Wyoming the 24th of July to visit our bestest friends.
They warned us it was out in the middle of nowhere.

Out here they farm the wind. . . .

Their new house! We are SO jealous and can't wait to finish school so we can have a house!

Out on a walk to see how far we could see. Turns out you can see a LONG way!

The men wasted no time and got right to work on the yard.

The kids rode bikes, the moms visited, and the men worked on the yard. We experienced how fast the weather changes in Wyoming. Had a delicious dinner and even got so cold during the night that we had to close the window (quite a change from Logan).

Jensen's Birthday Pictures

I made this cool birthday cake out of cupcakes. So much easier for serving!

We made these fun favor bags for Jensen to hand out at the end of the party.

One of his friends wrote this on the sidewalk:

Blowing out the candles!

All the fishy friends with their fishy door hangers that they made. Jensen is the one with the door hanger over his face. :)

Happy Birthday Jensen!!!

I can hardly believe that my little guy is 7 today! It doesn't seem like it's been that long ago that we had him. We had a great day... started with a fishy party with friends, a movie, a short nap, and dinner at Pounders. What a great day! Love ya lots Jensen!!!!

(I will post pics when we get back from our trip to Wyoming to visit our friends!!)

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

Mmmm....a friend inspired this recipe and then I tweaked it until I got it just how we love it. My older brother even popped in for a surprise visit the other night when we were having it and he loved it! He said he couldn't even tell that I had used Gluten Free pasta. It's super easy and has become one of our family favorites!

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

1 stick butter (yep I use the real stuff!)

2 bags frozen shrimp from Wal-mart (about 100-150 in a bag that are already peeled and deveined)

3 to 4 large cloves of garlic, pressed

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 bag Gluten Free pasta, cooked according to bag (you can use regular pasta)

Salt and pepper to taste

1/3 to 1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Start your water boiling for your pasta and then cook according to package.

Then start your shrimp rinsing (it will take a little longer if you haven't thawed them, but only a few more minutes) and then drain them well. (I start my water, start my shrimp, go back and add the pasta, go back and finish the shrimp.)

In a large skillet pan melt half the stick of butter and olive oil over medium heat. Add your pressed garlic and saute a little. Then add your drained shrimp and cook for a few minutes. By now your pasta should be about done, so when you have just a minute left put the other half of the stick of butter in with the shrimp to melt. Drain your pasta and then add to the shrimp. Add salt and pepper and stir well. Then turn off the heat and add your Parmesan cheese and stir. Let cool just a little and enjoy!

Thank You for not Raining!!

Last Wednesday was Cub Scout day camp and since Kaleb and I are Bear Den leaders, we got to go along with Maxwell for the camp. We were a little worried because it had rained all night and all morning. But when it came time for camp at 3pm it had stopped. We got sprinkled on a little, but finally made it home at 10Pm (an hour late!) and still dry. The boys had a great time!

Maxwell on the zip line


Learning about telescopes. Maxwell is in the middle with his arms crossed.

On the climbing wall

Eating almonds, Kaleb always gets the most beautiful pictures of me :(