MRI Results and House Update

The time has come! We close April 29th! This Thursday, Tyson will be closing on the house for both of us. I'm going to be at work all antsy when I'm actually supposed to be relaxing after the TAKS (Texas' state testing) with my kiddos! Tyson took off from work Wednesday through Sunday, and Hugh and Nancy will be in town to help us pack up and move this Thursday through Sunday. This will definitely be a real treat! Tyson and I are both incredibly excited.

Below are some pictures and videos that were taken around April 24th-ish. The house is pretty much now complete as of today (April 27th). They just need to do touch ups here and there, and they need to paint our front door; as well as put the decorative hardware on our garage doors. We can't wait to see those on! I think they will look pretty schnazy!

Here are the videos:

















Here are the pictures:




We have a yard!




Master bath is almost finished. I guess they messed up and we get only one light fixture.

Guest bathroom is complete.

We have fans!

We now have a fenced-in backyard!


The beginnings of installing the carpet.






.....and then...TA-DAH! Sorry it's so dark. My flash wouldn't flash. The tile was getting cleaned the day we came in to take a look. That's why it's all nice and shiny. :)

So......be checking the blog over the next couple of days through to next week. I will try to get the finished product up as soon as I get a chance to get away from all of this "hectic-ness" that's going on for both Tyson and I over these next couple of weeks.................and it's not just house stuff. I want to spill the good news, but I can't yet, so I'll just leave you hanging. And NO! We're not pregnant, so check that one off your list. ;)

As you all know, I had my MRI done last week. The results came back, and it came back negative which is apparently REALLY good news. WOO HOO! Now, having this information, my PT was able to confidently show me, with a model of the spine, what she NOW mostly likely thinks happened to me. It was pretty interesting, and she showed my what my spine was looking like....it was gross and definitely wasn't normal. It's pretty much the same stuff I've shared before, but this time, it's not necessarily a big disc slippage. My lower back was just too much in "flexion" (that arch I was telling you about) from my years in dance, and it caused my spine to continue to curve further inwards. There's a few discs in our spine that contain the nerve bundles that control the bladder. She showed me, with the model, the two specific discs she think were involved in the lumbar spinal region. It was really neat to see. Since my spine was so heavily curved inwards, there's something I did that was the final straw that broke the camel's back, and my spine was just waiting for something to happen. Excessive running and exercise eventually caused my spine to "give out" (become unstable) and pinched either a nerve or pressed against my spinal cord. I'm back in the gym again, but I have been put under strict restrictions of what I can do so that I don't get back into this mess. My symptoms are still coming down, but my nerves are EXTRA sensitive. My nervous system was put under so much stress for so many months that it could take 6-8 weeks, or even 6-8 months until they calm down. For now, I just need to keep my core super tight and re-stabilize my back. It's so bad that I tried to clean the kitchen over the weekend, and the next day, I felt AWFUL and back to crying my eyes out in discomfort.

Might this be a good excuse to get Tyson to start cleaning the house for me until my back settles down???!??!??!?!?!? Hee hee! A girl can only dream... ;)

We hope everyone has a great week!

Two More Weeks

As of right now, our house should be finished, and we will be moving in in two weeks! Thank goodness! We have hired an inspection guy to come through our house on the 23rd, and then we close on the 27th of this month. Since it's coming up soon, the contractor has gotten a little move on our house. Our next door neighbor has said that they continue to work well into the night on our house.

Below are some videos and pictures of everything that has been completed so far:


We have a driveway, tile, light fixtures....YAY!




Our kitchen! Cabinents have be stained, formica is in, and our tile backsplash is up.




Going down the hallway to all of the extra bedrooms. More tile and bathroom plumbing, sink, and shower!




Master bath. We still need our other light fixture, glass for the shower, and replace the frosted glass with just a regular see through window......an "oops" made by the contractor.




Front of our house with a driveway! The house still needs the trim and garage doors to be painted. Also, garage door Sanoma hardware not on just yet. We can't wait to see that extra added touch!

We have two coach lights on both sides of the garage. Tyson originally didn't want them, but I thought about it and thought that it would add a little extra personality to the outside of the home. Oh boy was I right! It looks so good that our next door neighbor wishes he had done it to his house now that he sees what it looks like.

Our light fixtures were put up!



We now have our tile in! It looks a little dusty and dingy. It'll look better once it's clean.


Our kitchen!!!!!! The cabinents are stained, counter tops are in, we have our sink, and our tiled backsplash.


Bathtub and shower. We just need the glass for the shower. Oh.....and a replaced window. I don't like frosted glass. We requested just a regular window, and they put up a frosted window on accident. Oopsies!


Master bath sinks and one light fixture. We still need the second for the left side.
Hall bathroom where the extra bedrooms are.

Extra bedroom hallway is all tiled up. It just needs some cleaning now so it can look extra pretty! :)

A couple of days later, we went back to our house, and we had LIGHTS!!! The electrical is put in!

On a different note, I had to choose a new primary care physician (PCP) last week because we were having so much trouble with my other one. He is a friend of Tyson's family. Well, Monday I went in to see him, and we had a conversation about my journey from beginning to end with my bladder and back situation. He pretty much said the same thing as my PT; he was surprised no one thought to take a look at my back since bladder meds weren't working. He's a D.O., not an M.D., and he told me that D.O.'s are out of the box thinkers. He then made me laugh by making an analogy out of all of the M.D.'s and specialists and how they don't deviate away from the box. I told him that my PT said the same thing and that I'm starting to really like out of the box thinkers on my situation. When I mentioned to my PT about the "out of the box thinker" conversation, she said, "You want to know what?! I think we're both very well INSIDE the box. It's your other doctors who were out of the box; and quite frankly, I'm very disappointed that they never thought about the back."

Well, to make a long story short, he has written me a script for 9 more PT sessions and a referral to get an MRI done. Both him and my PT think that this is a very important step we need to take, so I'm scheduled to get one done on April 20th. My new PCP is going to gather all of my medical history to wrap his head around this whole thing, and him and my PT are going to remain in contact about my progress. My PCP said that after 9 more sessions, I'm still having symptoms, we're going to have to re-evaluate things. I'm thinking we will talk about surgery since he really emphasized that physical therapy is only temporary fix. :(

My PT has warned me that there is a strong possibility that nothing will show up on the MRI, and that I shouldn't get discouraged if there's nothing. She said I should look at it as a good thing that my spine was able to get put back together. This lets her and my doctor know that I CAN be put back together. We'll just have to see, and I will let everyone know how it goes.

Tyson was off yesterday, on a Friday, and it was a REAL treat. We went out to Pappadeaux and had our very first dinner date since my issue started. The food, so far, has not bothered me. I'm becoming more brave since my PT says that the inflammation is in my back, and not the bladder, so foods shouldn't effect my bladder. I'm still being slightly cautious though. I hope everyone has a FABULOUS weekend!

The Happy Blog

Well, they have started working on the interior of our home. Last week, our style of garage doors were put in (without the hardware design that we chose. Those will probably be added last.), and when Tyson and I walked into the garage, we saw our doors and trim. Yesterday, I went back and they had all of the doors put in, started the trimming, and even have started on the cabinents and shelves of the house! It all seems so surreal. Our brick is STILL not on our house after it has been sitting on the lot for a couple of weeks. I'm starting to pull a Tyson, and I'm getting impatient. I just want to see the brick on our house. :( However, I know I need to savor each moment and step of our first home being built.

Of course, we all know that I'm going picture and video happy, so here is a look at more of the progress being made:

CABINENTS!!!

SHELVES AND TRIM

MASTER BATHROOM AND WALK-IN!

Last week, the garage doors were put on....

....and our trimming and doors were delivered.

April 5th, I walk in to find our cabinents are installed!

Starting on the trimming. They aren't finished.

Bathroom cabinents are installed. This is in the master bath.

Shelving has been put in all closets. Shown below is part of the master walk-in. I had to showcase those wonderful shelves! Tyson and I LOVE this!......epecially me......ladies......shoes......ya know?!

We will be signing the contract at the end of this month,we will get the keys to our new home, and we'll be officially homeowners!

Now off to some random blabber. As the majority of you know, we have two dogs .............A bichon named Precious (she lives up to that name) and then a crazy, hyper malinois named Rosco. You've all seen pictures of the both of them, and you would never expect Rosco, our police dog, to be such the BABY compared to Precious. Well, Rosco puts on this goofy grin every time we either baby talk him, give him kisses, or rub his belly. He never fails to give this funny looking smile. I've been wanting SO BADLY to capture this funny looking grin he gives when he's being loved. Welp! I got got the opportunity the other day! Click on the video below.

Sometimes he smiles with just his bottom teeth, but on this day, he decided to show ALL of his teeth. Oh! And he was SO relaxed and content that he let his tongue just hang limp and lifeless on the outside of his mouth. How can you not love this face???

Next topic! I mentioned that I have a new diagnosis, but I didn't remember what it was called. Well, I remember! I have what they call SPONDYLOSTHESIS. Below is an article that explains what it is, what causes is, treatments, etc. It mentions how it happens with dancers and gymnasts. The style of dance we did was a mix of gymnastics and ballet. I was trained to arch, arch, ARCH and lift my chest to hold my center, and we did A TON of choreography that involved movements where I had to be in constant arch (layouts, arabesques, stunts that had me bending backwards, etc). The small box off to the right mentions bladder and bowel changes to be a big red flag! Now I understand why my PT said that if I had came to her when this all started, she would have had me rushed to the neurosurgeon. She wasn't kidding, I AM a very lucky girl for not losing my bladder function after 9 months of this thing not getting sorted out. But, this is my exact story. I've always had lower back pain for years, and never knew that those days were the beginning stages to a disc in my spine to give out.

http://www.thenaturalback.com/articles/spondylolisthesis.php

I have continued to make more progress. I am actually sitting here right now symptom free, but, it goes in and out. My lower back is just achy, but that comes with the territory of having a really weak lower back that I never knew about. I had a sort of set back yesterday that made me walk into my appointment telling my PT how discouraged I was that I felt I had taken a step backwards. My entire back was aching like crazy and my bladder sensations were pretty uncomfy. She asked me what activities I did on Sunday, and I told her that I did all of the exercises all day long that she has me doing, and I was on the ball all day. Right away she knew what was wrong.

Number one: I got over-enthusiastic, and I pretty much overexercised my core, and it is now "sore." She said I basically got my muscles overworked which caused them to re-inflame that nerve that controls my bladder....joy! Number two: This just solidified that fact that my lower back is WAY out of shape. More so than we thought. That's why my upper back was killing me. It was trying to compensate for the lack of strength in my lower back just to hold me upright. She said it would probably take a year and a half to two years for my lower back to get to full strength because it has been under SO much trauma. Yuck! The good news is that she is VERY PLEASED at how well my body is responding to the treatment. The one thing I'm grateful for is the fact that I can tell her each symptom that I have, and she can respond with WHY I'm having that symptom, then she'll give me an exercise or perform therapy on me that takes those symptoms away. I have SO MUCH MORE CLOSURE with this woman than I have EVER had with any other physician on this horrific journey, and I don't ever walk out of her office unhappy.

I called this the Happy Blog, because that's where Tyson and I are right now. We're happy we're so close to being moved into our home, we're happy that we have such a well balanced police dog, and we're happy (and blessed) to have found this wonderful woman who has given me an accurate diagnosis, the reason for all of my problems, and my life back. We're getting back some sense of normalcy these days. She has me getting more normal and normal each day. I have been eating chocolate, strawberries, hamburgers, and I even went to the gym this entire weekend! I'm able to take car trips with less pain, and go do the things Tyson and I used to LOVE to do together. I can sense how much more relieved Tyson seems to be to have his wife back. I just feel relieved to have found the problem, and I'm no longer left with any questions.