Rocks in my head!! Rocks in my head! Lookin' like a fool with the rocks in my head!

Since roughly mid-October, I've been having a really fun time with persistent dizziness and vertigo. It started out pretty strong--no matter which direction or how quickly (or slowly) I moved my head, I got SERIOUSLY dizzy and off-balance. It was scary and it made me super nauseated to the point that I felt like I was always on the verge of throwing up, but never quite able to seal the deal--a lovely, lovely feeling. I got some motion sickness medicine at the drug store, and although it helped with the nausea, it made me insanely sleepy. So yeah, not much help. After a couple of weeks of dealing with this bullshit and it only getting moderately better (i.e., looking side-to-side didn't bug me as much, and I wasn't about to puke all the time, but the rest of it was still present), I went to see my family doctor. She gave me a shot of steroids in my ass (to help with the nausea) and some well-known prescription meds for this type of thing that, guess what, make you sleepy as Hell and lists "dizziness" as one of its side effects. She also told me, "If this hasn't gotten better in a month, come back and see me."

Well guess where I was a month later. That's right! Back in her office where, this time, she prescribed some transdermal patch thing that they give to people when they're going on cruises to help with dizziness and motion sickness. The patches didn't do a damn thing for me except for accidentally dialate one (yep, just one) of my eyes for two days and make me look an awful lot like David Bowie and/or a psychopath.

So then in December, I go to my semi-annual cardiologist appointment and tell him what's going on and he(finally) refers me to an ENT who can help. But they can't see me until mid-January. Which was today.

The diagnosis: Begnign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo. It's basically caused when debris known by the highly technical name "ear rocks" that's supposed to hang out in one part of your inner ear, decides to get crazy and wander to another part of your inner ear and fuck around with your sense of balance and spatial relativity. It's awesome. The treatment? The ENT and an assistant put you in a chair and basically move you around and position you a dozen different ways in order to see how they can make you the MOST dizzy. Once they figure that out, they can guesstimate which ear and what part of that ear these renegade "rocks" are partying in, and then move you around/position you in a sequence that, hopefully, sends the rocks back to where they should be. And they hopefully get grounded.

So yes, I did this. And yes, it appears to have worked. However, I did barf (twice) at the ENT's office and must sleep on my back and elevated for the next two nights, and not bend down to pick anything up or lie on my side or do any sudden up/down or side/side head motions until Friday. Piece of cake.

The other things they discovered during my exam is that I have excellent hearing for someone my age (which is a minor miracle considering how I've totally abused my ears with The Rock and Roll for many years) and that I have a "nodule" on my thyroid (probably nothing) that I'm having ultrasounded on Friday morning.

So yay.

I have much, much more to tell, friends. However, I'm emotionally and physically sort of spent for the day. So I'm going to go read and listen to some music while I'm propped at a 45% angle in my bed.

More soon--including Intention #3--very soon.

Oh, where to begin...

This past week (and a few days) has been a doozie.

On Friday the 20th, I piled The Geej and all of her stuff into the wagon and took off for Longview at 5:20 in the morning. I was trying to take advantage of the fact that leaving at that hour would mean she'd sleep through most of the 270 mi. trip. I was a bit freaked b/c it was going to be our first official road trip together, and well, when you're doing it all alone, there are lots of things to consider. For instance: going to the bathroom. Should the need arise, what does one do? You can't leave her in the car. You can't take her to the bathroom and put her on the dirty floor. (No, I don't have one of those carrier doohickeys.) You can't pee with her on your lap (you can, actually, but the stuff you have to do AFTER peeing you can't do with her in one arm). So I stopped drinking water at 7pm the night before our trip, just to be sure...

She made the trip like a champ, with only 2 meltdowns--one minor, one major. And thankfully, the major one happened when we were only 20 miles from our destination.

Saturday the 21st, we attended a party in Geej's honor. A lot of my family, my mom's friends, a few of my friends from high school. It was lovely, and The Geej looked precious in her little white lacy dress with a blue grosgrain ribbon at the waist. She was tired, but tolerated being passed around to about a billion old big-haired east Texas ladies who wanted to eat her with a spoon. She got SO much stuff at that party that it took two cars to bring it home. Lordy.

Monday night, I got sick. I won't go into the gruesome details, but it lasted for a couple of days, culminating with 102.5 fever on Wednesday night. All I can say is thank God I was home so my mom could help with Geej. I was in lousy shape, and still don't feel quite right to be honest. I'm going to try to get in to see El Doctor tomorrow...

Thursday, Mom the Geej and I piled all of our crap back into the wagon, and headed to Houston. The baby had a 1pm appt. at the International Adoption Center at Texas Children's Hospital for her post-adoptive diagnostic exam. It's basically a very thorough appointment where they catch her up on any immunizations she needs, give her the once over, re-test her for all sorts of stuff (TB, HIV, etc.) and establish her medical records in the U.S. She'd had a pre-adoptive evaluation done there, so I wanted to close the loop. She did great. She's gained 2 lbs. since I've had her (she's up to a whopping 15.9 lbs.!), and the doctors thought--barring any weirdness showing up on her labs--that she's in tip top shape. I knew this, of course, but it's very reassuring to hear it from the professionals.

We spent the night in a hotel near the medical center (the same hotel where Mom spent so much time when Roy was in the hospital there last summer), then packed up and headed about 45 miles away to Seabrook. Checked into yet another hotel, and unloaded once again. It's amazing how much stuff you have to travel with when a baby's in tow. I kept calling her The Diva, because it was like we were her roadies, constantly unloading all the stuff that she needed. My cousin was graduating from high school with loads of honors, so Mom and I wanted to make an appearance. Since the ceremony didn't start until 8pm and was in a hot stadium, Geej and I went back to the hotel, but Mom attended and I know my cousin and uncle were happy she was there.

Next day, we loaded up again, and hit the road for Austin (Mom was catching a ride back to L-view with my Aunt). But wait! We stopped on our way out of Houston to have lunch and visit with a couple who I'd met through the adoption agency. The woman's name is Joanne and her husband is Alan. They adopted a little girl from the same orphanage that the Geej came from last October. The little girl is about 6 mos. older than Geej and looks so much like her, it's eerie. Aside from the olive complexion, and the fact that she's obviously bigger, Kyra IS The Geej. It was so weird...like looking into the future. Same hair, eyes, nose, mouth, petite frame. You name it, they're the same. These people live in an ENORMOUS McMansion--very nice. Kyra's room looks like something out of the Land of Nod catalogue.

Finally, we got on the road for home for real. Got home about 4:30 on Saturday afternoon. Whew. It was such a wild week--full of changes and firsts for Geej--and she handled everything like a pro. Just went with the flow. I'm very proud. Today is her 10 mo. birthday. She's sitting on the floor next to me playing as I type. She's such a monkey.

You'll be pleased to know that we've rounded the corner with Earl. I guess he's begrudingly decided to accept this strange creature who now shares his house and his mom with him. Sunday morning, I was giving the Geej her bottle, and he jumped up on the arm of the couch and just licked her right on the head. Then he got down on the couch and bunked her feet, purring madly. She, of course, was in heaven. He still runs from her when she "chases" him (which is freakin' hilarious, by the way), but I can't say I blame him. He still outweighs her by about a pound, but he's a big wuss.

Okay, back to trying to write the billion thank you cards I am now legally required to write after that dang party. And the hostesses even put "no gifts necessary" on the invitation... Sigh.