Speak Now

The perpetual teenage girl inside me was very excited today. Why you ask? Oh, just because the new Taylor Swift CD came out today!!!! Yes, after completely jumping on the Swift bandwagon last year after falling in love with her last CD "Fearless", I was very excited for her new album "Speak Now" to come out today. Even went out and got the "deluxe" edition, which comes with a bunch of extra songs on it! I never was able to get tickets to her Fearless concert when it was in Toronto awhile ago - hopefully when the Speak Now concert comes into town I can snag some and see her live!

Here's the video for her new single "Mine":

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Is it Thursday yet?

I have a little wee obsession with the show "The Vampire Diaries". So fun and silly and drama-filled and addictive! Thursdays are now my favourite day of the week as it's Vampire Diaries Day, and I just had to post the preview for this weeks episode as it looks soooo good . . .

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Update!

So I'm still not feeling so great. I actually ended up spending the day in the Emergency Department at the hospital the other day. The pain just got to be too much and I couldn't take it. I have to say that I was really impressed with North York General though - I went it right away and was all hooked up to an IV with medication within minutes. I had to have another ultrasound and some more bloodwork done. On the previous ultrasounds I had done a few weeks ago at the medical office, they found a cyst on my kidney and on my ovaries, and my blood tests and a few other tests had some slightly abnormal results. On this ultrasound though, they were all gone! Soooo, they think they all must have ruptured either all at once or all around the same time, which is why the pain intensified over the last few days. They gave me some really strong pain pills and told me I need to have a follow-up ultrasound in a few weeks and to come back if the pain got worse or if I had a fever.
It's weird though, 'cause even with the pain medication it still hasn't gotten much better since my ER experience, and everything I've read about ruptured cysts says that every day the pain should lessen.
I have a feeling it still might be something else. The ultrasound tech asked me a lot of questions about my appendix while she was doing the test. She seemed pretty convinced that it was my appendix that was causing all the pain and went to go talk to the doctor. When he was discharging me though and I asked if that could be it, he said my white blood count would be higher (which it wasn't).
Hopefully it was just the cysts and in the next few days it'll get better. It's just hard to believe that a few cysts would be what's been making me feel so sick for the past month and a half (and that it would all start right after I got back from Africa!)
Weird, weird, weird . . . but like I said before, it could always be worse!
I've gotten quite behind at work the last little while because of this as I've missed several days and we're gearing up for the busiest time of year. I came in this morning and was bombarded with the sense that Christmas is definitely upon us - the evidence is in the sheer amount of stuff we're getting each day! It always amazes me that when you work in retail, the first feeling you get when you think of the Holidays isn't a nice warm and fuzzy feeling, it's pure panic! It immediately tenses up your shoulders and you start counting down to when January will arrive and it'll all be over! My countdown has started and it isn't even Halloween yet!

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Argh . . .

And . . .

still sick.

But - it could always be worse I suppose. I think I'm actually getting used to just feeling sick and gross 'cause it's been so long. :) I had 3 ultrasounds last Friday. It was not fun. Having a full to bursting bladder when your stomach and pelvic area are already feeling horrible is definitely one of the worst things I have had to do recently. I can't imagine what it's like for someone whose pregnant to have to do that for an ultrasound, when they already have a baby pushing against their bladder!

Anyhoo, this post isn't actually about that (or wasn't supposed to be). I really wanted to post a video of a band I'm currently obsessed with called NeedToBreathe. I knew about them quite awhile ago, but kind of just hopped on the bandwagon again recently after I was listening to their latest songs and happened upon this wonderful, live acoustic performance of "Stones Under Rushing Water", one of my favorite songs. It's hauntingly beautiful and really makes me want to drive to the States next month to see them live in concert. Sooooo good!!!! Enjoy . . .

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Yuck

Still sick.

Just had my third round of bloodwork in two weeks.

They took about 8 vials of blood.

Not fun for someone who doesn't like blood.


Next up?

2 ultrasounds scheduled for Friday.

Have to have a full bladder for them.

Not fun for someone who already takes a lot of pee breaks on a good day.

Will pray I don't pee my pants and embarrass myself forever.




Yuck.

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Update + Johnny Reid

So I've still be feeling pretty horrible these last few weeks. Have been to the travel doctor a few times, as usually if you feel like crap after an international trip it means you brought a little "souvenir" home with you. I had a bunch of blood work done, and some other tests, but so far other than my red blood cell count being low and my white blood cell count being a little high (which only shows that my body is trying to fight something off), he's kinda' stumped in terms of an actual diagnosis. I have to go get an abdominal ultrasound done this week, plus more blood work and go see my family doctor as it's looking like it's probably something not travel related.

I've missed some work because of it, and also had to stay home this weekend and not go on the annual fall retreat with Chris and the youth group up in Bancroft. I'd actually been looking forward to that since the summer, so that kinda' sucks, but I know it's probably been good for me to just stay home, sleep and take it easy.

Hopefully they figure out what's going on soon as it's driving me crazy not feeling good and always being so tired and yucky. The whole month of September was pretty much a write-off - for the most part when I wasn't at work I was sleeping or trying to sleep, so here's hoping that October is much better!

So while I've been at home these past few days, one of the things I've been doing a lot of is watching CMT (Country Music Television). I watched the "One on One" hour-long interview special with Johnny Reid, and I must say - how amazing and inspiring is this man! I was absolutely captivated throughout the entire interview, and loved hearing about his journey as a singer/songwriter and how he never gave up on his dream, even though he was knocked down time and time again. I wasn't a fan of his before - to be honest I'd never even listened to one of his songs or watched a video, but after watching this interview I just had to check out his website and a bunch of videos on youtube. He's an amazing country/soul singer from Scotland, (who moved to Canada as a young teen) and he just has a great, honest vibe about him and a really powerful voice. I'll definitely be picking up his latest album the next time I'm out and about! Also just found out he's playing a few shows at Massey Hall in November, so maybe Chris and I will go see him live!

Gotta' love CMT for introducing people to artists they may not have considered listening to before!

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