Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope every gets.....or got (if you're reading this later) a lot of candy! I know I did at school yesterday! JEEEEEEEZ......the kiddos LOVE to bring me candy. I wish I could eat it, but, of course, I don't have the bladder health right now to even try a piece, so I brought my large bag full of candy home for Tyson to enjoy. I think he could get used to my career choice. Lots of gifts and food that I can bring home. I told him to just wait until Christmas!

School is going SO well. I'm having so much fun and I just absolutely LOVE my job. It's SO different from any other job, and I don't think anyone could understand it unless they were or are a teacher for themselves......who have or had the passion to teach of course. Now, if you don't have the passion.....you will not like the job. But I do! And I LOVE going to work every day. I love my kids, I love my school, and my principal is AWESOME!

Onto health for both Tyson and me. I'm still happy to report that things are SLLLLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWWLLLLLYYYY getting better..........HOWEVER.......I STILL feel uncomfortable, and I still don't feel normal. It's still having a negative effect on me. But, I say I'm better because the pain has gone from severe to mild now, and my urgency and frequency has tapered off a bit. I'm still on my VERY RESTRICTED diet which is KILLING ME right now because I would give anything to have a piece of chocolate, a piece of pizza.....or just to be able to go on dinner dates with my husband for goodness sake!!!! Also, go out to eat with friends......MEXICAN FOOD!!!! Ughhh!!!! And fruit...............OH HOW I LOVED FRUIT before this STUPID disease decided to haunt me. Now I can't have a bite of ANYTHING. I am so young, and I feel so robbed of enjoying all of life's simple pleasures. The one thing that this has taught me is to NEVER take my health for granted EVER again. Again......I will not settle for less! My goal is to feel COMPLETELY asymptomatic, get back into my full workout routines again (oh how I miss my gym time!), and be able to eat and drink anything and everything with absolutely no problems. Basically, my goal is to get my pre-IC life back where I was feeling great and living carefree. And I will have alllllllllll of this sooner than later! This is what I look forward to.

As far as Tyson, I don't know what's been up with him lately, but he's starting to get back into taking his Irritable Bowel Syndrome a little more seriously. He's started to really focus on his diet, and take supplements to help him. When he first got this, he tried to figure out what to do. When medicines weren't working, he gave up on treating his IBS and decided to live with it. A year later, he's back to taking it a little more seriously because he's finally realized what a damper it puts on his lifestyle. I don't know what' gotten into him, but I'm VERY happy he's trying to get this under more control. I was VERY unhappy when he just decided to give up a year ago. Now, since he's on this roll...I think he needs to find himself a new physician (Something I told him to do a year ago). He needs a second opinion on his treatment options. His physician reminds me of my old Uro.......Barely took the time to listen and showed a lack of concern or interest. I'm SO glad I found my new Uro....Dr. Corey. Him and his nurse practitioner have been a BLESSING....and they show SO much interest in my health, and it's obvious because I'm now on a treatment plan that is SLLLLOOOOOWWWWWWLY getting me to normal health. Now, if we can find Tyson a Dr. Corey of IBS, and get Tyson to have some patience with his treatment.......I think Tyson would be golden!

Anyways, I hope everyone else is in good health and enjoying this fall weather! Again, I will continue to keep everyone posted on my health......and now it seems Tyson's as well. Also, I will keep you posted on any other tid bits of anything exciting that is occurring in our lives.

IC, Teaching, and K9

It seems like this combo of meds that I'm on seems to be helping me. My IC symptoms are still very apparent, and I'm obviously still aware of my bladder, but my symptoms still continue to subside slowly but surely. I'm hoping that this trend continues, and I'm back to my old life and old body (pre-IC) in no time! I'm still remaining postive that I will go into remission rather quickly. I'm trying to make sure I do EVERYTHING right to allow my bladder to heal up really fast.

As SOME of you know, I frequent an Interstitial Cystitis online support forum, and this support forum has educated me SO MUCH. I also frequent the "I'm in Remission!" page.......VERY OFTEN. I've found that I'd rather read positive things than negative things. I've noticed that a lot of people do go into remission....whether it be medicated or not. I WILL say this....When Elmiron starts working for me, I DO plan on staying on it for maintenance. My goal is to eventually get off all medications and only have to take maintenance doses of Elmiron. I just don't have the psychological stamina to allow this disease to haunt me again. I don't even want a TWINGE of symptoms. I want to be feeling good and free and able to eat ANYTHING I want without fear in the back of my mind. A lot of people have told me that I'll see more negative things posted thank positives. Some people are feeling so normal, they forget they ever had IC to begin with and they are usually not posting. Most people talk about the negatives more than the positives. Today, I read a remission post on the IC forum where some women were talking about their remission and how they easily go into denial that they ever had IC to begin with. They are feeling THAT good. One woman said that she even knows a woman locally whos IC went in remission and she REFUSES to ever talk about what her life was like living with IC before remission.......EVER! I have a feeling I'll be one of those people. This thing is SO TERRIBLE that when I do go into remission, I NEVER want to have to think or talk about it EVER again. For now, I will talk about it because I'm in that terrible phase, and it's only theraputic for me to talk about. Think about how you would feel if you CONSTANTLY had the sensatation of a urinary tract infection with chronic pelvic pain on top of it and you could only eat a select few foods, and you would FEAR FOR YOUR LIFE of taking in something as simple as a sip of plain water or a bite of an every day food that will send you in a flare so debilitating that you would think death would be better than this. Yeah....not so much fun......and it's definitely not life.

Now, on to some different news. Tyson and I are still doing well. Tyson has lessened up on the extra jobs. Probably because I've been so "ill" and he wants to be at home as much as possible to help me out with everything. I've always known this in the back of my mind, but it is now really confirmed that I have such a wonderful, loving, and understanding husband. Even though he doesn't have IC, he has been put through so much hell from me having this disease, I was for sure scared I'd run him off by now. Another reason why I think he's eased up on the extra working is because now we have a second income from my job and it for sure helps a lot in putting money into savings for a house this coming summer.

By the way....I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my job!!!!!!!! I think being a teacher is what I've always meant to be, and nothing else. Not to sound cheesy, but it's TRULY TRULY TRULY a rewarding job. It's pretty much a great gig. It's HARD work though! The teaching children and managing a classroom isn't the hard part......it's the paperwork and all of the things I'm required to do to meet each individual childs' needs that is hard. You basically have to be skilled in multitasking and staying organized, or you can easily get off track. Anyways, I'm really enjoying it. I love my kiddos!

Lately, in Tyson's K9 world, this K9 thing with Humble PD has started to stir up again, but in a good way. From what I gather from Tyson, Humble seems to be in the thought process of possibly adding K9 back to their department. So, this now has Tyson salivating and trying to figure out any way he can to get Chief to notice that he's a great candidate with a dog ready to go. There's one problem though. One guy at his department also wants to do K9 all of the sudden. There's some drama with that, but I'm not going to go into it. Basically, Tyson is just going to have to keep putting his name out there with the Chief to ensure that he can become K9 if Humble officially decides that they want it back. I think the Chief would be CRAZY to not allow Tyson to be K9. I don't think the Chief has a clue what a great candidate Tyson is....and that is sad. I wish Chief could see in his heart how badly he wants this and how HARD he's worked and how much money he's invested in getting himself started because he has such a passion for it. Now, I'm not being biased because I'm Tyson's wife, but I certainly know that I'm being honest because I get to see all of the blood, sweat, and tears he puts into trying to persue K9.

So, that's what's happening overall in the Sutton world. I'll continue to keep you all posted on my progress, and any new life news Tyson and I have to share.